On Tuesday, Niagara got underway for her first voyage of the season. In her absence, everything here at the museum—the plaza, the workshop, spar alley, the break room—is quiet and sparsely populated. Since this voyage is the History Consortium, Niagara will be making stops in Cleveland, Toledo, and Put-in Bay, touring museums, museum ships, and historical sites like the Perry Monument. (Of course, there’s always time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and golf carting at Put-in Bay, and dropping by a Toledo Mud Hens game. . .) The ship and crew will be back near the end of the month, just in time to get ready for Mariner’s Ball.
For the handful of people left behind, working in the woodshop or in the office, Niagara’s departure is a mix of good news and bad . Bad news: the cook left along with the ship, so we have to fend for ourselves at mealtimes. Good news: she left us a drawer full of fruit snacks and a freezer full of frozen pizzas, so we probably won’t starve. Bad news: most of our friends are gone. Good news: no more waiting in line for the showers! And so it goes.
Team Carpentry will spend the next few weeks working on small boats. Only a few days after we finished repairing Cutter 8’s transom, we realized that Cutters 2 and 3 needed some serious attention, too. And once that’s finished, we’ll turn our attention to Cutter 1, which has been sitting half-built in spar alley for years now.
(If you’re not already on our volunteer email list, get in touch at volunteer@flagshipniagara.org, because we have plenty of projects coming up, including volunteer work parties to help prep for Mariner’s Ball.)
Note: The alternative title for this post was “The Wicked Brig of the (Mid)west.” It’s possible that Team Carpentry isn’t actually as funny as it thinks it is.