Bright and Hot Day, This Volunteer Crew defined teamwork

 Thursday afternoon  turned out to be a productive afternoon aboard Spirit of South Carolina.  Giving ourselves just two hours, Eli Bundy and myself teamed up to lay a coat of Interlux 1026 Primer-Woodsealer onto the mainsail boom,, all 52 feet.  It turned out the be the perfect 2-hour project  for a late afternoon, sea breeze barely noticeable, and summer sun being, well, very bright.  When the next  Volunteer crew musters later this week, the next step may very well be only one second coat of sealer, then a first coat of Interlux 96 Schooner Varnish.   When all you volunteers who are used to laying down a total of 20 total coats of Deks-Olje sealer and varnish, start in with this Interlux stuff, I think you'll be pleased. 

Saturday morning; It was looking promising.  After filling the water jug with ice and water, I called muster just forward in the shade of the foresail boom awning. In spite of the sweltering forecast ahead, I knew it was gonna be a great day when 3  things started to converge at muster.

1. at 0900, 7 Volunteers mustered at the mainmast.  Count 'em.  Seven!  Oh, the potential amount of stuff we could accomplish! 

2. One of our stalwarts, Dave Lazar, squints up to the main mast spreaders and says, "Okay, I'm ready, lets do it."   For weeks I"d been needling, cajoling about his getting into a boson's chair and seeing the harbor from 80 feet in the air (oh, and the masts needed sanding), he was "disinclined to acquiesce." 

But today he was looking at the top 3rd section with a steely gaze full of resolve. Tony Marchesani immediately takes the que, grabs Dan Maurin and they immediately go hunting for the bosuns chair, bridle, harness and tag lines.  Having spent several past Saturdays slowly advancing the project of sanding down the fore and main masts for linseed oiling, they knew exactly what to do.

3. Three new volunteers are left standing in front of me. Two of them, Julie, and Gerin Choiniere are from out of town, but both have a great history on other tall ships.  Julia as stood before the mast on the topsail schooner, "Amistad", albeit awhile ago, while Gerin, mentions three other tall ships in his recent past including "Gazela," a Barqentine out of Philadelphia. Our third volunteer, Brian Ferris, has no experience sailing(yet) but is highly motivated to start anywhere learning.    

So, first things first, each new volunteer is handed a parking permit card, to immediately place in their car.  I invite Julie and Gerin to take their own self-guided tour of the vessel, acquaint themselves with the deck layout, belowdecks compartments, and her rig. Meanwhile, Brian and I start our own tour at the most basic level, starting at the bowsprit, moving aft.  Brian has already skimmed thru the Crew Manual, online, so he's getting the gist of things. 

 
We've not yet completed the tour when challenges occur at the bosun's chair on the main mast.  Julie and Gerin have already laid in alongside Tony and Dan on the halyard and boat falls lifting and steadying Dave in the bosun's chair now suspended 20 feet above us. This lift up the mast is particularly complex because the mast is raked aft, and the only lift tackle sufficient to haul up a human's weight is the throat tackle.  Problem is, Dave's project is, using a power orbital sander he's brought up with him, to sand the grime off the forward half of the mast,, the side opposite from his lifting tackle is positioned. Therefore his lifting tackle always wants to pull his bosuns chair back around to the aft side of the mast. 

To keep Dave in his chair positioned on the forward side, Dan  had rigged the Small boat falls onto the bosun's chair  and set tension in a forward direction, keeping the seat positioned on the forward side of the mast.  However, as the chair was raised higher up the mast, the direction of pull was steepening, reducing his leverage.  

New Volunteer Brian tending
 the Small Boat falls

Dave Lazar in the bosun's chair, 
 managed by 3 lines to maintain  
position on forward side of the
 mast.

Tony lowered Dave back down to the deck for a short break while Julia rigged up an additional tag line that she could exert lateral force on the chair, athwart-ships, to help keep it in position. 

At the same time, new Volunteer Brian, and Gerin moved his Small Boat falls line over to the dock where they could create a stronger more lateral angle to hold Dave on the forward side of the mast.

 

t

New Topman, Dave Lazar
fresh off the bosuns chair  
after a long hot morning  
 aloft.

