"Names may be lost, yet these shall be known by their deeds."

Okay, that may be a bit over the top, for this group of stalwarts that mustered this morning aboard ship, it must be noted, what they accomplished today.  Yeah, it was a lot.

This morning started inauspiciously enough, when Tony and a couple of others pointed out to Bryan that his plan for getting more coats of varnish on the  dory gunwales, might not square with the morning's moisture laden fog bank hanging over the harbor.  So with that plan out the window,  Bryan  backed away a moment frowning over his notebook,  then looked up and announced the day's priorities would be devoted to long overdue weekly and monthly  safety and operations checks.  These were tasks normally executed by a full-time crew, but largely set aside for  top projects that could be organized for weekend deckhands.  But the inspection checklists also aligned perfectly with those items found on the USCG's Guidance for Certifying Inspected Vessels of this class, with their Certificate of Inspection.  Fortuitous.

 

Bryan pulled out of the binder three pages of Weekly/Monthly inspection points,  scribbled  volunteer names against each section, and handed them out.  First task would be bringing aboard the  inflatable small boat from it's hipped position over the port side. It would require the whole complement of volunteers, on the boat falls and along the rail, in a choreographed effort of sweating the bow and stern falls to lift the heavy  craft up over the rails where she could be guided inboard and settled onto the deck chocks. .

Once the small boat was secured on deck, crew broke out into small groups to tackle a number of areas. David Brennan and  Danny Johnson first went to work on the persistent not yet solved leak in the engine room over the generator. The masked off a narrow line along the entire top joint of  the half round across the forward edge of the aft cabin top; then applied a small bead of seam compound along the entire joint. Hopefully positive results would be noticeable after its 48-hour cure, and the next rainfall. 

Richard Behring, aloft in the foremast shrouds
 working on the starboard running light.

 Richard Behring started on his first ever climb aloft to check operation of the ship's navigation lights. Finding discrepancies at the stern light, starboard running, light, and steaming light, He, John Whitsitt, and Tony Marchesani, set to troubleshooting  the issues with multi-meter and a handful of spare bulbs located by Hunter. 

Between them, they identified two additional bad bulbs in the inventory, resolved the stern light, and identified a broken socket in the starboard running light. John took that socket home with him to re-solder a contact broken off at the base.  The steaming light at the foremast head never operated, and will be deferred to next opportunity for a man aloft,, way aloft.

John and Tony with the broken
 running light socket
they had just discovered.

Layne Carver taking apart
 the rot-damaged cheeks
of the peak halyard block.

 Meanwhile, John Hart, and Layne Carver down-rigged  from the foresail gaff, one of  the foresail peak halyard blocks discovered last week with significant rot in it's structure. With closer examination on deck they concluded that both cheeks of the block, as well as it's spacers were no longer viable. A short consult with Doug Hartley,, who admitted to having access to a number of desirable power tools, like band saws, and other cool stuff.  Anyway, he volunteered to take on the task of fashioning the wooden components for an entirely new block to be assembled around the existing sheave and metal strop.  Looking forward to his handiwork this next weekend.

John Whitsitt in the saloon head,
 managing the trash pump's intake hose.

With those tasks complete, John,Whitsitt, Ken Fonville, and Doug Hartley moved on to the next challenge on their list, testing the trash pump, and bilge alarms.  After a quick orientation from Bryan, the trio started first with pumping out the forecastle bilge which had already triggered an alarm signaling a need for pumping. 

Doug firing up the trash pump and checking
progress with John below in the saloon bilge

After progressing thru each of the five bilges, the trio refocused on the levels in the saloon bilge. Also on their checklist was the testing of the ship's trash pump.  

Killing two birds with one stone- er, task, they set up the trash pump alongside the saloon head's hatch. With John positioning the intake hose deep in the saloon bilge, Tony running out the exhaust hose over side, Doug fired up the pump engine. Within minutes, the pump had brought down the bilge level to a few inches.

Tony Marchesani steadies the trash pump's exhaust
 hose spewing the saloon bilge water over side.

Danny Johnson and David Brennen
sprucing up the  rescue boat.

 Danny and Dennis, after securing from the aft cabin top leak sealing project, moved onto the smallboat  itself, checking her condition, and engine. Taking scrub brushes to her surfaces and  bilges, then checking fuel  and engine oil levels before prepping her to be lifted again out over the port side.

Tony and John examine
 the steering gearbox.

While the bilge inspection and clearing operations were  winding up, Ken John Hart, and Tony focused on inspecting and inventorying hardware for the emergency steering gear. In the course of picking thru the dedicated tool bag and locating the huge emergency tiller suspended in the lazzarette, they discovered four long lag bolts lying in the corner of the steering box. They also noted that the steering gear base was moving when the wheel was turned.  Not a good sign.  Further  looking revealed four open holes around the base of the heavy steel base over top of the rudder post. Could it be? 

Yes it could. Turns out that the base had been securing the rudder post only by its own weight and the strong confines of the steering box for, who knows how long. For the next hour, the group worked at tugging, prying, leveraging, the bronze steering gear and plate just a half-inch so that the holes in the base aligned to their holes in the wood bottom of the steering box, and the timbers beneath. Greasing the threads  on the 8" long lag bolts, the group took turns at the socket driver, twisting each bolt slowly down its entire length thru the base into the timbers below. 

As these last projects wound down, Hunter working his galley magic below, as always, called for hands to set up the saloon butterfly hatch and send up Lunch.  This time it would be Fried Oyster Po'boy sandwiches, spiced up fried potatoes, and Danny Johnson's provided French Silk pie.

Well-deserved. 

Still with no new news, of an impending delivery for haul-out, the crew as well as other volunteers not present today, but had often mustered with us, were steadily building deckhand skills and savvy and a teamwork level, and  that will serve well, the ship and her new Captain when the time comes.