Whups! Now Delivery to Thunderbolt looks like delayed to Mid-March.

 But, hey, that's not so bad.  It seems that we may have a Delivery Captain on the hook, but with conflicts that wouldn't allow for a departure before 12 March.   So, we're all going in the right direction. 

 This news was brought to light just before the weekend. Unfortunately, too late for us to save our planned two-Saturday Training event we'd planned to host with the Aquarium.  It was cancelled when we thought we would likely be up to our necks in prep for Delivery this next coming Saturday.  The Aquarium cancelled it, but is still considering rescheduling with us sometime later in Spring, when our future is hopefully, better defined. 

This past Saturday, Volunteers mustered with high hopes we'd be teaming up on some real schooner man stuff, like setting the foresail.  That mass of canvas had been roughly stowed for over a year, open to the elements,and was developing some green staining on some of the flakes.  

The plan as of last week, given favorable lack of wind, and sufficient crew, would be to hoist the foresail up, identify specific cleaning/ damaged issues, then lower down and take brushes, vinegar and sea buckets of fresh water to take off stains. 

Well, everything cooperated except the wind. 10-15 knots off the quarter make it inadvisable to raise all that canvas into the breeze. Nevertheless, 10 crew, the same stalwarts as last Saturday, with two prodigal sons; Dan Maurin, and Layne Carver, piled on to several projects. Because we tackled so many, Volunteers also all over the place, pitching in here, than shifting to another project as one ran down, and another started up.  Here's what they did.

Overhauling a foresail peak halyard block
 prior to sanding and painting

Emptied a new bottle of Neatsfoot oil, wiping down every leather protecting tackles, spars, and timbers from jibboom, to the helm. 

Sanded down and sand-tone spot-painted four large blocks in the headrig, and foresail peak halyards

John Hart points out some wood rot
 in one of the blocks  he was refinishing

Applied first coats of varnish over the freshly preserved and sealed Dory Gunwales

Scraped, sanded, and repainted the cockpit waterways

Dropped the foresail out of it's furl, pulled out flakes exposing weather stains, and scrubbed clean with water and vinegar.

Ken Fonville mousing a shackle
 on the Jumbo Sheet tackle

Calvin Milam and Frank Thigpen sleuthing
for the source of a persistent water leak
 into the engine room

Tony (Lefty) Marchesani passing the needle to Layne Carver-portside, to 

Set up the Juki Sewing machine  (got it running without jamming )to repair the helm sunbrella cover.

Bryan Oliver checks Tony's flawless flat stitch
 technique and coordination with his unseen shipmate Layne,
 pushing the needle from port to starboard. 

Stitched a 5.5" canvas patch on both sides of small tear developing near  the head of the foresail.

Peer trained some volunteers refreshing skills in making bowlines, particularly in docklines.

And all that by 1400 hrs.   Not bad, not bad at all.

There's still that foresail that needs a harbor furl bad.  Next Saturday maybe.

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Advancing to Haul out - Still shooting for End of February Delivery to Thunderbolt Shipyard.

Its' still a long shot.  The search for a Delivery Captain goes on, as well as an additional core of paid pro's.  Sufficient Volunteers have stepped forward to fill out crew for the delivery. Thunderbolt is still in process of clearing a portion of their project calendar for us.

Meanwhile, this Saturday saw ten volunteers aboard.  The projects they advanced gave witness to the amount of work that could be accomplished with a critical mass of deckhands aboard.

Immediately after Muster,  Bryan Oliver organized the crew for hauling out of the forecastle, the two "topsails"; Fisherman, and Gaff Topsail, that had been wadded and stuffed into berths for the past year.  One at a time, John Hart, below in the forward berths, found what-ever corner he could identify, a clew or peak, and sent it up thru the forecastle's forward hatch, where other hands dragged the whole shapeless mass of canvas onto the deck, and spread it out.  Next, deckhands spread out around the perimeter to carefully flake the sail along it's luff, then fold and roll it into a much more compact cylinder, made fast with a sail tie and handed back down below to be stowed under the forecastle table.  That cleared out two forecastle berths. 

Crew then separated into separate work details for the next two hours.

