Volunteers Recognized for their service.

 On Thursday, the lucky convergence of three Volunteers to jump onto the dory restoration project, enabled the Volunteer Coordinator to capture them in one place at the same time, to recognize their Volunteer Service.

Mikell Evatt, Walter Barton, and Dallas Spencer
 on recognition of surpassing their Volunteer Milestones.

Dallas Spencer, leading the restoration project, has notably accumulated already close to a hundred hours in the short few months during which he's been aboard.  In recognition, Bryan awarded him the Jibsheet Volunteer lapel pin, with expectations he would be soon hitting the 100 hour service mark.

Mikell Evatt, long a stalwart volunteer, surpassed the 100-hour mark late last year in December. Due to his many other irons in the fire, he's been unable to return to the schooner, until now-just in time for Bryan to hand over to him the recognition of Foremast Volunteer for his service.

Lastly, Walter Barton, in the short several months he's been volunteering, hit Service milestones faster than Bryan could track them.  In December, he surpassed 100 hours of time on board. In February Walter soared into the rarified company of volunteers accumulating over 200 Volunteer hours. The achievement is held, so far by only four other Volunteers. Bryan marked the milestone by also presenting Walter with a custom Sapele Swedish Fid, created from stock purloined by Captain Richard Bailey and his Engineer, 8 years ago.

Spirit of South Carolina Hosts the Atlantic Cup Start, and Recognizes Volunteer Service.

 Saturday morning, Bryan came over the gangway at a usual time of 0815 and found the saloon table and benches piled with opened boxes, filler, and plumbing parts.  Earlier in the week, Capt Bobby Nobles had started his project of replacing the Saloon's entire head system, from holding tank to toilet to pump to macerator.   The toilet had been stopped up and taped shut for a month. 

Bryan filled up the drip coffee pot , punched the "Brew" button and set to work laying out the day's Punch List of projects. Once again the hourly shifting weather forecast for Saturday forced volunteers into foregoing projects that would commit to hours of time either on deck, or below deck. Additionally, the Spirit of South Carolina had agreed to act as the Atlantic Cup Regatta's Committee Boat, starting it Charleston to Newport Race. The committee would be boarding later in the morning to  execute the race start at noon. So, instead, we set up our Punch list to enable flexing between indoors and outdoors. One overdue objective we would hold to, assuming the rain stayed away, was some sail training,, like flashing the jib.

Volunteer Ben Walker, graciously stepped forward to assist Capt Bobby in his less-than-glamorous project in the Saloon Head. Ryan Smith and son, Brody, started in on clearing the decks of loose gear, restoring order, and preparing the port side for the anticipated arrival of the Atlantic Cup Race Committee at 1100. Dallas Spencer put the finishing touches onto his set of traditionally stropped ash-wood becket blocks for the port side boat falls, then took tools ashore to sand and fair all the fiberglassing work from earlier in the week. Walter Barton assisted in restoring lines to their correct belaying pins on the Main mast porn Machowski, walked down the gangway with a bag of Committee Boat hardware, and another arm load of orange, green, red, and racing-check, flags on 8 foot staffs. He was followed shortly by three other members of the Atlantic Cup Race Committee, who started transforming the port rail into the Atlantic Cup Committee Boat. 

Signal Flags going up at the
6 minute warning gun

Dan recruited Brody, Ryan, and Walter as Timer countdown-to-start Flagstaff holders.. Their task would be to hold up a flag, representing minutes remaining to start. As minutes drew down, Dan and his Race Timer would signal for the appropriate minute flag to drop to the deck. The racing boats would see, at six minutes to start, a series of colored flags, each one disappearing according to minutes remaining to start.  Meanwhile, out on the water, 1/4 mile out towards the Yorktown, 7 "Open-40's" racing sloops were ghosting along under mainsail alone, circling in the 4-know southerly  breeze.

Old Salt Volunteer Dan exhaling
 after running the start of the Atlantic Cup.

At 1155, starting with a signal gun firing, Timer Flags began dropping as each minute ticked down to noon. With another gun, the last flag dropped and all racers, crowded at  the weather start buoy, sloowwwwly  floating across the line. The light air likely forced the boats into a more stretched out start than they would've liked.  

