First Thursday Volunteer Evening a Success-Heat Wave shortens Saturday to a Half-Day again.

Thursday turned out to be a successful experiment;

An opportunity for Volunteers to help out on a weekday, after work-hours, with an added summer benefit of being on the water in late afternoon when the heat was dying down and the sea breezes were kicking in.  

Two Volunteers mustered with Bryan Oliver Thursday afternoon.  Nate Mack showed up early and started scraping down the main mast gaff spar to wood, in prep for sealing and varnishing.  Doug Hartley and Bryan boarded together. Doug started helping Nate on the gaff, while Bryan searched in vain for  another can of Deks-olje D.1 to prep the gaff.  Not finding any, he sought advice from shipwright John Riddle, and finally called Capt Hackett with the dilemma.  Receiving guidance from Capt Heath,   Bryan happily conveyed to the crew that we would no longer be investing in the Deks-olje product. Instead we would transition to the Interlux label of preservative sealant(1026) and the Interlux Schooner Varnish (96). 

As Doug and Tony completed their scraping of the gaff, Nate transitioned to restoring the bronze hinges to the salon butterfly hatches. 

Nate fitting one of the bronze T-hinges
 onto the Port salon hatch cover.

 Previously, Dave Lazar had re-fabricated leather strut hinges for both hatch covers. Now it remained to re-install the heavy bronze T-hinges.  Nate was discovering that most screw holes were worn out, requiring a shim or filler to regain a screw grip and water-tight seal. Using scrape sapele splinters and wood glue,  and Dolphinite bedding compound, Nate was able to reinstall four bronze hinges to one of the salon hatches. The other hatch cover would require dowel insertions into each screw hole to properly secure the screw holes.. Project for Saturday;  Meanwhile- One more component operational.  

Bryan out on the head rig, laying one
 final coat of varnish

As other projects were winding down, Bryan was just getting started on his own, the varnishing of the jib boom and jumbo boom.  Laying out on the jib boom  to the jib stay, with a tub the last pint from an old can of Deks-Olje D.2   Bryan spend the next couple hours, laying on a layer down the length of each spar. 

Saturday morning we were prepared again for the hot day.  

Doug and Bryan examine the foresail's
peak halyard  tackle to replicate
 on the mainmast.

At Muster, our igloo water jug was filled with ice water and hung on deck at the midships lifelines. Awnings stretched and adjusted over midships, and projects selected to take advantage of shade where possible or be broken up for frequent shade/water breaks. 

 Doug lifted morale for the morning by relating his success in identifying interested individuals from a local rock-climbing club to help us up rig the main mast.  That re-oriented our focus to preparations for the up-rigging. Arrangement of the Peak halyard and jigger tackles needed to be confirmed and components labeled.  A gantline tackle needed to be rigged up and prepped to accompany the climber, to enable us to haul up the heavy halyard blocks and boom lift fittings up to the top of the mast for the climber's installation.

Boom lift tackles and lazy jacks
layed out on the dock in preparation
 for being mounted on the mainmast.

Doug and Nate immediately set out retrieving the coiled boom lift cables and their attached lazy jacks from the forecastle and laying them out on the dock.  Next, they stretched out the main peak halyard tackle along the portside quarterdeck to arrange and align the four blocks as they would be mounted on the mainmast. 

Bryan and Tony marking off the flag halyard
 with tape at 10-ft intervals to estimate
height of mast, and length of the gantline.

Tony and Bryan used the main mast flag halyard, measured out 10-foot increments to estimate the total length of gantline to reeve thru the gantline block, sufficient to haul up the tackles to the top of the mainmast.

With main mast up-rigging preparations as complete as we could make them, volunteers gratefully sought the shade of the awnings to work on a different project sitting down.  Nate retrieved a huge coil of large halyard rope, taken from the excess scope of the Yokohama fenders dock lines and began turning in an eyesplice in one end, then sailor-whipping the opposite end.

Tony took charge of completing the sanding of the mainsail gaff, then following with an initial application of Interlux Wood Preservative-Sealant. This was actually a big deal. It marked the start of a transition  from our Deks-Olje D.1 and D2 Varnishing system that had been in use since 2015, to a simpler 2-part Interlux system. I think we all will welcome the change. from 8 coats of D.1, and 12 coats of D2, to 2 coats Interlux 1026, and maybe 4 coats of Interlux Schooner Varnish #96.(annual recoat
s of course). 

Bryan coaching Doug on turning-in
an endsplice onto the heaving line.

Doug pulled out the remaining Hemp rope already cut to five forty-foot lengths for heaving lines, and began turning in an eyesplice into the ends, and endsplicing the bitter ends.

Bryan explains the standard for
 gasket coiling a heaving line.

As Nate completed his work with the repurposed halyard, Bryan and Nate gathered it up, and with help of both boat hooks, completed a swap of  the aft-most Yokohama fender's spring line (currently one of the ship's dedicated dock lines) -  with Nate's new eyespliced loop onto the Yokohama's telephone pole axle.  The result was retrieving an expensive dock line that had been emergency-rigged onto the yokohama fender, and restoring it to it's intended purpose as a ship's dock line.  One down- one to go.

Our final trial before mustering off was to field-test our new heaving lines with the new hemp-style line that had replace the abhorrent nylon line.

 Doug took the honors. So, pacing off about 40 feet on the finger dock, Doug highwayman's-hitched the end of his heaving line onto a rail, coiled up , eyed his target down the dock (Nate with his arms outstretched),  and launched it in a low line-drive directly over Nates shoulder, a perfect pitch that most importantly, easily stretched the heaving line to its limit, with no snags.  Nate and Tony each took their turn testing out the new heaving line.

