Saturday's 1st Public Tour a Resounding Success. Rain Forecast kaboshes the last scheduled Harbor Sail on Sunday;

As the frenzy of preparation activity reached a crescendo Friday afternoon, Dec 1st, we turned attention to the organization and roles /responsibilities for managing the Public tours aboard the schooner on Saturday starting at 1100 for two hours. There were vague feelings of unease, given our lack of visibility of any marketing/advertising effort to publicize that the ship was now hosting tours. We had no website, or active Facebook, limited Instagram, and only a vague understanding of how we would collect or direct electronic donations.

Volunteer Coordinator Bryan Oliver, divided the 2 hours into two watches of  four volunteers each; 3 to perform roles as tour guides on deck, with one as a dock-side "host/greeter" to make the introduction and manage the flow of guests coming on deck, and keep a headcount..  Each tour guide was set up with a resource binder of background information and 3 education themes to cover, and a route of stations around the deck, above and below as stop and talk places.  It seemed like a pretty good, well focused system.

CAPT Davis moved the Sandwich board, our only known advertisement of tours, out to the main concourse in front of the IAAM while we fretted about our apparent visibility to the public, and the lack of advertising for this morning. 

Volunteer Josh Zoodsma, who, earlier in the week had sat in discussions with Bryan on the very topic of marketing, visibility, etc., decided to take matters into his own hands.  Mounting his bike, he took off towards East Bay Street, towards the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, where the Charleston Tea Party Anniversary was being celebrated. It is said made a swath through crowds the length of the downtown street, even into Hotels to alert concierges.  Must've worked.

Old soldier's saying; "No plan survives first contact with the enemy. "

We were expecting maybe a trickle of pedestrians coming down the dock.  At around 1000hrs Doug Hartley took his spot on the dock next the gangway and our open Donation's box, and looked at a thickening crowd walking down the dock. When it arrived, there appeared to be a couple dozen. Some simply blew past Doug's attempt to gather a group and start an introduction, and walked down the gangway on their own initiative.  

Next-door neighbor, Nao Trinidad (Magellan's Flagship).
We hoped to  piggy back off their tourist traffic.

Bryan, at the saloon butterfly hatch was leaning over his notebook and reviewing some notes, when he looked up to see almost 8 people coming off the gangway and starting to spread fore and aft down the deck. More appeared to be gathering up around Doug on the dock. Bryan immediately gathered as many as he could, herding them towards the foremast and started his intro.  The other volunteers, Calvin Milam, Nate Mack, and later, Dave Brennan, Ken Fonville, needed no direction, but started intercepting guests as they flowed aboard, pulling them clear of the gangway, and starting their own introductions and tour. As the traffic intensified, Mark Held, and Rick Washington pitched in helping with taking questions, guiding guests around the deck.  

The ship had been "spiffied" up pretty well, so our tours covered the entire deck as well as an exploration below into the forecastle, and the saloon.  The aft-cabin was viewable from the deck. As a live-aboard area, those spaces were off limits to the public.   

Bryan with one of his tour groups in the saloon
 enjoying Walter Barton's Christmas cookies and cider
while getting a history lesson in historical harbor navigation.

Thankfully, Walter Barton, exercising his own flair for hospitality had come aboard with jugs of apple cider and Christmas cookies. He promptly set up on the galley and counter with cups napkins arrayed, for guests as they climbed down the ladder with their "tour guide.   Bryan had pulled down his two Historical charts of the harbor, (1865, and 1879) offering a flavor of what "Francis Elizabeth would have had aboard. Another anecdotal tidbit was pointing out the marker where Hunley had sank and was recovered. 

Dave Brennan capping his  tour group's
 experience with visit to the cockpit
 and hands on the helm.

By noon, a passerby on the dock would've seen what looked like a solid mass of people intermingling, and flowing around the deck and in and out of the hatches.

At end of the tour period, around 1500,  Mark Held retrieved the Sandwich Board returning it to the ship.  Volunteers mustered below in the Saloon, munched on East Bay deli sandwiches, discussed the good, the bad, the ugly, of the day,, then tallied up cash donations and tallied number of visitors..

197 visitors were counted give or take 7.