Sail Pandora

Well, here I am in my office at home, having returned from Antigua about a week ago and it’s cold.

It is sunny but has been totally shocking to go from a little too hot in Antigua to a lot too cold within only a few days.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our son Christopher at his apartment when we arrived back in the US in Manhattan and took a train back to CT where we are now.

Yes, it’s cold and all I can do is to turn up the heat, trading mid 80s for the high 20s. Not my first choice.

The good news is that the yard is in good shape as I did a lot of cleaning up before departing for Trinidad over a month ago and hired a lawn service to do a “final” cleanup. One less thing to do in the yard. That’s a good thing as everything is frozen solid given unusually cold weather for this early in the season.

And, speaking of final cleanup, I was on such a deadline to bring Pandora north to Antigua from Trinidad to meet the arrival of the Salty Dawg fleet, that I did not have an opportunity to get a number of little details settled on Pandora.

I had some paint shipped to Trinidad to address a few scratches that ended up being delayed by a hurricane and the usual bureaucratic issues of getting things into Trinidad and I had to leave before it was at the boatyard.

After taking a careful look at the boat over the last few weeks I have decided to take her back to Trinidad to have some final details finished, probably in March. Don’t get me wrong, Pandora looks great, like new, but with such a big job, it is inevitable that there would be a few small issues that were overlooked and need a bit more attention such as a fine paint overspray on the solar panels, that needs to be removed.

Amos, who managed the job, has been very understanding and happy to address these issues upon my return. I have been quite pleased with his work and have recommended a number of people to go to him for jobs, both big and small.

I don’t know exactly when we will be back to Antigua following the holidays but I am hoping that we might return a bit in advance of the 15th, Brenda’s birthday. As she has been away for so many of her birthdays over the years, it is reasonable that she’d want to be home this year. One can only hope…

Now that the arrival events for the rally are completed and we are back home, I am turning my attention to the schedule for the winter and all the issues associated with my planned run in the spring to the Azores.

I am particularly focused on crew for the run to Horta from Bermuda but will also be looking for crew to make the run to Bermuda from St Martin in mid May and from the Azores to Portugal in mid July following a month aboard with Brenda exploring the Azores islands.

Under the category of “random serendipity” Brenda and I ran into a lovely couple at the yacht club the other evening and as luck would have it, they had just returned from a week long captained charter in the Azores and we had a wonderful time comparing notes.

The “yacht” was a bit smaller than Pandora and they had settled on that particular boat based on a short 5 minute YouTube video that they had seen. Just for fun, as it does give a pretty good feel for the area, here it is. This is the video that inspired them to book the charter.

I’ll admit that any Enya soundtrack always chokes me up as my late Father loved her work. Admittedly, he did love what Brenda would with a wrinkled nose, call “elevator music” but then, so do it.

After spending a month in the Azores with Brenda, I will run Pandora toward the Med, where she will be hauled until the following spring. I have not been able to confirm where I will stop but was thinking about Lagos, in Southern Portugal.

Check out this short video and you can see why Lagos is so popular with cruisers and tourists alike.

However, a lot of this depends on the relative threat of being attacked by a killer whale, or Orca. There have been many reports of a pod attacking boats and chewing off the lower part of their rudder. There are a number of sites that track orcas and their boat attacks and it seems that the best defense is to just avoid being in the same waters as orcas.

As they migrate to follow their food, primarily tuna, they are in more southern waters near Logos and Gibraltar in the spring and move north as the season progresses. This suggests that I as I will be heading east from the Azores in late July, that it might make sense for me to go directly to Gibraltar and not farther west along the southern Portugal coast, my original plan.

Also, under the category of “serendipity” Brenda and I were introduced to a couple, Lynn and Ian, by longtime cruising friends Anne and Dick, who we sailed with in the Bahamas. Ian and Lynn have a vacation home in the Azores and we had a lovely intro to them on the phone the other night.

Their charming stone home in the Azores, perched high on a bluff, a short ferry boat ride from Horta.

Their patio. I’ll bet that the view is to die for.

And their cruising boat that I believe is in the US now, on the hard while they travel around the US visiting Friends.

Amazingly, and very spontaneously, they have invited us when I arrive with Pandora and Brenda flies in to Horta to stay with them and tour the islands together. They are fellow cruisers, spending much of their time aboard their own boat and their willingness to welcome us is typical, and very welcome, among the dedicated cruising set.

In my own shy and retiring way, after comparing notes with them on the phone for nearly an hour, I invited them to do a webinar for Salty Dawg on the subject of “cruising the Azores” and expect to have it in the first half of January.

I am very excited about hearing what they have to share and will be promoting it to the member of Salty Dawg. Stay tuned for details on that discussion as it will be free to all comers.

It is amazing how one thing leads to another and how hanging out with the cruising community has enriched our lives so much over the years.

So, lots to do in preparation for our time in the Med and with new friends in the Azores, all the more to look forward to.

All of this will help me overlook the sub freezing temperatures here in CT.

Aboard Pandora, the only thing cold is the fridge and freezer. And cold beer… Something else to look forward to.

That’s about all for now. Off to MD to see the grand kiddies for a few days.

It’s hard to believe that the rally and nearly all of the arrival events are history now with the last of the boats that were stuck in Bermuda now here in Antigua.

This year, as in so many other rallies, boats were at sea for a very long time. Most of the fleet stopped in Bermuda to wait for a green light regarding a possible late season hurricane, as there was a lot of uncertainty about weather when boats departed. Most of the boats in the fleet were able to leave Bermuda after only a short delay but those who weren’t ready to go, or lost crew, ended up stuck for about two weeks waiting for a weather window. Those boats only arrived in the last few days. From the time that the bulk of the fleet departed from the US, it was more than three weeks until the last of the “stray dawgs” arrived in Antigua.

The events in Antigua began about two weeks ago and went off without a hitch. Two days ago we went to an event hosted by North Sails, Andrew and his wife Simone. It was a great time with wonderful food, an ice-cream truck and live music.

Simone did all the cooking and the spread was quite elegant.

Last evening, we went to what was, for us, one final get-together with the Dawgs at a local Mexican place. And today, Wednesday, a flight back to the US for me, Brenda and Chris.

In past years I have spent quite a bit on mooring rental while I am home and at $30+ a day it really adds up. And, last year I had someone look after Pandora and when I returned and was presented with a bill, I was more than a bit shocked with what he charged me, on an hourly basis, about $100/hr. I protested but he did not budge much.

So, I put the word out as so many other Dawgs need someone to look after their boat and found a very nice young guy, Jean Marie to watch mine and more than a dozen other boats while owners are away.

Jean Marie is around the harbor quite a lot as he delivers baked goods in the anchorage every morning for the local French bakery. He will be boarding Pandora twice a week and keep an eye on her every day. It’s nice when someone local steps up to help and even better when I am able to recommend them and help fellow Dawgs.