Bryan capped off the test with "recovering from a simulated miss;" that is, a thrown line that failed for whatever reason to be caught, thereby requiring the thrower to hastily retrieve the heaving line hand-over-hand, piling it at his feet, then winding up and heaving the weighted end(monkeys fist, or in this case canvas bag of #6 bird shot)  again, without time to re-coil the line gathered at his feet( 15 seconds is the standard). If things work well, the throw would extend the loose line to the max, this time over the receiver's shoulder.  In this test; Pass!  Bryan requires this "recover and heave again" task as part of the deckhand skills test for setting up and throwing a heaving line- from personal experience-lessons learned.

Some Volunteer Days are Diamonds, Some Days are for Stalwarts

 This past Saturday, the 8th, was one to challenge the motivation of any volunteer.  Earlier in the week my regular email  had passed on expectations for that day, about advancing the ship's spar varnishing, prep for up-rigging the mainmast,  eye-splicing - fun stuff. Instead, what we encountered on boarding, was the half-tattered remnant's of the massive awning we had spent a previous long Saturday restitching, grommeting, repairing, and rigging up- to provide an expansive shaded main-deck area for the summer.

Hunter related the situation of thirty knot winds lingering thru the harbor the previous day, creating a flogging action on the starboard half which started ripping out seams along the entire outboard edge (This was new damage on old seams-Volunteer repairs and patching from previous Saturday projects had largely held up.) So now the five of us that mustered Saturday morning, Andrew Schook, Dave Lazar, Ken Fonville, myself, and Tony Marchesani were faced with the now urgent task of restoring the awning; stitching up the outer edge and replacing four major grommets that had ripped out. We had less than four hours, til a new thunderstorm bubble was due to pass over us. Due to the disparate damage areas over the awning we decided to do what we could with just needle and sailor's palm. 

Dave split off on a special project to restore the leather hinges holding the salon hatch butterfly struts in place. Two of them had rotted out making each repositioning of the heavy hatch covers(unhinged for varnishing) a dicey situation. When David was done, all four hinges swung of new mink-oiled strops, steadying the hatch overs in open positions for ventilation below deck.

Dave and Andrew break after securing
 the canvas repair tools and rolling up
 the awning to the gaff.

We had reinforced about half of the damaged edge before the rains returned and forced all our tools and gear back under cover. Leaving the salon hatches cracked open for ventilation all gear and tools were stowed.  The half-repaired but still unusable awning was rolled up and gasketed along the gaff until next weekend. 

Monday morning I went aboard again to see what could be done to advance the awning repair.  It was clear that one set of hands manually wasn't going to make a dent in it.  The sewing machine rigged up might cooperate enough for several lines of stitching.  Meanwhile Hunter standing opposite me pointed to the spare green square awning then spread over the tender, and asked if it might do.  Old Salt, Chris Sosnowski had salvaged it 12 years ago, and saved it ever since, donating it back a month or so previously. Now it was time to put it back in operation.

It would indeed do, albeit only half the size of the
awning it was replacing.  In two hours  we had laid it out, laced one side over the gaff, and laced the opposite side over the starboard stanchions-raised the gaff back up and Voila!  We had a modicum of shade again over the deck. 

Things were looking better. 

July 4th Fireworks over the Harbor- Best View for Free, Once again; Spirit of South Carolina

I'm sure you must be disappointed, having missed the view. It was pretty close to perfect. Great visibility across the harbor, the harbor surface almost like glass reflecting the brilliant displays overhead. Very light breeze cooling things down, no no-see-ums, just occasional chuckle of dolphins breaching in front of us. Best thing? just kicked back on the foredeck of our schooner, sipping something cool, occasionally feeling that gentle sway of the deck from some spent wake generated 10 minutes ago across the harbor.  

Sure, I'm betting the day's pattern of  rainy squalls all day, likely spooked you from coming on down. True to forecasts, the "precip" cleared up promptly at 1915, and so we had ample time to arrange the deck chairs, so-to-speak, roll-up the outboard awning to clear our view and select a refreshment. I brought aboard a jug of Rum Runners to share. 

Munchies passed around, we were just in time for the warm-up show that was starting around 2100 focused out somewhere beyond the Harborside Resort on Patriots Point.  As it finally subsided, the big show started up around Yorktown. 

Nate Mack and his clan came aboard and had the run of the fore deck, while Hunter and I jockeyed our chairs to get a better look around the foremast shrouds.  Danny Johnson came aboard earlier to help adjust the awning, but had to depart early due to work in the morning. July 4th is his birthday, so left a healthy portion of Birthday brownies to share.

Last year at this time, Spirit of South Carolina sat in exile on a dry-dock in Savannah, unable to fete her Volunteers aboard for the annual Independence Day celebration. In the two years prior the event was lost due to a sea-trial, and COVID complications. 

 So, to make this year's celebration special, I set up in the salon, post-fireworks, for adults, just for fun,, a rum-tasting.. a selection of 12 year-olds from across the Caribbean.. good stuff. Sort of a surprise, I know. Maybe will try it again somewhere down the road. 

 

 

 

Volunteers create another "How I made this" story to tell.

 There had to be several big sighs of relief on deck Saturday when the Volunteer crew broke for a well-deserved lunch laid out from Hunter.   

