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It’s Thursday morning and I find myself wondering if WILL PANDORA EVER SPLASH AGAIN!!!

For the last few days I have been fussing, no make that “screwing around” with the bow thruster to try and get the frozen parts out.  I have learned more than I want to know about “freeing” up parts which includes a liberal application of heat.  I have been using MAP gas, something new to me, which is way, way hotter than “your father’s propane torch”.  “How hot is it Bob?”  It’s SCARRY hot.    This gas, which comes in a yellow bottle, comes out with an impressive roar and to apply it to the aluminum parts of the thruster, just inches from a “plastic boat” is pretty scary.  As the gas rushes out in a white hot plume, the aluminum and stainless parts crackle and pop along with the smoking lubricant that I have been spraying all over everything.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?

The key to freeing up frozen parts, I am told,  is to get them  plenty hot and then cold, over and over again.  Each time heat is applied, things move around and it gets a little bit better.  It’s quite depressing just how very, very small a “bit better” really is.

With the whole process going ON AND ON, I decided that I had to take over from the “thruster twins” and do some of the grunt work myself.  To that point, I was talking with someone at the Essex Yacht Club bar last night and “spinning my tale of woe” about the thruster and she asked,  “So, who’s doing the work for you”.  I told her the name of the company and then added, in a much lower and barely audible voice,  “And I am doing some the grunt work myself”.  “Oh…”, she said, seeming to say, “you get your hands dirty, for real?”  “I’m at peace with myself, I am at peace with myself”, I chanted silently.

At their daily rates, I would have ended up with a perfectly functioning thruster, compliments of the “paid help” and no “coin” left over to go anywhere.  “I have good news and I have bad news Brenda.  The good news is that Pandora’s ready to go.  The bad news…  We are broke!” So,it’s DO-IT-YOURSELF TIME! Yippee!

“That’s all fine and dandy Bob, but how’s it going, really?”  Well, my mother used to have a phrase “It’s always darkest before the dawn” and let me tell you, I needed a very powerful spotlight to see where this was going for a while there.  I had tried pounding, heating, pounding again and wasn’t making any progress. And to make matters worse, if I broke something, I’d have to have the replacement parts fabricated as the company that made the unit doesn’t make parts for this model any longer.

As I pounded away, knuckles bleeding,  I also took time to soak the parts in penetrating lubricant.  In order to be sure that things got “lubed” adequately, I fashioned a “lube pond” on top of the frozen shaft using a plastic cup and modeling clay.  Very colorful, right?  Then I POUNDED away some more.  Still, nothing moved.  Not after two days of beating.  What’s a grunt to do…?

The “chief thruster guy” had mentioned that, if all else failed, I could cut some parts and take the pieces to his shop where they would press them out with hydraulic ram.  However, that would cost plenty as the a replacement for the “cut” parts would have to be fabricated.   There had to be a better way.

Here’s an idea.  How about a gear puller, a tool that I have used to remove propellers over the years?  So, after consulting with the “chief”, I constructed a modified puller, or in this case a “pusher” that would allow me to put tremendous pressure on the frozen shaft.  Put a wrench on the black threaded shaft and crank away.  And let me tell you… I cranked away plenty and then some, using my feet to apply pressure and turn the screw. “So how did it go Bob?  Get to the point! You sure can go on and on about things.”   Well I was able to move the shaft by 3/4″, and it only took two days!  Yahoo!  And let me tell you, any movement at all is a VERY big deal.  So, I left it last night for another 8-10 hours of soaking with my “cup and clay lube contraption puddle thing”.

So, today the sun is out and I am optimistic.  Now that there is some movement, I should be able to pull it the next 4″ and remove the shaft, once and for all. Fingers crossed.  I still have a few ideas if that doesn’t work, but one way or the other, I am sure I can get it out as the modest movement yesterday seems to suggest that I have finally gotten things headed in the right direction.

Meanwhile, “back at the ranch” I have also been assembling provisions for the winter.  The pantry is filled and this is the stuff that was left without a home.   So, I looked around and made room in one of the lockers. Voila!  It all fit.   Now, isn’t that tidy?So now, with days ticking away I am thinking hard about when I’ll run Pandora to Hampton.  The original plan was to take Pandora to the marina in Hampton,  visit the boat show in Annapolis, come home and then head back to VA around the 24th to begin preparing to leave with the rally to the BVI.