I met him thorough La Brassier, a wonderful French restaurant and bakery. The owners, Isabella and Eric turn out some of the best French food we have ever had. Jean Marie tours the harbor every morning with their wares and sells them to cruisers who are just starting their day.

I designed and installed a flag to call attention to the bakery and while it isn’t all that inspired, It should help folks contact and get some of the great pastry.

As Pandora will spend a lot of time this winter alone, I wanted to find a more economical way to store her and a friend was kind enough to arrange to put in a mooring for me. I paid the divers and rigger to set things up but my friend Paul arranged everything.

The mooring is comprised of a large old anchor, a huge metal box and a riser to a buoy. The premise is that the anchor is dug in and the heavy box acts as a kellet. The anchor has 25′ of heavy chain, shackled to the box and then chain going up to a heavy mooring line. the box keeps the pull on the anchor straight along the bottom so that it will hold even with relatively short scope. It took a cast of thousands to set the mooring. Paul to supervise and a number of divers to deliver and set the tackle.

The anchor was quite heavy and had clearly spent years, perhaps decades, under water. I expect that one of the divers stumbled on it while diving in the area. You can see the “box”, to the right. I expect that it was very heavy as well.

So, now I am the proud owner of a mooring at a price that is somewhat less than renting one from the AYC Marina, which is pretty expensive. As I am only here for this season before heading to the Med, I will have to think about what to do with it next. Perhaps I will lend it to a fellow Dawg next season.

And, speaking of Marinas, the manager/owner of Catamaran Marina, here in Falmouth has a large number of Caribbean Tortises in her yard and every year they lay eggs. She collects the hatchlings and distributes them to good homes. I was offered two a few years ago but chickened out due to the fact that they will likely outlive me. However, every year I visit and continue to be smitten with the dozens of baby tortoises that she has in her shop. Each one is about the size of a lemon and are just adorable.

In spite of all the events that we hold every year, I am always on the lookout for more opportunities to share the fun of Antigua with our members. After a number of years trying, I was able to work with a local liquor store, Grand Cru, to host a rum tasting for the Dawgs. We had a great turnout. Lisa, from English Harbor distilleries, lead us on a fascinating journey through their many types of rum.

Lisa told us about the many different rums that they make.

Each rum that they poured was carefully described. We went from white, unaged rum to more exotic and progressively darker rums aged for years in Port, Whisky and other types of spirit barrels.

It was nice to have our son Christopher with us. His time with us has been a working visit, I won’t even call it a “working vacation” and he didn’t really chill except well after the work day was done. We did have some difficulty in finding him good places to work in spite of the National Park Director saying she’d be able to get him an office as it turned out to be only for a very limited time so that was a bust. That caused quite a bit of anxiety until Chris settled into more of a routine and accepted that things might not be quite as smooth as we had hoped. All and all, I think that he was able to get get a reasonable amount of work done. He may disagree but it was nice to spend time with him here.

Our hosts.

After a discussion about the various types of English harbor rums, that lasted nearly 90 minutes, the store offered a small discount for any purchases that evening and I think that nearly everyone lined up to purchase rum. I was glad to see that it worked out for Sarah, the manager of the store.

I had also suggested a raffle and gave everyone a ticket. Brenda was the lucky one although that elicited a bit of a groan from the audience when her ticket was pulled.

I have also been working on a number of projects in anticipation of sailing this season. A few have proved to be very frustrating including some issues with our electronics, wind speed and radar. I believe I know what the problem with the radar is but I am not certain. Fingers crossed that the fix that was suggested will work out.

In anticipation of our run across the Atlantic to Horta in the Azores, I am considering having 4 crew on board which means that I will need to come up with an additional berth so nobody will have to “hot bunk”, something that most do not like. Hot bunking means sleeping in the same bed when someone is up on watch. Not great.

Anyway, a friend suggested that I put in a lee-board in the aft cabin so I had the canvas guy split the front cushion and had Amos, in the yard in Trinidad, make a board 16″ tall that runs the length of the aft berth.
I brought some removable hinges from home and secured the board. It pulls out of the hinges and slips under the mattress.

At the aft end of the berth I installed two brackets that I fabricated from cherry at home to match the interior woodwork. The lee board is slid into the hinges and a pin secures the board against the bulkhead supporting it vertically. It seems pretty sturdy and I expect that it will work on passage. Fingers crossed.

And, under the category of “random acts of kindness”, I made up a flag for a local French Bakery, La Brassier, for my friends Eric and Isabella. They have a young man who roams the harbor in the mornings selling croissants and baguettes. I also lent them my hand held VHF and installed the flag on their dink. This way folks will see them coming and I expect that they will sell more. I think that they should also offer ice and other items but we will see if they want to expand their offerings.

The sign is pretty ham-handed but heck, I got it done, PVC pipe and all.

And from the sublime to the ridiculous, the size of the yachts that have arrived here is stunning. How about this lineup. Small, medium and large. Or, perhaps big, bigger and humungous. The one on the left is called Wheels. It’s owned by the largest car dealer in the US. Yes, you are right, cars and car repairs are really very expensive.

As the sun sets on our time here before the holidays and our departure on Wednesday, perhaps a fitting photo of a sunset, representative of what we see nearly every evening.

That’s it, the party (parties) are over and it’s hard to believe that we will be away until mid January. That’s a long time for Pandora to sit all by herself.

If history is any guide, the holidays will whip by and before you know it…

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We still have a week of arrival events coming up but after the “arrival dinner” our big event, the remaining ones are simpler and everyone has settle into a routine of hanging out during the day and getting together in the evenings.

For the first time since my arrival ten days ago, I haven’t felt stressed, which is good.

Last evening we were hosted for drinks and food by my friend Franklyn and his wife Marie, of A&F sails. Franklyn, or Sir Franklyn, as he was knighted by the Queen, is very active as president of the local marine trade group, long time commodore of the Antigua Yacht Club and a big help in the Antigua scholarship program that I work on.

They hosted the Dawgs, and it was a good size group, for drinks, food and a very interesting demonstration.

In the US when the windows on a dodger begin to get nasty, it is generally recommended that you buy a completely new dodger. However, here they recommend just putting in new vinyl and keeping the basic structure of the original, which is a lot less expensive than making the whole thing from scratch.

He and one of his staff did a really interesting demo of how they renew dodger windows. The entire demonstration only took about 20 minutes and everyone seemed to be very interested.

First, showing the condition of the window to be “refreshed”. Without cutting out the old dirty plastic, they attached a new window over the old with double stick tape.

Then two rows if stitching all around. It was amazing how perfectly straight the stitching was.

Then the “old” plastic was carefully cut out. Like Ballet, when done well, it looks very easy. And it did…

So, after a few moments of cutting, it looked like new.

While the event was social and very nice, I am mindful that Franklyn has a business to run and I was careful to introduce everyone to him. Based on what they saw, I am sure that he will see good from the effort.

Sure, the events are fun but I feel strongly that when a business invests time in us, I like to see them get a return. So far, so good and Franklyn is very good to the Dawgs.