We all knew what was ahead.  Tony Marchesani was first to arrive in the morning at 0900  and immediately set upon the Main boom, to advance the preservative/sealant project with a fifth coating.  When Ken Fonville, Dave Lazar, Nate Mack, and Dan Maurin, mustered minutes later, there were several choices of more fun projects to take on, but one stood out as the most onerous,, and of course, the most urgent. 

Six weeks ago, Doug Hartley
and Danny Johnson examine
 a brand new mast hoop,
still bolted-up-very tight
 and sturdy.

 Four new mast hoops needed to be mounted on the masts.  I say onerous because of the condition of the new-freshly fabricated hoops to be mounted.
  Sure, they were brand new, oak, recently(as of six-weeks ago) linseed-oiled up, with the six-bolt/nut combinations for each hoop long ago removed. We had anticipated soon winding the splines of the hoops around the mast like a huge key ring, simply squeezing the hoops back into their circular shape-lining up the holes for reinserting the bolts that would hold the hoops in their circular shape around the mast. 

Weeks later, Bryan Oliver and
Mikell Evatt grimace at the
 enlarged mast hoops left
alone for weeks.

There was a problem.  After delays of six weeks with no thru-bolts holding the hoops in their circular shape, they started stretching back out, so that they were now, at least twice the diameter as when they had been delivered. Normally these thick oak battans strips are first steamed, to soften them sufficiently to be forced into a tight circle.  Now, after six weeks, these strips were well on their way to returning to  natural state. 

Without a steam trunk to restore flexibility, we were going to have to force these battans back into a tight circular shape without splintering anything.  The previous week, a few of us had figured out a method, involving a come-along  cinch Strap, vaseline, seine-twine and various C-clamps, to gradually compress and squeeze the bands sufficiently around the mast to align holes for reinserting the bolts.

Tony Marchesani, Dave Lazar and Ken Fonville
work to compress their hoop another 8 inches
 to align the bolts.

So, with resolve, we divided into teams of three to mount the remaining three mast-hoops onto the fore and main masts. Each hoop required about 45 minutes of  pinching, pulling, screwing, mallet-whacking, and sailor-cussing.  It helped that Tony, finished with the main boom, and Doug Hartley appeared midway thru the operation to pitch in, providing roughly four hands on each hoop. 

Hunter laid out a much-welcomed
cold lunch with plenty of hydration.

By lunch time, two hoops had been wrestled back into shape, and a third was set up and waiting to be tightened after lunch. 

Temps pushing the nineties, all took in copious amounts of water thru-out the morning, and downed a jug of cold iced tea during lunch. 

Bryan, Dave, Tony, and Doug
 work an eye splice into the end of
their new heaving line.

Once the third hoop was finally set, the team collapsed under the shade and tapped the ice water jug, while Bryan strung out 250 feet of newly acquired Hempex 1/4" rope and cut it to five 50' lengths.  Remainder of the afternoon was kicked back practicing splicing an eye into the end of each  fifty-foot length, to be cow-hitched onto our weighted shotbags as new heaving lines.

Two eye splices were satisfactorily completed when the time came to secure all tools and equipment and muster off.  So, plenty of fun left for the next Volunteer day.

International African American Museum Opens while Spirit of South Carolina begins her third life; Coincidence?

IAAM Opens to the Public

Suspended on pillars over Gadsons Wharf, the place where for over 150 years, untold thousands of kidnapped African Americans were landed to be sold into slavery, the IAAM officially opened this past weekend. 

From the first slave-ship landing here, the labor of their generations built a city, began an indigo, then a rice industry.  They operated a burgeoning maritime industry around the harbor and along the coast, crewing and piloting everything from small river bateaux to coastal steamers and schooners. Their presence would have been noticed in virtually every line of business that built the second largest deep water harbor commerce in the colonies. 

African Americans also recognized the opportunities for escaping to freedom, using the waterways and seaways an additional dimension to the Underground Railroad. Escape from the deep south by the land-bound route was close to impossible. With the knowledge and experience gained, they enabled thousands to make their way to freedom by sea to the North, and even Canada.

Schooner Spirit of South Caroline Refits to start a Third Life  

Meanwhile, just down the finger dock from the  IAAM, easily visible from the Museum's terrace by her two towering wooden masts, lies a 19th century wooden sailing ship, a schooner, more specifically; the kind very likely to have been seen by the hundreds, sailing in and out of Charleston Harbor since the 1840's. Among her crew would have been a few free Black seamen, and a possibly one or two skilled, but enslaved sailors.  Chances are, it was an African American mariner who piloted this vessel in and out of the harbor. At one time or another, she may have even harbored a stowaway or two seeking passage north,  unknowing to the crew, or even with a crewman's help at their own risk. The stories they shared with folks on shore, of foreign lands, news of the world, particularly the rest of the country and the North, brought hope and fostered dreams of freedom that often led to action.

In reality, that schooner is our SSV Spirit of South Carolina, a replica of  the 19th century "Francis Elizabeth". Except for the give-away little radar dome at her masthead, from a short walk away she would be indistinguishable from the typical coastal vessels working his harbor 180 years ago.

rground Railroad for African Americans escaping to freedom, particularly in the deep South.

Spirit of South Carolina can, and ought to be a significant platform for immersive, experiential education around the above themes.  Partnering with IAAM, the Avery Institute, College of Charleston, and others, Spirit of South Carolina could host programs ranging from hour-long dock-side tours to themed cruises with ports of call supporting these themes. 

Volunteers can play a part in growing this synergy. 

• Advancing ideas on developing and executing programs 
• Researching and drafting story lines, talking points, scripts
• Recruiting help
• Helping make a video
• Guiding an on-deck tour, leading a discussion, 
• Reaching out- speaking to a group, 
• Publicizing, posting ads, 

Anybody else seeing an Opportunity for Synergy here?

