Improving Weather-A Good Day on the Water , and some Good News for the Volunteer Program.

 A lot of things went right this Saturday.  For one, the persistently unstable shore power was easily restored, enabling critical tasks, like coffee making, to proceed.  A few stalwarts mustered this morning along with a new Volunteer. The crew assembled in the immaculately well-ordered Saloon, credited to  last Saturday's volunteer crew.  Bos'n Bryan laid out the remaining tasks identified that would make the ship mostly ready for inspection, or a tour by visitors, led by Project Manager, Capt Heath Hackett.  

Before dispersing, Bryan ended the muster on a high-note:  Earlier in the week, at Ken Fonville's invitation, Bryan made a presentation to the "America's Boating Club"(Formally U.S. Sail and Power Squadron).  At the end of the presentation, Bryan was presented a  Grant to the Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers in the amount of $5,000.00. It was a generous and significant gesture. Since 2019, and the restoration of the Ship's Volunteers, we have operated without any budget. Volunteer expenses such as recognition awards, T-shirts, Volunteer Appreciation Cook-out, had all been self-funded.  To make best use of those funds, Bryan would be forming a committee of  volunteers to formalize a set of by-laws to govern disbursements from the grant.  Look for more on that in later postings.

Danny Johnson immediately jumped to his project-the completion of a railed wood gangway entrance platform. 

Walter Barton, on inspection of the forecastle discovered a dangerously heavy concentration of moisture covering the ceilings, resulting from cold temperatures condensing the higher temperature bilge moisture. Normally it is controlled by moving fresh air through the forecastle with a fan, and cracked hatches.  This time, the power shut off  sometime earlier aggravated by sealing both hatches created the conditions similar to a fog.  The water droplets building on the overheads threatened to drip and soak the canvas bunched up into the upper berths , creating a risk of mold or mildew. With an armload of clean rags, Walter climbed into each of the 8 upper bunks, wiping down the overheads, then wringing out the super-soaked rags over side.

Wayne Burdick laid below into the Aft Cabin with Ryan Smith and began the task of bringing order into a space full of piles of  old bedding, signal flag bags, clumps of electronic gear, binders, and tool boxes. The Mates berth had long lost it's custom foam mattress and had in it's space one over-large foam shape.  Two hours later they had the space organized, cleaned up and 'ready for visitors.

Lance Halderman started the morning, laying a strip of masking tape all the way along the top strake of the Dory hull, in preparation for Bryan to later lay down a broad line of "electric sapphire blue" to accentuate the sheer line of the gunwale. Next, he cleaned out eight worn screw holes under the three bronze hinges  of the salon head butterfly hatch, then stuffing them with silicone sealant and toothpick slivers; finally driving new bronze flat-head screws into the now tight holes. 

Bryan Oliver took new Volunteer David Reid, USN, in tow for an extended tour, story-telling, and orientation of the schooner.  They ended the day laying on the final blue sheer line on the dory before securing the deck and disembarking.      Bryan stayed behind to check and pump bilges.  Shore power was holding steady.  Hope it sticks.              

Volunteers, where are we going? What's our Role? Its larger than you may think.

 Wow!  You gotta get below and gaze around the Saloon. It hasn't looked this good in months.  Lance Halderman, Ken Fonville, Tony, Marchesani, and Walter Barton rolled up sleeves Saturday morning and went to work.  It shows. They met a standard that's always been there, but hard to maintain with once-a-week crew. 

There's an impetus for this.  I've been informed that there will be visitors coming aboard, sometime soon, ostensibly to tour the ship. The office requested of me that we do what we can to get her back into 'Bristol Fashion" (my words, but you get the idea).  Don't really care who the visitors might be so much, as the plain fact that the schooner is having visitors who've likely not seen her before, let-alone coming aboard for a close up look.  

Think on it.. What's the basic root- problem this Schooner faces, huh? I think it's because she's invisible. I seek out conversations with people, lots of people I don't already know. They don't know she exists. Of those that do know she exists, it seems their typical perspective, is that , "well, she's there but she doesn't do anything."  Not totally true, but you can see their point.  You can't have an opinion about something of which you know nothing. You can't be expected to support something whose story you've never heard. 