Enough about events for the moment so I would like to pivot back to my visit from the Artist that was here last week, Patrick O’Brien. I like this image from his website of his studio.

The visit was just terrific and I am optimistic that he will be back on the island in the future, perhaps with some of the other members of ASMA, the marine painting group.

Patrick painted three plein air pieces while he was here and the last one was from Shirley Heights at sunset, a lookout high above the Dockyard that was built by the Royal Navy back in the late 1700s. For a definition of this technique, follow this link to plein air painting. If you have seen a photo from a high vantage point in Antigua there is a good possibility that it was taken of a sunset from that fortification.

Here is Patrick painting as the sun sunk below the horizon.

This was the vantage that he was trying to capture. He attracted quite a crowd, as a visiting “street artist”.

I am always amazed with how the light changes moment by moment as the sun sets. This close to the equator, it drops very fast, going from sunny to dark in about 30 minutes. The rapidity of change was challenging for Patrick as he struggled to capture the “perfect moment” as one more moment was more beautiful than the last.

Moments later, literally very few… A much different view.

The island in the distance is Montserrat, one of a number of islands that have active volcanoes. In this case, nearly half of the island is off limits due to the risk of eruption following a very active period from 1995 to 2010, last erupting in 2013, not a long time ago.

Not so peaceful, once upon a time.

A bit more peaceful today and moments later, as the sun dropped below the horizon, the sight was even more dramatic.

After the sun had set, the lights began to twinkle on below.

This is indeed a beautiful place and I will be sad when we head home next week. And even worse knowing that after this winter, we may never be back with a run to the Mediterranean on the horizon next spring.

So, even with a number of more events, the most complex are behind me now so I can chill a bit and enjoy the moment, as fleeting as it may be.

And speaking of Chill… How about our new neighbor. The Baltic Yacht build Pink Gin, now called Ravinger after a sale and 9 month refit. Well, aside from being a neighbor and fresh out of a refit, that’s about the only thing that she has in common with Pandora. She is huge, at more than 200′ long.

She is a lot bigger than she looks at the dock. Under sail…

Like Patrick, I am always on the lookout for great lighting. This is the view behind Pandora as I publish this post so I will finish up with that for now.

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Most of the Salty Dawg rally fleet is now in Antigua. Sadly, there are still about a half dozen boats stuck in Bermuda with a possible departure today, Sunday or perhaps Monday. And, as they are still 900 miles north, it’s going to be the better part of a week before they arrive. That’s a bummer and in spite of having events that span two weeks, they will miss a lot of them.

Part of the reason that Salty Dawg is so warmly greeted in Antigua is because we show up a few weeks before the “season” begins. That means that we are looking to have broken stuff fixed and we eat out a lot. Having a few hundred more mouths to feed for two weeks is important to the economy.

When I arrived in Antigua about a week ago, the Dockyard was completely empty.

Now, a bit busier.

So much has been going on with the arrival of the fleet that it’s been hard to keep everything straight. One thing that I have been able to keep careful track of is that Brenda is arriving later today and I am very excited about that. Our son Christopher will be with her so she will have her own personal Sherpa to help with her bags.

Pandora is tied up in the Dockyard with many of the other Rally boats and I was lucky enough to receive a number of photos, compliments of the Department of Tourism, of the fleet on the dock. What a beautiful place.

And, if you look realy close, Pandora… No, that blue arrow isn’t part of the boat 🙂

But wait, there’s more. The boats on the other side of the dock. Salty Dawg boats all around.

These drone photos were associated with a meeting that I had with the Minister of Tourism, Max Fernandez on Friday. We have met many times over the years and when we met this week, we were talking about a number of possible collaborations in the US for Antigua. During and after the meeting a photographer followed us around.

Our meeting included the Board Director of the International Yacht Restoration School, Steve. I have been working with IYRS and some folks in Antigua on a scholarship program for a number of years with my friend Bob and it is really beginning to build momentum. This meeting was to discuss expanding on that activity and I feel like we made some nice progress.

The gang… From left to right. Franklyn, President of the Antigua and Barbuda Marine Trades Association, Steve, Chair of the IYRS Board of Directors, Bob, my partner on this initiative, the Minister of Tourism, Paul, the owner of the Admiral’s Inn and terrific supporter of many initiatives on the island, Me :), and Devin, who is responsible for Yachting Development for Antigua. A number of the items discussed came up when I met with Devin at the Annapolis Boat show in October.

After the meeting the Minister, photographer in tow, toured the Dockyard with me to see all the Salty Dawg boats that were tied up. He was impressed and noted that the size of the boats was larger than he had expected.

A few years ago, then “Prince Charles” visited Antigua and took a tour of the Dockyard. My friend Mike, happened to be tied up when the small entourage, showed up to see the boats. I asked Mike to show the Minister a photo of that encounter when Charles spoke to him for about 10 minutes, which he did. The Minister was very interested and asked Mike to send a copy to him. It was a pretty neat moment.

There are still loads of events planned to celebrate the arrival of the fleet and with Brenda here it’s going to be at a whole better level.

There are a lot of folks from the fleet enjoying themselves. A few nights ago we had a “happy hour” on the dock behind Pandora. I climbed up on a neighboring boat and got this great shot.

And yet another event… No rest for the weary and a bigger group.

I have also spent a lot of time with my painter friend Patrick O’Brien, who agreed to come to Antigua to scope it out as a possible destination for other members of the American Society of Marine Artists. Patrick is the president of the group these days and as a huge fan of marine art, I am anxious to help try and make something happen.

A few days during their visit here, I have accompanied him out to do some plein-air painting sketches. It’s been terrific fun. To watch a piece come to life from a blank canvas in a few hours is quite an experience.

We camped out behind this old storage building that once held gunpowder for the nearby cannon battery.

When Patrick paints, he attracts a crowd. This little girl and her mother were fascinated watching him. It was fun to see him interact with her and how patient he was while trying to paint.

He spends a lot of time scoping out the right image and location to focus on. His pieces are generally pretty rough at first and then he takes them back to the studio, compares his photos, the painted piece and a lot of detail from memory to complete the picture. I expect that some of the pieces he worked on will end up being larger scale pieces once he returns to the US and his studio.

Being around artists for so many years, I have come to appreciate how they see the world in a more nuanced way. So many today are busy trying to get ahead that it seems the world sort of washes over them and they aren’t all that aware of what going on all around them. Not so for Patrick. Like many artists, he sees the world with the wonder of a child experiencing things for the very first time.

Only partially finished. A view toward Nelson’s Dockyard from Ft Berkley.

And from way up high at Shirley Heights. The sun goes down so quickly in Antigua that he was only able to do a very rough sketch, with details to follow.

Once he returns to his studio he will finish the few canvases he started in Antigua. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with. As a point of reference, here are two pieces from his website.

In keeping with the period of Nelson’s Dockyard.

