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As I begin writing this the sun is just peaking over the eastern horizon.  The water is glass calm as we make our way down toward Ocracoke island and then on to Beaufort where I will leave Pandora until mid January.

The sunrise was beautiful this morning from the earliest light when we picked up the anchor.A perfect reflection of the trees on shore.  Brenda, this would make for a lovely tapestry.  Get on it!  Please?A little while later, a full sunrise reflected on the still water.  What a great way to begin the day.On this trip we are taking a different route, one that my crew Jim enjoys.  We will head further east toward the coast, a route that I have not taken before.  Instead of going through the Dismal Swamp Canal, we took the “Virginia Cut” that has a single lock.

It’s a huge lock that carries commercial traffic and there were quite a few boats there when we arrived.Jim has done this route a number of times, most recently just a few weeks ago.  He keeps his boat in the lower Chesapeake and enjoys heading in a loop down to Ocracoke and then returning via the Dismal swamp canal further to the west.

After leaving Hampton shortly after dawn yesterday we headed down past the naval base.  A cruiser was picking up a mooring out in the river.  Just how many sailors does it take?  A lot, it seems.  Aboard Pandora.  It only takes two, one in a pinch. Hey look…  His and hers aircraft carriers.  If the election doesn’t sort itself out next week, there’s one for Hillary and one for Donald.   Now, that would be fun. And speaking of NYC, which I wasn’t, Highlander, Malcomb Forbes’s old yacht was in dry dock in Portsmouth.  I saw here there last fall too.  She’s looking a bit worse for wear.  Too bad. In any event, we are making our way down the ICW and tonight we will take a slip in Ocracoke, go out to dinner and then make our way to Beaufort by Thursday night.

Interestingly, even though this area feels very remote, we have been passed by a half dozen boats in the last few minutes, all large powerboats heading south as a group.   They will get there a lot sooner than us but their “burn rate” is probably 30x greater than us.  Unlike their “cousins” on the CT River, almost everyone slows way down so that they don’t rock us with their wake.  What a welcome contrast.  I guess that’s because they know they might run into us sometime in the future.  At home, they couldn’t care less as they blast along leaving a 4’ wake to toss us around.  Very unfortunate.

Speaking of “carbon footprint”, on the last day of the programs in preparation for the Salty Dawg Rally to the BVI, we were treated to a live USCG “rescue” right off of the marina docks.  It was just amazing to see the chopper hovering a few hundred feet from us.  Before the chopper arrived a small cutter was on scene to be sure that nobody strayed into the “hurricane zone” while the chopper was hovering overhead.Our “MC” for the discussion that proceeded the “rescue” we had two “Coasties” who shared a lot of terrific information on how to do our best to avoid a ride in a chopper in the future.   Very nice guy but he did look serious.  “I’d like a show of hands if you have an EPIRB on board.  Another if it’s registered with your current information.” Everyone’s hand went up.  Then he smiled.Our rescue chopper is the only one in the USCG that is painted yellow instead of sporting the normal diagonal orange stripe.  We were told that it was a “centennial edition” marking the 100^th anniversary of the USCG.  Think of it as sort of “Eddie Bauer” USCG chopper edition without the soft denim settees.  Well, perhaps not exactly like that because they have to be able to hose everything down after all the salt what they kick up.  “Hey you, scuba man, yeah I’m talking to you! Rinse off before you sit there. This is s a special edition craft you are dripping on.”

“Do I have to go? It’s really windy out there.”  It was windy with about 20kts from the north and the salt spray kicked up by the massive down-wash from the spinning rotors coated all of the boats in the marina with a fine mist of salt.Then they lowered him to the water.  For a second “rescue” he jumped. All and all, it was a fascinating experience with everyone feeling better prepared and more certain than ever that they wanted to do whatever they could to avoid having one of these guys swim up to their boat and greeting them with “Good morning.  I’ll be your rescue swimmer today.”

It’s comforting to know that the USCG has my back and that if I ever have to “pop my EPIRB” and call for help, that the “Calvary” will be on their way soon enough.  Oh yeah, if you want a chopper ride, don’t go more than about 250 miles from shore as that’s their limit.  Of course, they have boats to but they are WAY SLOWER.

So, with no need for rescue on the horizon, here we are motoring along in flat calm on a beautiful morning.   What a way to go.   It’s beautiful day indeed.

Oh yeah, you know the thing about “cruising is boat repair in exotic places?”.  Yesterday was fun as my head macerator pump croaked and spilled raw sewerage into the bilge.  That was fun.  Sorry, no photos but be assured that there was plenty of cleanup with bleach after I was done, Brenda.