With that drama concluded Bryan set off for East Bay Deli to pick up lunch.  An extra bag of ice would've been welcome, had it been thought of-note to self.  Once lunch concluded, the Saloon was secured, cleaned up, and crew mustered forward for the long promised sail drill;  dressing and setting the jib, then striking the jib and furling.  The now sunny day was now being felt on deck. The exercise exposed  the inevitable hiccups in traditional rigs-like a bolt rope snagging a shackle forcing a deckhand out onto the head rig to clear it. 

Once struck and furled, hands mustered off to get some shade. Next time, the awning will go up- port side anyway.

Challenge Accepted! The story of a "Little Dory" .

It was Spring of 2017, and the Tall Ship's Charleston Festival was taking shape. SSV Spirit of South Carolina was the official Host.  The Mate, and Engineer of Spirit of South Carolina had pooled funds to purchase a "stitch-and-glue" kit of a 16-foot lapstrake "Swampscott-style Dory".   Their intent was to have aboard the schooner, an easy rowing/sailing dinghy available for teaching students, and of course, for fun.  They suspended the contents of the kit in a forecastle berth, just inches over my head.. yeah,, my berth. I shared my berth with this "dory" from Charleston to Bermuda, and to Boston. Over our 5-day visit there, the kit was finally pulled out of my berth, and we began stitching her together on the dock.  She had all the lines of an authentic dory, except her wales were lower, not the deep draft of a true working fishing dory. In addition to two banks for oars, she would sport a mast with a Marconi rig mainsail and a small jib.

Crew setting base brackets for thwarts
 on the new little dory.

I disembarked for Charleston when the little craft was still just held together with baling wire. Over the next four months  Spirit of South Carolina and the Tall Ship's Challenge sailed north to ports at Quebec, Port Hawkesbury,  Halifax, and Belfast Maine where she was hauled out; then on to Boston where I boarded her for the last passage home to Charleston.  In that time, her crew and glued-epoxied, fiberglassed, painted, and varnished  a well-found, pretty little dory, complete with a raked mast and mainsail with jib. 

Casting off for night sail
in Boston Harbor

Her maiden voyages consisted of evening crossings of Boston Harbor.

In 2018, the little "dory" was secured on the midships deck starboard side as Spirit of South Carolina sailed south to the Caribbean with a crew of Citadel Cadets for their first ever Semester at Sea.  

Crew piling in for ride to the San Juan Pier.

She proved an excellent tender, ferrying crew across the harbor in San Juan, or landing them on the sands of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic, or sometime, as in Kingston Harbor, a perfect little rowing gig.

Citadel Cadets get a rowing lesson
 with Coxwain Carolyn prior to their casting
 off for a semester at sea.

Ship's' Cat, Pilar, sporting her own PFD
 inspects the dory before launching.

By the time Spirit of South Carolina set her dock lines back in Charleston end of Spring 2018. The little dory had proved her worth several times over in the experience she gave her crews, the cheap rides to the host's wharf from an anchorage, and simply gunkholing around the various anchorage where her mother ship happened to be riding.

Crew unwinding after a long day in shipyard.
Thunderbolt, Savannah

On return to Charleston in late 2018, and following periods in dockyard, the little dory again
accompanied Spirit of South Carolina, serving as a distraction, and practice for other crew members.

Then Covid struck, and then so did the lightning. The full time crew were paid off. Spirit of South Carolina laid at the dock without power,  with the little dory lying upside down on the floating dock in the Maritime Center, her sail rig and oars stuffed underneath. For three years.

In that time, with no one to pay attention, her dacron sails rotted, river otters took to nesting underneath, with bad hygiene habits. 

At the same time, the Schooner's Volunteer program was just beginning. As the rolls grew more volunteers mustered on Saturdays, to take on more projects. It soon was time to  start paying attention to the little moribund "dory" dinghy. 

For the next two years, 2021-2023, Volunteers included restoration of the little dory as part of their project priorities.  Traces of river otters were scrubbed away. A new dacron mainsail was cut and grommeted from a donated jib. rudder, thwarts and railings were sanded and varnished.  Volunteer, Danny Johnson built a new cradle system to secure the hull in either configuration, right-side up or bottom-up, rigging, oars, and accessories underneath, and well off the dock.

By the beginning of 2024, the little dory-dinghy(still not officially named for some inexplicable reason) was ready to be launched.  For the first few months, the Captain and various volunteers would up-rig her, carry her to the edge of the dock and launch her into the harbor water for a fun little sail. 

