First, thanks everyone, I never thought about that block flopping around. That could be painful for sure.

Tom, I thought about the cleat on top situation, it seems to me we had a similar setup on our Capri, but that was so long ago I can't be sure. You are correct though, pulling down to cleat the line would be almost as difficult as uncleating right now. I'm thinking that a very small pendant, perhaps 6", would give enough clearance to pull down and uncleat without skinning your knuckles on the cockpit non-skid?