Happily, I carry a spare, now installed, so all’s well.  Such is the fun of boating.

The Salty Dawg rally is going to get underway in a few days and everyone is pretty excited about heading out to points south.  At last count, there are over 80 boats that will be making the run south and anticipation is high that there will be terrific weather in store for everyone’s departure.

In about an hour Chris Parker will be doing a webcast for the group and I will be the moderator online with him serving up questions from the audience.   I did this last year and enjoyed the process.

To be honest, I am a bit bummed that I won’t be leaving with them and have to take Pandora to Beaufort where she will sit for a few months prior to my run to the Caribbean in mid January.  Seeing a good forecast “go to waste” is killing me.  Oh well…  Besides, there are still chores and a few leaks to deal with aboard Pandora that would be annoying if I left now.

As I mentioned, I spoke to a group of “Dawgs” yesterday at the Hampton YC about Brenda’s and my trip to Cuba and it seems that one of the participants Peter did a summary of that and other activities that made for a great “Dawg day” for everyone.  I understand that Peter does videos regularly so it might be worth signing up to see what he puts up next. Anyway, I have to get ready for Chris Parker so I’d better sign off for now.

Audios Amigos! (the limit of my Spanish, BTW)   Well, that’s in addition to “no comprende” a phrase that came in handy in Cuba.  I am not sure even how to spell that.  Never mind for now.

It’s Friday afternoon and Pandora is all snug in her slip here in Hampton VA at the run up to the Salty Dawg Rally that will depart from here for points south, primarily the British Virgin Islands on or after November 1^st.
At last count, there are some 85 boats participating in the rally with nearly a week of seminars and social events leading up to the “big event”.
I arrived here in Hampton on Thursday after a two day 350 nm run from Essex CT with my good friend/crew Jim.  Jim has the distinction of having crewed with me for more miles, some 4,000 miles, than just about anyone else in spite of having sailed with crew for over 30 years.  Of course, Brenda has more miles with me but that’s another story and one that you’ve likely heard, ad/nauseam, if you have read more than a few posts.

So, here I am in Hampton enjoying time with others who love to sail and am having a great time.

The run here from Essex was, shall we say “sporty”, with Pandora plowing along on a close reach (wind forward of the beam) in 25kts with gusts over 30, conditions that are anything but fun.  The good news is that we were romping along at 9+kts for much of the first 24 hours and ultimately made the full run in a little less than 48 hours.  That’s very good time indeed.

Good run or not, I was exhausted when we left as Pandora had “splashed” only day before so I only had a single day to get her prepped, sails back on and ready to go.  Way too fast for me.   She looks positively “ginormous” on the hard next to our little VW wagon. While I know Pandora pretty well by now, having put perhaps 5,000 miles on her in my first year, there are still needling problems that I have not been able to correct so far.   In particular, some pesky leaks that have been hard to track down.  Perhaps the worst are with the long lexan ports on the main cabin that tend to leak when it gets cold and they shrink more than the surrounding fiberglass.   I am hoping to get them replaced in Beaufort NC where Pandora will sit for a few months prior to running to the BVI in January.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with more discussion with “drips” but salt water and cushions don’t mix.  Frustrating to say the least.

While Pandora is fast and can outrun most any other boat of her size and plenty that are larger, that speed and long waterline comes with a negative as she is also a very wet boat and as she plows through the seas, there is plenty of water flying everywhere and deck is constantly wet with a river running down the deck and off the stern.  It’s an impressive sight from under the hard dodger.  Fortunately, the cockpit is roomy and secure. In case you have missed it somehow, Pandora has an impressive and nicely designed hard dodger to keep us out of the weather.  This is a shot of her at the dock today here in Hampton.  I think that she looks like she means business.Today I presented a talk about our trip to Cuba at the Hampton Yacht Club to a group of nearly 60 “Salty Dawgs” and was thrilled with how well received what I had to say was.  They asked lots of good questions and laughed at all my jokes. Well, there was one joke that didn’t get much of a rise out of them.   I’ll live.

Our story of Cuba is one that I never tire of giving and to present to such a nice group of sailors that will very likely go there themselves was particularly rewarding.

Just for fun, this is a link to an article that I wrote in the current issue of Blue Water Sailing about our trip.  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Actually, writing it was a blast and I doubt that you will rank it quite that high.  If so, great.  Let me know what you think.

Well, Pandora made it here safely with a minimum of fuss and I am eager to enjoy the next few days of fun and then off to Beaufort NC.  BTW, that’s pronounced “Beaufort” as opposed to “Beeufort”, pronounced as it’s spelled, in South Carolina.