Two themes arise; 

-The African American contribution to the Maritime Heritage of the Low Country, in the skilled trades, commerce, skilled sailors, pilots, and captains.

-The significance of the Sea-borne dimension of the Underground Railroad 

• Guiding a tour, Playing a role, leading a discussion
• Outreach-publicity; Contacting groups, telling the story, 

Three Excellent Books that will expand on these topics(You may find them in the Spirit of South Carolina's Salon library, or :

Black Jacks -W. Jeffrey Bolster 

Sailing to Freedom - ed. Timothy Walker

Charleston's Maritime Heritage 1670-1865 

I hope y'all are as excited about this as I am.

Light Volunteer Turnout this week salvaged by focused effort of a few.

 Last Saturday's Volunteer Day was one of the lightest turn-to's in month's . I hope it's just chalked up to the Father's Day Weekend.  Nevertheless, The Day was saved by Nate Mack, Mikell Evatt, Logan Day and Jamie Wert. First they laid onto the Mainsail boom; sanding down all 52 feet of her all round, to remove the gray weathering and prepping the spar for an initial coat of Deks-Olje D.1 preservative.  At this point the boom only needs another 8 coats of D.1, followed by 12 coats of the Varnish D.2, and she'll be ready to up-rig. 

They weren't done yet.  Waiting for the D.1 to soak in, the team selected one of the new, stiff, unwound, brittle brand new mast hoops, and choreographed  a slow, deliberate, measured in inches-at-a -time,  winding the hoop onto the mast, then cinching it tighter with come-along's, awls, screwdrivers and vaseline. That's another one down, and five to go; but it was a good day on deck, and it sets up everything for a strong start on the next Volunteer Day, on July 1, not for another two weeks.

Spirit of South Carolina's Draft Website Still needs a look-over.

this one at  www.spiritofsc.info

You'll recall in the last Blog entry I invited everyone to walk thru the draft of the ship's Website and provide some feedback, suggestions, criticisms, comment, trolling, anything.  Judging from the amount of feedback received, I gotta be the best dam website content developer there ever was, or no one ever received the email with the invitation, or nobody bothered to read it. 

Cmon.. 

We have an opportunity to drive the look, feel, themes, and content of the most significant social media platform for our schooner.   a lil help!

It's ON! Getting our COI back is goal Number 1!

The Ship's Draft website is temporarily published  for 2 weeks, for your review and comment:  www.spiritofsc.info

It's not complete in many areas. Send feedback, critics, and suggestions to bryan@spiritofsc.org.

That's right. If there was any confusion about the direction this ship is headed, the simple straightforward near term objective speaks volumes. Project Manager Heath Hackett reminded me four days ago. Our Near-Term objective is to regain our COI. From that point, be positioned to start up any number of harbor sails, and dockside events that will start Spirit of South Carolina generating some revenue. 

The ships overall mission has not changed. The plan, for the coming year is aimed at; generating some operating revenue, building visibility across the state and publicity around her mission and capabilities. Attracting public interest, and sponsorship that can eventually put Spirit of South Carolina on the road to self-sustainment. 

 It's a tall order. Other tall ships, once better funded than us, are struggling with the same issues.  Recruiting a licensed Captain for one thing. Hiring on a core of competent deckhands, another.  But, they have one thing, we haven't got (quoting The Wizard of Oz).  A "COI". 

Acquiring a COI is a straightforward drill. We have already had, and passed our haulout inspection, and have necessary documentation.  What remains is for USCG t o observe the schooner operating under supervision of a licensed Captain, a Mate, another license on board, and at least four competent deckhands. Observed in the drills of casting off, setting and adjusting sail, conduct a man-overboard drill. walk thru the drill for FIRE, and prepping for "Abandon Ship."  Volunteers, are expected to play a role in filling out the complement of 8 deckhands needed to cast off, raise and handle sail, take in sail and secure to the dock.

Aside from training up, as Volunteers, our more immediate objective is to uprig the Mainmast. 

That will first require:

    Reinstalling remaining 6 new masthoops.

    Finish coating the jib boom and jumbo boom with Deksolje D.2 varnish

    Sanding and revarnishing the main boom and gaff.

    Laying out and Sending aloft and uprigging the Mainsail peak halyard and Main boom lifts.

    Remounting the Main boom and gaff

    Bending on all four sails. 

The simple fact is.  These tasks are mostly all on us Volunteers.  Capt Hacketts' team is preoccupied with finishing up all the systems work, installation and testing, and some deck brightwork coating.  Volunteers are already in the middle of some of those tasks (see photos), , but we need a surge. 

Volunteer Coordinator Bryan, and Mikel Evatt
 argue the best technique for squeezing on the
mast hoops.

Just this past Saturday, Dave Lazar laid out on the jib and jumbo booms with a coat of varnish. After an extensive ship orientation from Bryan Oliver, New Volunteers, Logan Day and Jamie Wert followed up later in the afternoon hot-coating a sixth layer of varnish.  

Ken Fonville reports back with a plan
to lift the mainsail boom a foot.

Ken Fonville started the prep of the mainsail boom for sanding, Mikell Evatt and Dave Brennan, refined their technique for compressing and fitting on an additional two new mast  hoops. 

Bosun's Mate-for-a-Day, Dan Maurin
 untangles the peak halyard, months-long
 piled in the forecastle.

