Tuesday September 13, 2005

Morning Position
King Marine, Verplanck
41˚ 15.0 minutes latitude
073˚ 57.6 minutes longitude

Midday Position
King Marine, Verplanck
41˚ 15.0 minutes latitude
073˚ 57.6 minutes longitude

Evening Position
Tompkins Cove
(across from Indian Point)
41˚ 16.5 minutes latitude
073˚ 57.8 minutes longitude

The Half Moon's new flags flutter in a hot breeze.

0700 hours: The Half Moon's adult crew members have assembled at the ship over the course of the last few days. Today, we rise to be greeted by the weather that will remain with us throughout the day: air thick with humidity, and heat broken only by the occasional warm, southerly breeze.

While we make last-minute preparations for the voyage, teachers and student crew members have gathered together from the Rensselaer, Schenectady, and Taconic Hills school districts, and are currently on their way down to our docking site at King Marine in Verplanck.

Despite our busy morning schedule, we still have enough time to admire the brand new flags now flying from the ship's masts.

The student crew pours out of their school bus at King Marine.

1245: The school bus has been sighted! After a long ride down, the students and teachers pour out of the bus as Captain Reynolds walks out to greet them.

 

The students and teachers gather around their gear.

 

 

 

The parking lot becomes a launching area, where the students first collect their gear before transfering it to the dock. With this many people, it's all too easy to lose track of someone's belongings. (A stray shoe found today won't be claimed until tomorrow.)

 

Dr. Philips leads the new crew members though an introductory briefing on the weather deck.

1315: On a sweltering day like today, the first order of business is to make sure that our crew has enough to eat and drink. The decision is made to serve lunch and orient the new crew members to their surroundings before jumping into the arduous task of moving everyone's gear onboard. It turns out that the students have already had lunch on their drive down, but they still nibble at tuna sandwiches while watching the hungry adult crew members eat. Over lunch, Dr. Philips gives the students an introductory briefing on ship life, starting with a rule they have to learn just to board the ship: three-point contact.

 

To prevent slips and falls, crew members -- especially when they're climbing -- must maintain three points of contact (either one hand and both feet or a foot and both hands) with the ship at all times. This way, if they ever do lose lose their grip or footing on one point (such as a channel or the rigging), they'll still have two more to steady themselves.

Students line up empty water bottles on the weather deck.

1400: We have one major task to perform before we can get underway: We need to replenish the ship's water supplies. When we only have a few people on hand, we usually rely on a long series of hoses to reach a spigot on shore. When we have a full crew, however, it becomes a relatively fast and simple task to replenish our supplies exactly as Hudson and his crew would have done: a relay line of sailors, passing barrels, casks, and crates from the dock on down into the cargo hold.

The students are quickly enlisted and organized for the task. Of course, some things have changed since the 17th century. Rather than using steam-sealed wooden casks, we store our drinking water in durable plastic bottles.

 

Shannon and Riki pass bottles up the relay line from the orlop to the weather deck.

First, the empty bottles are relayed up from the galley to the weather deck. To the left, Mr. Colley pulls bottles up through an open hatch onto the orlop deck. Shannon and Riki then relay the bottles through the main cargo hatch to Ciara and Adam on the weather deck above them.

 

 

Ciara and Kyle pass bottles from ship to shore as the students relay the water supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the bottles have left the galley, the students relay them back and forth between the ship and shore. You can see the relay teams in action to the right, with Ciara and Kyle passing a bottle over the gap between the channel and the dock.

Mrs. Colley and Katie pour water down a funnel into the galley's water tank below.

Empty bottles are carted off to shore to be filled. When they come back full, the students pass them back onto the ship and quickly pour their contents into the galley's water tank, as you can see Mrs. Colley and Katie doing here. The system works well, but next time we'll use a bigger funnel -- some folks walking under the hatchway visible here jokingly complimented Captain Reynolds on installing a "new shower" for the ship.

Kathleen, Katie, and Ericka sweep the weather deck.

1415: While the water relay is underway, the students are also recruited to sweep and clean the weather and orlop decks. They have a special motivation to get the orlop deck spic and span since, just as it was in 1609, it's where the crew will be living during their time onboard. You can see (left to right) Kathleen, Katie, and Ericka hard at work to the right.

With everyone sweeping and a quick deck wash, the job is soon done.

The student's gear nearly reaches the orlop deck's ceiling.

 

 

 

 

Once the orlop deck is suitably clean, the crew relays the students' and teachers' gear onboard. Stacked together in a pile, the combined pile of bags and bedrolls nearly reaches the orlop deck's ceiling. (Admittedly, the orlop ceiling is only four feet high.)

Kyle, Richard, and Keith coil lines as Mr. Terry looks on.

1600: The Half Moon is now fully loaded: our water tanks are full and everyone's gear is in place. With those tasks done, our new crew members can now turn their attention to more nautical pursuits.

The first thing anyone must do upon joining the crew of a sailing vessel such as the Half Moon is to learn the ropes -- or lines, as they're more properly called aboard a ship. The students split into teams and start by learning one of the most basic, yet most important tasks aboard the ship: how to belay lines. To belay a line is to securely tie it to the pin rail so that it will not come loose on its own, but can still be removed in a flash if need be.