I should note that it was plenty chilly when we left Deep River on Tuesday morning with frost on the deck when we arrived to shove off.   I can’t say that I like cold even a little and the first 24 hours of our trip was particularly unpleasant.  Happily, I have a diesel heater aboard so at least we were warm down below.

By the second day of our run the temperatures had moderated a bit so it wasn’t quite as cold on deck.  It was also a lot calmer with winds that all but went away for a bit so things calmed down a bit and I could catch up on my sleep.

As we passed the Chesapeake Bay bridge on our way toward Hampton and Norfolk we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and you know how much I love sunrises.  Beautiful view from the stern. And, in case you are inclined to forget that the biggest employer in these parts is none other than “Uncle Sam”, one of the advanced “stealth” cruisers passed us on her way into Norfolk.  Stealthy or not, she showed up just fine on radar.  Stealth?  Hmm…  Perhaps someone forgot to flip the ‘stealth switch”.   Never the less, I was impressed.Ok, enough for now.  I had better sign off for now as there is a session to go to now.  Besides, it’s happy hour after that and that’s not something I want to miss.

Fun time am I am so excited about my own “migration” south for the winter.  Me and the birds, on our way.

So far, so good. Stay tuned for more…

When I was young and feeling totally overwhelmed my mother would often say “it’s always darkest before the dawn”, her way of telling us that things were going to be better soon.  And those words are as prophetic now as they were then and never ring more true than when I am trying to get Pandora ready for a new season aboard.

The boat yard where Pandora was hauled a few weeks ago has been buzzing with activity with boats being hauled constantly and everyone frantically fitting winter covers, winterizing engines and water systems in anticipation of the freezing weather that is just around the corner.    Yes, winter will soon be upon us as the green of summer gives way to the fiery colors of autumn along the CT River.

Unlike most others, fall marks the beginning of a new season afloat.  While Pandora is “commissioned” year round, we don’t spend much time aboard during the summer.  This summer our time afloat was limited to a few nights for me and Brenda and a quick two week trip to Maine for me with some friends and a club cruise with a few day-sails rounding out the season.   For us, the commissioned season really begins as the leaves drop and I head south in preparation for the winter aboard.

This season we again head south, this time to the eastern Caribbean, beginning in the BVI.  For now, I’ll be heading to Hampton VA, next Tuesday, to hang out with the participants in the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean.   After that, off to Beaufort NC where Pandora will sit in a slip until mid-January when I will rejoin her for a run to the BVI and the Bitter End Yacht Club.

The last few months have been a blur with a frantic rush to finish the bathroom that I began working on early this summer, clear in the knowledge that all that stood between me and “the gallows” was a finished bathroom that Brenda could use , hopefully sooner than later.  I think it looks terrific.  More importantly, Brenda feels the same way.

That project took a few months longer than anticipated was a our master bathroom but it’s done now.   There were delays along the way, but we won’t talk about my two weeks in Maine that brought progress to a standstill.  No, I prefer to say that it was a much more complex job than I had anticipated and I needed a few weeks in Maine to “reflect” on next steps.  Brenda, however, might not see things exactly the same way.  I kept telling her that, as the highway department always says, “thank you for your patience, the inconvenience is temporary but the repairs are permanent”.   Not sure she was totally convinced.

Never the less, I did end up paying quite a price for the delays as once the bath was done I only had a few weeks to get Pandora ready for the water.   And, along the way, we had to fit in two trips to Brenda’s publisher in PA,  trips to the subject of her book, Archie near Albany.  As I write this we are heading from Albany to Baltimore for our second trip to Baltimore to visit our son Rob and his pregnant wife Kandice in just a few weeks, for a baby shower too. Did I mention that we will soon be grandparents?   Yes, so exciting.  Crazy busy too…

Yesterday’s trip to Albany was to photograph some of Archie’s work for the book, a total of 165 pieces that he has in his personal collection.   Some of the larger pieces had to be held up to shoot.  “Just hold that position for a few moments.   Wait…one more shot.  Can you raise the right side ¼”?”What a marathon day…

Today, off to Brenda’s publisher to return the photo equipment.   Here is Archie and Brenda celebrating the end of a long day and job well done. Aren’t they cute together?

So, along with everything I somehow found time to get Pandora ready and this coming Monday, first thing, she goes back in the water.  Weather permitting I’ll head out with my friend Jim for Hampton late Monday or Tuesday.  Fingers crossed that everything falls into place as planned.

The GRIBS suggest a “brisk” run south.  Lots of “flags” forecasting strong NW winds.The biggest project of this season was to take the higher capacity water maker from our old boat and combine it with the smaller unit that came with “new” Pandora.

