On the road, er sea, again. Pandora launches :)

Finally, Pandora is back in the water again and getting ready to head out.  So, let our 2013/2014 season begin.

Pandora looking good and ready to go at the dock in Deep River.  As I write this,we are sitting on a mooring in West harbor on Fisher’s Island.  We left Deep River as planned at noon today and covered 34 miles against the tide in excellent time.  Arriving at Fisher’s at 16:00 we covered the distance at about 8 knots with a fresh SW breeze that topped out at some 20 knots as the afternoon wore on.  I always find myself exhausted the first night aboard as getting ready for a few days aboard takes about as much effort as getting ready to spend months cruising.

Brenda and I are headed for Newport to enjoy the sites of the city and spend some time at the boat show.  We have signed up to man the SSCA booth for a few hours on Sunday.  It’s a great group and we are happy to help out.   Anyone that spends a lot of time aboard should really be a member of this group.  Without them, we would never have attempted our run down the ICW and to the Bahamas.  Check them out at www.ssca.org

This trip is a “shakedown” cruise after three months of work , some by me and some hired at the yard and so far, so good.   I do feel a bit of vibration in the engine that shouldn’t be there so I will have to have that checked out when I head back to the marina for final provisioning prior to heading south to Annapolis later in the month.    We will leave Pandora in Wickford for a few weeks prior to heading home for last minute details.  It’s pretty exciting to be looking forward to spending time at sea again.

I’ll be using the SPOT unit again for our upcoming trip.  So just click on the “where’s Pandora” link on the home page.

Let the season begin!!!