At some point Stewardship broke down.  The sense of ownership that must be assumed by all, to ensure that things in custody are well cared for, and accounted for, somehow lapsed. No one noticed the  little dory left tied to the dock, while a strong nor'wester blew thru the Maritime Center, violently slamming the dory's hull against the dock. She swamped. The violence of the waves shocked the stern line such as to rip her small transom away from the hull on both sides. She was found the next day, still rigged up, half-sunk.  Her sapele gunwales had been torn away in three areas, and two oarlocks blown away. The rig was inexplicably undamaged. 

Mikell, Walter, and Dallas set up
the next fiberglass strip

Last month, some volunteers took a hard look at her.  The ripped-away transom, could be restitched and epoxy-fiber-glassed back into position. The gunwales could be renewed with battans scarfed into the missing sections.  So, last Week, Volunteer Deckhand Dallas Spencer took home some boat repair literature, scoped out a project, and this last weekend devised a way to stitch then epoxy the transom back into the quarter planks, much like the way she was originally stitched together.  

This last Thursday, Mikell Evatt and Walter Barton joined him to lay out additional fiberglass and epoxy, then sand down their work to fair the surfaces such that evidence of damage mostly disappeared. 

In the coming weeks, various volunteers will muster at the little dory on her cradle to fashion scarf pieces for her gunwales, varnish them, and paint the hull. The rig will be inspected and test-rigged. Oarlocks must  be replaced. 

Hopefully within this next month of June, our little "dory" will be launched for her next sea trials, followed by some great harbor sailing by volunteers who appreciate her and also for the crew-at-large the stewardship that goes along with it.

Rain squalls passing thru cuts the Volunteer Day short, but not before restoring a whole Pinrail.

 The seven of us who mustered aboard already knew this Saturday would likely be interrupted by those green and yellow splotches exploding and disappearing on the weather radar,  moving inexorably up the coast. Dallas Spencer brought with him an almost completed suite of traditionally stropped double becket blocks, he had been carving out and rigging up.  Their destination would be the replacement of the port side boat falls tackles, effectively doubling the purchase for lifting the small boat/tender. 

Given the weather unpredictability dashed our intentions of some sail training- if a partly set sail was caught in a gust. So, Bryan chose a couple of projects from the Daily Punchlist that could be started and paused if necessary, if/when things deteriorated. 

Walter, Wayne, and Ken taking off two years
 of grime from belaying pins before
soaking them in linseed oil.

First things first:  Open all hatches, and butterflies for ventilation.   For the project; All lines made fast to the port pinrail had to be taken off and secured elsewhere, for the duration of the project. Ken Fonville, Wayne Burdick, and Walter Barton accepted the project of restoring the entire portside mainmast pin rail and its 7 wood belaying pins;  sanding the thing down and wiping down with 2 coats of linseed oil.  Doug Hartley, Alex Lya, and Dallas, gathered tools and sandpaper, and gathered around the upturned dory to start restoration work on her torn transom. Bryan started on the pin rail itself.  

 Doug, working the dory repair with Dallas, astutely observed a visiting couple on the dock and offered them a tour.  15 minutes later, they disembarked, sufficiently impressed with their experience to leave with Doug a $20 donation.  A few more of those will on a weekly basis could easily cover some gaps in our consumable needs. 

As the morning progressed and sky turned more gray, the belaying pin/pinrail crew worked to finish the oiling, and restoring lines to their proper pins. They would all be completing their work before lunch time.  The three on the dory, staying into the afternoon, called in a delivery order for lunch from East Bay Deli, courtesy of the Schooner.  Bryan's family-his daughter and husband with Bryan's two young grandsons visiting from St. Louis,  showed up for a ship tour as things were winding down, just in time for the first cloudburst to hit.  All hands and visitors quickly retired below to the saloon for a short time as it passed over.  As the wet stuff dissipated, saloon denizens clambered back on deck. The Pinrail crew secured tools and materials before going ashore, Bryan's family tour group also disembarked, while the Dory team finished lunch and resumed their work. Hopefully with in a few weeks, the Dory will be ready for launch and a sail.

    

Deckhand Volunteers evolving deeper into a Seamanship Culture.

