Main Awning is Recovered, Reconfigured, and Ready to Rig

 Two weekends, two sewing machines, two square feet of sunbrella patch material, and two-dozen additional brass grommets.  That and some creative sewing techniques invented on the fly; all together resulted in a two-piece awning rig that should provide shade and rain protection on the mid-ship's deck thru the summer.  

Starting last weekend, Doug Hartley, Dan Maurin and Tony Marchesani started work on the first half-section using the ship's Juki. See last week's posting for how that went.  This coming week, Doug brought along his personal "Sailrite" Sewing machine to complete the second half. It's a well-known brand among the yachting and boating world, and promised to be much less fidgety than the Juki. 

Doug and Tony in the groove, running a seam
 25 feet up and down one edge.

Sure enough, once set up on the dock, Doug and Tony rapidly tabled about 25 feet, pounded in 12 grommets and added six different triangular reinforcing patches over existing stress points.  Running out of brass grommets, Bryan Oliver pulled out palm and needles, cut a length of seine twine, and created two traditional grommets in the remaining corners.  Don't examine them too closely-it was late in a long day.    

Ken and Dave laying on
 the second coat of D2 Varnish

As Doug and Tony set up their canvas repair operation on the dock, Ken Fonville and Dave Lazar gathered up brushes, jars, a ground cloth and D2 varnish to lay a coat onto the jumbo boom and jib boom.  

Wayne Burdick and Mike Evatt took on the project to create a temporary seal over a section of waterways midships where suspected water could potentially leak into the saloon.  

Dave Lazar measures out a length
of sheeting while Mikell figures
where to anchor the end of
the seal.

At that point, Bryan remembered he'd brought out a section of oak stair rail to replace the broken section at end of the gangway. 

Just in-time for lunch.  Hunter had returned from Harris Teeter with the makings for high-stacked Tuna salad sandwiches, a jug of iced tea and cookies.  Wayne and Ken were called back to shore for other priorities, so missed out on the sandwiches, but that left more for us. 

After lunch, as the morning projects finished up, hands turned to the dock to adjust the large Yokohama fenders, which had broken off during the storm earlier this week on Tuesday. One was in danger of slipping off the telephone pole-shaft. Using spare dock lines, volunteers sprung lines in opposing directions to pilings, effectively pinning the Yokohama against the piling.

 

Ernestina Morrisey pulls away
from the fuel dock

Ernestina Morrisey, the schooner who had visited us two months prior, was rafted up to us since Tuesday afternoon. Just prior to lunch she began taking in her lines in order to shift over to the  fuel dock prior to departing home for Massachusetts.  As our projects began to wind down and we secured tools and materials, we watched their departure. 

  All secured, what was left of us settled in under the small awning under  the forecastle hatch.  Bryan crushed some ice into plastic cups and poured out  generous doses of Mint Julep he had made up in a batch for a cancelled Derby Party.  Was a good way to close out a productive say on the water.