Volunteers Rack up 1956 Volunteer Hours in 2021- Equivalent to the Labor hours of a Full-Time Deckhand .

 1956 labor hours.. That's a might good contribution to Spirit of South Carolina. A Deckhand's worth of free-skilled labor.. for a whole year.

C-C-Cold weather and Volunteer Coordinator Bryan Oliver's Positive Covid Test didn't exactly bode well for a big turnout this past Saturday morning on Spirit of Spirit of South Carolina.  Even so, Frank Thigpen, Tony Marchesani, and Ken Fonville, brushed aside those distractions to pitch-in anyway.  

Triple-vaxed and masked up, Bryan Oliver appeared in the distance just long enough to set up some options from the Ship's Maintenance Punch List.  Volunteers chose something outside, and topical, literally;  The Sapele Cap rail circumnavigating the entire deck is continuously in need of sanding and varnish.  The process, done correctly requires a sanding/scraping to wood, an 8-coat application of sealant/preservative, followed by 12 coats of the high gloss varnish.  In best conditions, a scarf (12 feet) of the cap rail requires 12 days to complete, in good conditions.  

  When a Volunteer crew with only weekend's to spare can tackle it, that time window expands significantly. And of course, different cap rail scarf's are in different stages of completion.  Are you imagining the kind of scoreboard required to track these?   Tony and Frank started on one particular scarf in sore need of attention, and in a particularly high-visibility spot, adjacent to the gangway and public view. They spent the morning scraping/sanding, and by stopping time, had applied sufficient sealant to ensure the ensuing Saturday evening storms would not undo any of their work.

Likewise, Ken Fonville, who came aboard Saturday morning, ostensibly to retrieve his canvas bosun's chair he had loaned to the schooner for the past year, now found himself at a similar project.  

Ken Fonville sets up to tack down and lay a 6th coat
 of varnish on the starboard aft cap rail.  Hunter
keeps clear.

Funny story.  When Ken first came aboard to consider volunteering, he was up for laying in on just about anything.  However, he alluded to his past career in the furniture manufacturing and distribution business, and pretty clearly inferred that his enthusiasm waned at varnishing.   Now here he was tackling another scarf of cap rail that was crying for it's sixth coat of varnish.  I'll wager, Ken has laid more than 20 scarf coats of varnish, and another five coats on the main mast boom. (Next time you see him,, ask him is he regrets it)