Tony Marchesani, Richard Behling, John Whitsett, and Doug Hartley filled a bucket of tools, abrasives, and coatings, then displaced to the floating dock where the Dory lay bottom up on her cradle.  They made quick work of flipping her over, sanding to bare wood her  blackened and peeling gunwales, then starting several coats of D.1, sealant and preservative prior to next steps of varnish.

Around the Foremast, Ken Fonville, John Hart, and Danny Johnson down-rigged the Jumbo boom tackles to get at the worn, and peeling paint on the two large double blocks.  Within two hours, they had restored both blocks, scraped and re-oiled the Jumbo sheet bullseye lead.

Calvin Johnson continued his quest to isolate every deck leak that has bedeviled the schooner for past five years; this time along starboard of the aft cabin diesel ventilation box.  He's at right, interrupting the work to resharpen the one reefing tool aboard for scraping out old caulk and cleaning the deck seam.

With  the Aquarium Teen Volunteers program coming aboard next Saturday for their annual schooner educational field trip, Dave Brennon set up his station to rehearse the topics of points of sail, and basic navigation techniques he would be demonstrating, actually coaching them thru some actual scenario's 

As other deckhands completed their projects, they gathered around Dave's station on the saloon butterfly hatch. Each deckhand, in the role of a "student" helped Dave  rehearse his hands-on problems complete with miniature schooners and navigational buoys.

The busy morning was well rewarded, when Hunter sent up lunch from the galley.  A combination of Stuffed Clams, and a Creamy Tutte de Mare' Fettucine, full of mussels, clams and shrimp, topped off with a Chocolate Mousse pie, donated by Danny Johnson. 

Now,, ya see what you missed?

 

Spirit of South Carolina to host SC Aquarium Teen Interns in February. Maybe a Haul-out too.

Eight Volunteers mustered on a cold but clear Saturday morning to focus on a near term event; the hosting of two groups of Teen Interns from the SC Aquarium for two consecutive Saturday mornings on the19th and 26th. The visit is  a traditional annual event, cancelled last year due to COVID restrictions.  This year our Volunteers will welcome them aboard and lead them thru the experience of sailing a traditional sailing vessel,, without leaving the dock.

Ken Fonville, Nate Mack, John Hart, Danny Johnson and David Brennen will be training and coaching  the visiting interns through five interactive stations: Safe Line handling, Watch Standing, Sail Trim-points of sailing, Harbor navigation, and finally, raising sail.

They say that the best way to master a skill is to teach it to others, and this group is well on their way to that level.  Since last weekend they have been studying the crew manual, walking thru various scenarios, and practicing on each other. A couple of new returning Volunteers, Richard Behling, and Christian Lawyer, will serve as "trainees' for our trainers, and pick up some initials on their Skills checklist at the same time.

 

The Schooners Maintenance Punchlist demanded some attention too, in view of a renewed possibility of  her delivery to Thunderbolt, Savannah around end of February.  Several hurdles to be overcome for that to happen, and Capt Hackett has been focused in that direction. 

And so Calvin Milam took up reefing hook, sandpapers and caulking gun to clean out a deck seam suspected of leaking water into the Engine room. 

Nate Mack and Frank Thigpen discussing
next steps for the dory

Nate, John, and returning Volunteers, Layne Carver and Richard Behling , spent part of the morning on the Dory, sanding and prepping her gunwales for recoating. 

John Hart taking off the gunwale's
weathered surface to fresh wood.

Tony Marchesani laced on an anti-chafe leather onto the clew end of the Jumbo boom, then pitched with some navigation training insights with David Brennan.

The irresistible attraction of spending cold Saturday mornings creating sawdust and griming up your denims notwithstanding, the widely acknowledged best volunteer retention tool, is the reward that comes with lunch time, and Chef Hunter gift for kicking up a simple comfort dish like Beef Stew by several notches.

Volunteer deckhands enjoying  Hunter's latest
. Somebody with their hat on at the mess table,
 is owing us a round at the pub.

Richard Behring pitches in
with John on the Port gunwale.

 

Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver
explaining to Tony Marchesani paying
 oakum into a seam with a caulking iron.