“Seldom a Dull Moment” aboard Denis Sullivan in St. Croix
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Log written by Capt. Mike Moreland
3-masted schooner DENIS SULLIVAN is currently riding nicely on her heavy-duty mooring assembly just outside the channel in Christiansted Harbour, St. Croix. The trade winds have been fresh to strong lately as they can be and a nice, dry easterly wind of around 20 kts keeps a steady strain on her stout 2” nylon mooring pendants.
As today is a dedicated maintenance day, the crew are busy on deck tackling the various projects the mate has planned. As always on a wooden boat, there is no shortage of paint and varnish work to be done and several crew are busy prepping and painting various cabin top hatches and also oiling two beautiful mahogany propane lockers built by a friend of the ship in St. Petersburg, Florida. We have also started on a long-term project to renew the pitch on our nice Douglas fir deck. As a traditionally built boat, our decks our caulked with cotton and oakum then a bitumen based ‘pitch’ is melted down and poured into the last 1/4” of seam on top of the oakum. Over a few decades this pitch can become brittle and begin flaking off here and there, exposing the oakum, which begins to absorb rain and salt water. So we picked a section of deck and began reefing out old, flaky pitch, then ’setting’ the oakum again with a heavy caulking iron and mallet. While a set of seams was being prepped, a little messy pot was sitting on a hot plate and slowly melting down the chunks of pitch into a hot, molasses-like consistency. Next we tape the seams to make a neater job and carefully pour the pitch into the seam. A slow but satisfying process. Sam and Casey were on this job all day and we figured we completed about 5% of the deck. Not bad really. Maybe the next sunny maintenance day we will put a few more crew on the job and keep chipping away.
Besides maintenance it has been a busy and eventful past couple weeks onboard and seldom a dull moment for this fine crew of 10. Two weekends ago we sailed north 36nm to St. John for a special evening charter. We sailed up the day before and were able to enjoy the sights and comfort of beautiful St. Francis Bay anchorage with the lush hills of St. John National Park surrounding us. After the ship was put away, the crew enjoyed a few hours ashore on the beach just a short small boat ride away. Decent snorkelling and good beach combing and just nice to have a change of scenery. The following day we motored around to the entrance of Cruz Bay, St. John and boarded 40 passengers who had charted the boat. We spent the next 3 hours sailing around in the protected waters of Pillsbury Sound with a steady, clean 17 kts of of wind. Quite enjoyable for all I believe. The last of the passengers disembarked just as the sun was setting so we decided to go anchor up for the night instead of sailing back to St. Croix thought the night. The next morning we heaved up anchor with our traditional windlass, set full sail and sailed south back to St. Croix with a perfect 20 kts just aft of the beam. It is safe to say we were powered up the whole sail and were making a steady 8-9 kts, sometimes touching 10kts! It made for a quick passage and we were all secure on our mooring by 1500. A great way to end the weekend.
The crew is doing a great job balancing all the different missions we are here to fulfill, with education being at the top. Every week sees a new group of 5th graders come onboard to learn the ship, hoists sails, and maritime lessons led by our deckhand/educators. Usually a lesson dockside then we cast off the dock lines and get underway. All the students help hoist the sails and once we are clear of the reef and on our course another lesson will take place, this time with the added motion of the schooner underway in ocean swells. After a lesson we tack back towards St. Croix, wind our way through the reef passage, take in sail and back alongside to wrap up the morning. Then most days in the afternoon we clean the ship and prepare for that evening’s sunset sail. Tourists and locals alike buy tickets for our 2 hour sail boarding at Gallows Bay wharf, a safety briefing and introduction and we are back out sailing again, setting full sail and serving beverages and telling our passengers about the work we do at World Ocean School. Back at the dock by 6 pm, clean the boat again, and back out to the mooring for the night. Busy days but never boring and good, hard work sailing a wooden schooner in the Caribbean.
