Day 8: I think I'm getting the hang of this...

So I was wondering around the shop area and found the original tow-motor that O. Hazzard Perry used to help build the original Niagara in 1812...

It's not the original color but everything else might be original.

Well enough with "History's Mysteries", how about a word for the day.  (Sorry about yesterday, I am sort of wingin' this whole blog thing and just forgot about the word for the day.  Don't like it?  Tough cookies!)

Word:  Mustang Suit.  So these suits are what the sailors don when they are going to do work on the "floats" (bonus word - *ding* *ding* *ding*).  Floats are basically flat rafts that are used to do work around the outside of the ship when it is in the slip.  So any who, since this is the arctic - I mean Erie, the water is VERY cold when up-rigging (the stuff we are doing now) takes place.  The mustang suits have both insulation and flotation built into the suit in case you take a header into the drink.  Falling in very cold water gets dangerous extremely fast.  After only about 1 minute most people will not be able to pull themselves out of the water - even up a ladder!

Work much of the morning for me was moving spars around and then went to the shop in the subbasement to make "gaskets", lines with "I" hole in one side used to lash things down.  I thought I was going to practice my "I" splice but they needed someone to "whip".  Enter, Uncle Vinnie.  So the whip is used to secure the end of a cut line so it doesn't unlay (or come apart).  Check this out...

Sorry the photo isn't clear but you can see the idea of how the whip works.  Round turns around the line then diagonal "frapping" turns to secure it.  

Then it was lunch.  You get very hungry here.  Teacher needs food badly.

In the after noon I helped dress the "spritsil" (sp?) (pronounced spritzle/short for spirit sail).  *WARNING* digression - so since i have been here I have learned that sailors are mush mouthed and they shorten, well, just about everything.  Someone will tell me, "Get the takle (pronounced with a long A) for the "spritsil."  Uh, right.  You may found it labeled "tackle" and "spirit sail" - dont sound the same as what I was asked to do, eh? *END DIGRESSION*

So I worked with Cyrus to attach the strap with a rose hitch.  Cyrus is a giant of a 15 year guy who is also an apprentice.  He knows way more about sailing than moi and works harder than any 15 year old I know.  Good guy.  The rose hitch is used because it pulls the two sides of the strap together and if you do it right it is VERY tight.  We did it right.  Take a look...

Tah dah!  Rose Hitch.  If you look in the middle of the hitch you can see some round turns that go between the straight lines - those are tightened with a heaving mallet (tell you about that another time) and pull the whole thing tight.

Otherwise a pretty normal day.  I really feel like I am starting to pull my weight and it didnt take as long as I thought.  Geeze after the first few days I wasn't sure I would make it six weeks.  Things are looking up.

Ahoy!

PS  Mr. Beebe will be happy to know I went to game 3 of the Erie Otters second round playoff game.  They won 2-0.  Lead the series 3-0.  Go Otters.