Shipwrights have Arrived. Long-Leaf timber arrived Cleaning and painting begun below decks.

Spirit of South Carolina's Shipyard Project is now at Full Swing.  On Wednesday the 12th the Shipwright's arrived; Josh Howard, and helper, Steve Perry, who was also a Rigger.  His qualifications were  a welcome development after losing our former rigger to a family emergency. Josh and Steve didn't waste any time positioning their work/shop trailer, and raising wood scaffolding.

 By Friday, with another helper, they had already chipped away at, and pried out four of the worst planks, and were chipping into other damage to prep the area for "Dutchmen". 

 

One of Josh's helpers clearing away debris
 after chopping and prying out a worm-eaten plank.

That sort of progress was underpinned by not having to waste time searching  for lodgings. Volunteer and Realtor, Walter Barton was waiting for them on arrival with a proposition for a perfect rental property less than fifteen minutes away  into which they could immediately move.

  

Saturday morning, Walter, Bryan, and Lance Halderman arrived on sight to start the cleaning phase in the Forecastle. Ray Krugger, also drove down to concentrate on the Galley. We were executing on a strategic adjustment to the Below-decks cleaning plan.  Having emptied the Forecastle, and a portion of the Saloon, it became apparent, that not everything needed to be unloaded; only enough to clear space for cleaning, then, shift stuff into the cleaned space and work on the remaining space. It saves significant time, that would've been spent hauling boxes and bags out from below, lowering them to the ground and stacking them into the storage container, and reversing the process as space was cleaned up.

Bryan made a side-stop at the Hollywood Piggly Wiggly for gallon jugs of water to use as rinse water for the coming project. The water hose positioned by the shipyard delivered plenty of what must be water straight out of the intercoastal waterway; unfiltered, full of sediment.

With a gallon-sized pump sprayer full of  bleach solution, they went into the remaining 12 berths, sprayed the surfaces down, letting the solution work for a few minutes while they sprayed the next berth.  Then returning with a damp cloth, they wiped down the entire painted surfaces, restoring to a clean white, what had been a decent accumulation of black mold, due to months of the below-decks being closed up. 

A good stopping place was made around noon, sufficient for Walter to lay out on the Galley Counter, a lunch of Fried Chicken, homemade potato salad, lemonade and iced-tea. 

Meanwhile, across-county, near Ladson, Sam Gervais, Tony Marchesani, Doug Hartley, and Alex Lya, had assembled at the Gorman residence, to open up and explore the last remaining storage sites of tools, hardware, and timber that was salvaged from the original Spirit of South Carolina Shipyard at Ansonborough Field. They made two pick-up truck- loaded round trips that afternoon, leaving the loads/pile, at the LCMS boatyard to be sorted out into fund-raising and reusable for shipyard. 

Tony, Alex, Doug, Walter, and Lance,
 trying out approaches, not sure how
 it's supposed to look, finished.

Leaving Sam behind to attend to his two boys who had accompanied the earlier load out, Tony, Doug and Alex drove cross-county to the Shipyard in time to grab plenty of chicken and potato salad, and look out over the pile of Steel and aluminum scaffolding components that had been dropped off next to the ship, two days prior. no instructions just a pile of neatly stacked "tinker-toy" like pipes and walkways  in various sizes and shapes.  Challenge apparently accepted.

Tony fits it, while our intrepid
Executive Director steadies the frame.

Now we know what it's supposed to
 look like.(our version anyway)

Finishing up lunch all five, climbed back down to the ground and immediately started spreading pieces out of  the stacks, and began trying out different connections, matching lengths, and fittings, and had it figured out in ,,I"d say about 15 minutes. 

 They spent the next 45 minutes creating three separate rolling platforms,  from which the shipwrights to work.