Crane Day

Today & Tomorrow we have our first days off since we have been on Pride. As a reward for good seamanship (in keeping alive during a catastrophic rigging failure), and for all of our hard work in the recovery process, the ship is treating us to 2 days off in a row. Heres a quick update to the last week's activities: Basicaly, we have been continuing with recovery from "D-M Day"... Un-reaving of running rigging; removing, inspecting, and storage of Sails; removal of standing rigging from broken spars, and accomodating the surveyor sent from the insurance company. Many people can say that they have participated in a downrig of Pride, but how many can say that they have done it horizontally?
A lot of heavy lifting, grunting, and head scratching, but we are done with Step One. On Monday, the crane came. It was a very exciting day, because it meant the completion of the "Recovery" stage & it meant that someone else was going to be doing the lifting for us. The photoscan speak pages for how fun crane day was & how nice it was to get the ship cleaned up, so I won't get into too much detail. Now, we are in "French Yard Period". That is where we all pretend that this is just an extended yard period, (with some obvious extra repair projects), while we are all also trying to learn to speak French. Tuesday really felt like a routene "Yard" maintenance day. We did some painting, scraping of varnish, organizing & inspection of rigging, and listening to french radio. Last night the crew went out to dinner.. I had Duck Liver, Kangaroo Steaks, Crem Brulee, and a nice Cognac. Today, I am relaxing, having beer with lunch, and preparing to get this update out too all of you.

Cheers!
-- Bhodi

The lifting of the fore mast, the first spar to come off the Pride with the crane. Also one of the most difficult, since the crosstrees had embedded themselves into the aft cabin house top.

The manuevering of the fore mast also required some deliberation on its orientation. It couldn't lie flat because of its spreaders and crosstrees, so the crane was used to twi st the mast around and large blocks were used to prop the mast up, once it had made it to the dock.



Below: The bowsprit being levered out by the weight of the mates - Andrew McKee and Jamie Trost.






In preparation of the crane coming, the crew spent the morning whacking out mast wedges and securing shrouds and stays to their spars. Below, Captain Miles oversees the lifting of the lower lower fore mast.




Below: The main mast, lower and even lower sections, departing Pride II.












Hello all! Bhodi covered it, so I have very little to add. To my memory, the past week is a blur of hard work where at the end of the day I felt very tired, yet satisfied with what we have managed to accomplish. Each day, the boat has looked better and better. It seems that we have become a local attraction, as many of the townsfolk of St. Nazaire have found their way down to the docks to stare and try out their English. I have to say that we are getting better with our limited French vocabulary, as well. Other tidbits - the mosquitos have found the crew's blood to their liking and so far all our efforts to kill the buggers have been disappointing to say the least. Also, it seems that STI (Sail Training International) has awarded us the Seamanship Trophy as a result of the incident during the Santander race. I appreciate the sentiment and the seamanship the crew demonstrated during the rig failure and the 5 hours of work to bring the wreckage alongside was exemplary, yet I find it ironic that the rig falling down merits a trophy for good seamanship. Personally, I think we should have recieved the Way-to-Duck! award. Anyway, that's it from my end. Hope happiness is where you are!

~Erin

P.S. Bhodi and I are endeavouring to make this page's format more magazine-like. If you have any comments on how we can improve, or would like to see more pictures or write-ups on something in particular, please let us know through the comment form or email. Thanks!


Photo by Erin Doak
Dave Castle and Bhodi lament over their broken marlinspikes, both of which were sacrificed to the starboard quarter-tackle deck shackle.

Below: A new figurehead? No, its the surveyor taking in the damage. Patches of red lead paint cover the port bow where the head rig chafted alongside during our tranist to St. Nazaire.

Below: Remember I mentioned that the fore mast had embedded a crosstree in the aft cabinhouse top?

Below I encourage you to scroll back to the picture of the decks following the incident and compare to the decks in this shot. It was heart-warming to see the decls clear and mast free.