Both units are Spectra but the one from “old” Pandora is manual and the one on “new” Pandora is highly automated.    This is a shot of the two membranes next to each other in my shop.  The “new” one is a lot larger.Spectra has an automated system they call “MPC”, basically a computer that controls it’s functions including startup as well as deciding when to divert “product water” to the tanks.  It even flushes the salt water out of the system and shuts it down when the tanks are full.  It’s a terrific system.  Expensive, but terrific.

Years ago I did some research on which system to put on “old” Pandora and settled quickly on Spectra as it uses a unique pump that is far more efficient than any other on the market with electricity consumption about a half to a third of what other systems use.  This means that a good solar array, such as is aboard Pandora, can power the system along with nearly everything else aboard.  This is important to us as we don’t have a house generator and still need a good supply of water.    Remember, a clean Brenda is a happy Brenda.

I described why I decided on Spectra in this post a few years ago.

The switch over from “old to new” units was more of a process of creating a “hybrid” system utilizing the automation of the Ventura system that came with “new” Pandora and the extra output and larger membrane of the Cape Horn Extreme system from “old” Pandora.

The basic difference the two units was first, capacity, with the Ventura system putting out 6 gallons per hour, on it’s best day, and the Cape Horn Extreme 7-14 GPH depending on the use of one or two pressure pumps.  The problem is that Spectra doesn’t want to get involved with someone trying to configure what is in essence a hybrid semi-automatic unit.   So, after thinking about the problem for about a year, I think I came up with a pretty elegant solution.

My solution was to use a single pump, which the MPC computer was designed for, as the primary driver for the unit. Along with a second pump, when I needed higher output, on it’s own power supply and switch, so I could switch it on manually when I need more output.   This is a shot of the old pump layout.The new system, with two pumps is set up with the one on the right serving as a ‘booster” when more capacity is needed.   I ran this idea by the manufacturer as well as their rep here in New England and both thought my idea was sound.

I have had problems with sound from the pumps resonating through the bulkhead and decided to add some vibration dampers.  Note that the black square dampers in the corners isolate the pump unit from the bulkhead along with the damper “feet” that isolate the booster pump from the board itself.  I purchased the mounts from McMaster Carr.  They have just about everything you can imagine. I hope that this cuts down the noise.

I wouldn’t have been able to identify a workable solution, or had the guts to put it in place, if it weren’t for the support of Bryan Cooney from Headsync, the rep for Spectra.  Brian was very patient with me and even visited Pandora to review the system.  He endured many phone calls over the last year to listen to my ideas on how to configure things.   This is particularly noteworthy as I was doing the work myself which mean that there wasn’t much in it for him beyond my purchase of a few parts.   Thanks Bryan.

At the risk of sounding like a “Spectra groupie” I really feel that their units are the only way to go.   I have asked Brian to speak at the SSCA event that I am organizing in Essex next June.  I hope he can make it.

Anyway, the syste is in place and all set now and Pandora is ready for action, or at least showers for Brenda.  The new system!She’s also all shined up.   You can see your reflection in her hull.With the sometimes overwhelming list of “to-do’s” and finding myself potentially facing grave “marital strife” if I didn’t get that bathroom done, it felt pretty dark there for a while.  Mom, your words rang true once again as the sun did finally did come up.

Things got pretty nasty aboard in the middle of it all. Crap just about everywhere.  Some spilled out into the cockpit. However, sun the sun came up after all and everything is back in place. So now, let’s hope that the weather window is there for a departure for warmer climes as planned next week.

Stay tuned for updates, as always.

It’s less than a week until Brenda and I leave to head to our son Rob and his wife Kandice’s home in MD for a baby shower.  Yes, we are going to be grandparents , finally.   Yahoo!   And, after we return from that jaunt, Pandora goes back in the water and I’ll head to Hampton VA, two days later, to participate in the run-up festivities for the Salty Dawg Rally.   And, it’s pretty important that I get there in time as I am on the schedule to talk about our trip to Cuba.

No pressure but I had better keep this post short…

The last few weeks have been really busy with travel to various spots including the Annapolis Sailboat Show and a bunch of other destinations to numerous to mention.  But I think it’s safe to say that we are uber-busy these days and the pace is wearing us both a bit thin.

One of the many projects on Pandora has been to replace the water heater and that brings me to the title of this post, “Listen to your surveyor”.  When I was considering purchasing Pandora we had a surveyor to go over everything and as he went through the boat over the course of a day, he pointed out things that were both good and bad.