However, given the way that things are going, I am reassessing things and am now thinking that perhaps I’ll just delay heading to Hampton till later in the month as it will save me from renting cars twice.   It will certainly make finishing up Pandora’s prep much easier as she’s less than ten minutes away.

Well, if it isn’t contrary winds, it’s something else.  I guess it will be clearer later today if I am successful, OR NOT,  in getting things back on track.  All of this also assumes that the “thruster guys” can get back down to Pandora and finish their repairs and upgrades.   ChaChing, ChaChing…

Skinned knuckles and all, I guess that I need to focus on the goal.  It’s warm down south, it’s warm down south, it’s warm down south…  The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  And when this is all done and the bills are paid, I’ll need one. 

It’s Tuesday morning and hurricane Joaquin is only a distant memory.  Well, at least for those of us that were spared the brunt of the storm.  Here on the CT River the worst we were exposed to was higher than normal tides.

Others were not so lucky.  Some in the Bahamas, particularly on Rum Cay, a spot where we spend some time a few years back, really got slammed. I understand that the government pier, the only landing point of any consequence on the island, is gone.  This pier, and it was a fairly substantial one, is just match sticks now.   Here’s what it looked like when we were there.   That pier was the only link that they had to get supplies.  The water leading up to the pier was barely deep enough for the mail boat to power through, leaving huge plumes of swirling sand in their wake. When the mail boat came in during our visit, about everybody on the island showed up to enjoy the spectacle and pick up their supplies.   Check out this link to my post about the mail boat and this important lifeline.

Rum Cay is a beautiful place but I expect that this marina looks very different now, if you can get in at all. Few hurricanes cause much damage in the Bahamas, partly because the residents don’t build right on the beach like we do here in the States.  However, as the islands are so low, most areas only a few feet above sea level, an occasional direct hit, like they got last week, causes great destruction.  It’s going to take a while for them to recover from this blow.

This video gives you an idea of the speed of the winds that battered the islands. This was taken from the second floor of a home and most of the islanders have only one story homes so the flooding hit them particularly hard.There aren’t many photos around of the aftermath but this shows typical out-island homes and illustrates what many are dealing with.  I have heard that in some areas, all of the homes are damaged or destroyed.  So, all of this does make my trials getting Pandora ready to head south pretty insignificant.

As it stands now, Pandora’s bow thruster issues are getting closer to resolution and I am optimistic that she will be in the water by later this week.  Hopefully, we will be able to head to Hampton VA over the weekend, where I will leave her until I return to prepare for the Salty Dawg Rally that gets underway in early November.

It’s sobering to think of what we might be facing here in CT if Joaquin had not veered off to sea after bowling through the Bahamas.   And, to add insult injury, with the loss of the government dock, getting building supplies to the island will be a huge undertaking and getting back to normal will take a long time.

We should certainly count our blessings.

It’s Sunday morning  and I should be on my way for Hampton VA by now, but I’m not…

In boating it’s always something.  In this case, it’s several somethings.  Of course, right now it would be easy to blame my delays on the weather with the powerful hurricane Joaquin, working his way up the coast.  However, it’s not just about the weather that’s keeping Pandora on the hard.   Unfortunately, it’s about a “storm” of a very different sort.

In my last post, I wrote about a problem with the bow thruster.   Well, it’s as bad as I had feared, perhaps worse.  It seems that those “floods” in the thruster compartment, the ones that happened prior to my owning the boat, have taken their toll on the unit.  And now, the “hinge” that allows the thruster to go up and down into the hull, is plenty corroded.  The plan WAS to pull the “pins” that the unit pivots on and clean them up so that the unit pivots more easily.  Ooops! Easier said than done!   When Ben Franklin said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” he must have been thinking of a problem like this one.  I’d say that it’s going to take pounds to fix what ounces would have prevented.   Sucks for me…

So, after fussing with the problem for much of a day the “bow thruster guys”, and they ALWAYS travel in pairs, couldn’t make the pin budge, even a little bit.  So now, the plan is for me to lube them up a few times a day and hope that they free up by Monday when the “team” returns.  Boy, do I hope that it makes a difference.  I was really counting on this not being a huge job.  “Good luck with that Bob, it’s a boat.”

