It’s Tuesday morning and I am happy to say that the thruster is ALMOST done. I say almost as everything is set and adjusted but now I am told that the “mother board” is not good. BAD MOTHER!!! Yes, it does sound REALLY BAD. However, because they feel bad for me, and I guess that business is good elsewhere (they are starting a rebuild job on 200′ yacht at Hodgons Yachts, in East Booth Bay), I am not being charged for that, which is good. I can only imagine what that would have cost. The new “mother” will be installed on Thursday and I should be good to go. While the final bill will be a “bit more than estimated”, I am not being charged for all of the “coming and going” over the last ten days. I have to give them credit as they worked very hard to keep things moving, even though it kept them there on both Saturday and Sunday of last weekend.
In any event, NO MORE FLOODING is allowed in the thruster compartment and I am optimistic that the two, count em, two bilge pumps will keep things in good shape. I’ll also be putting desiccant bags in there to see if I can keep humidity at bay. If not, next spring I’ll put in a vent system. More to come on that.
Oh yeah, remember the “ostomy hole”, the bilge pump outlet installed RIGHT IN THE SIDE OF THE HULL!? Yes, this one. The nasty white “orafice”. 
Well, they did a pretty good job of making it look OK with a matching stainless fitting that is of the same design of the smaller one near it. I had checked into having the hole plugged and repainted, but opted against that as it’s very hard to make a good match on a dark green hull and I expect that the “cure would have been worse than the disease”. It doesn’t look that bad, right?
Anyway, it seems that the issue of the thruster is finally, almost, done which is good. It’s been painful at best, but at least I now know what to look for in keeping things in good shape. As an added plus, this “experience” has reminded me, once again, just how important “preventive maintenance” is. All and all, it’s probably a good allegory for life in general so, with that in mind, a good, if expensive, lesson.
Pandora is now scheduled to go in the water on Friday morning so I can check out the “new” Autoprop and be sure that everything is in good shape. I’ll change the oil, fire up the freezer and fridge and all the other things that have been on hold while she’s been on the hard.
I had also promised an update on the Salty Dawg “fleet” page. This is a screen shot of the group as of today. It looks like Domini and Altera “flew” literally, no doubt with their transponder in their pocket aboard a plane. Altera started in Cape Breton, NS and Domini in Boston. I think that Brenda and I know the Altera gang from previous winters as I think that they used to own a SAGA 48. Note that I have “clicked” on Pandora, in the image below, so she is highlighed. 
You can see the actual shared page, in real time, by clicking here. when you get there, you will have to put in SDR where it says “group” or “Pandora” under Name (you can’t do both). For the date range, you can either choose today only or a range to see where we are right now. Of course, I’ll be posting as we get closer to let you know when we are hoping to depart. If you save this page on your screen, you can just refresh the page and see, any time, what’s going on as the fleet assembles in Hampton and more sign on. I’ll also have this link on the “where in the world is Pandora” on my home page.
Yes, Pandora is inching forward and I am getting pretty excited about what the next month will bring. Fingers crossed that “mother” will check out and we’ll be good to go in a little more than a week.
And as they say “but wait, there’s more”. And that’s true, but you will have to wait till my next post to find out.
Thanks for tuning in, if there’s anyone out there. Are you listening? Say something…please.
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