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 .
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