The Work Begins. Volunteers already in front working the Projects.

 Tuesday morning, the 22;  The culmination a a long journey where Spirit of South Carolina was finally, after over two years, starting a long road to returning to her mission.  Capt Heath Hackett sat down with the "A" team crew and myself to hear their impressions, diagnoses, conclusions, and recommendations for the ship going forward.  Each crew member was an experienced professional traditional sailing ship mariner, having been extensively involved with numerous tall ship organizations and their programs. The brought diverse technical expertise to the delivery, both in the run-up, and post- delivery offering plenty of insights, lessons learned, and best a number of recommendations aimed at returning Spirit of South Carolina to a status befitting her heritage.

Capt Alley and crew each made a point, at the beginning of their presentations to Capt Heath, to laud the Volunteers who had given their own time to keep Spirit of South Carolina alive over the past few years.  They described their initial impressions of the ship when they first came aboard, and were impressed on several levels, with the level or organization on deck and below,  the level of care, and the competence of volunteers at her dock and during refueling to cast her off and took lines. 

During that meeting, Capt Hackett acknowledged the critical part volunteers had played so far, and during his response to their recommendations indicated his intent that volunteers would continue to play a large part in her getting well and back in operation,, starting here in shipyard. 

Starting with the first phase of shipyard,, the Coast Guard's hull inspection, and beginning the next phases of overhaul of her different systems,  Capt Hackett described his picture if volunteers being involved.  He indicated that this shipyard program would not be a quick in-and-out. But could last more than one or two months.  this was a significant statement; for the first time was heard describing the part that volunteers would hopefully play in the ship's future.

Capt Hackett's described an initial phase of the shipyard project which was to Empty the ship;  remove everything not permanently affixed, stowing them ashore.  Opening up the ship this way allowed for a frank inventory of what should stay on the ship, and what would go.  Make an opportunity to reorganize stuff and storage, and of course, clean out years of accumulated grime.

So with that, the first call for volunteers to muster at shipyard went out on Wednesday for Volunteers to muster  on  Friday, or any day thru the following week. 

Volunteer Days now took on a new level of complexity.  Thunderbolt shipyard is just over 2 hours-drive away, a tall order for only a day-trip. Nevertheless, Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver hoped to sweeten the pot with a cozy schooner berth on board, great shipmate camaraderie, meals by Chef Hunter. And, of course, the unforgettable shipyard experience speaks for itself.  

Six Volunteers made the trip down south to Savannah to lay in on the first phase of Spirit of South Carolina's shipyard.  Friday morning, Coordinator, Bryan met up with John Hart, just after noon, David Brennan parked his car and climbed the two story construction steps to the cockpit. Together they strategized the execution of inventorying, packing,  loading off, transporting and stowing the contents of the schooner.  Bryan had brought along a supply of garbage bags, masking tape for labeling, and plenty of  Sharpie markers.  

John Hart and David Brennan in early phase
 of their Cargo Net weaving experience.

The first obstacle became apparent Friday afternoon as the trio stood in the cockpit and gazed down at the shipyard and the direction of the likely storage garages, about 200 yards distant behind the huge paint hangers. Lugging huge filled garbage bags, paint cans, and other bulky hardware one-by-one down two flights of stairs would take forever, and felt just plain unsafe.  We needed a cargo net, something big enough to fill with 3 or four garbage bags-worth, yet small enough to be easily hoisted and swung outboard by one person using the portside boat falls.  

After further discussion over a beer and fried seafood dinner at Tubby's down the street, they returned to ship and got serious.  Bryan drew a diagram for an eight-foot square cargo net. Next morning, Using a length of 1/2" manila line from a spool donated by Joe Gorman, month's back, they formed a square, with a loop seized into each corner.  For the netting, Bryan pulled out of the lazarette a 500 ft spool of 1/2" green nylon strapping material donated, again, by Joe Gorman.  Bryan unspooled and cut ten 30' sections to be doubled over one side of the manila border rope. Bryan found a Youtube video demonstrating a reasonable netting knot, and together they practiced,, and practiced.   At the Saturday morning 8 AM muster, the trio performed a quick "soles and bowls" cleaning of the saloon and forecastle, then set up the netting border rope and started "weaving".  

Lane Carver and John Hart inventorying,
 sorting, bagging, and labeling the entire Forecastle.

It took all day, and its completion was rewarded by Hunter's grilling up a salmon supper at the crew lounge. Somewhere in that time, Lane Carver joined the crew. The netting was finished just as it was time for David to drive back home. 

After successfully testing the net with a load of  garbage, it was packed away in the rope locker, and the trio shifted into the next phase;  Sorting, inventorying, bagging and labeling, virtually everything in the forecastle.  Layne and John took on that task while Bryan shifted focus to a new development.  He had received a call from Capt Hackett that the USCG would visit the ship at 0900 on Wednesday to inspect the hull, bilges, and all thru-hulls.  It was a directive all were waiting for, as it firmed up  another step forward  for  Spirit of South Carolina.  Bryan was aided in prep for the visit by two other volunteers who drove in Sunday, Tony Marchesani, and Ken Fonville. The took over the berths of the departing Lane and John, after a quick muster Monday morning, the reconstituted trio of volunteers shifted focus to locating and exercising each of the ships sixteen thru-hull ball valves, and pumping out any bilges that held more than their minimum; typically, the forecastle and  Salon.  

Tony Marchesani and Ken Fonville 
clearing the exhaust hoses used to
pump out the forecastle bilge.

But, there was a rub. Normally those bilges were pumped using seawater pressure from overboard.   Spirit of South Carolina was high and dry.   No problem.. Tony and Bryan rigged up the trash pump, while Ken Fonville called the shipyard project manager to request a portable tank for receiving our bilge effluent.  By early afternoon  they had successfully pumped both forecastle and saloon, and had further lowered the levels to just inches using the portable emergency sump pump.  Extra credit. Bilges pumped in drydock, and emergency/back-up pumps exercised. And another Hunter dinner, enjoying the crew lounge patio over grilled brats and potatoes.