After multiple laps up and down the mast, with deft line handling by his 3-way suspension riggers, Dave sanded down about 15 feet of mast and was back on deck in time for Lunch. Hunter had already returned from a provisioning run to Harris Teeter and had laid out a Roast Beef Cold Cut sandwich spread. Soft drinks iced down on deck.

After downing lunch and much swigging of ice water and Sprite, the crew was back on deck circled around the huge canvas role that was the jib.  Flushed with our successful morning, and Gerin's assurance that he could have the luff all lashed to the jib stay by 3 pm. This was going to take some All-hands team work.  The mass of canvas weighed 250 pounds, and when unrolled, stretched 35 feet from tack to head.

Teamwork and Bending on a big Head Sail.

  Too bad we had no idle hand with a cell phone video because(except for one small part) we were about  to kill a  Master Class on how to bend on a Jib sail.  While three of us rolled out the  jib and reshaped it into a 35 foot-long skinny burrito, another gathered up and threw in a handfull of gaskets to  hold it together. Someone else went below into a locker to find the right sized roll of seine twine, to be cut into 30 lengths a fathom-each. Another found the halyard, unshackled the block and ran it forward to the "burrito"s middle gasket to take the weight of the canvas Gerin laid out on the headrig to pull loose all the residual lashings still clinging to the rings, and overhaul the jib downhaul line to make it fast to the tack at end of the "burrito."

Julie at the anchor,
Bryan on the Bowsprit
and Gerin on the Jib.

Once set, all hands lined up along the burrito, except Gerin on the Jibstay and Julia on the halyard, on commands to heave together, the long skinny baggy heavy burrito is hoisted up waist level and slowly advanced up to the knightheads and laid over the jib boom.  Someone takes up on the downhaul line and, on the next heave command, tugs the burritos's tack end forward while all other hands lift the burrito just high enough to slide over the jib boom and forward over the bowsprit spreaders and head rig. All hands repeat the lift-and-heave sequence another five times until Gerin  can reach the  jib's head and tack rings and pull then into position for shackling.  Someone unshackles the halyard block from the middle gasket and passes it forward to Gerin. As hands lay aft, someone with a knife is measuring out the 29 lengths of #35 seine twine, and passes them out to everyone. Bryan demonstrates how to turn in a "lazy splice" at one end, to be used to start the lashing of each jib sail luff grommet to.one of the 29 steel rings running along the jib stay. As each hand completes a few splices, they are handed off to Bryan who stuffs them in his belt, climbs out into the head rig and cow-hitches each one to the jibboom backstay where Gerin is now tugging the jib's head ring up against the halyard shackle and bending on the first lashing.

As Gerin finishes the last lashing down by the tack, some  hands start securing tools and other gear back in their place while rest of the crew gathers at the knightheads to lay out on the headrig and attempt to work in a harbor furl. The end result isn't admirable, but it's functional, and.. For cripes sake, this crew has have been in this sun heaving, tugging, pulling and lifting for two straight hours.  We'll have it sharp next muster, or maybe when we take on the Jumbo.

Like I said,, they made it look like a master class in sail rigging.. oh yeah,, I guess I did say something about one small part.  Well, next time we muster together,, BMABAITY

First Thursday Volunteer Evening a Success-Heat Wave shortens Saturday to a Half-Day again.

Thursday turned out to be a successful experiment;

An opportunity for Volunteers to help out on a weekday, after work-hours, with an added summer benefit of being on the water in late afternoon when the heat was dying down and the sea breezes were kicking in.  

Two Volunteers mustered with Bryan Oliver Thursday afternoon.  Nate Mack showed up early and started scraping down the main mast gaff spar to wood, in prep for sealing and varnishing.  Doug Hartley and Bryan boarded together. Doug started helping Nate on the gaff, while Bryan searched in vain for  another can of Deks-olje D.1 to prep the gaff.  Not finding any, he sought advice from shipwright John Riddle, and finally called Capt Hackett with the dilemma.  Receiving guidance from Capt Heath,   Bryan happily conveyed to the crew that we would no longer be investing in the Deks-olje product. Instead we would transition to the Interlux label of preservative sealant(1026) and the Interlux Schooner Varnish (96). 

As Doug and Tony completed their scraping of the gaff, Nate transitioned to restoring the bronze hinges to the salon butterfly hatches. 

Nate fitting one of the bronze T-hinges
 onto the Port salon hatch cover.

