Volunteers Back on Board, setting an ambitious tempo and sending a powerful message.

 With giving only four day's of advance notice for a Volunteer Saturday,  an email blast went out, on Monday the 23rd January to the entire 151 member contact list.  

I'm not sure what it was, maybe the enticement of donuts at muster, and a bowl of Seafood Gumbo for Lunch, or a break from mid-winter, Saturday morning boredom, or a chance after more than 10 months, to be back on the deck of our Schooner and renew the camaraderie of shipmates focused on a worthy mission.  

Whatever it was, I was grateful to see sixteen! stalwart Volunteers muster in the Salon, Saturday morning for an erstwhile reunion, an opportunity to hear latest news and near-term plans, and then lean into some urgent projects.  All the more notable in that many were already juggling commitments to Race weekend or other community activities, yet managed to fit this meeting in to their schedules.

Ken Fonville, Wayne Burdick, Nate Mack, John Whitsett, Danny Johnson and Laura Johnson. and their recruited friend, and his young son Nate, Dave Brennan, Doug Hartley, Charlie Malone, Tony Marchesani, Todd Cole, Mikell Evatt, along with Hunter, and myself, mustered in the Salon, grabbed a donut and drew from the big coffee thermos Hunter had prepared, and gathered around the salon table.  Bryan recapped the passage north to Charleston, then transitioned to conveying news from Capt Hackett, and his intent for the ship and our participation over the next few months.  Capt Hackett, I learned, will remain as Project Manager for Tommy Baker and the Board for the next few months, seeing Spirit of South Carolina's return to total operational capability. That means carrying students and passengers; with a Full-time Captain.

The news recapped in something like this:  

During the passage northward, Capt Hackett used his time in extensive conversations with Capt Andy Hudak, our Delivery Captain, to formulate a plan of priority projects aimed at making the schooner ready to accept a visit of the Board of Directors. Given a goal of two-three weeks from now, the ship's deck areas, on deck and below would be ready for visitors.  Her mainmast will be up-rigged. Bright work(shiny stuff-varnished, etc) on deck will be refinished. Below decks will be ready for occupation. He has committed three-to-four of his employees full time to concentrating on the brightwork and cleaning areas.  He asked of the volunteers to attack the spars, and rigging. Yeah, its a tall order, and he appreciated what he was asking.

With that guidance, he asked me to develop my idea of project plan/Punch list of projects and tasks that needed completing to meet the Ship-ready objective, along with a Bill of materials to support it.  I shared that plan Saturday morning with Volunteers, particularly the important and urgent projects that Capt Heath was depending on Volunteers to complete first.  Of immediate importance;  

1. Down-rig all sail, bundle and hoist over onto the dock, to be picked up by Heath, Monday, and transported to North Sails for refurbishment/restoration.
2. Hoist and swing over the two life raft canisters onto the dock for transport for  annual inspection, restoration.
3. Disassemble all mast hoops to be sanded, restored with boiled linseed oil and remounted.
4. Send hands aloft (bosun chairs) to sand down, then linseed oil, and finally grease both masts, equivalent of 4 trips up each mast, to restore their preservation capabilities and lubrication for raising and lowering sail.

Lauren controls the Halyard tagline
 while Bryan hauls the bottom
 of the mainsail roll over
 the dock for lowering. 

After a breaking down the first project into tasks, and assigning responsibilities, our crew turned-to midships on deck. Some climbed below into the forecastle to unleash and prepare to push the huge mainsail up thru the hatch. Others lined up on deck to pull, and stretch it's 48-foot length aft on the deck and cinch it into a tight roll. Nick climbed onto the foresail gaff to unshackle the foremast throat halyard and rig it for hoisting the rolled-up foresail. Danny, Laura and Doug returned to the dock to take control of the tag line being rigged from the halyard shackle, to be used to pull the hanging sail over onto the dock.  Once the sail had been lowered onto the dock, four more volunteers joined those on the dock to push, shape, and force the pile of canvas into a folded pile that could be lashed together for loading onto a truck.

Bryan watches Wayne
unlash the foresail clew.
 Tony, and Nate examine
their next task removing
the spiraled sail lashings. 

 Bryan and Todd tie together the
two ends of the foresail before
swinging it across to the dock.

Meanwhile remaining volunteers began down rigging the foresail, taking off her spiraled lacings, unshackling the clew and tack, and carefully lowering her harbor-furled shape down from the boom onto the deck to be rigged, hoisted and swung over to the dock, just like the mainsail.

 

Laura, Danny, and Doug lash
the foresail together for transport

Todd, Nate, Ken, and Tony downrig
 the Jumbo

The remaining two sails, Jib and Jumbo, once separated from their halyards, downhauls, luff hanks and downhaul rigging,  were much smaller and easier to manage.  By Lunch time, all four sails had been hoisted over onto the dock, rolled and lashed together.

Volunteers; Tony, Laura, Mikell, back row
Todd, Doug, Bryan, Wayne, Danny

It was unfortunate that previous plans forced about five volunteers to depart, at noon, without getting their hard work's reward,  leaving six of us to pile down into the salon where Hunter had just laid out about four gallons of Bryan's serious New Orleans-style seafood gumbo and rice for lunch (yes, there are styles).  Even with seconds, we made work of only half of it.

After clearing the table, our remaining crew turned-to on deck again to take on the next -project, hoisting and swinging across, the two life raft canisters.  Using the same foresail throat halyard for lift, Wayne Burkan quickly rigged a bridle around the first life raft canister, then tended the lifting halyard while two of us with the tag line crossed the gangway over to the. dock and hauled her across.  Wayne took charge of the lift sequence for the second canister, which was sent over in short order.

Mission accomplished for today, ready for transport.

By 1430, Volunteers had accomplished quite a lot, All mustered off except for Tony and Todd, who stayed around to start on disassembling the mainmast mast hoops, getting a head start on the next volunteer project.

Saturday was a great day for our corps of Volunteers; It sends an example to those who might wonder, that we are still here and staying an effective force for the benefit of our schooner;  prepared to take up where we left-off ten months ago.  

For the next few weeks,, a turn-out like today's will make short work of what we have to do.  

I'll be sending out requests for anyone who can spare a few hours during the week, in addition to our again, regularly scheduled Saturday Volunteer Days. Hope to see you on deck then.

Big Thanks to Danny Johnson, and Nate Mack for all the great photo's.