Planned Sea Trial postponed for Weather. Wish her a Successful Sea Trial when it comes.

 Well, Capt Hackett wasn't far off at all.  He'd set his objective of having Spirit of South Carolina casting off for a mechanical Sea Trial by mid-month.   Last week, the electronics necessary to control and monitor the diesels were installed and tested. This past week, Raymarine technicians boarded and installed her navionics.  The schooner has been tied to the dock for the past 22 months.  And so, tomorrow morning,  was planned with a mostly volunteer crew, Capt Hackett, along with Capt Charlie Porzelt would have taken her into the harbor to exercise her systems and evaluate her readiness for a future, yet undecided.   Tropical Storm Enriquez is throwing a lot of wind against our dock Monday, so the trial has been  postponed.

To get her ready for trials, nine volunteers mustered on deck Saturday, the 26th, and immediately divided into separate projects, large and small.  Danny Johnson, and Layne Carver started by doubling all four dock lines; taking off the third lines, coiling and stowing in the forepeak.  Nate Mack and John Hart teamed up to retrieve 5 gallons of gasoline and refuel the gas tank on the small boat. Joe Gorman began an inspection of each of the 18 guy lines holding up the foresail awning, and re-securing them with slippery hitches, to ensure a speedy dropping and stowing on Monday.  Bryan Oliver, Calvin Milam, David Brennan, and Jonathan Bautista, gathered around the forecastle to work the problem of bringing up the massive Jumbo staysail that was rolled and stuffed into one of the berths. As a back-up plan, in case of engine failure, the crew would have the option of raising the remaining sail -foresail and Jumbo staysail, and sail back sufficiently close to the dock for warping in.

As dock lines were coiled and stowed below, deckhands laid in on the jumbo sail roll, using lift straps and concerted pulling and lifting, forced the canvas ball up thru the forecastle hatch, laid it out and dragged it forward up into the head rig, where John and Nate began lashing the luff to the stay. 

Bryan Oliver sets up the first lashing of the Jumbo
to the Forestay. Dave Brennan positions to
pass forward the Jumbo halyard.

 Calvin and David swung the Jumbo halyard forward to be shackled on, while Layne overhauled the jumbo sheet tackles and shackled  them directly to the Jumbo clew.  There would be no Jumbo boom rigged up for now.  Jonathan split off to cut and sew up a new canvas lead shot-weighted bag for a heaving line. 

Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver
 awards Jonathan Bautista
 his 50-hour Jibsheet Volunteer Pin.

Meanwhile, Hunter was making his usual culinary magic below in the galley. As projects wound up,  lunch was handed up.  But before the feast commenced, Bryan called muster, to recognize Jonathan Bautista for hitting the 50 Volunteer hours mark the previous week, and award his JIBSHEET VOLUNTEER Pin. 
 Following lunch,  Dave Brennan completed logging in his hours, and ticked off just over 100 volunteer hours total. That qualified him for  award of the FOREMAST VOLUNTEER Award.   Special thanks to Jonathan and Dave for all they've done to keep Spirit of South Carolina going.

At present, her Mainsail, Jib, tackles,  and spars remain entirely down-rigged for hurricane season.  But she will keep Jumbo staysail and foresail rigged. Given new ability to maneuver under power, and motor up river in event of a named storm, it's likely the Mainsail and jib will be up-rigged for shakedown harbor cruises.  

"From the deck" perspective, still awaiting word on plans for any haul-outs or COI renewals.

Project Manager, CAPT Hackett affirms intent to have Spirit of South Carolina functionally operational around Mid-June.

 In a phone call last Tuesday with CAPT Hackett, he affirmed in detail the components remaining to be installed and tested, and their status. He reiterated his intent to set a date/time for a sea trial based on the actual completion of those installations and testing, which would be mid-month (June). 

That news reinforced the priority for Volunteers to be prepared to help run the deck for casting off, and safely bringing her back to the dock after sea trials. With that, 9 Volunteers who came aboard this past Saturday at 0900, immediately organized to walk thru and  exercise their skills at:

• dock line handling, turns on the kevels or quarter bits,
•  making the big bowlines, 
• making a highwayman's hitch of the heaving lines to the bowline.
• Sending the messenger line over the rail, up over the head of the dock hand to retrieve it. 
• swinging the gangway to the the dock, and back again;  
• Launching the small boat, 
• maneuvering it as a push boat, then 
• retrieving the small boat to it's hipped position on the port bulwark.

While John Hart and Nate Mack took turns as coxwain of the small boat for a 1/2 hour. Danny Johnson and John Whitsitt made up the dockside party to cast off lines and down-rig the gangway.   Meanwhile, Layne Carver, Joe Gorman, Dave Brennan, and Dan Maurin stood by on the dock lines to take them in. Once the first cycle of casting off was completed, deckhands rotated around to a new task, and exercised  "docking" the schooner.  

With the cycles completed, all took a turn at coiling and heaving the messenger lines over the side once, followed by a hasty "failed throw" drill, retrieving the heaving line without coiling it and re-throwing it. As the last line was being retrieved, Hunter, down in the galley, called out "Lunch!" and started handing up on deck all the settings, including a huge pot of seafood pasta, and pound cake for dessert.  

After securing from lunch and from drills, some volunteers departed for other activities while a few hung back to perfect their gasket coiling techniques.  With the day over, we were much closer to being ready for the day when Spirit of South Carolina  draws away from the dock for the first time in 18 months.

News of Spirit of South Carolina's impending operational status drives a shift in Volunteer priorities.

 Fresh news indicating that Spirit of South Carolina could be functionally operational (i.e. operational engines and electronics) by mid-June came Thursday just prior to our Saturday Volunteer Day.  The situation posed a number of possibilities, which, at this writing, still exist only as possibilities, not facts.

• There might a desire to get her off the dock and circle the harbor once or twice to test out the engines, electronics and navionics.
• There might be a desire among the "Directors" to accelerate into the process of regaining her COI, including scheduling the bi-annual haulout.
• A number of additional alternative possibilities for the near term future mostly point to having competent crew standing by in sufficient numbers for operations, not just maintenance.

With that, the day's priorities shifted from down-rigging the foresail and running rigging, to building skills in deck operations, specifically docking and departure drills.  Calvin Milam, Jason Patnaude, Danny Johnson, and John Whitsett stayed behind on deck to take on to the dock, the two #4 quarter docklines, then hose and brush off the months of accumulated marine growth. It would make them more agreeable to handling if the new priority included taking in all docklines, coiling, and stowing.  

Meanwhile, Jonathan Bautista, Keshaun Holmes, Nate Mack, and Danny Johnson  retrieved one of the tripled up #1 dock lines, piled it into a dock cart with the bag of heaving lines, and together, pushed it over to the large green square in front of the Aquarium. There, Bryan Oliver set up a  station for everyone to line up on the dock line, bend on their heaving line with a highwayman's cutoff (hitch), and practice coiling and tossing the heaving line a minimum of the 50 feet to the dock, over the head of Bryan (standing in for the dock-hand).  10 practice throws culminated with the "Failed Throw" drill, in which the line failed to make its target and had to be hastily pulled back aboard, and re-thrown.

At midmorning, the two groups switched locations.. The deck group shifting to the green for heaving line practice and that group returning to the deck to finish  prepping some woodwork for oiling.

Hunter capped off the productive morning with a philly-steak and peppers sandwich lunch.   After policing up after lunch, finishing the woodwork oiling project, and all  tools and implements returned to stowage, Volunteers departed to enjoy their weekend, and await some word on upcoming events.