If you have been watching my track on “were in the world is Pandora” you are likely scratching your head as to exactly why Pandora is underway and moving south along the US coast. So, here’s what’s going on.
Taking care of all of the “details” following our romp in the Gulf Stream at the beginning of the Salty Dawg Rally took a full five days on the Morehead City docks. I won’t reiterate all of the issues, most of which I detailed in previous posts, but the list included plenty of items with the final task to replace the missing set-screws in the jib roller furler that were missing.
The absence of these fasteners meant that one of the upper extrusions was shifting and wore away the bolt rope and damaged part of the jib. I didn’t realize that this was a problem until we attempted to re-hoist the repaired jib. The repair required two metric set screws and finding the right size turned out to be fairly difficult and involved a cab ride to a local hardware store, a sort of nautical scavenger hunt ending with success in finding what ended up being two $30 set screws that should have cost about $1 each.
Anyway, when we had finally ticked off most of the items and I had time to begin thinking about what I was going to do next. Of course, the major issue was crew as the three had signed on for two weeks and that meant that heading out again for the BVI was not going to work as we’d never get there within the two week window.
My first thought was just to leave the boat in Beaufort, head home and then return after Thanksgiving and run to the BVI then. Yes, that seemed like a good idea. However, the rub was that getting crew to sign on for two weeks during the holidays seemed to me like a very tall order so back to the drawing board.
Ok, I’ll just continue on to Ft Pierce FL, leave the boat there and head back there after Christmas and spend the winter in the Bahamas. That seemed to be a reasonable idea even though I was very disappointed to give up the BVI after so much planning and anticipation.
After saying that we’d be leaving the boat in Beaufort, Ken and Cathy made other plans which meant that I lost them for the run to FL. Fortunately, Jim agreed to stay on and help me with the rest of the delivery. So, as I write this the two of us are working our way down the coast and should be in Ft Pierce FL late Friday or Saturday.
We left Beaufort yesterday afternoon and had a rough sail overnight with winds gusting near 30kts on a close reach. As there had been very strong winds from the south for the previous few days, the seas were pretty rough and confused as the winds clocked from the south to the west and finally NW, but we made good progress passing all boats that we encountered along the way and covering 100 miles in 12 hours, a pretty impressive run.
I expect that the remainder of the run will involve a lot of motoring but at least the boat will be where it needs to be and all settled in. So, after Christmas Brenda and I will either fly or drive south and rejoin Pandora in late December.
All and all, this run has been much more of a shakedown cruise than I had envisioned with all sorts of little surprises along the way. Hopefully, now that I know the boat better, this winter will be more relaxing and less of the “boat repair in exotic places” that it has been.
So, with the BVI totally “busted” I am hopeful that Brenda and I will have a fun winter in the Bahamas. It should surely beat the sub-zero temperatures of New England.
For now, continuing to head south to Florida and then on to home. Yes, home, I am getting a bit home sick, and can’t wait to see Brenda again, that’s for sure.