The forward section of the winter cover is off, the first of our seasonal crew arrived just in time for Sandwich Saturday (hi, Sara!) and the fighting top is back on the foremast. In other words: we’re danger-close to uprig. 
The rest of the crew will be arriving over the weekend, and our first full muster of the 2017 season will be on Tuesday the 28th at 0800. On Monday the 27th, we’ll have our annual meeting at 1730 in the orientation theater, and a meet and greet (or “crew and brew”) at the Brewerie after the meeting is finished. Volunteers: come by to say hello to the returning seasonal crew, meet our new crew members, and enjoy the cozy indoors before uprig begins in earnest!
On the carpentry side of things, we’ve said goodbye to Aaron and Andros, and we’re braced for Drew’s departure at the end of next week. But we’ve installed two new deck planks, as well as half of the starboard spirketing plank above the new waterway timber. The two new pinrails on port side have gotten their first coats of varnish, too.
All the other pinrails are jealous.
As the captain said at muster today, we’re going to need all the help we can get heading into uprig, so if you can come down to help out, please do, whether it’s on a Saturday or a weekday, for a full day or just a couple hours. And for everyone who pitched in today: thank you so much. We’re turning Niagara back into a ship after her winter spent disguised as a very strange houseboat. It’s a lot of work, but it’ll all be worth it when we finally start sailing.