Or this historic New York harbor scene.

Patrick’s work is revered worldwide. Check out his studio site.

Last evening Astrid and her husband Bo, of the Admiral’s Inn, invited me, Patrick and Alison to their home overlooking the harbor for drinks and then dinner at the Inn.

We discussed the possibility of Patrick bringing down members of ASMA for a retreat and a week of painting. This place is so rich in history and I have to believe that many would find it to be inspiring as has Patrick.

During dinner, this little guy dropped from the heavens, well from the umbrella, stayed for a few moments and then scampered off.

Well, Brenda will be here in a few hours with Chris and I look forward to enjoying the island with them in tow.

Being here with Patrick and Alison, who leave the island tomorrow, has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to seeing them again soon, perhaps in Essex or even Antigua.

And, speaking of seeing folks here in Antigua, I sure hope that the skippers who have been stuck in Bermuda are able to make a fast passage to Antigua and join in the fun and I can’t wait to be able to say “the gang is all here”. Soon enough, I hope…

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It’s good to be back in Antigua but I will admit that as “past president” of Salty Dawg and here for what may be the last time for many years, is a bit sad. While I am excited about heading to Europe next spring, but I have come to really enjoy my time here in Antigua and it will be hard to leave in the Spring.

My crew Bob and I arrived here yesterday afternoon after completing a 400 mile run from Trinidad. We were delayed in our departure by nearly 5 days due to a lot of details that needed to be completed and that time being stuck in the marina was frustrating to us both. And, it was hot, much hotter than Antigua, oddly. I guess being that much farther south makes a big difference.

Amos, after doing all that work over the last few months aboard Pandora, saw us off and tossed our lines on that last morning.

As a result of the nearly 5 day delay, we were not able to stop as many places along the way.

However, I think that Bob enjoyed the run once we were finally underway.

As have mentioned in the past, the landscape in Trinidad is dramatic and as we headed out the scenery evoked Jurassic Park.

Sadly, we had to motorsail into the NE wind for the first day, probably putting more hours on the engine than I did all last season. Normally, I would have waited a day until the wind was favorable but we were just too pressed for time.

Once things settled down and tthe wind shifted back to the east, it was beautiful on the water. I think that I may send this photo to the Cloud Appreciation Society and see if they choose to publish it. I have had a number of photos chosen over the years. It’s a fun group that sends out a cloud photo every day, year round.

Due to being so late in our departure, we had to cover a lot more distance on that first hop than we had planned. The run from Trinidad, non-stop, was over 300 miles, the longest leg I have taken in the Caribbean in all the years that I have been sailing here. Our normal run is generally less than 75 miles.

Along the way we passed a number of islands. But much of that was done in the dark.

We made landfall in Les Saintes. I have written about this favorite spot many times. It is very picturesque. Check out this post that I did on our final visit last season.

After a day there, we did a short run to Deshais, a tiny village at the top of Guadeloupe. The sail was really nice in the lee of the island. The lighthouse at the southern tip, not far from Les Saintes.

As we made our way up the coast of Guadeloupe, we were approached, at speed, by a Guadeloupe coast guard boat. They roared up, came very close, within feet of us, waved and roared off. They smiled. I have no idea what they were looking for. “Oh, those guys, they look harmless. There have to be some bad guys out there somewhere. Let’s find them.”

In Deshais, we took a short hike up a stream to one of my favorite spots, a fresh water swimming hole. Bob and I both loved the experience.

The vegetation along the stream was very lush. I have always had a soft spot for tree ferns. This tiny one would look great on my back porch.

On our last evening in Deshais, we were treated to a classic Caribbean Sunset. A very nice way to finish up a cruise with Bob, even if it was a bit of an abbreviated forced march.

Pandora on her mooring in Deshais, as we returned from getting a few baguettes and croissants to tide us over on the run to Antigua, our final leg.

So, here I am alone on Pandora for a night as Bob has moved ashore to the Admiral’s Inn where his wife will join him for a week on the island. Friends of mine, Lynn and Mark, will join me for a few days until Kalunamoo arrives later this week.

The Salty Dawg fleet should begin arriving in a day or so, with dozens arriving each day. With about 80 boats headed this way it’s going to get busy in the Dockyard. Not yet so they wait.

I have seen a number of the folks that I know since arriving yesterday and the common refrain that I have heard is “let the season begin. The Dawgs are coming!”

I’m excited.

I began this post a few days ago but it’s now Monday and we are about ready to head north to St Lucia, the first stop on our run to Antigua to meet the Salty Dawg rally fleet. There is little doubt that they will arrive first as most of the boats are hunkered down in Bermuda waiting for some nasty tropical stuff to clear out.

I have been back in Trinidad for over a week almost a week having arrived at Pandora in the very early hours last Saturday. The flights to Trinidad from JFK are not expensive but they leave around 7:00PM and don’t land until a bit after midnight. I’m thinking that they make a turn to the Caribbean to some of the more high paying “tourist” islands, where the passengers pay more and expect to be on the beach in the afternoon. Then he crew flies back back to JFK for another run, this time to Trinidad for the “locals”.

I arrived at the airport, JFK, more than three hours ahead of the flight, dropping off my rental car and taking the tram to the terminal. I had three bags, one at exactly 50lbs, a mixture of clothing and lots of small boat items. A second smaller bag with my computer, camera and a third, a box that was very sturdy, which it had to be because it contained a 50lb transformer that was to be installed aboard Pandora so she can hook up to European 220v in the Med next year vs the 110v that she is set up for. This is an expensive and sophisticated piece of kit as it also has to change the phase of the power from European 50Hz to US 60Hz. Making the change in voltage is easy but the change in Hz is the hard part and critical to electric motors. The AC compressors can handle both but other motors aboard may not so it’s not worth the risk.

Anyway, I arrived at the airport with the voltage converter nicely packaged in a sturdy box and learned that Jet Blue does not accept boxes for international flights, only luggage. That meant that I had to find a duffle bag to pack it into. Ugg…

I went to a luggage store in the terminal but the largest duffle was a simple backpack which was way too small. After that I spoke to someone at the “oversize luggage” drop she was able to identify and “abandoned” duffle that was almost big enough. I took it and then “borrowed” a roll of tape from another baggage check and proceeded to rip up the box and find a way to pad the unit and stuff it into the bag. It didn’t even come close to fitting in the duffle so I taped it shut as best I could and wrapped the unit in tape every which way. I also had some sturdy ratchet straps that I used to secure the whole thing and provide a handle.

I held my breath and took it to the luggage check. After a few moments they took pity on me (it was the same guy that lent me the tape and surely saw me spending a half hour wrapping it up) and accepted it. The package weighed in at 55lbs, five over the limit. Surprisingly, he did not nick me for the extra $100 that an overweight bag requires. So, now all I could do is wait and see if it came through in one piece. It did.

The flight was packed and I’d say that perhaps half the flight was folks returning home and the rest visiting relatives. Not a lot of beach goers.

