Volunteer Super Sunday gives Spirit of South Carolina over  90 hours of volunteer time; that was well spent.

Carter, Danny, and Chuck
fit leathers to the  fore gaff jaws.

Sunday was super in a number of ways. 15 people- including 3 new volunteers- I started to lose count by late morning. mustered amidships  at 0900 with the Chief Mate, or appeared later in the morning after Church. They were coming from everywhere, as far away as Summerville and Beaufort. Another five brand new Volunteers, (with due credit to their recruiter, Danny Johnson) joined the muster and pitched in on the four different projects that were going on deck and on the dock.  For most who, by now, were no strangers to the enormous work challenges of the Winter Maintenance Program, this was a continuance of numerous projects begun weeks ago.
Carter Edwards, Chuck Waring,  and Danny Johnson laid in with crew members, Matt and Daniel to cut, and fit leathers to the spars jaws and tongues

Baylor, Kevin, Morgan and Abby
 heads-down on scraping the cap rail

New volunteers, Carpenter,Morgan and daughter Abby, along with friend, Baylor, and fellow carpenter, Kevin Krug, all laid in on the cap rail, scraping and sanding down to bare wood both starboard and port sides, from knightheads to the Foremast shrouds.

Tim takes his first ride up
the Mainmast to scrape it down.

Another newcomer, J.T, along with Tim Geoghegan took turns being hoisted up the Fore and Main Masts in bosun's chairs to scrape down the masts in preparation for oiling and greasing.

Joe, Gary, and Ken fitting
the last mast hoops

Ken Fonville, Gary Pope, Darren Casale, and Joe Gorman started in and finished a project they started last weekend, installing the last of the mast hoops on both masts.

Wayne and Tony inventory and
 grease  ironwork and
 fittings for the spars

Wayne Burdick joined Tony Marchesani on the dock to inventory and stage for installation on the spars, all the iron work, collars, eyebolts, and brass side rails.  Meanwhile, below decks, Ship's Cook, Hunter was concocting a hearty hot lunch.
Shortly before lunch, College of Charleston Track and Field Coach, Amy Seago and to team members, Devin and Ellie came aboard for a tour and orientation with Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver.

Coach Amy and Track Team
 pitching in on the cap rail

As projects began winding down in the afternoon, Ashley and Robin Pennington, along with Stephen Collins, also came aboard for a tour, with promises to return, and possibly bring along some additional volunteers.
It all made for a pretty productive day. More pictures available on the tab "View Volunteer Photos".

New Feature added to our Blog;  a link to a photo collection of Volunteers in Action.

Look for the tab just under the Heading picture:  "View Volunteer Photos".  Different Volunteers have been taking shots and sharing them with me for sharing with you.  See if you can find yourself. And if you can't, well, we can fix that, just come on down the the ship for a few hours and pitch in.. Somebody's always got their phone camera out. If you have some to share, please send them to me as an attachment via text or email.  If you copy the image into your email body, they may be automatically reduced to thumbnails, which are too small to viable for posting. At some point we will be able to enable you to post directly. 

Here's what the Next several days are holding for us Volunteers on deck.

The following priorities will be advanced, over this week, before the spars can actually be swayed over onto the deck.

Several heavy bullhide Leather pieces, used for anti-chafing must be replaced, new pieces cut, shaped, and renailed around the jaws, and other selected areas of the spars on the dock.  

The masts must be scraped  from foot to  cross trees and then coated  with linseed oil (currently in progress. That requires crew riding a harness or bosun's chair up the mast with a scraper. 

All ironwork that supports the spars or connect to rigging having recently receiving a coating of black, will be sorted and reinstalled on the spars.

 All Spars will receive extra coats of varnish and white gloss;  as will all deck(varnished surfaces) furniture. 

We might start scraping and sanding down the Cap Rail

 Running rigging, currently stowed or coiled, will be broken out, inventoried, and staged for re-iinstalling on spars. 

