Schooner and Volunteers Shift Gears to Face Down Idalia

 Coming off the weekend with high spirits of rigging up the Main Mast (mostly- the boom lifts are still an issue), Volunteers were now facing a new challenge.  Roiling northward up the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Idalia, three days out, was growing into a Category 4 monster, and threatening to drive right over Charleston.   Capt Davis immediately shifted from normal operating tempo and project priorities to a new set focused on protecting the ship, minimizing risk of damage to ship, property, and people. 

 In an ideal situation, it's called, "Risk Avoidance" . It would have involved the schooner sailing northward in June to avoid Hurricane Season, staying out of their paths, at the same time generating revenue  with summer programs and New England cruises.  

Since that option was off the table, the next favorable option would entail motoring the schooner up the Cooper River approximately 14 miles to a "hurricane hole;" a favorable upstream anchorage minimally impacted by a decreasing storm surge and soft grounding in the pluff mud-there to drop both anchors, and using the tender, ferry crew to the nearby landing at Bushy Park. 
This option would require an operational tender, and a crew of six to eight competent deckhands.   We had neither.  The outboard engine of the tender had been proven stubborn to restart after months of idleness stowed on deck.  Assembling a sizable crew of volunteers  on short notice in the middle of the week has not been achievable.

So, that leads us to PLAN C. Preparing the schooner to withstand the weather while tied to the dock. The preparation work would prove to be an excellent exercise to identify issues early on before they were exposed during our COI examination.     Starting on Monday, all the way thru Wednesday, Various Volunteers came down the dock to help out with whatever spare time they had.  Nate Mack came down to tackle the reluctant outboard motor on the tender.  In spite of a number of enticements like fresh spark plugs, new gas, and filters, the engine would just not cooperate.  Good to catch it now.  

Capt Davis and Nate Mack power their way
into the marina to tie up for the storm. 

Together, Nate and Capt Davis cast off in the powerless tender from the schooner's side and paddled her into a quiet protected slip inside the marina to continue their attempts on the motor. 

Meanwhile Volunteers took down, folded and stowed the midship awnings that had provide shade on the deck. All dock lines were doubled up. The furled jib and jumbo sails were further lashed more securely to the jibboom and jumbo boom. Capt Davis ran the generator thru some tests, including pumping out of all bilges.  Capt Davis and Bryan Oliver pulled out the new Trash pump for a test, it ran perfectly but would not gain a prime.  Another catch. 

At some point Tuesday, given the number of volunteers aboard, Capt Davis expressed a wish to set the anchor.  No one had ever executed that drill before except Bryan. So, Bryan called a muster around the Anchor Burton and explained the evolution, then assigned stations. The exercise actually went more smoothly than Bryan anticipated, and the anchor splashed into the water right there at the dock... and stayed there until Thursday evening, when Dave Brennan, Bryan, Capt Davis, Walter Barton, and Jody Smith, somehow, managed to retrieve the anchor and eventually secure it on the caprail. 

Meanwhile everything loose on the dock or on deck gets lashed down, stored below or thrown away.  With most of he work done Tuesday afternoon, Volunteers, Ken Fonville, Dave Brennan,  Jack, and Capt Davis joined Bryan and Hunter at Big Gun's on Calhoun for a Fair Wind's libation and a burger salute to Hunter who would be disembarking  the next day. After 31 years, on six different tall ships, around the world, Hunter was headed home to the Dominican Republic to "throw out his anchor". He leaves behind a draft of his book, "The Complete Galley Guide", which we hope to be published on Kindle in the near future.  Look for it.

Wednesday morning and early afternoon were last minute checks.

Capt Davis and Jack adjust a dock line
 as the second belt of rain and wind arrive.

By 1100 the first belts of rain were approaching. As we finished the last tying down of gear, in early afternoon, the second  belt of rain arrived with 26 kts of wind. Per  directive, all crew were to disembark, so the last to leave were Bryan, with Hunter, Capt Davis and Jack. By 1500 consistent belts of rain with 26 sustained kts wind  SSE were  blowing thru the harbor. 

Later on Wednesday evening, Capt Davis  waded thru water on East Bay to return to the docks and assess the situation.  Our schooner was riding well, yokohoma fenders and the big ball fenders were doing their job against winds pushing 37 knts SbyE. The only casualty noted was a bronze stanchion next to the gangway, which was sheared off at the base.  As crew and volunteers arrived throughout the day, it became clear that Spirit of South Carolina had weathered Idalia very well.  Thursday, Walter Burton, Jody Smith and Dave Brennan joined Bryan to start recovering from the Storm.  Awning's came out and were reset over the deck. Next, and the last act was to try our hand at raising and securing the anchor.  Of all the volunteers present, only Bryan had participated in this drill, the last time being three years previously. Nevertheless they all jumped in.  It wasn't pretty, but after a few restarts, the crew succeeded in successfully weighing anchor, catting the anchor, then hoisting flukes over the caprail and lashing all down.