 Previously, Dave Lazar had re-fabricated leather strut hinges for both hatch covers. Now it remained to re-install the heavy bronze T-hinges.  Nate was discovering that most screw holes were worn out, requiring a shim or filler to regain a screw grip and water-tight seal. Using scrape sapele splinters and wood glue,  and Dolphinite bedding compound, Nate was able to reinstall four bronze hinges to one of the salon hatches. The other hatch cover would require dowel insertions into each screw hole to properly secure the screw holes.. Project for Saturday;  Meanwhile- One more component operational.  

Bryan out on the head rig, laying one
 final coat of varnish

As other projects were winding down, Bryan was just getting started on his own, the varnishing of the jib boom and jumbo boom.  Laying out on the jib boom  to the jib stay, with a tub the last pint from an old can of Deks-Olje D.2   Bryan spend the next couple hours, laying on a layer down the length of each spar. 

Saturday morning we were prepared again for the hot day.  

Doug and Bryan examine the foresail's
peak halyard  tackle to replicate
 on the mainmast.

At Muster, our igloo water jug was filled with ice water and hung on deck at the midships lifelines. Awnings stretched and adjusted over midships, and projects selected to take advantage of shade where possible or be broken up for frequent shade/water breaks. 

 Doug lifted morale for the morning by relating his success in identifying interested individuals from a local rock-climbing club to help us up rig the main mast.  That re-oriented our focus to preparations for the up-rigging. Arrangement of the Peak halyard and jigger tackles needed to be confirmed and components labeled.  A gantline tackle needed to be rigged up and prepped to accompany the climber, to enable us to haul up the heavy halyard blocks and boom lift fittings up to the top of the mast for the climber's installation.

Boom lift tackles and lazy jacks
layed out on the dock in preparation
 for being mounted on the mainmast.

Doug and Nate immediately set out retrieving the coiled boom lift cables and their attached lazy jacks from the forecastle and laying them out on the dock.  Next, they stretched out the main peak halyard tackle along the portside quarterdeck to arrange and align the four blocks as they would be mounted on the mainmast. 

Bryan and Tony marking off the flag halyard
 with tape at 10-ft intervals to estimate
height of mast, and length of the gantline.

Tony and Bryan used the main mast flag halyard, measured out 10-foot increments to estimate the total length of gantline to reeve thru the gantline block, sufficient to haul up the tackles to the top of the mainmast.

With main mast up-rigging preparations as complete as we could make them, volunteers gratefully sought the shade of the awnings to work on a different project sitting down.  Nate retrieved a huge coil of large halyard rope, taken from the excess scope of the Yokohama fenders dock lines and began turning in an eyesplice in one end, then sailor-whipping the opposite end.

Tony took charge of completing the sanding of the mainsail gaff, then following with an initial application of Interlux Wood Preservative-Sealant. This was actually a big deal. It marked the start of a transition  from our Deks-Olje D.1 and D2 Varnishing system that had been in use since 2015, to a simpler 2-part Interlux system. I think we all will welcome the change. from 8 coats of D.1, and 12 coats of D2, to 2 coats Interlux 1026, and maybe 4 coats of Interlux Schooner Varnish #96.(annual recoat
s of course). 

Bryan coaching Doug on turning-in
an endsplice onto the heaving line.

Doug pulled out the remaining Hemp rope already cut to five forty-foot lengths for heaving lines, and began turning in an eyesplice into the ends, and endsplicing the bitter ends.

Bryan explains the standard for
 gasket coiling a heaving line.

As Nate completed his work with the repurposed halyard, Bryan and Nate gathered it up, and with help of both boat hooks, completed a swap of  the aft-most Yokohama fender's spring line (currently one of the ship's dedicated dock lines) -  with Nate's new eyespliced loop onto the Yokohama's telephone pole axle.  The result was retrieving an expensive dock line that had been emergency-rigged onto the yokohama fender, and restoring it to it's intended purpose as a ship's dock line.  One down- one to go.

Our final trial before mustering off was to field-test our new heaving lines with the new hemp-style line that had replace the abhorrent nylon line.

 Doug took the honors. So, pacing off about 40 feet on the finger dock, Doug highwayman's-hitched the end of his heaving line onto a rail, coiled up , eyed his target down the dock (Nate with his arms outstretched),  and launched it in a low line-drive directly over Nates shoulder, a perfect pitch that most importantly, easily stretched the heaving line to its limit, with no snags.  Nate and Tony each took their turn testing out the new heaving line.

