Tuesday Afternoon about 1800 hours.
The Sailing School Vessel Denis Sullivan, eight days out of St Croix, with a crew including about 14 Ashley Hall students, arrived in Charleston Tuesday, at 1800. Originally scheduled to sail, and arrive here on the 10th, Capt Chris Flansberg made the decision to make all propulsion available to get into Charleston ahead of the large weather front. Denis Sullivan made it by about 3 hours. If you'd been tracking on Shipfinder, MarineTraffic, or some other AIS tracker, you'd have noticed they were averaging about 9.7 knots most of the way.
Denis Sullivan has become a regularly twice annual visitor to Charleston on her way back and forth from her summer cruising grounds around St. Croix. Capt Flansberg has been Mate, and in command of Spirit of South Carolina in 2016, so is familiar with the ship and this port.
Six Volunteers mustered aboard Spirit of South Carolina in time to take lines and assist Denis Sullivan's crew in rafting up next to us. Waiting on the dock and observing the whole process were about fifty Ashley Hall student family members.
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| Old Salt Volunteer Chris Sosnowski checks the path down the gangway one last time before bringing up the families. |
Nick Swarts, Lance Halderman, Dale Maxwell, Ken Fonville, and alum, Michael(Adam) Reed , lined up the length of Spirit's port rail to take heaving lines as they came across in turn, from Denis Sullivan.
Captain Chris Flansberg, in command, working with his Mate, Mak, and Bryan Oliver on Spirit's deck, expertly warped the ship back and forth, shifted lines over directly to the dock cleats, finally softly nudging the big green schooner close on, padded with eight fenders.
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| Dale Maxwell and Nick Swarts finish lashing together the two gang planks spanning the two ships. |
Now the crew shifted to readying the gangway, lowering a foot to align with our deck steps. Maxwell and Lance brought aboard two salvaged aluminum gang planks to stretch across the space between the two schooner's cap rails.
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| Dale, Nick and Ken Fonville, ready to assist Ashley Hall families over the rails to welcome home their daughters. |
With all in place, Chris Sosnowski began sending shore visitors down the gang way. Nick, Swarts and Maxwell, and Ken Fonville helped them cross over the gang plank and safely onto Denis Sullivan's deck and a reunion with their daughters.
Denis Sullivan is scheduled to depart Charleston Sunday at 1300 for Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah. Capt Flansberg has invited Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers to join the passage as guest crew. Five of us have volunteered for that experience.
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