On the Spirit of South Carolina

Tonight was my first time to visit the Spirit of South Carolina. I have signed up for marlinspike seamanship in which a group of us will help put the rigging on the ship. The Spirit is to be used to educate students in math and science. In addition, they will learn team work, responsibility and committment as they work on the ship and live together at sea. There were 70 of us on board the ship tonight. Dan Machowski, who works at the lab with me, lead the group as the main "knot man" in Charleston. We learned how to whip a line and to splice last night. It was fascinating. I'm looking forward to learning more knots and working to get the ship ready for launching on March 4.