Dan Maurin and Nate Mack hauled out of the forecastle, the massive gordian knot that was the mainsail peak halyard tackle, stretched it out, and labeled the blocks and shackles, in prep for sending them aloft.  Nate prepared an invaluable sketch of the tackle rigging diagram for the one designated to set up the whole thing. (TBA-a volunteer for going aloft)

The Payoff,, a sumptuous lunch of Caribbean inspired fare,
 created by Chef Hunter.

Next weekend's Volunteer Day needs to be a continuation of what was begun and progressed, this past Saturday.  The following Saturday, will be restricted due to Security around the Veep's visit to the IAAM Grand Opening.   We know what needs to be done. If you want to pitch in, but unsure where to start, what to do. start with the Volunteer Coordinator.  (314-409-0433).  

 It's up to us.  Update your Volunteer Blog with your hours, and annotate the deckhand skills you think you've improved.  I'll be checking.

Military Salute Regatta Competes with Volunteer Day ; Some of Us get in both.

 Yesterday morning, 3 June, welcomed aboard two new volunteers, Jamie Wert, and Logan Day, both U.S. Navy NMM's (Nuclear Machinist Mate) currently in school and waiting for their next Boat assignment in December. They're pretty motivated about spending their Saturdays in culture-shock, transitioning from 21st Century Nuclear propulsion technology to 19th Century wooden ships. 

They came aboard just in time to effect repairs on the schooner's plastic sheet covering some repair work that had been cut away for examination during a shipwright's visit.  

Two full-hull models, top a rounded deep-water hull,
below, a flat-bottom indicating inshore
-shallow water design.

While Jamie and Logan were hanging over the rail duct taping and cleaning, Sandy Jackson came on board with a bundle covering two 30-inch full-hull(not half-hull) wood models for us to examine, and thus began a 1/2-hour of self education in forensics of traditional ship design.

Close up of hull stern showing section
 and diagonal lines.

One of the models showed distinct measured out section and diagonal lines indicating it was ready for transcribing dimensions to a molding-full sized framing. We're looking for a marine architect that might shed some light on the provenance of these models. 

As far as Saturday's Volunteer Day happened, the three of us were it, and even then, only for only an hour.  We were in conflict with the annual Salute to Veterans' Sailing Regatta, hosted and produced by CORA, (Charleston Offshore Racing Association) and Veterans On Deck. 

Danny Johnson's Dehler 42, waiting for her crew
to board prior to the Salute to Veterans Regatta.

At least five of Spirit of South Carolina's regular volunteers, Ken Fonville, Danny Johnson, Laura Johnson, Wayne Burdick, and myself, plus a few others I missed, were all involved in that event, either as organizers, skippers, or crew members.   While Ken was running the whole show, Laura, Logan, Jamie, and myself were crewing on one of the sailboats in the Regatta; Laura and I on Danny Johnson's "Trinity", Logan and Jamie on "Flatiron", and Wayne skippering his own "Marion Maid".

Thanks to David Brennan, and John Hart, who came aboard mid-week and figured out how to install one of our new mast  hoops, we did make some headway. We learned not to remove the bolts from new hoops until we were ready to install on the mast.  Left unfastened, these new hoops started unbending out to their original state, posing a challenge in muscle-ing them back into a circle. John was here only a few days, laying over for his run back north to New England area, living and working from his sailboat and taking on the occasional delivery job.

Our progress against our maintenance punch list has suffered primarily from weather delays and associated shortage of hands to advance the important projects.  Hopefully, on coming weeks, the Hurricanes and monsoons will stick to the weekdays, and Mother Nature will grant us favorable weather for Saturdays and any other volunteer sessions during the week. 

Storm Watch dockside on Spirit of South Carolina

 It's Friday 26 May;  In my head I'm hearing 8 Bells. .. meaning it's either 8AM, Noon, 4 PM, 8 PM, or midnite.  In this case its midnite.  Old-timey seafarers measured passing of time by the number of rings of the ship's bell. The bells rang every half-hour, beginning with one ring at the 1st half-hour of the 4-hour watch, adding a ring with each half-hour passed, until the end of the Watch, "8 bells." The sequence is repeated with start of the next and subsequent 4-hour watches. 

 I"m still up, sitting below in Spirit of South Carolina's Salon at the table, in the dark, except for my bunk light over my shoulder. I had just finished a viewing of Master and Commander,  via YouTube on my laptop.  Hunter long ago had climbed into his berth after catching a soccer match on his phone.  There's a pretty good gale going on up on deck, but its amazingly, eerily calm and quiet below decks; water gurgling around the hull next to the dock, occasional light thump as a wave crashed against her port (side exposed to the harbor) side; occasionally a gentle rocking.  Spirit of South Carolina was extremely well built. The extreme conditions sweeping her decks and rigging might barely be noticeable from the comfort of a berth in the salon.  Too quiet.

I'd been on board since 1100 installing an experimental jackline stanchion-post just forward of the gangway. About 1400 in the afternoon, winds in the harbor predictably and rapidly picked up from 5-10 to 20 knots, driving a decision to storm furl the two halves of the main awning over the foresail gaff, saving them from blowing away.

 As wind steadily increased out of NNE, I decided I had better stay around for the night.  The three Yokohoma fenders, now working independently since their unifiying single log shaft had shattered in the previous week's gale,  were well situated for now.   I couldn't predict how they would behave when the forecasted 50-knot gusts hit around 9 pm; or worse it clocked easterly pushing our hull against the dock.  