Bryan capped off the test with "recovering from a simulated miss;" that is, a thrown line that failed for whatever reason to be caught, thereby requiring the thrower to hastily retrieve the heaving line hand-over-hand, piling it at his feet, then winding up and heaving the weighted end(monkeys fist, or in this case canvas bag of #6 bird shot)  again, without time to re-coil the line gathered at his feet( 15 seconds is the standard). If things work well, the throw would extend the loose line to the max, this time over the receiver's shoulder.  In this test; Pass!  Bryan requires this "recover and heave again" task as part of the deckhand skills test for setting up and throwing a heaving line- from personal experience-lessons learned.

Some Volunteer Days are Diamonds, Some Days are for Stalwarts

 This past Saturday, the 8th, was one to challenge the motivation of any volunteer.  Earlier in the week my regular email  had passed on expectations for that day, about advancing the ship's spar varnishing, prep for up-rigging the mainmast,  eye-splicing - fun stuff. Instead, what we encountered on boarding, was the half-tattered remnant's of the massive awning we had spent a previous long Saturday restitching, grommeting, repairing, and rigging up- to provide an expansive shaded main-deck area for the summer.

Hunter related the situation of thirty knot winds lingering thru the harbor the previous day, creating a flogging action on the starboard half which started ripping out seams along the entire outboard edge (This was new damage on old seams-Volunteer repairs and patching from previous Saturday projects had largely held up.) So now the five of us that mustered Saturday morning, Andrew Schook, Dave Lazar, Ken Fonville, myself, and Tony Marchesani were faced with the now urgent task of restoring the awning; stitching up the outer edge and replacing four major grommets that had ripped out. We had less than four hours, til a new thunderstorm bubble was due to pass over us. Due to the disparate damage areas over the awning we decided to do what we could with just needle and sailor's palm. 

Dave split off on a special project to restore the leather hinges holding the salon hatch butterfly struts in place. Two of them had rotted out making each repositioning of the heavy hatch covers(unhinged for varnishing) a dicey situation. When David was done, all four hinges swung of new mink-oiled strops, steadying the hatch overs in open positions for ventilation below deck.

Dave and Andrew break after securing
 the canvas repair tools and rolling up
 the awning to the gaff.

We had reinforced about half of the damaged edge before the rains returned and forced all our tools and gear back under cover. Leaving the salon hatches cracked open for ventilation all gear and tools were stowed.  The half-repaired but still unusable awning was rolled up and gasketed along the gaff until next weekend. 

Monday morning I went aboard again to see what could be done to advance the awning repair.  It was clear that one set of hands manually wasn't going to make a dent in it.  The sewing machine rigged up might cooperate enough for several lines of stitching.  Meanwhile Hunter standing opposite me pointed to the spare green square awning then spread over the tender, and asked if it might do.  Old Salt, Chris Sosnowski had salvaged it 12 years ago, and saved it ever since, donating it back a month or so previously. Now it was time to put it back in operation.

It would indeed do, albeit only half the size of the
awning it was replacing.  In two hours  we had laid it out, laced one side over the gaff, and laced the opposite side over the starboard stanchions-raised the gaff back up and Voila!  We had a modicum of shade again over the deck. 

Things were looking better. 

July 4th Fireworks over the Harbor- Best View for Free, Once again; Spirit of South Carolina

I'm sure you must be disappointed, having missed the view. It was pretty close to perfect. Great visibility across the harbor, the harbor surface almost like glass reflecting the brilliant displays overhead. Very light breeze cooling things down, no no-see-ums, just occasional chuckle of dolphins breaching in front of us. Best thing? just kicked back on the foredeck of our schooner, sipping something cool, occasionally feeling that gentle sway of the deck from some spent wake generated 10 minutes ago across the harbor.  

Sure, I'm betting the day's pattern of  rainy squalls all day, likely spooked you from coming on down. True to forecasts, the "precip" cleared up promptly at 1915, and so we had ample time to arrange the deck chairs, so-to-speak, roll-up the outboard awning to clear our view and select a refreshment. I brought aboard a jug of Rum Runners to share. 