After making my way to Pandora at nearly 3:00AM on Saturday, I was exhausted and didn’t get much done for the rest of the day. While the flight arrived around midnight, the customs arrival process is very tedious and had to go through both immigration and customs and then was pulled aside to be questioned about all the “boat parts” that I had brought along. Anything assigned to a visiting yacht, or “yacht in transit” is considered duty free but they had to be certain that all my paperwork was in order.

And to add insult to injury, the driver then had to take me to visit the coastal customs office before heading to Pandora. This made for a fourth stop. The office appeared to be closed but the driver insisted that I ring the bell. About 5-10 minutes later a customs officer, looking a little sleepy, came to the door, took my papers, disappeared for about 15 minutes and then returned.

After the paperwork was done he wanted to open up the packages and look at what I had arrived with. I had declared that I had “stuff” for the boat. After a few minutes of cutting the layers of tape from the transformer he lifted a corner of the package and peeked in only to say “ok, go ahead” and that was that. I guess he wanted to go back to bed.

As I mentioned when I was last here in May, It’s hot, in the mid 90s at noon and very humid. With the AC aboard, it gives me a place to retreat to when I need to rest. Many of the workers try to stay out of the direct sun in the middle of the day and then work on deck early and late in the day. The amount of water that I have been drinking every day is stunning.

On Tuesday I had to turn off the AC for the entire day as they were applying two coats of epoxy barrier and a third of epoxy primer followed by two coats of antifouling bottom paint. That process took all day and I wasn’t able to turn on the AC again until after 5:00 PM. Down below it reached 100 degrees.

The reason the AC had to be turned off was because the entire boat sweats when the humidity is high and the boat, with AC cranking, is a bit cooler than the outside temperature, just like a cold drink does on a hot day. If that were to happen, the epoxy barrier coat on the bottom would not adhere properly and the entire job would be ruined.

Well, that’s all done now and after two coats of barrier epoxy, one epoxy primer and two coats of antifouling, she looks great and ready to launch.

Not so fast, the list of items remaining were dozens, most small but a few large.

I won’t go into too many details except to say that when Amos told me a few weeks ago that Pandora was 98% done, what I did not anticipate was that when I arrived there was just how painful that last two percent was going to be.

My crew, Bob, arrived on Thursday in the wee hours and since then we have been struggling to get everything put back together. This isn’t to say that Amos’s work isn’t anything but wonderful. However, after any job that takes months, there a many, many tiny details that really don’t happen until the very last minute.

Pandora is gleaming.

When I left in the spring I cleaned up the dink and with it covered all summer, all set to go. On launch day, yesterday, they used a forklift to gently lower her into the water.

Even her prop looks good with new zincs and antifouling. I did that myself to keep the process moving.

The cabin paint, newly set glass in the dodger and canvas look great. Most of the canvas glazing was replaced as it gets nasty in only a few years of tropical sun. The sail cover also received a lot of TLC.

Forward, the repaired decks are “all better now”. Quite an understatement given the amount of time it took to replace over 40′ of deck with all new material.

I worked with a local welder, Mitchel, to build a custom boom break to better control the jib boom which has a tendency to slam around a lot in certain conditions. I designed this after years of thinking and asked Mitchel to bring it to life.

First he took some heavy stainless wire to make a template of the shape of the boom.

He then went to his shop to work up a rough template and check-fit it to the boom. Even in the initial stages it fit remarkably well.

Much of the hardware was removed from the boat in preparation for painting and while much of it was reinstalled when I arrived, a good deal was left to be done. Sadly, many of the fasteners were jumbled in a mix in a box full of dust and other stuff. One problem was that the “car” that holds the aft end of the jib fell off the track when it was being removed and lost all of it’s ball bearings. Many of them were swept up from the deck but I had to bring in a rigger to “load” them back in place. This is a very exacting process and requires a small piece of track, identical to the track on the boom. After the car is fully filled with ball bearings, the loader is lined up with the track and the car is carefully slid over and onto the big part. Gary was very exacting.

However, the process was slowed down by the fact that he did not have a proper sized loader. In true island style, he fashioned one from a piece of teak. That was a remarkable bit of engineering in wood.

I also had difficulty hoisting the jib and fortunately there was a local sailmaker who fixed it overnight. Good luck getting someone to do that in the US on a weekend. Now all the sails are in place and reefing lines set. That was big job in the heat, taking hours. That was only one of dozens of other tasks that had to get done.

Earlier in this post I talked about the voltage converter that I will need when Pandora is in the Med and getting this installed has proven to be quite a nail biter. Here we are, on the eve of launch, scheduled for Monday morning, and the electrician is still finalizing things.

On Saturday night they were here until 11:00pm. Krendol, the electrician, was late arriving that day because his wife, pregnant with their third, had an apt with her Ob/Gyn so I can’t complain that he showed up later than expected.

In spite of all the work over the last week, Bob and I did find some time to have a bit of fun Most evenings cruisers gather on the dock to watch the sun go down. It’s a nice way to end the day.

Thursday was a national holiday here in Trinidad with everyone celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. There are many that live here that have roots in India, perhaps the largest concentration outside of India proper and they make a big deal out of Hindu holidays.

The manager of Powerboats Marina put on a wonderful celebration and invited all the cruisers to come to dinner. It was a very nice evening. I particularly enjoyed the lighting of the candles, lined up carefully on a split bamboo pole, splayed out in all directions, with the ends of each section staked into the ground. At sunset, dozens of candles were lit.

It was magical. I understand that there are entire villages on the island were every yard has candles on display. There was a tour organized for many cruisers to go around and view the displays.

Bob and I enjoyed an outing early on Saturday morning to a huge outdoor farmer’s market. There was every imaginable type of fruit and vegetables along with, beef, goat, chicken and lots of types of fish.

Row after row of vegetables and spices.

How about fresh shark?

Or perhaps land crabs for dinner? These puppies are about the size of a grapefruit, all tied up like a string of garlic. They were alive and wiggling. Brenda would have loved it. Not…

So, Sunday, on the eve of launch, there are still a few items that need finishing. The electrician still had more to do and his work continued until we were actually on the way to the water and motoring over to the slip.

The reconditioned life raft finally arrived on Monday and I will admit that I was not expecting that it would actually show up on time. We also got the propane which had been delayed from Saturday to Monday.

So, after months of being “under the knife” Pandora was nearly ready to go.

After an arduous clearing out process with Customs and Immigration, made a bit easier with the help of trusty Amos, Pandora was finally picked up by the travel lift and off to the water we went.

But wait, the projects were not done as I still had the electrician on board finishing up the installation of the 220v to 110v unit. He was working away as they moved the boat and ended up staying aboard in the slip, finishing up, until well after dark.

Amos also stuck around to help install the boom break, which looks beautiful. Here he is working on the final install with some help from Bob. Note Amos in an “official” Pandora crew shirt. I had one made up for each of his crew, 9 in all. I hope that Amos can get a “group shot” and send it to me.

