It’s hard to believe that Pandora is nearly ready to go head south to Antigua with the Salty Dawg Rally, leaving from Hampton VA on or about November 1st. With a capacity crowd of 125 boats, it’s going to be a blast. And, with 100 heading to Antigua, I can say that everyone I know in Antigua are thrilled to be on the receiving end of the rally.
It’s always a struggle to get Pandora, or any boat for that matter, ready with so many issues that need addressing, new or updated equipment and any projects that I have in the works to make Pandora a better home on the water.
Much of my time has been consumed this summer by remodeling the kitchen and the third of our bathrooms. While I did only parts of the kitchen, it was still a big job and that combined with doing the full bath remodel, it was a very busy summer.
Add to that the interminable delays with Pandora in Deltaville and the frustration of working with a completely non-communicative project manager. To say that this was frustrating and expensive doesn’t begin to do justice to the details of what made the whole process so repugnant.
I was successful in moving Pandora to yet another spot where an electrician finished up the work and installed the wind generator.
After a few weeks with the new tech, I was able to move Pandora up to Annapolis where she is now having a number of rigging issues addressed including some new running rigging and other important upgrades needed to make her safe to make passage on to Antigua.
Here she is about to be hauled at Jabin’s yard in Annapolis. They pulled her out a day early and by early the next morning M Yachts was aboard beginning the work they needed to get done in the few short weeks available. That’s the sort of support you expect from a quality vendor, so different than the first few months this summer. 
I also installed some new solar panels, four 150 watt units replacing the 80 watt panels that were in the boat when I purchased her. This increase in wattage, combined with the fact that the old panels had lost a lot of efficiency has nearly doubled my output. I am not enough of an expert to wire them up and put in the new regulator so M Yachts is doing that. They do look pretty impressive. 
And contrast that to the old panels in the photo below. The new ones do not hang over to the sides of the supports at all and only overhang the front of the supports from the old panels by about 6″. Of course, a big change is that they are each 150 watt, more fully utilize the space available and at $150 each, were a mere “rounding error” in the grand scope of the job. 
And the wind generator. I have no idea how that’s going to work out but based on what I have heard from others that have the same unit, I am optimistic. This photo shows the unit with a slight port list but I will be adding some plastic shims under the mount to deal with that. It’s because the arch itself is sloped outboard and the installer didn’t have shims on hand. 
Combine the upgraded solar, the wind generator and a lithium bank and we have more than doubled our charging ability, I hope, and usable power storage for Pandora.
I don’t want to even think about the cost of making all of this happen. All I can say is that next year better be a light one for “boat dollars” as this year has broken a number of records on that front. If not, I’ll be facing serious marital distress from Brenda and we don’t want that to happen, do we? Good thing that we did the house upgrades this summer and didn’t put those off as it balances things a bit, if not completely. Fair is fair? Oh boy, I guess you’ll have to ask Brenda on that font.
Anyway. even though I have to drive half a day to get to her, at least Pandora is nearing completion and I should be able to have her mostly ready to go after a few more days of work. With Brenda away visiting some friends on The Cape this weekend, I’m planning to head to Annapolis with all my stuff to begin a dash to get ready for the run south.
Perhaps along the way I’ll be able to stop and see our son Rob and our three adorable grandchildren.
This one, Emme, is one of the two younger twins. Here I am “Tipi”, what they call me, walking with her to the bus stop to meet her older sister. Scary as it is, tell me you don’t see an 18 year old trapped in that little girl. I am so glad that I am not her father. Scary stuff to come. 
It seems that alive and well in that adorable little body is a tremendous selection of cold viruses, something that she gives me and I bring home with me after nearly every visit. As I write this I am hacking away more than a week since my last visit.
With only a few weeks till “lift off” time for taking Pandora to Antigua is flying by. Wish me luck. Now, if I can only get over this cold. Thanks Emme!