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.