Nove

Happy Thanksgiving from the crew of the Replica Ship Half Moon! The Half Moon is now safely in its winter berth at King Marine in Verplanck, New York. To celebrate, we've decided to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the final voyage of the our 2005 season.

Click on the links to the right to see the logs from each day of the voyage.

Select November 12 daily log.
Select November 13 daily log.
 

Friday, November 11 2005

For the three weeks since the October leg of our Fall 2005 Voyage of Discovery, the Half Moon has been moored here at Peckham Materials in Athens, NY. Peckham Industries has long since been a valued corporate friend of the New Netherland Museum, often donating docking space during our visits to Athens Channel. During this visit, they've donated much more than space; Larry Fingar, head of the maintenance shop, has donated his time, parts, and labor to disassemble, examine, and rebuild this ship's diesel engine.

Other volunteers have also been hard at work on the ship during this time. Here, Mark Anou whips together a temporary hatch cover for the fo'c'sle's smoke hatch. With this temporary hatch cover in place, he'll take the original home and hand-craft a replacement.

1630 hours: Groups of volunteers arrive throughout the day as their schedules allow. Here, Captain Reynolds welcomes our new arrivals and offers a basic safety briefing; he'll go into more depth once everyone has arrived.

Our initial plan was to depart at 0500 hours tomorrow morning, but a technical problem has caused a delay (more on that later). Still, there's much to be done before we can leave.

1645 hours: As our crew members arrive, we relay their gear onto the ship and down to the orlop deck. Boarding the ship here requires "walking the plank," so the first safety lesson each of our new crewmates requires is on how to board the ship safely.

Here, Stu Gralnik (who also serves as a crew member on the Friendship in Salem, MA) perches on the gangplank to relay gear from Connor to the crew waiting on deck. (This link leads to a separate website.)

New crew need to learn how to use a safety harness, while more experienced crew members can still use a refresher, or they might just need to learn our safety methods, as opposed to those used on other ships.

Above and to the right, Dan Dawson and Kara Colley lead our young crew mates Aaron, Connor, Jamison, Otto, and Nick through their harness tests.

Meanwhile, more volunteers have arrived! Sylvia Lawler, having enjoyed her time as ship's cook during the first leg of our fall 2005 Voyage of Discovery, has been kind enough to return to the role for this shakedown voyage. She's accompanied by Cynthia and Elise Kunz, who will be acting as her assistants.

In these photos, you might note that boarding the ship requires quite a hike; one has to climb up onto and then cross two moored barges to reach us. For safety reasons, we encourage our volunteers note to cross the barges alone.

1700 hours: Harness training continues on board. Here, Dan Dawson has added Edmund Fitzgerald and Andrew van Vranken to his roster of students.

On the far side of the deck, Kara Colley teaches Connor and Jamison how to clip their safety lines into the rigging. She also stresses the importance of maintaining at least three points of contact (two hands and a foot, or a hand and both feet) at all times.

Meanwhile, below decks, volunteers Norman Bauman and Tim Whiting examine the engine, which is the source of our current setback. Earlier this afternoon, while testing the engine, a replacement part gave way (a problem the engine's rebuilders couldn't have detected). We need a replacement part, which we can't get until tomorrow morning.

All of the ship's other systems are checking out just fine, however. Here, Otto Meilick and Rex Powell test the ship's electrical systems.

Our new crew have now passed their harness tests and are ready for their hang tests. Here, Kara Colley leads Jamison and Connor into the rigging...

...while Stephen van der Merwe joins them on the other side, under Dan Dawson's eagle eye.

The crew perform hang tests (as Stephen is doing here) to demonstrate that they can hold their own weight just in case of a slip. (It also shows climbers just how strong of a grip they need to maintain to hold themselves up.)

Once the climbers pass their hang tests, they're cleared to go aloft.

1715 hours: Of course, not all of our introductory briefing are equally glamorous. Below decks, Sky Colley teaches a group of volunteers how to use the ship's head. (This photo also makes the ship's head look more spacious than it really is, believe it or not.)

Just down the hall, Sylvia Lawler and her assistants are still busily unpacking the food supplies and preparing dinner. Our crew on this voyage is 29 people strong, so their work is cut out for them.

1730 hours: Back up on the weather deck, more new arrivals are taking their harness and hang tests.

Although no one is ever required to climb the rigging, most of our new recruits are eager to go aloft.

A few groups of volunteers climb up to the main mast top to take in the view of Athens Channel before the sun sets.

1745 hours: The call goes out that dinner is served, so that's it for climbing today. Dan Dawson makes room atop the main yard to let Aaron and Edmund pass through as they head down.

Dinner is served on the orlop deck.

Temperatures are rapidly dropping, so after dinner, we cover the main hatch with tarps in an attempt to fend off the chill. Overnight, the small wight thermometer you can see hanging over Mrs. Lawler's head tells us that the temperature on the orlop deck falls to 37 degrees F, so everyone huddles tightly inside their sleeping bags tonight.

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