 This past Saturday's Volunteer Day began on a different note for the seven Volunteers, Nate Mack, Dave Brennan, Ryan Smith, Stephen Folwell, Alex Lya, Ken Fonville, Walter Barton, and Doug Hartley, who mustered aboard. Alex was welcomed back sporting a wrist cast on his left arm. (He has a story);  Doug had just returned from his first blue water solo cruise across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.  But that's not the different note.

  Volunteer Coordinator Bryan Oliver  kicked off the Muster as usual with a  layout of the day's projects to be taken on.  But before breaking out on those tasks, Bryan started a topic new to most Volunteers;  Shipboard culture/the way we do things/ standard operating procedure/ whatever you may call it. It's the mundane routine of shipboard life-day-to-day at dock and at sea, that ensures shipboard harmony, good hygiene, order and discipline among people who work and live together in close, non-private conditions. It's a subtle but significant component of good Seamanship.  

Actually it's not so new to volunteers, everyone who's come aboard has learned the deck habits of caring for, and stowing tools and hardware back in proper locations, securing hatches and coiling/hanging all lines prior to mustering off at end of the day.  This time, Bryan walked the Volunteers thru the routine of caring for below decks, particularly the Saloon, the Heads, and Galley. There is a standard operating procedure for use and stowage of kitchenware,  cleaning materials; a discipline for cleaning up the Galley, and keeping the Saloon table clear.  As Volunteers spend more time aboard, and the Galley starts getting used more often for meal preparation, Shipboard culture takes on greater significance. 

One volunteer began checking all 5 bilges. 

Another finished cleaning up the Galley and l Saloon table

Two volunteers disappeared into the forepeak to secure Grease and Tar buckets that were discovered loose from their hanging hook and  resting in top of the anchor chain in precarious about-to-tip-over positions. The tar bucket was lifted out and disposed in trash.

The Bilge Check revealed the usual suspects;  Forecastle was showing 18 inches depth after less than a week. Ryan led Ken and Alex below to the engine room for a Pump-out tutorial.

Doug began assessing the Dory Damage and laying out a project plan for repair and restoring her to use. 

Walter and Bryan wrestled with gorilla double-faced jello-tape attempting to affix the replacement letters for the Gangway Steps, only to find it unworkable, and settle with the included double-faced tape.

Nate and David worked on calculating dimensions for a replacement telephone pole to control the Yokohama fenders.

As the projects progressed, Ryan took lunch orders from the rest  and phoned in a carry out from East Bay Deli for lunch. 

After lunch break, Volunteers completed projects, and began securing tools and materials, saving for last, the task of  doubling up all dock lines.

Volunteers Pitch in to Solve a high value problem, and practice to dock-handling skills on the side.

 As a Corps of Volunteers, we are starting to approach a situation where our time, our actions, our focus are taking on greater meaning.  As we approach the near future we will actually begin inviting the public aboard for the purpose of generating revenue as well as offering a special experience in South Carolina Maritime History  and Culture.   It all centers around how we prepare our schooner to receive guests who are paying for the privilege, and how, thru our competence as Tall Ship Mariners, will experience something special, worth remembering and passing on. 

A week ago today, six Volunteers crewed Spirit of South Carolina for a trip around the harbor, primarily enabling our two "Event Captains" to better familiarize themselves with our ship's behavior under power; but also to exercise our own deckhand skills underway.

At the end of our harbor cruise, in tying up to our face-dock at the Maritime Center, we exposed some some rough edges, that warranted some focus. Additionally we noticed the appearance and disorganization of the dock, where gear was stored, or maintenance projects were advanced. It generated some priority Punch List items, for the next Volunteer gathering on deck. 

That gathering happened this last Saturday. Four Volunteers, Tony Marchesani, Walter Barton, Ken Fonville, Stephen Folwell, mustered on board at 0900.  They faced a tall list.  So, they conferred on the guidance emails and texts they had received over past two evenings from Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver, and promptly set to work.  The Dock was a mess, worse, it had become an unsafe mess, with  tools hardware, timbers, and lumber piles, scattered across the end of the dock, covered by salvage awning, weighted down with bricks and other hardware.   There was no Mate, or Bos'n to take charge of the effort.

Demonstrating the standard of seamanship, and teamwork expected of competent tall ship sailors, this group set to work. By lunch time, they had carted off loads of scrap and salvage, re-organized stowage of material and gangway components to clear the areas next to cleats and  benches, returned tools and consumables to their proper stowage on board, or in dock boxes-basically transforming an eyesore into a semblance of order.

