Only having time for a short day trip this week I launched on the Neuse River near New Bern. Within five miles of New Bern there are six ramps suitable for Montgomery 15’s; some more suitable than others. While most public ramps are first class they are designed by power boaters. The chief indication of this is that trees are not always cleared from the launch site. Since my last visit to the Bridgeton ramp the branches had encroached about five feet over the ramp. By backing part-way down it is possible to avoid the branches but you have to raise the mast on a slope. In the past I had used the jib halyard as a safety line while raising the mast. An extra line was run from the cockpit to the bow and then back to the mast via the jib halyard. When raising on a flat surface this line carried about 30% of the weight of the mast until it was approaching the vertical. I recently acquired a 2 ½” block for $10 and now run the line from the cockpit to this block which is attached high on the trailer crutch. This significantly lowers the angle of the safety line and increases the amount of force that can be applied to the mast while raising it. When the mast is fully up the safety line runs at a very shallow angle to the mast. This has the added benefit of allowing me to pull the mast forward from the cockpit and cleating it off. This makes it much easier to attach the clevis pin for the forestay and get the forestay tight. A note on the upper Neuse estuary: shortly above New Bern the Neuse turns into a relatively shallow, slow-moving, brackish estuary which is affected by wind-driven currents, as well as by salt water "wedges" moving upstream from the Pamlico Sound. While the lunar tide is only a few inches these “wind tides” or seiches, can raise the water two to three feet in a few hours, and in a few instances cause the river to flow upstream. So, we while we can ignore the lunar tide charts here, it's good to track the prevailing wind in the Pamlico Sound about 40 miles downstream. North and East winds pile the water up in the Sound causing the river to rise; South and West winds drive the water down near the river's mouth causing the river estuary to drain more.