Here Virginia “Dinnie” Jay and Randall Landaiche put their bodies on the line in the name of safety.Īfter months of sheltering, compliance, staying safe and observing protocols, passenger vessels were finally able to do limited charters, and Call of the Sea was able to schedule the MOB drill for Matthew Turner. MOB drills are hard work, especially when hoisting someone, even a dummy, aboard a tall ship. Matthew Turner’s final Coast Guard test for MOB was now delayed until California state and US Coast Guard protocols permitted. Like many others who followed California’s guidelines, everyone else stayed at home.
Only very limited projects, performed by one or two persons under strict COVID-19 prevention protocols with social distancing and masks, were allowed. The organization was forced to give up the lease on its office and then shelter at home. Like many other organizations across the USA and around the world, Call of the Sea was forced to suspend the project and furlough employees, including crew - all of Matthew Turner’s as well as those working aboard their existing schooner, Seaward. That was the final ‘exam,’ as it were, for Matthew Turner. After more than six years of building, launch, rigging, fitting out, and installing final systems, Matthew Turner was ready to do her inaugural sail on April 16, 2020. Matthew Turner passed them all with flying colors.
Year by year, project by project, the Coast Guard came to inspect fire suppression and electrical systems, and last year, stability - placing weights on deck to test the heel of the hull.
But Noah Limbach had the honor of being among the first to guide the tall ship around the Bay. Many hands made Friday an auspicious day for Call of the Sea’s tall ship, Matthew Turner. And every step of the way the Coast Guard was there to inspect, from frames to planks to deck, to rig, to sails. Electricians and mechanics helped install state-of-the-art electrical propulsion, wire the ship, and install plumbing systems and state-of-the-art electronics for navigation. The volunteers turned reels of wire and rope into rigging, fabricated metal blocks and fittings, and sewed sail covers, cushions, and curtains. They fashioned a veritable forest of trees (all sustainably grown and all donated) into frames, planks, deck, cabin, spars, bunks, tables, and more. Both male and female, and both young and old - they all came as time allowed, and worked thousands of hours. Then followed what can arguably be called the greatest-ever volunteer building project on the Sausalito waterfront, with talented carpenters, contractors, doctors, bakers, a psychologist, tech workers, secretaries, flight attendants, and more. Many Latitude readers will remember it well. It’s been a long journey from November 2013 when Sausalito nonprofit Call of the Sea held a ceremony to bless Matthew Turner’s wooden keel in a big tent at Marina Plaza, Sausalito.
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