When they came to work on the now infamous hinge pin,  it looked like they were setting up shop for the long haul.  Love the tent.  Like a couple of kids building a fort.  However, these “kids” are getting paid plenty.  So, after a few days of my “lubing” very few hours, I am not very confident that the problem will be solved easily.  What am I saying is that “easy” has already left the room.   The next option will be to remove much of the unit and take it back to the shop and press the hinge pin out with a hydraulic press.  Sounds expensive?  You bet…

It gets worse.  The guys stayed late that evening trying to get at least the bilge pumps installed in the thruster compartment.  I guess that they were tired after a long day.  I sure was.    Well, when I arrived the next morning to inspect the work, I was horrified to see that they had installed the bilge pump outlet right in the middle of the side of the hull.   It looks like a Frigging ostomy hole, RIGHT IN THE SIDE OF THE HULL!!!  There were a number of other options he could have done and one that would have been INVISIBLE.  Ugh…

Fixing this is going to be complicated.  The designer and builder worked hard tol design things so that there are no thru-hulls on either side of the hull, only at the stern.  The rest go into vertical standpipes that are glassed into the inside of the boat.   I think that it’s got to be removed and the hole patched but matching the paint?  It’s not going to be easy, even though it’s a stock color.  I guess it’s best to wait till the job is further along and then I’ll readdress the “Ostomy Hole” with him. What was he thinking?

So, with Pandora on “hold” and the weather all sorts of nasty, I feel like Pandora’s embroiled in her own personal storm.  Let’s hope that things settle down aboard Pandora as quickly or at least as soon as the ocean swells subside from our buddy Joaquin.

 

These days it seems that being “green” is on everyone’s lips.  However, some do it better than others.  How about VW gaming the system with some fancy software in their diesel cars that somehow knows to run “green” when the car is being checked for emissions and yet still be plenty “brown” when running down the highway.  Anyway, it appears that VW isn’t so green after all.  Oops!

I am also amused with articles that I have read recently about mega-yachts that are portrayed as “green” because they treat their waste prior to sending it over the side, or have LED bulbs.  Are you “green” enough to boast that you are burning ONLY 75 gallons of diesel an hour verses 150?  Hmm…

So what about Pandora?  For her, I’d say that “being green” can mean a lot of things.  Of course, the first one that comes to mind when you see her is that she is indeed “green” and a very dark green at that, with her forest green hull.  Yes, she is very green with the possible exception of those scratches and dings from, well, from her habit of making contact with anything that comes within ten feet of her.

The broker that sold the “old” Pandora for us told me that “there are two colors for boats, white and stupid”.  Well, given what a magnet for scratches “green” Pandora is, I have to agree.  However, with apologies to Billy Crystal, “Pandora, you look marvelous“, green or not.  Besides, with a little bit of touch-paint she looks nearly perfect when you apply the “ten foot rule”.    Alas, I digress…

Another way of being “green”, as VW apparently isn’t, is to be energy efficient and Pandora surely performs well by that measure.   Of course sailboats, by definition are “green”, however Yanmar diesel withstanding, Pandora really is pretty “green” by energy efficiency standards.   With her 600 watts of solar panels and the ability to run her systems indefinitely from that source alone, is great.  If it weren’t for the need to have hot water, we could happily go along hardly burning any fuel at all.  And being a bit “brown” is prudent as some girls (read: Brenda)  don’t like cold showers.

So, what’s the other way that Pandora’s green?  Right now the best example of how Pandora is showing her stuff and is particularly “green”, as this photo illustrates  is that there is a veritable crowd of “worker guys”, and their trucks, visiting Pandora regularly.  It’s pretty clear that having them hang around is causing plenty of “green” to leave my wallet.  Ouch!!!  Of course, at the head of the procession was the rigger who made up a new backstay with insulators to allow me to use it as the antenna for my SSB radio. Nice truck guys!  I also had them check out the rest of the rig to be sure that there were no weak spots that I should attend to.   Don’t they look like they are having fun?  So far, they have visited something like four times and no HUGE problems discovered.  Whew but “green” indeed!And, let’s not forget the “bow thruster fixit guys”.   I can’t believe that I even have one of these nifty gadgets, but Pandora’s is on the fritz.  I should also notice that these guys, like riggers, travel in pairs.  Thank goodness that Pandora sports not one but two two chain lockers so each guy gets his very own locker. How cozy. Of course, the thruster worked just fine when the survey was done in May.  Now, not so well.  It seems that there was a “flood”, perhaps more than one, in the bow compartment that houses the thruster motor and controls at some time prior to our taking delivery.  As a result, corrosion has taken it’s toll.   Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

As part of the permanent fix, I am also going to have two, count em, two, bilge pumps installed so that any water that finds it’s way into the thruster compartment won’t stay there for long.  And I won’t tell how much “green” this fix is going to cost.  Can you say “time and materials”?   Not to worry, the “thruster guys” say it with flair.

