It’s Saturday and Ken will be arriving today, two days later than planned. Life has a way of getting in the way.
The few days after I arrived were hectic, getting everything ready for Pandora to splash and move into a slip for some last minute work before departing. The original plan was for her to go in a day before Ken arrived so that we’d be ready to depart on Friday morning, bound for Bequia, about 145 miles to the north.
However, when Ken arrived at the airport and handed his passport to the agent he realized, much to his horror, that the “passport case”, while it looked lovely and protected his precious passport, was empty. It seems that he had set it on his home copier and left it there after doing a scan.
An honest mistake but one that had a cascading effect on everything. Of course, he had to head back home and arrange for a flight the next day but when he arrived the next morning he learned that he was going to be on standby on the second leg.
As luck would have it, while he made it to Miami he didn’t make it onboard the second leg to Trinidad. However, it wasn’t until an alternate flight later that day took off that he learned that the bag was now in Trinidad as he had been told that since he wasn’t on the flight, his bag didn’t make it. We both thought that the airline always cross-referenced every passenger with their bag. I guess not, at least not for the transfer to the second flight. Live and learn.
So now, here we are several days later and he’s finally going to arrive and assuming no surprises, we should be able to depart on Sunday morning, tomorrow. Better late than never.
While the delay was frustrating, and ate into the time that we have to get to St Maarten, where I will lead the Salty Dawg Rally to Bermuda, I was able to get some last minute work done on Pandora and to spend time “smelling the roses”.
In this case, the “roses” consisted of trying some of the local food and seeing some really interesting fauna. How about this iguana? He/she was more than 2′ long. Quite a beautiful shade of green. They are at their most brightly colored when they are alarmed. Somehow it is comforting that there is at least one creature that feels threatened by Moi.

This amazing beetle wasn’t amused to have me pick him up.

Top and bottom, a remarkable critter.

I also was able to finish a number of other projects that were well underway. Given my concerns about having my primary rudder bitten off by a juvenile orca near Gibraltar, I had an auxiliary tiller fabricated for my vane steering. It is probably a bit over-engineered and a work of art in itself.
The idea is that If my primary steering fails I will be able to steer the boat and move the auxiliary vane tiller with lines connected to pullies on the radar arch. Well, that’s the theory. I hope that I do not have to test the theory in rough conditions. If it isn’t clear, it’s the S shaped handle. Lot’s of stainless around Pandora.

To that point, you can really get a feel for the complexity of the stainless work on Pandora in this photo.

In addition to the metal work I also had some canvas work, electrical and engine work, some of which would probably not have been completed unless Ken was delayed. I guess that is the silver lining.
Pandora is an impressive boat but what a contrast she is against this lovely teak festooned ketch. What a contrast to the “sans wood” Pandora. She is a virtual teak forest and in perfect condition. She’s beautiful but I can only imagine what it costs to keep her in perfect varnish.

The local craftsman are known for their woodworking skills and they use a LOT of teak. It’s is sourced here in Trinidad and is farm raised and harvested from trees that are about 75 years old. These boards easily weigh more than a hundred pounds each and a single piece one foot square and 2″ thick costs more than $20. Each board is worth in the neighborhood of $800-$1,000 and a boat can use a lot of teak. A friends of mine are getting new teak decks on their boat and the installation is likely to cost somewhere in the $60,000 range. And that assumes that everything else is AOK on their boat. Big job.

Ken won’t arrive here until around 8:00 tonight and we will still have to clear out with customs near the marina. Fortunately, they are open 24 hours a day due to the very busy commercial ship traffic. But it’s still a process.
With luck we will depart early tomorrow morning to make the 145 mile run to Bequia. I expect that the run will take about 20-22 hours assuming good wind.
Wish us luck. Departing is good and better late than never.
Don’t forget that you can sign up to get a notice when I post and I will be posting regularly for the next few months.
There is also a tracker aboard so you can see where we are in real time under “where in the world is Pandora”. As the rallies get underway I will also be posting a page so you can follow the rally fleet and see where all of the boats are located