Deciding to check fenders, dock lines and do a bilge check, I  pulled on foulies, grabbed a headlamp off the hook in my berth, climbed the ladder and slid open the hatch cover.  Whoa!  a shock to my senses the second my head pops out of the companion way, crossing a plane from the quiet peace below to roaring, stinging rain and spray in the face, water already finding a way into my boots,  blackness and a deck that wants to tip me over.  A little chilly for late May, rain stings my face carried by a 35 knot blast from the north-north east-straight down the harbor.  Actually half the water hitting my face is spray thrown up by 2-3 foot  confused seas smacking our hull and the dock with enough force to send it over my head. Combination of fogginess, rain and far off lights illuminating the Ravenel Bridge makes for a surreal scene. I'd try a photo but my phone would be immediately soaked.  You can feel as well as see the water churning, aggravated by the north wind pushing against an incoming tide. 

Stepping slowly over the stowed main boom rig trying to maintain three points of contact, I worked my way across the deck to the dockside rail at the Main shrouds and focused my headlamp overside and down on the single huge black Yokohama fender. It was stabilized; pierced bruschetta-like by the  18-foot stub of a broken telephone pole thru its center. Rolling loosely on its telephone pole axle, the assembly was held in place against a dock piling by four separate lines criss-crossing to hold it in place. A cluster of sausage and ball fenders pressed between the stub ends of the pole and the hull. Watching it's surging and rolling it seemed to be doing it's job pretty well with no risk of shifting or coming loose. 

 From there I made my way forward to the forecastle hatch and climbed below to check the bilge under the forecastle head. All was well, a normal level of water holding steady, that I'd leave to pumping out in the morning. Next, the aft cabin and finally salon. All showed normal nominal levels, requiring no immediate action.  So far so good,, now to get back below, out of these foulies, and into my berth for a few hours sleep.

0300 Saturday morning: Mostly snoozing, I'm jarred by the feeling we well as hearing a distinctive thump, like something hitting the side of the hull.  Enough to spring me out of the high bunk onto the sole and start throwing on clothes and foulies. 

Back on deck with headlamp, I'm searching the length of the ship's hull looking some something loose, floating, dangling.  I check the Yokohama's watching and waiting to see if the schooner's hull is rising and falling with them or drifting off, then slamming back into it.  Nothing, just some small rubbing. 

For the next two hours, I'm alternately on deck and below, attempting to isolate the source of the noise, which continued irregularly the remainder of the night and into the morning.  I'm checking bilges, possible shifting fenders. I'd finally isolated it to vicinity of the rudder, which appeared to have some play in it- up to 10 degrees.  I open the lazarette hatch and look back toward the direction of the rudder post, have no visibility on it. I decide to wait till morning and ambient light to lift the steering box cover to examine the worm gear.

Looking aft and down at the Yokohoma
between our hull and the dock piling;
 the stump of the telephone pole
held off the hull by two fenders.

0730 Saturday morning. My phone chirps in my ear;  it's a text from Capt Heath who has arranged for a diver to go down and look at the rudder area -will be there in the next half hour. So, dressing up, covering up with my now pretty damp foulies, I first stepped into the galley and pressed the power button on the coffee maker that Hunter had already set up the night before. 

Filling my mug and grabbing two donuts I climbed up on deck to assess the situation.  Rains had diminished, mostly, but winds remained strong and gusty, still NNE. Fenders and Yokohamas were holding station.d
Since starting watch yesterday evening I experienced 1.5 complete tide changes, enabling me to observe the effects on dock lines tension, specifically spring lines. I took up another 3 feet of #1, made it fast than walked aft to the steering box. After first, spinning the wheel hard port and back starboard, it appeared that the rudder was answering satisfactorily but was displaying some "slop"-maybe 10 degrees worth. The worm gear, and rudder post inside the box indicated no issues.

The diver inspected the below water line area of the hull, and relayed to me some findings which he was passing off to Capt Hackett. He did confirm some looseness in the rudder. 

Conditions around 0800 Saturday morning.

With diver recovered and departed, Hunter and I shared another couple donuts and waited around till 0930 for any other volunteers that might have decided to show up.  No one else came.  Must've been the weather. Too bad.  I"d brought donuts.

.The Big Awning is Rigged up and Capt Heath's team is back aboard painting and sanding

 Our last Saturday Volunteer Da(May 20) was disappointing only in the light turn-out for muster.  The proximity to Mother's Day recovery weekend, and pre-Memorial Day preparation weekend must've had some influence there.  

Nevertheless, two of us did muster Saturday at 9 AM.  Weather was perfect, nothing to distract us.  A few more hands could've put a dent in the punch-list. Dave Brennen and I agreed that a priority should be up-rigging our just-repaired canvas awning.  It's two halves laced together over the foresail gaff would provide most of mid-ships a shade and even protection from rain. The redefined awning design required  some experimenting in setting correct guy-line tensions over  twelve sections of the outer edge. By early afternoon we had the awning spread over the deck area between the two masts. The one starboard-aft corner remained a problem since it could not be stretched under, over, or thru the gangway assembly.  Some alternate solution  was needed to secure that corner without interfering with the gangway operation.

And so, just this latest Wednesday, Bryan reappeared with a six-foot long poplar wood two-inch diameter dowel to rig up a a corner post for the starboard aft guy rope. I tell you, photo's don't do it justice, so there won't be posted in this blog entry.  Suffice to say that ample shade is now available across Spirit's deck, fore-to-main mast.  

Now the schooner can host productive maintenance and training sessions in comfort, rain-or-shine.  

And it appears that premise will already be challenged this coming weekend, Saturday the 27th.  Weather forecasts Gale warnings in the harbor Friday into early Saturday morning.  Decreasing winds Saturday might give opportunity to reset the awning, with fruitful activity underneath. 