The point is fixable, and I've got hopes that we may be on that track soon.. just a gut thing.  Why's my gut saying that?  Well, in addition to the "does nothing" perspective that comes from people, they tend to see an additional aspect if you tease it out.. The one's who know Spirit of South Carolina, or know of her, have often offered their own bit of , "if only .." ,  "y'know, she could be.."  or even, "so, when's she gonna be back?" 

Every week for the past year, I've been meeting up with a group of mostly local people for drinks and a snack or too, mostly socializing... They also have friends from out of town visiting who are invited to join the "salon." Conversation goes everywhere, where's everybody been, what's going on in the city? who's doing what to help with; lots of  conversation about ideas and events.  

Stay with me, I'll get to my point,  I promise.

My entry into this group came from a person I once invited aboard for a deck tour.  I told the story of Spirit of South Carolina, and we conversed around concepts of the schooners capabilities, and potential; It lasted a couple of hours.  This person pretty much directed me to join this social gathering.  In that group, in a normal conversation, I was inevitably asked a  question-something like, "what do you do?"  I get to tell 'em my story; only a sentence or two about  my "Pre-Charleston" life. My objective was to tell the story about Spirit of South Carolina. It starts with a 30-second "elevator speech- What the ship is, what she was built to do, what she's done, and how people who come aboard are changed. 

I swear-to-god it always happens, their eyes get big, or they squint a little, as if thinking, "really? you can do that?."  About 70% want to know more. Of those, about 50%  accept with enthusiasm my offer to come aboard for a tour.  Most of them actually show up on the dock. But, I see almost all of them again in following weeks in our social, as well as new folks joining in, and I always find opportunity to converse with the newcomers. 

See where I'm going with this?  

As Volunteers, we may not have eyes on what, exactly, is happening at the management level of our Schooner, but we do have a significant role to play beyond the tasks of maintenance. Because of our reach into the community, even out of town, even out of state, we have capability to tell her story. No one else has the same credibility for that role.  We are recognized for taking part in something much bigger than ourselves.  Our cause is our Ship and advancing her mission.  We have capability and opportunities to tell it to our neighbors, reach into our kids schools, our congregations, our community groups, workplaces,, and tell her story. Make her visible. 

Our motivation isn't quite the same as a usual paid mariner who tends to bounce from ship to ship. It's bigger. We have more at stake.  If you haven't yet so reflected, I recommend it. There's really an exhilaration in being able to explain why you're excited to spend time on board,, why you enjoy company of your shipmates, what differentiates your experience from that of other modern yacht sailors - even if you've not yet gone to sea in our Schooner, but you aspire to it.  Literature describes it.   Two paragraph's laminated and posted in the saloon on the galley cupboard describe it. You can peruse at the link here.

The Tall Ship Experience

More about how we all can work together on our "story", later. but soon.

PS:

We're growing a pretty good readership on his Blog. That's reassuring, but what would make it better, would be to hear from you. 

Please comment on what you'd like to see more of , less of, questions, or observations.  There's a link at the bottom.  We're public, on purpose. If you've someone in mind who might be interested in what's being said here, you're welcome to hit that little envelope  icon below and send em' a copy.

Just us Four Aboard her this Saturday

 The day was perfect. Sailing on the harbor Saturday would've made it more perfect. but our reality is not currently displayed there.. for now. 

As it was,, Tony and I (Bryan) mustered aboard on time, followed only a few moments later by our long-time missing Ship's Carpenter, Dallas Spencer.  Dallas brought with him long-awaited news that he'll be shipping out himself, sometime in April.  The Navy has selected him for graduate studies in Naval Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His professional career is about to take a significant right turn.  And we're going to miss his carpentry talents. So Dallas's priorities must now necessarily change to finding affordable family housing in Boston. 

For this Saturday morning our efforts focused on the more mundane but necessary.  Our transient, sometime-resident Osprey, Dolores, has returned to her perch aboard the Spring Stay, for screeching, eating lunch, digestion, and purging, now evident in major white splotches all over our deck. Tony and I started clearing the deck of obstacles to water.. hanging up what we could.  Dallas pulled out the midships Fire hose, stretching it all the way forward and stood by for charging.  Tony retrieved three deck brushes and I climbed below in the engine room to "fire up" the Fire Main. Dallas began wetting down from the knightheads aft until the entire deck was soaked. We followed behind with deck brushes doing what we could, hampered by the enormous gaffs and booms now stretched out fore and aft down our decks.  

