It’s Monday and it’s been over a week since I was aboard Pandora. She’s now in Wickford RI where she will be, less some time cruising now and then, until early September.
I still have plenty to do to get her ready for next winter’s cruising and the Salty Dawg Rally from Hampton VA to Virgin Gorda in November. I have been recruiting crew and am about done in getting those details in order.
Of the recommended equipment that I will need on board for the run, one missing item is a parachute sea anchor, a large, well parachute shaped device, that can be deployed from the bow to keep the boat pointed into the waves in the event a storm with large breaking waves. I don’t have one but have been offered a 12′ one by a friend. Pandora is technically too big for that size as the recommendation is for a 15′ diameter one but the size rules are more like “guidelines” so I think that I will go for the 12′ and hope that I never have to use it. The size recommended is really a function of the severity of the sea state so larger waves means larger parachute. I am hoping that anything less severe than “OH S&^%” will be ok for a 12′ one. I guess we’ll see. I do have an EPIRB, no make that two, and a liferaft. Others items that I surely hope NEVER to use.
I have also installed my SSB radio and will have the back stay insulators, for the antenna, installed in the next month or so. Another item still on my list is to get the AIS transoponder name changed to Pandora. AIS is a neat item as it transmits the name course of the boat so that others, with AIS receivers, can see me. All commercial vessels have this now and an increasing number of pleasure boats do too. It’s a wonderful product and once you’ve used it you won’t want to be out without it. The problem is that only an FCC certified tech can make changes to an installed system and there aren’t many pleasure boats with AIS so there aren’t a lot of places to get them serviced. My unit requires special software and cable which I will have to bring to the tech so that the information can be changed.
There are also a number of smaller issues that need addressing aboard such as the bow thruster that crapped out recently and a mysterious oil leak on the engine. Let’s hope that it’s indeed minor as I shudder to think about a problem that’s not… It is a very minor leak but a few drips are ending up in the bilge, never the less. Such are the trials of boat ownership and the larger the boat the larger the trials.
Brenda and I hope to spend some time aboard Pandora after our son Rob’s wedding in early August and may make a run out to Nantucket. That would be fun as I really enjoyed my visit with Craig a few weeks ago. You can see that post by clicking here.
I always have trouble finding topics to write about when I am not aboard and now is no different hence the ten day delay between posts. However, the other day I stumbled on some information about Hooligan’s Navy, a group of private sailing yachts, based out of Greenport LI, that patrolled the waters off of New England during WWII. While I had heard of this group of sailors, I didn’t know much about them. This short video is quite interesting.
If your interest is peaked, click here to see a documentary , about 45 minutes, that tells the story in detail. When I was at Cuttyhunk Island a few weeks ago, I was reminded about the U-Boat threat to the NE Coast when I climbed the hill to the center of the island and saw the observation bunker that was used to try and spot U-boats during the war.
As another update, Donna Lange, the grandmother of 11 that spoke at our SSCA Essex GAM a few weeks ago, will be leaving on her non-stop around the world attempt alone in about a week as her scheduled date of departure, from Bristol RI is July 26th. The following is a short video of Donna talking about her upcoming journey. I plan on keeping track of her voyage and will certainly write about it here.So, for now I find myself thinking about being out on the water but these days, for me, it’s more thinking and working to get ready and less about doing. I guess that’s life, 90% perspiration and 10%… Well, I don’t recall the rest of the quote but it’s 10% something else. For now I’ll call it doing. Yes, that will suffice for the moment.
Yes, a post that’s perhaps a bit random. But hey, it’s a lot different than some pictures of me sitting at my desk writing posts. Well, I cling to that belief.
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