Advancing to Haul out - Still shooting for End of February Delivery to Thunderbolt Shipyard.

Its' still a long shot.  The search for a Delivery Captain goes on, as well as an additional core of paid pro's.  Sufficient Volunteers have stepped forward to fill out crew for the delivery. Thunderbolt is still in process of clearing a portion of their project calendar for us.

Meanwhile, this Saturday saw ten volunteers aboard.  The projects they advanced gave witness to the amount of work that could be accomplished with a critical mass of deckhands aboard.

Immediately after Muster,  Bryan Oliver organized the crew for hauling out of the forecastle, the two "topsails"; Fisherman, and Gaff Topsail, that had been wadded and stuffed into berths for the past year.  One at a time, John Hart, below in the forward berths, found what-ever corner he could identify, a clew or peak, and sent it up thru the forecastle's forward hatch, where other hands dragged the whole shapeless mass of canvas onto the deck, and spread it out.  Next, deckhands spread out around the perimeter to carefully flake the sail along it's luff, then fold and roll it into a much more compact cylinder, made fast with a sail tie and handed back down below to be stowed under the forecastle table.  That cleared out two forecastle berths. 

Crew then separated into separate work details for the next two hours.

Tony Marchesani, Richard Behling, John Whitsett, and Doug Hartley filled a bucket of tools, abrasives, and coatings, then displaced to the floating dock where the Dory lay bottom up on her cradle.  They made quick work of flipping her over, sanding to bare wood her  blackened and peeling gunwales, then starting several coats of D.1, sealant and preservative prior to next steps of varnish.

Around the Foremast, Ken Fonville, John Hart, and Danny Johnson down-rigged the Jumbo boom tackles to get at the worn, and peeling paint on the two large double blocks.  Within two hours, they had restored both blocks, scraped and re-oiled the Jumbo sheet bullseye lead.

Calvin Johnson continued his quest to isolate every deck leak that has bedeviled the schooner for past five years; this time along starboard of the aft cabin diesel ventilation box.  He's at right, interrupting the work to resharpen the one reefing tool aboard for scraping out old caulk and cleaning the deck seam.

With  the Aquarium Teen Volunteers program coming aboard next Saturday for their annual schooner educational field trip, Dave Brennon set up his station to rehearse the topics of points of sail, and basic navigation techniques he would be demonstrating, actually coaching them thru some actual scenario's 

As other deckhands completed their projects, they gathered around Dave's station on the saloon butterfly hatch. Each deckhand, in the role of a "student" helped Dave  rehearse his hands-on problems complete with miniature schooners and navigational buoys.

The busy morning was well rewarded, when Hunter sent up lunch from the galley.  A combination of Stuffed Clams, and a Creamy Tutte de Mare' Fettucine, full of mussels, clams and shrimp, topped off with a Chocolate Mousse pie, donated by Danny Johnson. 

Now,, ya see what you missed?