 An equal priority for Capt Dan, is building out a competent Volunteer crew.  As  time allows, or individual projects reach a slack point in the project plan, the Mate will organize for deckhand skills training, refreshers, and practice.  So review your Deckhand Skills Checklist, or print out a copy from the link on this Blog.  Those are the black and white skills to be demonstrated by deckhands, Volunteer or Paid.  

At some point next week, Capt Dan will identify a time window for Mar 1 for rigging up the spars for swaying back onto the ship and installing Sails and  running rigging.

Every day of the week offers an opportunity for advancing the work of the ship, or/and  building on your deckhand skills. On weekdays, check with Bryan to make sure somebody will be there to work with you. On Weekends confirm yourself for the Volunteer Day, or we might work out a training opportunity with another Volunteer as Coach, when the ship has a day off.

Spirit of South Carolina Volunteer Effort is making a serious impact .
January Volunteer Hours top 120, while February totals are set to double that number.

The months of January, and February are demonstrating the impact that Volunteer efforts are making in sustaining Spirit of South Carolina. 

In January, Volunteers contributed 122 hours of effort to Spirit of South Carolina's Winter Maintenance. In February, with 12 days left to go in the month, Volunteers had already stacked up 129 hours.  That's the equivalent of having an extra full-time crew member on board for the past six weeks.  The payoff is self-evident in the advancement of the coating and rigging projects over the Winter Maintenance period, and goes to show how individual volunteer commitments of hours here and there, building from an increasingly larger Volunteer Corps, are providing the decisive push to complete Spirit's Winter Maintenance on time.
So, don't think your few hours, don't count. When we volunteers combine efforts it doesn't take but a look over the deck at the end of a day to appreciate what's been accomplished, and Spirit's crew appreciates that.

Capt Cleveland announces the final phase of Winter Maintenance with up-rigging of Spars to commence on February 24. Volunteer help urgent

Volunteers focus weekend efforts on coating spars and bending on mast hoops.

11 Volunteers ignored chilly temperatures Saturday to tackle two projects critical to completing Winter Maintenance on schedule;  lay on final coats of varnish and white paint on Spirit's gaff's and booms, bend on the 30 mast hoops that had been taken off for scraping/sanding then resealing and refinishing.

With Capt Cleveland setting out the priorities for the day, Volunteers  organized themselves into two teams.

Tony Marchesani, Darren Casale, and Ken Fonville
compress and secure a mast hoop onto the foremast.

 Darren Casale, Tony Marchesani, and Ken Fonville took  on the tasks of moving freshly oiled mast hoops from the dock, and staging them with each mast. After locating the fastening hardware, they began a slow, often frustrating task of bending and sliding each hoop, like a giant key ring, around a thick post without straining it to the breaking point.  Once the mast hoop was completely encircling the mast, volunteers pushed and pinched ever tighter, the rings until  all screw holes aligned enabling seven different screws to be forced through the the rings ans secured with nuts on the outside of the hoop.

Freshly varnished and painted spars cure
 in the cool afternoon.

Meanwhile, the larger Volunteer Group;  Danny Johnson,  Gary Pope, Carter Edwards, Pearson Chesney, Tim Geoghegan, and Dani Feerst, set up a coatings station of ground cloths, rags, spirits, varnish, white paint, and brushes.  Next they organized into pairs to tack down then apply another coat of Deks Olje D2 varnish to the Fore and Main Mast booms and gaffs, and various thumb cleats.
As both projects were kicking off, Danny Johnson introduced two new Volunteers he'd recruited , to Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver. Hopefully, the scene of apparently  barely controlled chaos of activity, wouldn't dissuade them from returning to pitch in on the next project. As of this writing, here's hoping we see Drea Bauer and John Whitsitt back on deck soon.
By lunch time, fourteen mast hoops had been reinstalled, and all four spars received another coat of varnish, flipped over, and white ends prepped for a coat of white paint .  Crew took a break and mustered below for a rich lunch of Hunter's Seafood Gumbo.  Fighting off a strong urge for siesta, crew mustered on deck for one last two hour surge to finish their projects.  By end of day, a total of twenty mast hoops had been reinstalled, and all four spars had received a coat of white gloss paint around jaws, shoes, and ends.

