"Dory" gets some attention, and focus shifts to prepping for Certificate of Inspection Visit by USCG.

First, the News.  

Hunter's back! He flew in late Friday night at 11:30 PM, likely didn't stand down til 1 AM, so we were mighty surprised to see him greet us up on deck as we started to muster at 9 AM.  His presence adds back another glimmer of optimism that the ship is going to survive this.   I'm sure we're all looking forward to chipping in some bucks to hand over to him when he makes his mid-morning provisioning walks to Harris Teeter.  The results, at lunch, are always very rewarding.

Danny Johnson, Calvin Milam, Layne Carver, Mikell Evatt, and Bryan Oliver mustered at 0900 to organize the day. Acting Captain Charlie Porzelt concurred that Saturday's morning chill threatened to spoil our plans to add a second coat of sandtone epoxy paint to the dory's(not a real dory, I know) inside bulwarks. So we used the first two hours of the morning on a detailed orientation, led by  Charlie, on the three essential drills aboard ship;  Man-Overboard, Fire, and Abandon Ship. We expect this to be the first of an expanding series of orientations and mostly exercises that build deckhand skills and get us ready to take Spirit of South Carolina off the dock and into the harbor, or more. 

Calvin tacking down the
 dory's mast. Layne leaning
 freshly oiled oars
on the rail

As Charlie walked volunteers thru each drill, Bryan grabbed the just-revised Crew Manual and pointed out where the steps of each drill were documented, and easily viewable - and Downloadable- from the Volunteer Blog (a shameless plug). 

By 1030, the temp had increased sufficiently to shift our focus to "Dory". By this time, Volunteers had internalized the drills, and procedures for setting up a paint staging area, taping,cleaning, tacking, brushing and tipping. Layne and Calvin split out to sand down the dory's spars and apply first coats of D1 oil. Meanwhile, Bryan Oliver latched onto new volunteer Frank Thigpen, for an orientation tour. 

Calvin taking a last swipe of paint
 to the dory, while the Main Attraction
 awaits call to lunch.

By 1300 an irresistible aroma was floating up out of the Galley.  Hunter, inspite of having spent the last month with family in the Dominican Republic, was frustrated at having missed out on sitting down to one of he favorite local dishes.. So he was taking it out on us. By 1330, the painting operation was shut down and secured, Charlie and Calvin were setting out the lunch line on the salon butterfly hatch, including a huge sauce pot of Sancocho. (You can google it)
Hunter had made enough for seconds, and I'm sure the pot was empty before all secured from lunch.  

Note to self:  Make a better plan for using the Saturday afternoons. The unfortunate downside to Hunter's lunches are the overpowering urge for siesta, or something besides work.  And so it was, that one after another, Volunteers drifted off ashore, some with vague purpose, others lured by an invitation for an afternoon sail.  That left just Charlie and Bryan aboard, brainstorming over concepts for a protective cover for dory.  That quickly led to pulling out a huge square of yellow plasticized canvas, a magic marker and some shears.  In less than 30 minutes they had traced out an outline, and cut out a form.  Next puzzle, is , "would the Juki sewing machine, stored in a salon berth, be capable of tabling, hemming the canvas." For whatever reason, the question wouldn't wait another day, so the sewing machine with all its accoutrements was hauled out and set up on the butterfly. So, as Charlie and Bryan threaded, adjusted, sewed, snagged, pulled out and tried again,  Danny and Calvin, having deserted us, were seen to be waving from the deck of a Sabre 42, ghosting by.