By the end of a very long day everyone was tired, nerves were more than a bit frayed and one of the last areas he inspected was the compartment where the water heater was located.  He noticed that there was some water under the heater and it looked to him like the heater had been leaking for quite some time.  The owner was quick to say that “oh, it’s just condensation from the AC”.  That was a plausible explanation except that the AC unit was UNDER the water heater and it was doubtful that the water would travel UP HILL to the heater.  Alas, the moisture never went away and a year later I decided to check it out.

I was hopeful that it would be nothing more than a weeping pipe fitting that could be rebedded, so I decided to remove the heater and take a look.    Of course, like all boats, it was shoehorned into an impossibly small space with tons of other stuff around it.  Here’s what I faced as I thought “where do I begin?”.

First I had to remove all of the AC and heater duct work.  Not so easy.Now, wasn’t that easy?   Heater exposed.  Doesn’t look bad at all.
However, as is so often the case, the “beauty was only skin deep”.   I removed the stainless outer case and all of the insulation to see what I was up against.  Oops, major “up against”, in store for me.  Here’s what lurked beneath. This shot is a bit fuzzy (no make that a lot fuzzy) but you can still see major corrosion on the hot water outlet fitting.  It’s the dark spot on the lower left fitting in the picture.  That hole was eaten right through the aluminium fitting. But wait, there’s more….  On various other spots on the tank I could see that corrosion had worked it’s way through the heater casing.   This spot is on the back of the unit, far from any fittings.  The water had eaten through the shell itself.   See the grey weeping spot?Water eating through aluminum?  I learned recently that product water from a reverse osmosis unit is very corrosive on aluminum, something that was news to me.  It seems that RO water is very low in PH and eats most any non-noble metal.   Think aluminum.  This turned out to be a problem for me as I use the RO unit for most of my water production as did the last owner.   Here’s what I found on a water engineer magazine site about the problem.   It said…

“The problem associated with reverse osmosis produced water is not in the processing, nor in the ability to provide needed quantities of water to supplement current supplies, nor is it in supplying finished water free from toxic contaminants, but it is in supplying finished water which is very corrosive to metal distribution piping. For anyone who does not know, reverse osmosis finished water has a relatively low pH (in the range of 5-6) and little to no alkalinity or hardness to act as a buffer. Thereby, this finished water is quite aggressive on metal distribution piping existing prior to the installation and operation of the RO system.”

Oops.  Aluminum and RO water don’t play well together.  So, what’s the solution?  Simple, just reintroduce minerals into the water as it comes out of the RO system, before it enters the tanks and other fittings that may be at risk.   I will do some research on that and report what I learn.   For now, a brand new water heater with a stainless steel holding tank.

Yesterday I installed the new heater.   It’s a lot smaller too and much better insulated.  We had this exact same unit on our last boat and loved it.  It keeps water hot for two days.  It’s made by Isotherm, in Italy and costs about twice as much as the Force Ten unit that I replaced.  I also opted for a 6.5 gallon tank, again about half the capacity of the last one and yet have found that it’s plenty of hot water.  Doesn’t it look cozy in it’s new home?Well, plenty of room around it until the heating and AC ducting goes back in.  After that, “what heater?  I don’t see no heater…”For now, everything is in place and it works.  That’s good too.

Next step, I have to modify and install the larger Spectra reverse osmosis water maker that I have from my last boat as it has twice the capacity of the one that “new” Pandora came with.  Of course, I’ll also have to come up with a way to re-mineralize the water that comes out of the system so corrosion will be less of a problem.     Having said that, I will have to review what else might be aluminum aboard that needs to be replaced.    Fortunately, the water tanks are not aluminum.  Whew!

So, there you have it.  Mystery solved.  Don’t use anything aluminum in the water system if you have an RO water maker.  Don’t tell anyone but my last boat had aluminum water tanks.  I wonder how long it would have been until they failed?   Now, that would have been a really fun project.

So, back to the title of this post and the moral of the story.  When you are deep into a survey of a boat that you are thinking of purchasing and the surveyor says “this may be a problem”, listen to him and don’t let the owner say “it’s only condensation” as it might come back to bite you.

However, there is a bit of sun under this little rain cloud as I now know about the corrosive properties of RO water and besides, we have a terrific new water heater. And, that will make Brenda happy.  Warm water, happy crew.  Or, as some have said, “happy wife, happy life”.

Next, find a way to put on a “re-mineralizeer thingy” and all will be right in the world.  Well nearly right as there are still lots of chores and time is really, really short.

As was once said, “time to make the donuts”.  Yes, indeed and be sure and listen to your surveyor!