Meanwhile Danny Johnson appeared, and Bryan pointed out to him the now derelict Step to the gangway, complete with sliding handrail to adjust for tides.  With virtually no other discussion, Danny scoped out a concept to build a similar sliding handrail onto the relatively new Gangway Platform step.  I"m looking forward to see his handiwork. 

 By noon we'd found our usual stopping place. Tony and Dallas had shifted to the Dory, still upside down on her cradle, but now sporting a smart sapphire blue sheer stripe  just below her gunwale.  Next step for her will be to turn her right side up and fit out for sailing. Check for proper tension, sail condition after two years of stowage, oar locks set, and then bend on our "pig-sticker", a tradition begun by past 2d Mate, Tripp Seaman.  - the staff flying the Dory's traditional symbol, a fighting cock silhouetted on a white pennant.  The story of which is entrusted only to the most devoted of crew.  

More housekeeping projects await volunteers coming aboard next Saturday, to facilitate our anticipated trip to Shipyard,, a date still unknown to us.

Pre-Shipyard Phase of Down-Rig Complete ; Dory Gets her First Coat of paint

 One could not have asked for a better day. Saturday's cloudless sky, winds barely sufficient to fill a spinnaker(CORA held a round-the buoy race in the harbor). Six Volunteers mustered aboard Saturday to finish up the last down-rigging tasks, and start laying on a coat of white paint on Dory's Hull. 

Tony Marchesani and Scott Cross volunteered to start the paint job, while Stephen Folwell, Ken Fonville, and Walter Barton gathered around Bryan Oliver for guidance on lashing down the Main mast spars (sea-stowing).  Nick Swarts appeared later and joined in the down-rigging crew. After pointing out the locations of paint supplies to Tony and Scott, Bryan assigned jobs to the rest; first, lashing down the main gaff before moving on to the main boom.  Bryan gave a tutorial and refresher on making a bowline and a square lashing, then sent the team to the rope locker to search out sufficient lengths of unassigned cordage to do the job. 

They made short work of the gaff.  The Main Boom required some organization.  When the boom was lowered, it came to rest in a position that took up too much space on the starboard deck.  Bryan pointed out, that, by shifting the boom aft two feet, the jaws would clear the tool locker, enabling the boom to rest two feet closer to the rail. The task would require rigging up tackles fore and aft to lift the boom inches allowing the team to push it aft the necessary distance.  Ken Fonville proposed using the gangway falls, rather than untangle and rig up the boom lifts.  The team adapted the idea; first, down rigging the gangway with it's crossbar,  making up slings at fore and aft ends of the boom, to take the hooks of the falls. With two hands each on the bow and stern falls, they were able to sweat the falls up several inches, allowing  Bryan and Walter, at each end, to push the boom aft two feet, and closer to the rail. 

With sea-stowing of the last spars complete, and a first coat of white laid on Dory's hull, the crew secured tools, hardware and  mustered midships to recognize shipmate Volunteer Steve Folwell for racking up, in quick succession, 50 and then 100 Volunteer hours in the last months of 2024. To catch up, Bryan presented Stephen both, his 50-hour Jibsheet Volunteer, and 100-hour Foremast Volunteer Pins.

In tallying up all Volunteer Hours for 2024, Bryan noted the recent achievements of the following Volunteers in making the 50, 100, and 200 Volunteer Hour milestones.

• Walter Barton         200
• Todd Cole               200
• Stephen Folwell      100
• Lance Halderman   100
• Alex Lyashevich     100
• Ryan Smith             100
• Carin Bloom             50
• Nick Swarts              50

Save this Date (To Be Determined).. Yes,, once I determine it, be sure to save it.. The Volunteer Shipyard Sendoff Cook-off Social. Look for this date in the next few weeks, on a Sunday, on the Dock and on Board.  A celebration of  a continuous thread of support that has kept the Spirit of South Carolina afloat and viable, for what we anticipate to be the start of a new life.