Meanwhile, two of Project Manager Capt Hackett's team have been aboard all week sanding, prepping and painting/varnishing, both in the engine room, and the quarter-rounds around hatches and cabin trunks.  Apparently another team of two was called in from North Sails to go aloft and replace the radar dome and wiring.  Maybe I can can arrange to get them aloft one more time to uprig the main boom lifts and peak halyard. That would be a movement.

Main Awning is Recovered, Reconfigured, and Ready to Rig

 Two weekends, two sewing machines, two square feet of sunbrella patch material, and two-dozen additional brass grommets.  That and some creative sewing techniques invented on the fly; all together resulted in a two-piece awning rig that should provide shade and rain protection on the mid-ship's deck thru the summer.  

Starting last weekend, Doug Hartley, Dan Maurin and Tony Marchesani started work on the first half-section using the ship's Juki. See last week's posting for how that went.  This coming week, Doug brought along his personal "Sailrite" Sewing machine to complete the second half. It's a well-known brand among the yachting and boating world, and promised to be much less fidgety than the Juki. 

Doug and Tony in the groove, running a seam
 25 feet up and down one edge.

Sure enough, once set up on the dock, Doug and Tony rapidly tabled about 25 feet, pounded in 12 grommets and added six different triangular reinforcing patches over existing stress points.  Running out of brass grommets, Bryan Oliver pulled out palm and needles, cut a length of seine twine, and created two traditional grommets in the remaining corners.  Don't examine them too closely-it was late in a long day.    

Ken and Dave laying on
 the second coat of D2 Varnish

As Doug and Tony set up their canvas repair operation on the dock, Ken Fonville and Dave Lazar gathered up brushes, jars, a ground cloth and D2 varnish to lay a coat onto the jumbo boom and jib boom.  

Wayne Burdick and Mike Evatt took on the project to create a temporary seal over a section of waterways midships where suspected water could potentially leak into the saloon.  

Dave Lazar measures out a length
of sheeting while Mikell figures
where to anchor the end of
the seal.

At that point, Bryan remembered he'd brought out a section of oak stair rail to replace the broken section at end of the gangway. 

Just in-time for lunch.  Hunter had returned from Harris Teeter with the makings for high-stacked Tuna salad sandwiches, a jug of iced tea and cookies.  Wayne and Ken were called back to shore for other priorities, so missed out on the sandwiches, but that left more for us. 

After lunch, as the morning projects finished up, hands turned to the dock to adjust the large Yokohama fenders, which had broken off during the storm earlier this week on Tuesday. One was in danger of slipping off the telephone pole-shaft. Using spare dock lines, volunteers sprung lines in opposing directions to pilings, effectively pinning the Yokohama against the piling.

 

Ernestina Morrisey pulls away
from the fuel dock

Ernestina Morrisey, the schooner who had visited us two months prior, was rafted up to us since Tuesday afternoon. Just prior to lunch she began taking in her lines in order to shift over to the  fuel dock prior to departing home for Massachusetts.  As our projects began to wind down and we secured tools and materials, we watched their departure. 

  All secured, what was left of us settled in under the small awning under  the forecastle hatch.  Bryan crushed some ice into plastic cups and poured out  generous doses of Mint Julep he had made up in a batch for a cancelled Derby Party.  Was a good way to close out a productive say on the water. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Half-Awning over the deck complete and ready for rigging up. Now, Repeat.

 Saturday was a great day to be on the water.  Undoubtedly many volunteers were on it somewhere else, or at graduations, or other engagements, unfortunately not on deck Saturday morning. 

Five of us, however, did muster on deck Saturday morning, and we'll say "you're welcome" in advance when the next Volunteer Day comes around under a sunny, much warmer day and y'all can take shade under a refurbished main deck awning.  Well, half of one anyway. 

That was an urgent objective this weekend, before the days get hotter,  to reconfigure what was left of our old wind-shredded awning, into a functional awning over the "waist", the center deck area between masts.

Bryan sketched out a plan to retrieve the old enormous spread of awning that stretched across port-to-starboard over the furled foresail.  We'd cut the old awning in half, fore-to-aft; creating two halves whose edges would be tabled, then re-grommeted to enable the two halves to be laced together over the gaff, then stretched outward to the cap rails. Shredded edges would be folded over and tabled, effectively creating a new triple thickness edge. 

Tony and Ken check final
measure for the cut line
 to separate the old canvas
 into 2 halves.

While Tony Marchesani, and Dan Maurin retrieved the old awning from the forecastle and spread it out on the dock, Doug Hartley lay out on the jib boom with a small bucket of D.1 to apply a third coat. Ken Fonville located "Juki" our highly temperamental but super-fast straight-stitching sewing machine from the salon, and hauled it up on deck and over to the dock.  

Doug Hartley checks plug-in of "Juki" while
Tony, Dan, and Ken stretch out the awning
 to locate the corner for marking.

Shifting deck boxes around, Doug and Dan set up Juki on the deck box, pulled out the Instruction manual and refreshed themselves on the bobbin-loading, threading, and tensioning steps. Ken and Tony stretched out the awning, Ken tape-measured distances taken from the gaff-to caprail, transferring them to the awning with a magic marker.   So far, the plan was working.. Success now rested on Juki's cooperation. 

Juki has a reputation.  If you've worked with her before, you know what I mean.

Doug, with foot on the gas slowly accelerates his 

feed  under Juki's needle while Dan keeps the 

six sunbrella layers from puckering.

