Spirit of South Carolina Aligning to National and Coast Guard Advisories regarding COVID-19

For the foreseeable future, Capt Dan has laid out an intent for the Ship, which is to formally align Spirit of South Carolina’s protocol with National and City guidelines and requirements, while still advancing the onboard work of maintenance, rescheduling programs and planning for new ones, thereby demonstrating/proving her continued viability in spite of the current situation.

Capt Cleveland's formal letter outlining the Ships Policy may be found at this link:

Spirit of South Carolina COVID-19 Preparedness Plan

So Spirit’s Protocol  takes shape like this.

Spirit of South Carolina is not shutting down, but is monitoring  sailing programs that were likely to execute over the next two months.  Our unique close environment on board, coupled with our diverse age demographic(many of us of a certain age are more susceptible than others) deserves special consideration.

Crew projects for maintenance and improvements will continue;

The ship is a home to the crew.  It goes without saying that visitors aboard should respect it as such, especially under these circumstances.

Crew has increased discipline in hygiene, sanitizing, and social distancing as warranted.

The ship is sticking to the directives of minimizing groups to size of 10 or less. ..meaning that the Mate must restrict the number of Volunteers coming on board to a maximum number, the amount of which may vary.

So what’s this mean for Volunteers?

·        The Volunteer program is not suspended, but it will be significantly constrained primarily in the numbers of volunteers on deck at a time.

·        Volunteer Days, as we know them, i.e. the mustering  a critical mass of dozen or more volunteers on a weekend, will temporarily shut down. 

·        In its place, we will try to spread Volunteer presence out over more days in the week, and encourage a voluntary social distancing.  .

·        If you display any signs or symptoms of a common cold or flu, please stay home.  If you are of the certain age (like me), consider your own self-interest in distance.

·        If you have time to offer the crew for maintenance, or wish to pick up some skills,  First, call or text to Chief Mate Charlie Porzelt, with a time frame you can help.  

charles@spiritofsc.org  or  203-870-5739.

·        He may welcome you on board, or wave you off this time based on the task at hand, or numbers of souls already on board.  Rest assured, that training up deckhands, as well as prepping the ship for sailing remain top priorities.  If you wanna be part of it.  Keep Charlie posted.