Small but productive Volunteer efforts close out the year.

With Holidays rapidly approaching,  and our schooner restricted to the dock, waiting for it's window to deliver to shipyard, it was no surprise that our Volunteer Corps would be other-wise engaged. The Saturday of the 17th brought four volunteers.  This last Saturday, the 21st, brought only three of us.  Scott Cross, just returning from a 30-day service with FEMA in the hills of North Carolina, gave his entire morning and part of the afternoon.  Danny Johnson, likewise, came down to the dock to see where he could pitch in.  

Between Scott, and myself, we had control of the Dory project, turning it back over and repositioning her on the cradles, we sanded off old masking tape adhesive and scuffed tenhe rest of the hull surface to ready her for a coat of gloss white at the next good weather window. Bryan  had received a replacement rudder gudgeon and remounted it on the transom.  Besides hull-painting, a sheer stripe added under the gunwales for pizazz, a bit of wood filling around the transom, Dory was ready for re-christening, uprigging and launching.

Danny, took on the task of cutting out six inches of  the bench 4-by-4 timbers, to clear a wider space for bridging from the dock to the gangway.  

Those project found a ready stopping place right about lunch time, and all of us  secured all tools, extension cords,  abrasives,  emptied trash cans and closed her up for the holidays. 

Fast forward to the day before the day before New Years.

It's a conundrum. The usual motivations to invest volunteer time aboard Spirit of South Carolina don't seem to be there; the activities around getting her ready to go to sea, even just a harbor cruise.  Worse, the prospect of that happening doesn't seem likely for 4 months, exacerbated by that fact that she'll be in shipyard.

What to do,, what to do..

Well actually there's a lot to do. While she sits at this dock, likely till early February, there will be tasks that keep her from sinking. Bilge checks and pumping, ventilation.  And there's more in way of deckhand skills, that we never get around to.  the six knots to be mastered, Dock lines refreshed.. bending on chafing gear-something we've been ignoring to our peril.  There's Dory.  If you never yet learned to row a boat, you've somehow skipped one of the foundational precepts of seamanship. Dory rows well with one-two-3 crew if we had oars.   There's more,, give me a minute.. okay,, next time, next entry.

 

Entering a period of Stasis instigated by the Holidays and Winter Weather.

 Schooner date 241216.

It's been 22 days since our last Blog entry. The schooner Spirit of South Carolina remains in stasis awaiting direction from high above.  External situations are beginning to take control. 

The Holidays. 

The crew is becoming preoccupied. Families, with grandchildren are arriving, Families are departing, to visit grandchildren. Musters over the past few Saturdays have shriveled to 2-maybe 3.  The Captain is currently on duty, but will go off cycle on 29 December, returning 9 February, unless contracted to return early.  The Disabled Roster is lengthening.

Mitigating strategies; 

The Annual Volunteer Appreciation Night, along with the Christmas Parade of Boats, on Dec 14th, was stymied by weather conditions; the Parade cancelled, and reducing Appreciation Night attendance to a happy few (Walter Barton, Steve Folwell, Capt Bobby, Capt Will, Danny Johnson,)who graciously came aboard to watch a disappointing Army Navy Football game (depending on your point of view).  Walter Barton's excellent Chili, plus a diverse round of beverages and snacks softened the blow. 

Short term objectives remain the same;  

• Deliver the Schooner to Stephens Towing-Shipyard along with a shipyard crew and contracted Shipwrights and Riggers. 
• Dockside-Repair and reconfigure the Yokohama  Dock Fenders to restrict their shifting off the pilings.

The second objective can occur immediately if sufficient volunteer crew (six) can muster to take her off the dock, and set her anchor in the Middle Ground, for "a few days" enabling a second crew to adjust the Yokohama fenders.

In the next week, Look for a request call for Volunteers who can be flexible to dedicate a 1/2 day, to take the schooner off, or return her to the dock, either week after Christmas or sometime in January. If January, the job might just as easily be motoring the schooner all the way to her shipyard on the Wadmalaw River.