After years of imaging how I would design a proper boom break for the jib, here it is. Ta Da! I hope that it performs as well as I imagine. Mitchel, who clearly takes great pride in his work. If “beauty is as beauty does” than this should prove to be a great piece of equipment.

So, here we are, afloat again, and we will be heading out early this morning but not until I finish up on this post. Pandora all snug in her slip, AC working happily.

Off to St Lucia, a run that should take about a day and a half and we expect to arrive there around mid day Wednesday.

So far, so good.

Oh yeah, you can follow our progress on “where in the world is Pandora” above.

When I first contracted to have Amos of Perfect Finish in Trinidad do the work on Pandora, now more than a year ago, we agreed that he would keep me posted every step of the way.

Having Pandora more than 2,000 miles away and wondering if the work was progressing was a big concern.

Well, when we set up the “deal” last July, Amos agreed to keep me informed as things progressed and he has been true to his word. Since mid May he has done many video tours with me and sent countless photos, surely over 100 to document every detail of the work

A few days ago I asked him to supply me with current photos of the hardware being re-installed and today these photos showed up.

I continue to be amazed with how shiny things are. Everything on deck was a uniform blah for years. Not now. And, putting the tempered glass back in place. Love those nifty sucker things.

Inside and out, fully masked to keep glue from making a mess. The last time I had them re-bedded the guy didn’t mask well and over time the residual glue turned black. This looks much better. Details, details 🙂

They pulled off all of the deck hardware before painting. It will be nice to be certain that there won’t be any leaks under old bedding.

For years this block of clutches leaked water into the workshop down below. I tried to remove them a few years ago and couldn’t get them off. Done!

The number of tiny fittings that had to be removed and replaced was, well, a LOT like this row of teeny tiny canvas fasteners.

It always bugged me that the Hoyt boom for the jib was all scratched up and pitted from thousands of miles of use. Hardware re-attached and all shiny now. Well, at least for a while until it is scratched again.

When I get back I will be working with Mitchel, the welder, to make up a break to secure the boom when I am off the wind. In the past there was a tendency for the boom to jibe violently in a seaway so running wing and wing didn’t go well. Details to come but I think he has a good feel for what I am looking for. I hope that my idea works. Stay tuned. Me too…

The one major issue that wasn’t included in the overall job agreement was yet another damp area in the after portion of the cockpit. We had talked about this problem before leaving the boat in May but we didn’t know the extent of the damage until it was opened up. The core was wet due to a change made by the prior owner that were not properly waterproofed. The small leak soaked the area aft of the binnacle. It’s now been fully restored. The non-skid vinyl decking material will be reapplied this week and it will look as good as new.

The binnacle will also be repainted as there was much corrosion.

So many details like the transition from the aft deck to the transom. That stainless strip was very discolored. Not now.

So, here I sit putting yet another post up about Pandora’s refit and it’s hard to believe that I will be back aboard her in ten days.

All I can say is that She’s almost done and it looks like Amos and his crew have come through.

Yup, I’m excited. Now I am wondering if the engine will start as nobody has been focused on that.
Great…something more to worry about.

At least she’s shiny…

It’s hard to believe that I head to Trinidad in about two weeks, October 25th to be exact, to prepare Pandora for the run north to Antigua and the arrival of the Salty Dawg rally fleet.

Soon many will be following the track of the fleet as they depart from Hampton, VA and Newport RI with most heading to Antigua, where I will be joining them. The link doesn’t look like much now but it will be updated as we get closer to departure.

It seems like just yesterday, May actually, that I arrived in Trinidad with Pandora, a place that I had never visited, to leave Pandora for a major refit. To commit to such a big job, over 2,000 miles from home was quite a leap of faith for me. I was full of questions. Could I be confident that work was being done at all? Would It be done properly? How would I know what was going on from so far away?

Given the scope of the work, I realized that there was no way that I could afford to have it done in the US where labor rates are so high so I had to take her to Trinidad as the only realistic option. With the recommendation of a number of friends, I settled on a vendor last summer and agreed to the scope of work and costs even before I headed to Trinidad. Happily, there have been no major surprises and the job has progressed according to plan.

Amos, of Perfect Finish, who is overseeing the work, has been keeping me informed every step of the way, sending over 100 photos as the job progressed and has also been giving me near weekly video tours of the work on WhatsApp. In spite of the distance, I actually feel better about the communication than I have felt on jobs done in the US over the years.

Amos has a crew of nine that work on his jobs with him and I understand that this season he was fully booked with three major jobs and lots of little projects when he began work on Pandora. These are three of his crew plus Amos on the left. Four of his crew worked on Pandora nearly every day from mid May to August with every detail chronicled in photos and videos sent to me. I detailed much of the work in excruciating detail in past posts if you are curious.

The bulk of the work is now complete and they are now putting things back together again.

The four tempered glass windows in the hard dodger going back in.

Now that things are nearly completed, my only regret is that I did not leave Pandora there in past years as that would have saved a lot of wear and tear on me and the boat as I slogged thousands of miles north and south, time and time again.

As I get ready to head back to Trinidad, I am also reflecting on my soon-to-change role as president of The Salty Dawg Sailing Association (SDSA). My time has been nearly fully consumed by my role of president, as well as, Rally Director and Port Officer for Antigua.

And, busy I have been…

We have a huge number of boats in the rally this year with over 110 heading south in early November. And more than 25 of those needed a lot of extra handholding for the last few months as they aren’t all that experienced. In those cases, I spent hours on the phone with skippers answering questions and helping them navigate all of the details needed to prepare for what would be, for most, their longest run to date.

I advised them, along with support of others in Salty Dawg, on changes to make to their boats, how to evaluate crew, and in a number of cases, required them to do one or more “qualifying passages” so that they would get more overnight experience before they headed offshore with the rally.

And, timing offshore is always an issue and to “practice” during the mild summer months is a good way to prepare for the more challenging weather of late fall.

As the Bahamas is only about half of the 1,500 mile distance to Antigua, I nudged some to head there until they had more experience to make the longer run to Antigua. This advice was generally willingly accepted, perhaps because I often added that “I did not want their first run to be their last…”

Getting a boat set up for a long run, equipment upgrades and arranging for qualified crew, is no simple task and Salty Dawg prides ourselves in helping skippers find their way.

It is very rewarding to have skippers so appreciative of the advice and nearly all that I talked to were very willing to do whatever is needed to prepare for a safe voyage.

later this week I will head to Annapolis for the Sailboat show and the SDSA annual dinner. This event is always popular and will surely have more than 200 attending.

It will be fun to see old friends and to meet many of the skippers that I have spoken to over the last few months as they prepared for their big offshore run.

Going to the Annapolis dinner will be bittersweet for me as I will be giving up my position of President, a major change given how much of my time has been consumed by this position for the last three years.

