Captain's Log

Position: Alongside Government Dock, Sarnia

Weather: Mostly sunny and warm with light Westerly breeze. Forecast steady until late Monday (possible thunderstorm).

Ship’s Work:

Some spot painting and cleaning

ETD Sarnia 0800 Monday 12 August. Pilot is booked.

Captain’s Comments:

Trainee Drea finished making a new Cook Islands flag. It is superb. Work on ANN continues. Shaping of floors and frames has commenced. The final plank (for now) has come off her starboard side. Ship’s Carpenter Mark will shape it today (Sunday). After that, frames and floors will be replaced. Trying something new during this tall ship event and set up on the quarter deck to do some interactive sailmaking. This proved to be popular with visitors. Sent most of the crew and trainees off on Friday to sail on Appledore 4 during the Parade of Sail. Things are ticking over nicely.

Fiji and Tigress have received a big “Welcome” present from the VCA (Blue Cross Animal Hospital). It contains collars, toys, dental dry food and a scratching post for their claws made from cardboard.

Position: Anchored St James’s Harbour, Beaver Island

Weather: AM partly cloudy and sunny with light Southerly winds; PM Cloud increasing & winds filling in from the Southwest. Forecast isolated thunderstorms late afternoon lasting till early AM.

ETD Beaver Is 1730 Wed

ETA Sarnia 0800 Fri

Ship’s work:

Painting & Varnishing

Shape #11 floor for ANN

Training & Workshops:

New hands safety aloft and up & over

New hands “Meet the Captain”

Security drill all hands: Security awareness, crowd management, restricted areas, threat identification, communication channels, individual responsibilities & threat response.

Current Position: Manitou Passage, Lake Michigan

Weather: Sunny and cool with moderate Northerly winds. Earlier passage of cold front and thunderstorm with cool and gusty Northwesterly winds and heavy rain.

Training:

Ratline seizing (for advanced hands)

Ship familiarisation for new hands

MOB, Fire & Abandon Ship drills

2 – 4 August 2019

Position: Alongside Wolfen Buettel Park, Kenosha WI

Weather Saturday: Sunny & warm with light Easterly winds. Forecast gentle Westerly winds with a chance of a thunderstorm.

Weather Sunday: Very warm with cloud increasing and a gentle Southerly breeze. Light shower of rain in late afternoon. Cooler.

Visitors Friday: 3589

Visitors Saturday: 3000

Visitors Sunday: 3300

Ship’s work:

Continue planking ANN

Spot paint

Installed 4x new house batteries

Workshop & Training:

Overhauling blocks

Ship familiarity with new hands

Captain’s Comments: Semi Dory went out for a row. It was fun for the people who did all the repair work to get to enjoy the fruits of their labour!

Position: Alongside Fire Dock, Sturgeon Bay             

Weather: Partly cloudy and cool with a gentle westerly wind; clearing and warming in afternoon with light winds tending Northeast to East. Southerly winds forecast for tomorrow.

Ship’s work:

Some varnishing & painting

New door handle for foc’s’le door installed

Continue semi dory repair

Install lifting chain for bow of semi dory

Clean & oil rigger’s vice on well deck

Patch servings

Overhaul complete port mainsail clew garnet

Slush fore & main top- and t’gallant masts

Greasing rounds

Captain’s Comments:  Fiji has new tags after she “lost” her harness/ tag in Bay City. It now includes the ship’s phone number. The phone’s ringing hot ever since.

26-28 July

Position: Alongside Leicht Park, Green Bay

Weather Friday: Very warm and quite muggy with moderate to gusty South/Southwesterly winds. Some sprinkle

Weather Saturday: hot and muggy with light Southerly winds. Partly cloudy.

Weather Sunday: Cloud increasing. Mild thunderstorm and showers of rain associated with a weak cold front in the evening. Hot and muggy. Light Southwesterly winds.

Ship’s work:

Continue ANN planking

Inspect and replace mousings.

Patch servings

Some spot painting

Continue gunwale repair on semi dory

Workshop & training:

Bracing drills

Festival Visitors:

Friday – 3326

Saturday – 3562

Sunday – 2977

Position: Alongside Leicht Park, Green Bay

Ship’s work Wednesday:

Paintings lots of bits & pieces

Clean quarter deck

Set up ship for public boarding

Ship’s work Thursday:

Penetrol quarter deck

Sanding & painting

Hoist ANN onto dock

Thorough clean of ship after yesterday’s dust storm

USCG inspection. Another lot of very impressed inspectors.

Training:

Up and overs with new hands

All drills and emergency stations

Weather Thursday: Partly cloudy and hot with a gentle to moderate southerly breeze

Captain’s Comments: Around 2000 Wednesday a front with 40-kt winds from the North hit with no warning and turned the area into a dust bowl with very restricted visibility. Dust came from adjacent gravel area and bulk facilities. We were tied up well, so no worries.

A sizeable floating dock broke loose upstream and came hurtling down the river at 6 knots (the water was pushed upstream by the strong northerlies and rushed out after the winds came back into the south). Quite a spectacle. The Coast Guard had their hands full corralling the tearaway.

Position: Alongside Wenonah Park, Bay City

Weather: Hot & humid, late afternoon thunderstorm with gale-force gusts Saturday

Ship’s work:

Cleaned out main engine exhaust manifold

All LED lights now installed on all bunks.

Captain’s Comments: The event in Bayport was a very well-managed one – hardly surprising, with all of their experience. Security present but not super obvious, which makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere.

Plenty good activities for visitors and ships’ crews. Excellent community support for the event.

Last day of the event at Cleveland and we had the most visitors across our deck: 2500. What a day!

Pilot booked for tomorrow morning 1000.  Some early morning fresh provisioning before departure.

Planning an anchorage at Port Huron.

Captain’s Comments:  As seems to be the theme of this summer’s voyage of tall ship celebrations – our ship and crew have been a part of another wonderful event. These multi-day ship festivals are such massive projects run almost entirely by volunteers. It is a significant effort on each port’s behalf to put these plans into motion, with so many moving parts (and I don’t just mean the ships themselves!). We enjoyed ourselves immensely, Cleveland – thank you to all!

Position: Alongside #30 Cleveland

Ship’s work:

Yesterday we sent down the spanker as it needs repair, so today we bend on the new spanker to replace it.

Spot painting.

Captain’s Comments: More today than yesterday: 2,425 visitors crossed our decks today.

Position: Alongside #30, Cleveland

Weather: Sunny and cooler with a moderate Northerly breeze. Forecast light winds turning Southeast. Yesterday’s forecast front did not eventuate.