To the right, (front to back) Richard, Keith, and Kyle practice belaying and coiling lines while Mr. Terry looks on.

Mrs. Colley shows Madina how to belay a line on the fore deck.

 

Meanwhile, up on a crowded fore deck, another team of students practices under Mr. and Mrs. Colley's supervision. Here, Mrs. Colley demonstrates the tricky final twist in a properly belayed line for Madena.

 

 

Keith, Kyle, and Richard are still practicing their coils on the weather deck.

 

 

Once a line is belayed, it needs to be coiled neatly to prevent it from getting snarled with other ropes (the dreaded "spaghetti soup") or tripping passersby.

To the right, Kyle, Keith, and Richard are still at it. Practice makes perfect, gentlemen!

Captain Reynolds briefs the gathered crew on standard safety practices.

1630: We are now in the final stages before our departure. To that end, Captain Reynolds convenes the entire crew around the capstan (the large winch the captain and Richard are leaning on here) to deliver a briefing on basic safety principles that everyone must adhere to while serving onboard the ship. We have never had a serious injury on board, but a sailing ship can be a dangerous environment for the unwary. By maintaining these strict standards, we intend to keep our spotless record.

Madina waits patiently at her post at line four.

1700: The briefing is soon over. We now begin the actual process of leaving the dock. The captain assigns crew members to their posts as we loose our mooring lines.

Of course, the process can be time consuming. To the right, Madena waits patiently at her post (line four, the mooring line farthest aft in the ship), along with an unseen Mr. Prime.

 

 

Captain Reynolds explains Mrs. Colley's assignment in our departure while the weather deck bustles with activity behind them.

 

 

The top decks are aflurry with activity. Here, Captain Reynolds explains to Mrs. Colley what will be required of her: She is assigned to stand on the dock and release the four mooring lines from their pilings on the captain's command. The trick is getting back on the ship -- both quickly and safely -- once the mooring lines have been freed and the ship begins to pull away from the dock.

To buy her a few seconds of time, the crew re-rigs line three so it can be yanked free from its piling with a tripline strung from the weather deck. After a few false starts involving a piling that seems to be just a bit too short, the plan works out in the end.

Richard mans the whipstaff while Keith looks in on him.

As everyone takes their positions, Richard is the first member of our new crew to take the helm. Following Captain Reynolds' command, Richard uses the whipstaff to guide the Half Moon's rudder, thus steering the ship in conjunction with the sails.

Mr. Morel and Mr. Dawson unfurl the main course.

1800: As an initial challenge for our new crew, Captain Reynolds decides to sail off the dock, meaning that we will maneuver the ship away from King Marine under sail power, making minimal (if any) use of the engine.

Madena, Ericka, and Kathleen train to work the main mast.

This called for a crash course in sail handling for our students, which they completed while we were preparing to leave. Now they'll be put to the test. To the right, Madena, Ericka, and Kathleen ready their lines on the main mast.

Meanwhile, some of our adult crew climb aloft to unfurl the sails (unfasten them and prepare them for use). To the left, you can see Mr. Morel and Mr. Dawson unfurling the main course.

The Half Moon pulls away from the dock under full sail.With the sails set and our mooring lines free, we pull away from Verplanck at last. Our crew will not be returning to dry land for a week.

Meaghan belays the main course bunt.

The sun is already hanging low over the western horizon, but we still have time to sail around Tompkins Cove, just off of Indian Point and Peekskill, giving our crew more invaluable sail training time.

To the right, Meaghan, working on the main mast crew, seems to have her lines well in hand.

 

Indian Point, NY, as seen from the river through a thick haze of humidity.

Hopefully, today's humidity won't last much longer. If you look at the background of some of the photos above, you can see the horizon fading into a thick, blue haze. It's as muggy as it looks.

The foremast crew douses the fore course.

1915: As the sun dips below the hills, it's time to furl the sails and drop anchor. Dinner is served as the final light of day retreats from the sky.

Mr. Colley observes as Adam and Katie wash dishes in the galley sink.

2030: The sun has set and the long day is over, but there's still work to be done. The duty roster has now been posted, and the students know their responsibilities. To the right, Adam and Katie clean dishes in the galley as Mr. Terry looks on, looking a bit weary himself.

Captain Reynolds calls for an anchor watch briefing around the capstan. He explains that the students will be responsible for watching over the ship tonight, ensuring that we neither drag the anchor (thus drift out of position) nor let the anchor light go out (thus making us nearly invisible to vessels passing in the night). He demonstrates how to monitor the ship's position.

Soon enough, all has been explained and the crew is released to relax until lights out at 2200.

On this date in 1609:

The thirteenth, faire weather, the wind Northerly. At seven of the clocke in the morning, as the floud came we weighed, and turned foure miles into the River. The tide being done we anchored. Then there came foure Canoes aboord: but we suffered none of them to come into our ship. They brought great store of very good Oysters aboord, which we bought for trifles. In the night I set the variation on the Compasse, and found it to be 13. degrees. In the after-noone we weighed, and turned in with the floud, two leages and a halfe further, and anchored all night, and had five fathoms soft Ozie ground, and had an high point of Land, which shewed to us, bearing North by East five leagues off us.

-- Robert Juet's Journal.