Today was an exciting day at the Bayshore Center.
The Meerwald had been covered all winter with huge PVC hoops and tightly stretched plastic, creating a workspace on deck sheltered from rain and wind. Today we got to take it all down as, bit by bit, the gorgeous sunshine covered the deck for the first time in months.
The whole process took hours. First, deckhands used knives to cut long slashes in the plastic. Then students, some on the dock and some on the boat, worked together to pull large sections of plastic off the PVC framework, roll them up, stuff them in trash barrels, and carry them out to the dumpster. Next, horizontal pieces of wood running between the PVC hoops had to be unlashed (they were wrapped and tied with myriad lengths of seine twine, called “nips” by sailors), removed, and stacked on the dock. The twine had to be carefully coiled and stored for later reuse. Next, heavy ropes attaching the hoops to the booms had to be untied, the bases of the hoops untied from the edge of the deck, the hoops unscrewed from the wooden pieces running all the way around the boat that the plastic had been anchored to, and then the hoops themselves carefully carried onto the dock. Finally, all the PVC pieces, 30-50 feet long each, had to be carried to the front parking lot, lifted over a row of cars, and hefted over a fence.
As this was happening, a group was also continuing to work on the spars from the last two days, applying a final coat of varnish very carefully with badger brushes (after going over the entire surface with steel wool and then alcohol-soaked rags to remove the dust).
Back onboard, there was more work to do on the now-sunny deck. More boxes had to be cleaned and painted, the bell polished more (with steel wool they were able to get it looking like a brand-new piece of metal), and the enormous booms running the length of the ship gone over with steel wool pads.
Eager for lunch, we tucked in at picnic tables along the dock. But as the wind picked up we started to feel the effects of being in the shade, and with several students shivering, we decided it was time to pack it in and head to the school bus.