Where the hell is the Mona Passage and is it windy? For inquiring minds…

It’s Wednesday morning and the 2015 SSCA Summer Solstice Gam is history.  We had a great turnout,had quite a few more folks than last year and made a bit of money for the SSCA.  Oh yeah, and I had a great time too.

Perhaps the best thing about planning an event is that I get to choose who speaks, when and where the event happens and I even get plenty of at-a-boys.  Well, I get them as long as it goes well.  And it did.  I won’t mention the few hiccups…

It’s been ten days since my last post and I can’t quite tell you why I seem to struggle to keep up with my blog when I am “on the hard” at home.  I guess it’s because I just have a much longer list of chores, like three day events, as just one example, that keep me jumping.

I can say for sure that the delay is not for a lack of time thinking about boats.  I guess when you have a lawn that’s nearly an acre of grass and elderly parents to think about plus everything else (and did I mention that I was helping to plan a three day event?)  All of these distractions do take one’s attention away from blogging.

In spite of all this, I can assure you that I still find PLENTY of time thinking about Pandora and what we will be up to next winter.

“So Bob, what are you doing next winter”?  Thanks for asking.  I am happy to say that the Caribbean is indeed on the horizon and our plans are coming together nicely.   I have also spoken to someone in our local congressional office and she is checking with the State Department to see if we can get permission to visit Cuba aboard Pandora in March or April of 2016.  We’d love to go there before it opens up to Americans and turns into a “Disney” version of Cuba, which it surely will.

And, speaking of the Caribbean and by extension weather, awkward segue or not…  I have evoked Chris Parker’s name (he’s the weather router that we use in case you somehow missed that) more often than anyone except Brenda over the last few years in my posts and it was a treat to have him speak at our event last weekend.  While his talks were terrific, the highlight of his visit  for me was that he stayed at our home while he was here.    It was fun to get to know him a bit in a less formal setting and to spend some time just sitting around.  And, in case you were wondering, I picked his brain plenty on all sorts of topics.

And, perhaps the most amazing moment from the weekend happened when I opened the door to our bedroom early Monday morning and overheard Chris, who had set up shop in my office to do his 06:00 broadcast, say “and the wind in the Mona Passage is…”

I have listened to Chris’s broadcast literally hundreds of times over the years as I sat in the dark, huddled in front of my SSB radio, focused on learning what weather was in store for us over the next few days.  It was always Chris’s forecast that would start our day.

So, to hear him “live” in our home was certainly was actually a bit surreal.   Here’s Chris in my office.And he had screens arrayed in front of him.  I understand that he has 5 screens open at one time in his studio at home in FL.  Amazingly, somehow he was able to speak with cruisers over the SSB radio in his FL office via the Internet from my office.  How did he do that?  Hmm…I had also mentioned in a recent post that Monty and Sarah Lewis, creators of the Bahamas Explorer Guides, were going to visit and it was just a trip to have them stay in our home for a few days.  It was great to hear them speak about what it was like to visit the Bahamas “pre-Explorer Guides” and to learn how they created these remarkable resources.

Here’s Monty and Sarah sitting on our couch.  Really nice people. And I love this shot of the Maureen, Bill, Melinda and Harry, two couples that shepherded us along the way on our first trip south a few years ago.  They joined us for dinner one of the evenings. Harry and Melinda on the right just returned from two years circumnavigating the Caribbean.  They have lived aboard for years and are such a “salty” couple that I almost asked them to shower and change before I let them into the house. (well, perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch.  I let them in, salt y or not) and Maureen and Bill, on the left, made the trip up from Trinidad to visit.  No, perhaps not just to visit us but I like to think of it that way.

All and all, a great weekend.  I will admit that I am a bit tired, but in a good way, yes, a very good way indeed.

So, next time I hear Chris Parker on the radio, when we are aboard Pandora in some tropical spot, I will think of him sitting across from me at breakfast after finishing his morning broadcast.

And, if you find yourself wondering “where the hell”  the Mona Passage is and what the wind conditions actually are… Well, just tune into Chris and you’ll know too.

Me, when I hear him say those words when we are on Pandora, I’ll still envision him sitting in my office doing his thing.