In the meantime, Dory lies on the dock, within a day or two's effort of being ready to launch and go sailing.  Her missing rudder gudgeon is being replaced. some final light scraping and sanding can prep for another coat of white hull paint, gunwale varnish, and maybe a nice blue sheer line strip under her gunwale.  Dory is primarily the property and responsibility of volunteers. Consider some time in helping make her ready, and be one of the first to take her off the dock, either rowing or sailing.

Stay tuned.

Quiet Thanksgiving Weekend but Dory Benefits

 With morning temps starting out in the mid 30's and a 5 knot northerly on the docks, the weather wasn't exactly inviting.  It did moderate some as Tony Marchesani and Bryan Oliver mustered below in the Saloon to make coffee and decide what could be advanced.  

With Eva Keyes confirmed a non-return, Shipyard still a go, and feelers out among Bryan's tall-ship network for crew, riggers, and shipwright, things were overall positive.  Still, we were left with no clear sets of priorities.

But Dory was just sitting out on the dock, waiting to be finished up.  Over the past several weeks, Dallas Spencer had rebuilt half of her destroyed sapele gunwales and oarlock mounts, and restored her transom, which had been torn out while suffering high winds and wave actions pounding her against a dock earlier this summer. But her four-foot daggerboard and some thwart panels had apparently floated off when dory finall swamped. Her sail rig and canvas appeared to still be serviceable.   

Bryan quickly produced out of his dock cart, a completely new daggerboard, and two aft thwart panels. That settled it.. We threw ourselves into the Dory restoration. 

While Tony searched the ships collection of bronze fasteners to pre-drill and screw down the thwarts, Bryan made a quick errand to the Hardware Store for some wood filler to fair out the rough edges along the scarfs in the gunwale where Dallas had refashion new ones.
Next, we fitted and mounted two new oarlock bolsters Dallas had recreated. The daggerboard was slipped into its trunk to test for fit. Finally, a first coat of varnish was laid down along the entire gunwale.   With one more coat of varnish, a white coat over the hull and inboard, Dory will be ready to rig up and launch.  

One last small triumph, between Tony and Bryan, we searched our hardware boxes and identified the close-enough-to right size bolt and lock-nut combination, along with a little drilling/resizing holes to secure the gangway rails to the gangway.  

Dory's back story..according to Bryan.

In 2017, at start of the Tall Ship Challenge to Quebec City,  the first mate, Dan Cleveland, and Engineer Doug Faunt pooled their funds to purchase a "stitch-and-glue" boat kit from Chesapeake Bay Boats. Their intent was to build a small craft capable of both rowing and sailing, which will be shared across the crew for recreation, and with student/guest crew to  learn rudiments of sailing and seamanship.  

They chose a 16 foot, dory-style kit called a "Noreaster Dory". For two weeks, the entire kit, hung suspended over my head in my berth during the passage to Bermuda and on to Boston. Docked for the week in Boston, the Mate and Engineer  pulled down the kit, and laid its keel on Spirit of South Carolina's midships deck.  For the next two months of the cruise, which included ports of call in Quebec, Port Hawkesbury, Halifax, and a two-week biannual haul-out-shipyard in Belfast, Maine, the entire crew participated in stitching, gluing, fiber-glassing, painting and varnishing, and rigging her up. She took her maiden sail in Boston, the last stop before the return passage to Charleston.   

Dory deck-stowed coming
 into Kingston Harbor

For the next two years, "Dory" was lashed to the deck and accompanied the crew and students to the Caribbean, another shipyard and various harbor cruises, until COVID struck, the schooner was basically laid up, and became the domain of Volunteer caretakers. Care for Dory has been the responsibility and expense of Volunteers ever since.  Officially, she is regarded as a "Tender" vessel to the schooner, thereby avoiding legalities of registration. She even sports a burgee on occasion, a silhouette of a Cock, or chicken- the back story of which is known to a privileged few.  

Fully loaded crew on liberty, bound  the dock in downtown San Juan

We expect that Dory will be ready for sail again in the next two weeks,, not likely to go to Shipyard, but otherwise remaining at the Maritime Center under the Volunteer Coordinator for Volunteer use and practice. 

Dory's Burgee- created by 2d Mate, Tripp