Getting to know her, getting to know all about her…

Ok, now I get it.  The last few weeks preparing for the Salty Dawg Rally and finding my way, sometimes painfully, to Morehead City NC has really been a shake-down cruise, an opportunity to get to know Pandora on an intimate level and better understand her and her systems.

On “old Pandora”, I had installed much of her equipment myself so I knew what to look for and exactly how to deal with most situations.  With Pandora “new”, It’s more like a scavenger hunt, where every little experience is a mystery and sometimes I really have no clue even if I think I know what I am dealing with.  “exactly where is that electrical smell coming from?”, “did the fridge compressor cut out because it is overheating or did it reach it’s set point and exactly what temperature is that anyway?”.

An Aerodyne 47 is a very complicated boat, well at least compared to other boats that I have owned, and sometimes I don’t even know if something is broken or not.  I just have NO IDEA what I am looking for.   Do I furl up the sail cover or leave it in place when I reef.  Furl it.  Now I know, furl it.  That was a painful lesson as I spent much of yesterday making minor repairs from when I reefed and didn’t furl.  It’s a big cover but between me and Cathy, we were able to maneuver it around in the cabin and get everything in order.   11-8-15b 010It’s all about attention to detail.  Pretty good work for an amateur, I think.11-8-15b 012Getting the sailcover off of the boom and back on was “magic” as Jim, Ken and Cathy handled the whole process.  I did the sewing.

How about getting to know her jib?  I patched the vinyl window and an area on the luff that had chafed on a rough part of the roller track where a rivet had broken, who knows how long ago.  Not serious but I’ll have it properly repaired next summer when she’s laid up for a few months. 11-18-15b 014I also received the watermaker pump head yesterday (Just how much does Saturday delivery have to cost?  Really?) and installed it.  I was getting concerned that I couldn’t back-flush the unit as required without a properly functioning pump.  All better now.

It felt pretty good to have “most” of the details worked out, both things that broke and those that just needed attending to that I didn’t even know about.  All and all, the chores took about three full days, or was it four?  And that included a lot of help from crew.   Happily, they have been very good natured about the “change of plans”.   Perhaps it was the “Pandora made” biscuits.  No, it was probably the rum. Having cold beer on hand helped too.  Did I mention that the fridge is working again?  Actually, it always worked.  That was a hard lesson.

Glad to have all of that behind me.  Well, until things get “interesting” again.  And speaking of that, I am now looking for crew and expect to try to make my run to the BVI again a few days after Thanksgiving now that I know Pandora just a bit better.

Chores or not, I did make time yesterday to watch what is billed as “the largest Veteran’s Day Parade in all of North Carolina”.   Not sure how that compares to other “largest Veteran’s Day Parades”, but it boasted a LOT of very enthusiastic participants, throwing candy at spectators, and went on and on.  The procession took nearly two hours to pass.  With a number of big military bases nearby, there was some really impressive hardware.

This one would be right at home in the desert.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHow many helicopters do you see in your local parade?OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd, who doesn’t love the old Jeeps?OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI was trying to get my head around these little trucks and wondered how many beers it took when someone said, “hey guys, let’s build little trucks and drive them in public a few times a year and no, I don’t mean those embarrassing golf carts that look like a Corvette.   I am talking totally ridiculous.  Can I Have another Bud?”  “Here you go, Elmer. I want a mini truck too!”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“No wait, I have an even better idea…  How about a motorized land boat?  And let’s make ten of them that match and drive them in circles as we move down the street.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“It will be awesome.  I’ll make a shrimp boat with wheels.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“I can make my golf cart into a Jet fighter.  It will look just like the one I flew in Nam.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“And we’ll have my buddy Jake bring his hot air balloon basket so he can blast flames into the air.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“I once saw the Blue Angles perform.  I’ll modify The Wife’s old Harley.  I am sure she’ll love it.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“Guys, what about me?  I want one too and I have always said that if I was going to drive a car that was REALLY tiny, it would be yellow.  Yes, bright yellow with red pin-striping. and real green running boards.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, there you have it, from the sublime to the ridiculous and you will just have to decide which is the sublime and which is, well not so…

For better or worse, I now know more about Pandora than I did before I left CT.  And, as my dad used to say, “that’s more about penguins than you probably ever wanted to know”, and this is only the beginning.

How about another shakedown cruise in December?  Then I’ll really know her, all about her.  Well, except the things that I’ll learn later.

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