Crew wrestles the foresail off the cart after hauling it to Liberty Square
for lay-out and inspection.

As crew  secured tools and prepared to stand down, Capt Cleveland announced the objectives for the final phase of Winter Maintenance.  On 24 February, the crew and all available volunteers will rig the booms and gaffs for swaying back onto the ship.  Over the following days, Feb 24-29, all running rigging will be reinstalled, as well as the mainsail, foresail, and jib.
Volunteer effort didn't stop with Saturday.  Sunday morning, Layne Carver and a new Volunteer, Bruce Zimmerman drove all the way up from Hilton Head Island for the day,  to further advance the work, from the day before. By their departure after lunch Sunday, they had added more mast hoops and final coated remaining varnished surfaces.

16 Volunteers  use Sunday morning to advance the Winter Maintenance Project by over two work days.

Sunday morning, 16 volunteers mustered on deck.  They were a mixed bag; an Old Salt, Joe Gorman,  long-time volunteer, Bryan Oliver, several regulars like Ken Fonville, Danny Johnson, Gary Pope, Carter and Alexa Edwards. A few, like Wayne Burdick, Charley Johnson, and Shawn Patience, returning after months of handling higher priorities, were coming back to the ship. And most notably, the largest group were first or second-time newcomers; Tim Geoghegan, Darren Casale, Blake Scott, Pearson Chesney, Tony Marchesani, Ricki Washington.   

For Spirit of South Carolina, this was good news. A third straight week of increasing Volunteer participation,  a promising sign that she might someday see a tipping point of regular volunteers regularly supplying the power, skills, and effort to sustain her mission.  

But for this day, the immediate priority, was to tackle oiling of her mast hoops, add a 6th varnish coat to her booms and gaffs lying on the dock, and haul in the anchor chain off the harbor bottom and deck wash. 

So, while a small group of volunteers joined crew member, Matt at the windlass to haul up anchor, then hose down and wash the deck, the remaining group hauled out to the dock, cans of preservative/sealant D1 and Varnish, bags of disposable brushes, yogurt cups, rags, groundcloths, and mineral spirits.  Lining up approximately forty recently scraped down mast-hoops along the dock benches, volunteers started an assembly line of wiping down every surface of the 'unwound" mast hoops with a D1 oil based preservative and sealant. 

Tony Marchesani finishes oiling the last mast hoop
 with its 3d coat of D1 oil.

 Once all forty mast hoops had been thoroughly coated, and the oil absorbed into the wood, Volunteers started on them again with a second wiped-on coat, followed by a third,  at which the absorpsion slowed down, indicating saturation.

Gary Pope and Tim Geoghegan team up on coating the
Foresail boom

At that time, the Volunteers shifted effort to the spars.  Some volunteer chamois-ed down the surfaces to wipe off condensation, then tacked the surfaces with mineral-spirit saturated rags. Meanwhile others marshalled-up foam brushes and measured out D2 varnish in re-purposed yoghurt cups.
After volunteer, Bryan Oliver, led a detailed demonstration of the Porzelt Marine Varnish Application Method, volunteers lined up on either side of all four spars, and began a deliberate sequence of  blotting and feathering, interrupted by frequent eyeballing for hard edges and holidays.
By shortly after noon, volunteers had completed coated all four spars.  Mast hoops were still drying from their third oil coat, which left nothing left to do but go to lunch.  Chef Hunter had prepared a nice Shepherd's Pie-style beef-stew casserole.
Following lunch, with coatings done and drying, the tempo shifted to deckhand training.  Volunteers broke into two groups, one following Old Salt, Joe Gorman to the line locker to dig out training aids for some knotwork. Another group followed Bryan Oliver aft, to the main shrouds pin rail for some demonstration and practice in line handling, coiling, and hanging. By end of day, volunteers had checked off several tasks of the Volunteer Deck hand Skills list, (available for download on this blog).

