The 2017 sailing crew moved aboard on Saturday, February 25. The winter maintenance crew left on Sunday, February 26. The transition is different this time around—typically one period of time ends a few days before another period of time begins. This time, for the first time, they overlapped. The last day of winter maintenance was the first day for the sailing crew—an interesting new management experience.
A day made more interesting by the presence of Boy Scout Troop #35, sponsored by Baltimore’s The Church of the Redeemer, to lend manpower to a strategy for a “rapid” uncovering of the Quonset-like spar shed…”Sparlandia”…as well the ship’s winter cover. Typically, the sailing crew do the uncovering; it usually takes about a week. This time they, along with the others, are working to execute a “great uncovering” in the mere two days of this last weekend of February.
The plan seems to be working, but weather has impacted it. Yesterday (Saturday) a pretty intense cold front passed over. The threat of heavy squalls prevented getting a start on dismantling the ship’s winter cover. Meanwhile, Sparlandia did come down in a very orderly fashion ahead of the late afternoon squalls.
Today, the second day, dismantling the ship’s cover has started. First the plastic is to come off in a tidy and as “whole” as possible manner…rather than rip and tear and cut it off. Once off, the fasteners of the wooden frame will be removed or undone so it can be disassembled and taken ashore without damaging the ship. That will take time as it is a fiddly process. Might not get finished today. Not an essential issue. The crew will continue on their own after this weekend and when the Scout troop is gone.
There is no question in my mind, no matter the degree of success today, the overall plan is already proving a viable one. The Boy Scout troop have proved to be the asset imagined; the pace of this uncovering is quite a bit more rapid than it would have been without them. Many thanks to Troop 35!!! The only reason the timing might not work out exactly as imagined is due to weather. As is true in all manner of outdoor activities, a weather delay is part of the normal flow of things. Thus there was, and always is, a certain amount of capacity built into a Pride of Baltimore II plan for absorbing a weather delay.
My compliments to all!
Signed,
Captain Jan C. Miles