Munchies passed around, we were just in time for the warm-up show that was starting around 2100 focused out somewhere beyond the Harborside Resort on Patriots Point.  As it finally subsided, the big show started up around Yorktown. 

Nate Mack and his clan came aboard and had the run of the fore deck, while Hunter and I jockeyed our chairs to get a better look around the foremast shrouds.  Danny Johnson came aboard earlier to help adjust the awning, but had to depart early due to work in the morning. July 4th is his birthday, so left a healthy portion of Birthday brownies to share.

Last year at this time, Spirit of South Carolina sat in exile on a dry-dock in Savannah, unable to fete her Volunteers aboard for the annual Independence Day celebration. In the two years prior the event was lost due to a sea-trial, and COVID complications. 

 So, to make this year's celebration special, I set up in the salon, post-fireworks, for adults, just for fun,, a rum-tasting.. a selection of 12 year-olds from across the Caribbean.. good stuff. Sort of a surprise, I know. Maybe will try it again somewhere down the road. 

 

 

 

Volunteers create another "How I made this" story to tell.

 There had to be several big sighs of relief on deck Saturday when the Volunteer crew broke for a well-deserved lunch laid out from Hunter.   

We all knew what was ahead.  Tony Marchesani was first to arrive in the morning at 0900  and immediately set upon the Main boom, to advance the preservative/sealant project with a fifth coating.  When Ken Fonville, Dave Lazar, Nate Mack, and Dan Maurin, mustered minutes later, there were several choices of more fun projects to take on, but one stood out as the most onerous,, and of course, the most urgent. 

Six weeks ago, Doug Hartley
and Danny Johnson examine
 a brand new mast hoop,
still bolted-up-very tight
 and sturdy.

 Four new mast hoops needed to be mounted on the masts.  I say onerous because of the condition of the new-freshly fabricated hoops to be mounted.
  Sure, they were brand new, oak, recently(as of six-weeks ago) linseed-oiled up, with the six-bolt/nut combinations for each hoop long ago removed. We had anticipated soon winding the splines of the hoops around the mast like a huge key ring, simply squeezing the hoops back into their circular shape-lining up the holes for reinserting the bolts that would hold the hoops in their circular shape around the mast. 

Weeks later, Bryan Oliver and
Mikell Evatt grimace at the
 enlarged mast hoops left
alone for weeks.

There was a problem.  After delays of six weeks with no thru-bolts holding the hoops in their circular shape, they started stretching back out, so that they were now, at least twice the diameter as when they had been delivered. Normally these thick oak battans strips are first steamed, to soften them sufficiently to be forced into a tight circle.  Now, after six weeks, these strips were well on their way to returning to  natural state. 

Without a steam trunk to restore flexibility, we were going to have to force these battans back into a tight circular shape without splintering anything.  The previous week, a few of us had figured out a method, involving a come-along  cinch Strap, vaseline, seine-twine and various C-clamps, to gradually compress and squeeze the bands sufficiently around the mast to align holes for reinserting the bolts.

Tony Marchesani, Dave Lazar and Ken Fonville
work to compress their hoop another 8 inches
 to align the bolts.

So, with resolve, we divided into teams of three to mount the remaining three mast-hoops onto the fore and main masts. Each hoop required about 45 minutes of  pinching, pulling, screwing, mallet-whacking, and sailor-cussing.  It helped that Tony, finished with the main boom, and Doug Hartley appeared midway thru the operation to pitch in, providing roughly four hands on each hoop. 

Hunter laid out a much-welcomed
cold lunch with plenty of hydration.

By lunch time, two hoops had been wrestled back into shape, and a third was set up and waiting to be tightened after lunch. 

Temps pushing the nineties, all took in copious amounts of water thru-out the morning, and downed a jug of cold iced tea during lunch. 

Bryan, Dave, Tony, and Doug
 work an eye splice into the end of
their new heaving line.

Once the third hoop was finally set, the team collapsed under the shade and tapped the ice water jug, while Bryan strung out 250 feet of newly acquired Hempex 1/4" rope and cut it to five 50' lengths.  Remainder of the afternoon was kicked back practicing splicing an eye into the end of each  fifty-foot length, to be cow-hitched onto our weighted shotbags as new heaving lines.

Two eye splices were satisfactorily completed when the time came to secure all tools and equipment and muster off.  So, plenty of fun left for the next Volunteer day.