Joe Gorman and Wayne Burdick finishing up the Main Sail boom.

..And That Record Lasted One Week

Last week's Best Volunteer participation since 2013 was smashed  when 14 volunteers came aboard Saturday.

Volunteers Layne Carter, Bryan Oliver, Pearson Chesney,
Dan Maurin, Ken Fonville, Gary Pope,
 crew member Daniel, Darren Casale, and Chuck Waring,
hands warm in pockets, listening to the Captains
 instructions for the day.

Cold high 40-degree temps and damp overcast didn't discourage 14 volunteers who mustered on deck at 0900 Saturday morning. Reinforced from a quick trip below for a cup of Hunter's hot coffee, the ship's company was ready on time when Capt Dan Cleveland took charge.  To not waste any time, he decided to forego the usual pleasantry of a round-the-horn self-introduction session, relying on the day's intense team activities to create the same effect. After a quick recitation of his plan for the day, Chief Mate Charlie took charge.  Crew and volunteers intermingled in separate tasks to prepare the ship for casting off.  Crew introduced and explained the sequence, jargon, and commands for swaying off the gangway, singling up, then taking in the dock lines and fenders.  Since all sails but the Jumbo had been sent ashore for repair, there would be no sailing, but there would be enough to do. That was the end of explanations. From then on it was total immersion in deck operations, and the operating tempo never slowed down. For the next four hours, crew and volunteers together, cast off and coiled all lines, and stowed fenders.

Bryan Oliver easing the jumbo boom lift
 while Gary Pope, Tim Geoghegan,
and Dan Maurin observe.

Once off the dock, they drilled on launching then retrieving the rescue boat- three times, and executing their first complete Man-Overboard Drill, recovering the ship's soccer ball in a respectable time. 

At slack tide, Capt Cleveland brought the ship around, and directed crew to prepare for a starboard tie-up. This time crew members stood back, coaching volunteers in laying out and making bowlines onto dock lines, and setting fenders.  Volunteer, Chuck Waring joined Charlie in the rescue boat to climb onto the dock and take lines.  Heaving lines were bent on to bowlines and coiled, ready to throw on command.  As the ship edged to within 30 feet of the dock, heaving lines were tossed, dock lines followed. The dock team used the heaved messenger line to haul the heavy dock lines across and threw their bowlines over cleats or pilings. On deck volunteers took up slack and made fast their end of the dock lines. Fenders were adjusted, in seconds before the hull came to rest against the giant Yokahama's (floating hard rubber barrels chained across the dock face. Crew and dock-side volunteers rigged up and swayed across the gangway and all secured.  Onlookers along the pier could never have suspected the smooth docking was operation was crewed by first-time volunteers.

Lunch break in the Salon

That was the first time crew and volunteers  likely took time to notice some savory aroma's wafting out of the galley hatch.  There were no stragglers in climbing down the salon ladder and lining up for a plateful of Hunter's Pasta and Sausage casserole and garlic bread.  

Chief Mate Charlie allowed a decent interval for lunch before mustering the crew on deck for some sail setting training.   The Jumbo staysail had been bent back onto it's fore 

Gary Pope hauls away the Jumbo
halyard while crew member Matt tails.

stay the day before, and was ready to be worked. Together, crew and volunteers worked through through two sets and douses, each time rotating stations, so each volunteer experienced the tasks of hauling, sweating, tailing, and belaying, and finally laying out together along the bowsprit to harbor-furl the Jumbo. 

With all secure, Capt Cleveland  gathered the crew, brought out some adult beverages to share and recognize some work well done. 

Ship's Company gathered at the end of a productive training day,
Back row; at the Jumbo boom; crew members' Daniel and Matt
Second row;  Ship's Cook-Hunter, Blake Scott, Ken Fonville,
Darryl Darby, Bryan Oliver, Gary Pope, Mate, Charlie Porzelt,
Front row; Tim Geoghegan, Darren Casale, Dan Maurin, Carter Edwards,
LayneCarter, Joe Gorman, Pearson Chesney
Not pictured:  Chuck Waring