We’re only halfway through our Tuesday-Saturday work week, but the rig shop crew and the carpentry team have already hit some major milestones—we’ve moved from sanding spars to varnishing them, and from deconstructing the foredeck to rebuilding it. The warm spell this week gave us a chance to get some outside work done, too. The fighting top is off the foremast and stowed safely inside, and Niagara‘s Christmas tree was ceremoniously lowered to the plaza yesterday.

(Okay, fine, “ceremoniously” might not be the right word. We threw it from aloft, just like we did last year.)

Below are some pictures of the lumber that Team Carpentry is milling to replace the old deck planks, and an action shot of the rig shop crew, mid-painting.