Extremely finicky, she balks at any perceived slightest violation of  thread tensioning, thread-routing protocol.  If you can get the set up right. chances of an amazingly speedy, uninterrupted run was.. pretty good.  If you didn't,  Juki would cruelly tease you with four inches of smooth run before abruptly  snapping the upper thread, or jamming with a horrendous thread gordian knot just under the plate, requiring, five minutes of digging out, then rethreading.

 

   

We would face much time experimenting with everything in effort to mollify Juki.  It was worth it, because we were facing about 140 feet of straight stitching, which would take days, weeks(!) of hand flat-stitching with needle and sailor's palm-really not an option.

Thank's to John Crane's sturdy storage box construction, Juki's storage box doubled as a seat while Doug started the first edge.  It went swimmingly.. 12 feet of tabling flew under Juki's needle in about 45 seconds.  We started on the next edge,, then it all went wrong. Juki turned on us, jamming, busting threads, every four inches.. We returned to the manual, discovered a hook where the thread should've run, but came off.  And started again.. 4 feet of good run, thread broke.  Adjusted tension.. another jam.  Frustration.. 

Thankfully, Volunteers were distracted from possible violence, possibly float-testing Juki, when Hunter's called up from the galley  announcing "Lunch!"  Volunteers clambered below into the saloon, threw hats into a bunk and lined up for plate-full's of Paella.. That's right,, Paella!  Saffron rice, spices, and peppers, with a seafood shellfish medley.  Oh, we happy few. 

I believe Paella has a magical mellowing effect. After lunch, volunteers came back out to the dock determined to make an amends with Juki and finish this one Awning half. A turn of the thread tensioner, a decision to avoid trying punching thru 7 layers of sunbrella in reverse,, a few other techniques I forgot, and the rest of the edge tabling went fairly smoothly.  As Bryan and Dan, sweet-talked Juki thru the last 25 feet, Tony and Doug marked out  grommet points spaced 12 inches apart on the inner edge that would lay over the gaff. 

They pounded in the last grommet at 1500 hours, and all stopped to put away, secure, and clean up. All that remained for this half-awning was to  cut and install guy lines and lacing ropes.  

Hopefully next weekend, with an additional volunteers, we can repeat the process for the 2d half. 

  

Volunteers Evolving into self-organizing teams.

 Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers are evolving onto what business guru's have called "self-organizing teams",, those groups of people who quickly recognize and sign on to a specific objective, agree to take directions from a team member with best fit for the particular project, appreciate each other's skill sets and taken initiatives to work together,  and communicate. 

Mikell Evatt and David Brennon lay out
on the headrig with sanders to wood
and prep the jibboom for it's first few coats
 of preservative/sealant Dek solje D.1.

Last Saturday, Four Volunteers made an example: Tony Marchesani, Dave Brennan, Dave Lazar, and Mikell Evatt mustered aboard, picked up the Punch List of projects, selected three and went to work. They knew where the tools, abrasives, paints and solvents were stored. 

Having finished oiling the four belaying pins,
 David Lazar uses a corner-tool to sand out
 the details of the Mainmast Fife rail
 prior to wiping on first coats of  D.1
preservative sealant.

David Lazar and Tony down rig
the Mainsail peak halyard tackle
 to repair/restore the blocks 

 In the course of the day, they also identified some problem areas and added them to the punchlist. 

At end of the workday, tools, materials were secured in their places, messes cleaned up and the vessel left ship-shape. 

April was a Big Month for Tall Ships in Charleston.

 ..and it should mean something to us.

If you're reading this, and enjoy being around Tall Ships, April was a fruitful month to be around the Charleston Harbor.  In the span of two weeks, we hosted, besides Spirit of South Carolina, three other ships, the 3-masted Barque, Gunilla, from Sweden, the schooner Denis Sullivan, and the Staysail Schooner, Corwith Cramer, of Massachusetts.   A fourth,  the Maine Schooner, Harvey Gamage, decided not to put into Charleston, but instead, take advantage of a weather window, and keep on sailing north, home to Portland. 

 The rest were also northbound, homeward to restart up their programs of education under sail- with much the same general mission as our own aboard Spirit of South Carolina.  

 I only point this out as an encouragement for all us volunteers, and others with an affinity for South Carolina's Schooner, that there are other traditional sailing vessels out there which are successful in their mission, same as ours.   We could be, should be doing that too.

Just in case you never read the Mission Statement of "Spirit of South Carolina", it's printed inside the first pages of the Crew Manual, and will highlighted on the ship's website once it's published.  You can read it yourself here:

Mission

SSV Spirit of South Carolina is dedicated to honoring and curating the Seafaring History and diverse Maritime Heritage of South Carolina by offering a unique educational platform for the people of the Palmetto State, in particular her youth.  Participants will experience programs designed around an interdisciplinary hands-on curriculum integrated with the history and literature of South Carolina and our relationship to the sea.  Just as important, Spirit of South Carolina will challenge and engage students with a unique Tall Ship experience which:

·       Builds Pride and a sense of achievement

·       Increases self-confidence and belief in one’s self

·       Encourages Self-reliance/independence

·       Develops Resilience

·       Exercises Self-control/personal discipline

·       Appreciates values of teamwork and cooperation

·       Respects and understands perspectives of others resulting in their own broadened perspective

·       Increases knowledge/awareness of different social groups and increased ability to bridge social differences

·       Fosters Organizational skills and time management

As Volunteers we have potential to play an active role in advancing that mission.  The role is not  defined yet. But perhaps we can help define it ourselves.  How would you see yourself fitting in? 

Let's talk sometime.