This time, the Schooner sprang for lunch, so, while orders were taken and Walter set out to pick up from East Bay Deli, other discussed the set up of a Heaving Line Derby-out on the dock, after lunch. 

Once lunch was completed, and the saloon returned to order, this team mustered on to the dock with heaving lines, to practice a few throws and trade tips and techniques hard-learned from docking experiences as recent as the previous week.   

There's a point to this story, beyond just what got accomplished.  It's how it was done. 

 A band of volunteer deckhands, having absorbed, over months of time on board, a sufficient sense of  standards aboard tall ships, a sense of seamanship built around "ship-shipmate-self"  self-organized into a team and accomplished a big thing.  No one started out "in charge".    

We're starting to build out a real crew. Now it's a matter building out with everyone .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Monday, Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers get a short notice "Heads up" to crew the schooner back to Maritime Center.

If you happened into the Carolina Yacht Club Docks, this past Monday the 29th, you'd see this.  Described by several club members who remarked on "the best eye-candy on the water."  We'll take that compliment. But her week on this dock was over, as City Maritime Center Dock Master Jeff Davis notified us that our face dock space was now ready for us to return.  With that, ,and a hurried Sunday evening call for Volunteers to muster Monday morning, we kluged together a decent "pick-up" crew to take her home.

 

Bobby Noles on throttles, while
 Will Ventress holds course.

Walter Barton, Tony Marchesani, Alicia Cameron, Calvin Milam, and Bryan Oliver were able to drop plans for Monday and muster on board. Just before cast-off, Wayne Burdick climbed aboard to give us a welcome hand. We were joined by our two "Event Captains", Bobby Noles and Will Ventress, and Capt Heath Hackett. Their priority was to use a couple of hours on the water this morning to exercise their "feel" of the harbor currents and tides while performing a few "touch" and goes.  

Calvin in cruise mode

Calvin volunteered to take on Coxwain responsibilities, and soon found himself soloing around the schooner for the duration, until call for push boat  upped his operating tempo. 

Capt Hackett directed the vessel through a few 'touch-and-go's" first at Carolina Yacht club, where we retrieved all out ball fenders and inflatable yokohama 'monsters', before heading back the the Maritime Center, for another two runs. 

On final approach, our crew had a chance to shine when on 25 yards off the dock, Capt Noles called out that our starboard engine shut down.  The original planned choreography of sequenced dock line launches went out the window as  handlers were directed to "throw when able." In spite of a short throw, and the seemingly endless time it took Peter to cross the dock obstacle course to get on the bow line, the crew overall reacted well, and we touched the dock "all standing",  A bit more fore and aft motoring positioned us exactly centered to the gangway, which was immediately rolled out with its hydraulic jack.  We even used the falls to haul out and swing back over to the dock our gangway stair case.

We relearned a few lessons.  

1. Our discipline as Volunteers in maintaining a ship shape dock space as well as on deck, needs work. The south end of the dock has been largely neglected, and the accumulated 'stuff", much of it no more than debris of past projects, created a serious obstacle.  Asst Dockmaster Peter, during docking  was forced to climb across 20 or more feet of hardware with sharp corners hidden under old canvas tarps, while dragging the schooner's bow line all the way to the corner cleat. We did not look good in that area. It'll be a priority to get straightened out.  Look for it on this SignUp Genius.  

Our gangway had been left along the east side  of the dock, effectively blocking the way of dock line handlers trying to drag spring lines back and forth. It belongs on the "Inland side of the dock.)

2. Heaving Lines skills still need work. For some of us more than others.  Getting lines across quickly, while communicating with the dock, even recovering from a missed throw, though largely successful was somewhat uneven Monday. This is an independent skill and is ideal for independent practice, as long as standards are understood. This is an easy practice session, doable almost any time.

Techniques: 

• Always toss the line high and stretch the heaving line to it's limit-even if your receiver is only 15 yards away.  A lightly tossed line won't have the momentum to stretch out the coil in your hand, may likely fall into the water.
• If the line falls short. Don"t try to coil it as you pull it back in. haul it back in rapidly, allowing it to fall at your feet, grab the line near the bag and launch it high and out, allowing the line at your feet to snake out.