A pleasant surprise greeted volunteers and other passers by at the Maritime Center's dock. The Three-masted Schooner Denis Sullivan, now out of Boston, had recently tied up to the fuel dock. She's staying a few days here before continuing her passage south for some shipyard time on St. Simon's Island, GA, and finally wintering in the Caribbean doing educational programs. While docked she has invited volunteers over for a visit. Her Captain, Christopher Flansberg was once Captain of Spirit of South Carolina in early 2015.
Today, Saturday, A good sized group of Volunteers, including a new one mustered on deck at 0900. Volunteer Coordinator Bryan Oliver organized them into separate teams to attack some nagging issues that needed attention. Mark Held and Danny Johnson took on the project of organizing the paint locker, long a frustration for sailors needing to sort thru the disorganized mess of paints, rags, brushes, adhesives, paint cups and other gear that had grown hopelessly intermingled over the years. The emptied the locker onto the deck and installed dividers to create five separate compartments. Walter Barton, Doug Hartley and Alex Lya scattered across the dock and deck to consolidate all the extra dock lines, re-coil and stow them in the forepeak. Dave Brennan and Mikell Evatt searched the dock and below decks to locate and capture all the tools that had over time been scattered across the ship, not returned to their designated storage locations. Will Clark linked up with Capt Davis to start repair of the Rope and Line locker where a corner was literally rotting away. Meanwhile, Bryan gave a quick orientation to new Volunteer Brayden Licata, before turning her over to the paint-locker team.
By late morning as projects winded down, Capt Davis went ashore to provision with fried chicken, while Bryan assembled the rest for a walk thru of the three emergency drills that all crew would be required to perform. Except for the welcome lunchtime hiatus of consuming a mess of fried chicken and lemonade, volunteers took the rest of the afternoon to familiarize their responsibilities according to the Station Bill drafted out by Capt Davis, then rehearse those actions across the Man-Overboard and Fire emergency drills.
As a final treat, Volunteers watched Capt Davis demonstrate a new knot which all deckhands would be required to master. The Davis Slippery Pawpaw, as it's been designated, is a quick-release knot specially intended for securing the heavy ball fenders to the lifeline and stanchions. Watch for it in a soon to be released video in which hilarity ensues as Bryan attempts to demonstrate his mastery, or lack thereof.
No comments:
Post a Comment