Saturday Morning's Long Splicing Demo frustrated by Priority to work the Dock -fender situation.

Saturday, the 9th was to be a straight-forward maintenance projects day. Tony Marchesani had been practicing his long-splice technique in preparation to demonstrate a master class in long-splicing a worn our section of our starboard bow falls line. 

All that was set aside when, the day before, Dock Master, Jeff Davis called Bos'un Bryan to point out the deteriorating situation of the wayward Yokohoma fenders on the face dock. The three oversized hard rubber cylinders were intended to be positioned between the schooners hull and the vertical pilings supporting the face dock. Over a year ago, they had long since shifted off the pilings after the telephone pole that strung the three together, had snapped. 

An attempt by past Captain Bobby Nobles to rest the line of fenders ultimately failed, and now the string of loose yokohoma's were floating uselessly under the dock, protecting nothing. As Jeff pointed out, the resiulting wear of a telephone pole remnant,rubbing against the piling, was weakening the structure. 

And so, Four of us, this Saturday shifted our focus from long splices and cooler cleanups to seeking a solution to the fender problem.  For the rest of the morning, Bryan Oliver, Tony Marchesani, Ken Fonville and David Ried, made several different attempts,, using different methods, from different angles, using boat hooks and handy-billy's, to align fenders with poles, adjust existing chains, all to no avail. 

Tony and Lance team up to force a ball fender
 into position on the face dock.

The prime obstacle was inadequate space to maneuver the 4 ft x 5 ft yokohama fenders out of their positions under the dock. Easterly breezes and ebbing tide was forcing the ship's hull up against the dock, robbing us of needed maneuver space.  Until the wind shifted, and tide eased, or a powerful motorized push boat could get the schooner off the dock, or the schooner departed the dock for shipyard, we'd be unable to solve the problem.  The crew rearranged as possible, available ball fenders to force between the schooner's hull and pilings.