My successor, fellow board member Mike of SV Exodus, a great guy, will take over as president for at least the next two years and while I will miss being in that role, I am looking forward to having a bit more time on my hands. One thing that has really suffered has been my attention to this blog.

However, I will still have my hooks into SDSA, or them into me as is were, because I will be continuing on as Rally Director, a position that I have had for the last five years. I am very pleased as that is the part of my work with SDSA that I have enjoyed the most. To spend time with so many who are working to fulfill what is for many a lifelong dream has been one of the most rewarding things that I have ever been involved with.

I will also continue as Port Officer for Antigua, which is good as I don’t feel like I have completed my work there.

Happily, we will have the largest number of boats making landfall in Antigua this season. I’m not certain of the exact number as there are always last minute destination changes and in addition to the boats from the US, other boats will be heading north from Grenada and Trinidad. One way or the other, this year we will have a record number, likely in the mid 90s.

My current focus is on getting Pandora to Antigua but that’s actually just the beginning as by the end of the season I will be heading to the Azores from Bermuda.

This short piece only two minutes, gives a feel for the beauty of the Azores.

When I look back to 2012 when Brenda and I first headed down the ICW, I never imagined that I’d be planning a trans-Atlantic run. Here we are, full of hope when we visited the Fayerweather Yacht Club in Bridgeport, where we kept our very first boat, TAO, a 20′ Cape Cod catboat.

And, as we headed down the East River in NYC, we had absolutely no idea where all of this would lead. At that time we had “old Pandora” our SAGA 43 that carried us to the Bahamas for several seasons until we upgraded to “new Pandora” in 2015.

My dad would certainly find this whole thing interesting as I still remember him saying to me, a few years before he passed away, and that was over 10 years ago, “Bob, wouldn’t it be great to take Pandora through the Straits of Gibraltar?” Indeed, Dad, that’s the plan.

After more than 25,000 blue water miles, a dozen winters afloat, time cruising the US East coast, Bahamas and much of the eastern Caribbean, I guess there is still a long way to go.

Perhaps I’ll close with a short video by the travel writer Rick Steves, about visiting the place that I dreamed about with Dad.

I’m excited…

As I write this I am less than a month from giving up my position as president of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association at our annual rendezvous at the Annapolis Sailboat Show.

My role as president was not quite typical as it was a position that I did not seek. As they say “if called upon I will serve” and I was… There was a bit of a vacuum in succession when my predecessor Hank decided to step down and no takers in the wings. In spite of my best efforts, I was unable to convince anyone on the board to step up so it was me…

It has been a big job for the last three years and I can still remember the first board meeting when I became “official” and how totally out of my depth I felt in front of the others. Over the last three years they have given me the opportunity to shape the position in a way I wanted, taking on jobs that I really enjoyed and letting others take the parts that I was not suited for. And, it’s been a great experience that I will miss.

One of the nice things about a volunteer position is that you can choose to shape it in a way that suits, and I did. I chose to focus a good deal of my energy on the core activity of Salty Dawg, rallies, and that meant continuing my role as rally director. Historically, that position was stand alone from the office of president but I was able to readjust who did what and continued to work with our executive director Tatja to vet boats that applied to participate in our rallies. While there isn’t much to do to manage the more experienced skippers, I have focused a lot of my effort on those skippers that don’t have a lot of experience. As I often say, “I want to be sure that your first big run isn’t your last” and to be sure that they have plans in place for boat and crew that, hopefully, will keep them safe.

When I say “last” I am generally talking about the differences between a miserable run and one that is fun. Is the crew experienced? You fairly sure that they aren’t going to get sick? We often have boats that must stop in Bermuda to drop off a crew member that just can’t recover from seasickness.

Our boys, now men, have often reminded me not to engage in what they call CLMs. As in don’t subject Mom to “Career Limiting Moves”. Meaning that I should avoid making her miserable…

This year, more than ever before, we have a lot of skippers for whom this run will be their longest to date, more than 25 out of more than 100 boats. And, in a few cases, they have never been out of the Chesapeake Bay, much less sailed 1,500 miles to Antigua. This calls for additional preparation for the boat, crew and skipper. In these cases, we offered “provisional” approval to participate. This meant that we were recommending that they think about certain issues such as having experienced crew on board and sometimes professional captains as well as a plan to complete a “qualifying voyage” of several overnights offshore in the time leading up to departure.

For those who have not been out of sheltered waters, they “don’t know what they don’t know”.

The ocean can be a lot of things. From dead calm. Sort of like The Chesapeake or Long Island Sound.

And the wonder of seeing a whale like this Sperm Whale that we encountered off of Dominica last winter.

Or, well not so calm.

In a few cases, I received pushback but mostly my recommendations were met with appreciation as they understood that being properly prepared was important. Those that put up a fuss generally fade away and decide not to participate in the rally.

And, as I have done so many webinars and talks over the years, my contact information is posted in many places so hardly a week goes by that I don’t get a call or two from someone asking questions about blue water prep or Salty Dawg.

While I will be stepping down as president, I will retain the role of rally director as it gives me regular contact with those wishing to make the transition from coastal sailing to ocean voyaging. It is rewarding to spend time working with those that are getting ready for their first big voyage and to hear their enthusiasm and offering what help in some way is something that I really enjoy.

Often success is a matter of good timing and a lot of luck and that has certainly been the case for me. Hank, my predecessor, did a masterful job of bringing SDSA through the worst of the pandemic, guiding us through the wrenching process of deciding to require vaccination to participate. That process cost us two board members, one who was vehemently opposed to the requirement and the other who was exhausted by the back and forth for months that lead up to the controversial decision to require all participants to show proof of vaccination.

While the pandemic was devastating to so many lives, both in the US and around the world, an argument could be made that Covid 19 “made” Salty Dawg the vibrant organization that it is today.

I still remember when Brenda and I were aboard Pandora in Rodney Bay, St Lucia when the whole world suddenly came to a screeching halt, with businesses closed down and everyone tried to figure out what was going to happen next. I wrote a post at that time about how I thought that things would unfold. I was so wrong. When everything shut down, we were at a marina in St Lucia and I wrote about our dilemma in this post. I had no idea how badly it would go.

The world came to a screeching halt, even in “paradise”. Facemask? None available so we made do with a bilge diaper and ribbon. Lots of making due…

Stories were shared on Facebook and as everyone was “locked down”, some wondered what was so bad about being “locked down in paradise”. We, and other cruisers didn’t see it quite that way as somehow being stuck aboard a boat about the same size as a large bathroom, potentially for months, didn’t seem all that appealing.

Additionally, we had no intention of staying in the Caribbean over the summer and yet getting crew for the run home was impossible.

As all of that soaked in, I spoke with Frank and we agreed that perhaps the best option was to expand our spring rally into what we ended up calling the “homeward bound flotilla”. In past years we had always offered a rally home to the US and generally had about a dozen or so boats participating.

However, with everyone struggling to find a way home, suddenly our “flotilla” became a lifeline and ended up helping nearly 200 boats make their way back to the US.

