And We're Back in the Saddle!

  Volunteers can take the deck starting , as soon as you you can!

Some interesting items came up during a meeting on deck this afternoon.  The big thing, from my perspective, was Captain Dan's "OK", in fact his enthusiastic invitation, to see Volunteers back on board, doing what they do best,,, taking care of our Schooner, and getting her ready to go sailing.  The email blast went out earlier to all active Volunteers just prior to this posting.  

Of course, the reality of COVID-19 looms large, and the norms of social-distancing, hand-sanitizing,  will be folded into our Volunteer involvement. Volunteers are welcome aboard almost any day of the week.  Weekend days have been scheduled  on the Volunteer Calendar to ensure a crew member is available to help guide  the maintenance work, and coach deckhand skills training as desired.

Our schooner's future looks hopeful if this afternoon's meeting is an indication.  Blake Scott and  Brumby McCloud of College of Charleston, brought along  a couple of colleagues including a film maker to pitch to the crew their ideas to showcase "Spirit of South Carolina" to the City of Charleston and the State by her symbolic link to Charleston's Maritime and Seafaring heritage. They have engaged the interest of National Geographic, and other organizations who might be willing to sponsor, some programs aboard, including cruises, leveraging social media, and producing a documentary around the maritime heritage theme.   In fact, the group proposed shooting footage for a trailer of the documentary on the deck, beginning as early as next week, with video of crew and volunteers at work, along with interviews. 

In the meantime,, ship's maintenance looms large, some cosmetic, some more foundational, must be completed before the ship will be ready for sea.  Her first milestone to negotiate will be her Inspection for USCG COI renewal. That will include casting off and sailing, executing drills underway.   That means a crew aboard, most likely a significant number of volunteers.   And that means,, there's training that needs to be done.

Before that happens, her Life rafts must be swayed ashore for inspection and repackaging. Her electrical systems, having recently suffered a lightning strike will require inspections and likely replacement of components. The cap rails, pin rails and belaying pins, even both masts still require prepping and refinishing with D1 oil or linseed oil. 

Tim aloft scraping the mainmast

Her hull whitesides will require some significant spot painting.