After a flurry of voyages, school sails and public day sails, a week of downrig, and yesterday’s crane day, we’ve finally arrived. Winter maintenance is here. All the yards and five masts have come down, including the mainmast and snowmast. Safety equipment, carpentry supplies, engineering and galley stores are offloaded. Now we just have to find someplace to put it all.
The Carrera Steel crane, which has become a familiar sight around the museum these last few uprigs and downrigs, had a busy day yesterday. The mainmast, snowmast, main fighting top, and main shrouds are taking up most of the plaza right now; all told, the main assembly weighs about 13,000 pounds. That pick tookmost of the morning. In the afternoon, we got both anchors, the sweeps, the deck boxes, and both carronades off the ship–and all of the ridge beams for the winter cover on the ship.
Now that the winter maintenance season is upon us, some of our seasonal traditions will be coming back, too. Soon we’ll be wresting with canvas on Cover Day, hosting Saturday work parties (Sandwich Saturday!!), breaking out the sandpaper and varnish, and picking up our favorite prybars and sledgehammers for some good old-fashioned demolition.
Today: winter cover rafters. Tomorrow: the world.