In order to make the decision to join us easy, so we could help as many cruisers as possible, we decided to make the rally free and to give boats the opportunity to make a donation to SDSA, a decision that proved to be a good one as most everyone was very generous.

Board members and volunteers really stepped up and worked with officials in the Bahamas, a country that had closed their boarders and locked down everyone, to accept our rally boats who needed to rest on the long run north with very limited crew. In many cases, like me and Brenda, often with partners that had never taken a long voyage with little options to stop along the way.

Sadly, that was the case for me and Brenda who has never been an “offshore sort of girl” for the more than 40 years that we have sailed together. After months of trying in vain to find crew to fly to meet us, we finally gave up and did the run with just the two of us.

I won’t go into any more detail on all of this except to say that the work that Salty Dawg did to help so many put the organization “on the map” with our story written about in just about every boating magazine in the months that followed.

All of this is to say that Salty Dawg went from a fringe group to a name that is now very well known in the cruising community.

And, after all that, and sort of against my will, I became president of SDSA a position that in many ways now feels like “what I was born to do”. It’s been a lot of fun.

I retired in 2012, a goal to retire “early” that I had first hatched when I was in my early 20s and on our first boating vacation, a goal that came true, by hard work and a LOT of luck. Brenda has been very supportive as sailing has never been her passion but she is a good sport nearly 50 years later.

When I retired I vowed to spend time on what really mattered to me and that has turned out to be Salty Dawg and it’s been great fun.

Oh yeah, we are heading to our 50th high school reunion and we are told that we are the only ” high school sweethearts” that are still together. Knowing me as I do, it seems like a miracle. Lucky me…

So, under the “what’s next” category, I would never have imagined as we are now preparing for me to take Pandora trans-Atlantic as part of the Salty Dawg rally to the Azores next June.

However, there are lots of issues that need to be sorted out with Pandora to prepare for that run including how to deal with European power 220v 50 cycles verses our 110 60 cycles. It turns out that the 220/110 is easy. The Cycle issue, not so much. Details to come on that front.

And, something as simple as propane US fittings verse butane European fittings. Ugg…

And I don’t even want to think about the constantly changing rules for Starlink. Thanks Elon…

All and all, it’s going to be quite a ride as we prepare for Pandora’s next most excellent adventure. The first thing will be to get Pandora back in the water after her BIG refit. But that’s another story to be told.

With so much going on, perhaps it’s best to think soothing thoughts. How about a rum punch on the beach?

Way back in early May I left Pandora in Trinidad to begin a major refit. If you have been following this project, recall that I left Pandora at Powerboats Marine in Chaguaramus to have a number of big jobs done that I have been putting off for a while. I hired a group, Perfect Finish, headed by Amos who was recommended by a number of friends that have been keeping their boats there for years.

It is a very nice facility, one of a small number of yards for cruisers in Trinidad.

The process of engaging with Amos about this job began about a year ago when I discovered, much to my distress, that a good amount of the side decks had become wet. Ugg…

I did several video calls with him over WhatsApp and went into detail of what needed to be fixed and as honest a sense of the scope of work that I could muster. We agreed on a price…

Anyway, off to Trinidad at the end of last season where she has been for months now. There has been a small army of guys working on Pandora and I have been getting weekly video tours of the job from Amos which has given me a great deal of confidence in the quality of the work.

In addition to the live video tours, Amos has sent me dozens of photos each week and regular video clips as things progress.

I will not review all of the steps but there have been many and if you are interested, you can scroll back a few posts to see all the gory details.

Today is a big day as Amos sent me a 3 minute video this morning at 07:00, they get to work early, to show what the boat looks like as they prepare for spraying all of the non-skid finish coat. In addition to replacing the wet deck areas, they sanded the entire boat, rail to rail down to fiberglass, to prepare to repaint everything and finally put down a medium grit non-skid. Of course, a gloss finish on deck would be terrible, especially when the decks are wet.

Note the hundreds of feet of masking to keep the areas that have been already been sprayed to a high gloss, from getting the new dull and somewhat rough finish. The masked areas, along with cabin sides and other selected areas, will retain the high gloss finish as they do not need to be non-skid. This contrast between glossy and matt will provide for a very professional look that goes way beyond what Pandora sported when new. Basically, all of the grey areas will become non-skid.

Sure, a lot of tape throughout but as you get near the bow the attention to detail is particularly impressive.

And in the cockpit under the hard dodger. Note how shiny the underside of the dodger and cabin sides are. Brenda thought that they were wet…

And, speaking of shiny, they are even painting the Hoyt boom. For the moment, it is pushed off to the left and all the hardware has been removed.

An issue with a Hoyt boom is that they are hard to control on a deep reach so I am having a local welder fabricate a break system that I have designed. Here are the drawings. There is no way that I could hire someone to do this sort of complex job here in the US at a reasonable price.

No, I am no draftsman but the welder, Mitchel, seems to feel that he can fabricate one. He declared the job “easy”. We’ll see about that. He hasn’t begun to work on it yet, beyond taking some measurements when I was in Trinidad in May, as we wanted to get the painting and deck work completed before he started that project.

Oh yeah, one more thing. You might have noticed a few photos above in this post, that the floor of the cockpit is a bit torn up. Sadly, there are wet spots in that area too. I won’t go into how that happened but it is sufficient to say that the problem is a result of two small fittings in the cockpit sole that were not properly sealed. Of course, that is being fixed too. Details to come. Sadly, there is no end to it but that is the first part of the job that has fallen outside of the agreed scope of work.

All and all, the project is going well and I am getting very excited about heading back to Pandora to get her ready to run north to Antigua to meet up with the Salty Dawg rally to the Caribbean in early November. To that point, registration is going really well and we will likely see upwards of 100 boats heading south this fall. Exciting stuff.

With regards to Trinidad as a place to store a boat, off season, and also considerations on getting work done and of course, the likelihood of a direct hurricane hit, I have scheduled a Salty Dawg Webinar on this subject for August 28th. You can sign up by following this link and scroll down to the last webinar listed and register. It’s free for all and you don’t have to be a Salty Dawg member to participate.

As the webinar will be recorded, I will come back and modify this post later to include a link to the recording.

As I sit here in CT, it has been just about a year since I had my first video call with Amos to review the scope of work that would be needed to get Pandora in near perfect condition. It has been 17 years since she was loaded on a ship from Helsinki so I guess it is high time that she gets the full treatment.

When I first “met” with Amos, via video link, I had mapped out all of the areas that were damp in the decks in blue tape and discussed, in detail, what I hoped he would accomplish. The list was long and beyond the details of the cockpit issue mentioned above, there have been no major surprises.

Had someone told me that I could have work done so far from home and to be able to follow it in such exquisite detail as things progressed, I would not have believed it.

Actually, I didn’t believe it in spite of years of prodding but here we are a year later and it’s nearly done.

Who knew? Not me…