But wait, there’s more.  It seems that the engine has a, perhaps minor, oil leak that wasn’t obvious at the survey either.  Funny how that happens.  However, now it is.  Isn’t this getting more fun by the minute?   Next week there will be yet another mechanic climbing aboard Pandora to check things out.   I wonder if they travel in pairs too?  I guess I’ll have to wait and find out.

Yes indeed, Pandora is plenty “green” and in more ways than one.  And, if there was an Olympic competition for being “green” in the $$$ department I expect that she’d be a strong contender for “gold”.

Oh well, as my dad used to say “It’s only money”.  Some say that they want their last check (You know, the one you write on the day before you die?) to bounce and if that was my goal, then this round of “being green” gets me just a bit closer.

Well, nobody ever said that “being green” was going to be easy but perhaps there wasn’t anyone that ever said it better than everyone’s favorite frog, my old buddy, Kermit.

Yup, being green can be tough but I’m up for it so, to paraphrase Admiral Farragut, “dam the torpedos, full steam ahead”.  Ha!.  I’ll bet you didn’t think that I’d find a way to fit in yet another reference to submarines.

So, Caribbean here we come!  It’s going to be great and, if a liberal application of “green” helps us get there safely than I am all for that.  Besides, it’s a BOAT and as every one knows that means (B)ring (O)n (A)nother (T)housand.

So far, Pandora is being true to her “green” self in every way.

It’s been a busy week with a whirlwind trip from CT to New Bern and Oriental NC to prepare Pandora (the old one) for her survey and transfer to the new owner.

On Sunday,  VERY EARLY, I headed out to drive down to New Bern NC where Old Pandora had been docked at a broker’s office for the last five months since Brenda and I brought here there back in May in preparation to be sold.   The drive from CT was a long one and with a stop at a friend’s house along the way for lunch in Ocean City MD,  it took more than twelve hours.   It’s been years, perhaps never, since I drove for a dozen hours and I have to say that “I am too old for that”.

On Monday I cleaned the boat and moved her the 25 miles from New Bern to Oriental where she would be surveyed and hauled.   The survey took much of the day and fortunately went very well.  You never know what to expect in a survey, good care or not.  Besides, “you don’t know what you don’t know” and so often problems are crop up in a survey that were there an you didn’t even know about.

It’s been a long time since I have been in a boatyard to see a boat that I owned being hauled and not have to pay the bill myself.  Here’s Pandora being hauled for the last time in my presence. Part of the survey process is to take the boat out for a “sea trial” so that the buyer can get a feel for the boat under way and to see if all of the systems work as advertised.  That’s not a particularly big deal, as I have sailed her many thousands of miles, but I have to say that I was nervous as the wind was blowing nearly 30kts, well above the sort of wind that I’d classify as “fun”. Besides, it had been five months since I had done any sailing aboard “old” Pandora and I have to admit that I was a bit nervous knowing that much was on the line.  well, off we went, up with the sails and in with a double reef.  Still too much wind for my taste.

I was pretty sure that everything about the boat was fine but you never know what’s going to show up with a surveyor climbing over the boat for seven hours with a flashlight, peaking into every nook and cranny.  Fortunately, everything went well and she “passed the test”.

We took her back to the dock, the surveyor finished up his review of the boat and happily, the new owner accepted the boat.  Yahoo!  Amazingly, after months of having her on the market the buyer actually turned out to live nearby so all we had to do was to move her to a different marina in the same harbor as he and his wife live only about a 1/4 mile away.

I stayed a bit longer with the buyer to answer some more questions and then headed out to drive home.  The new owners, Dan and Leslie, plan on taking her south to the Bahamas in just a few years, which is good.  At least Pandora knows the way.

Well, the drive down was LONG but the drive back home on Tuesday afternoon, no make that Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, was even LOOOOOONGER.  I left Oriental at around 3:30pm and arrived home nearly twelve hours later with many quick stops along the way to “clear my head”.  I will say that the crowd that inhabits truck stops, in the wee hours, somehow seem different than the those you see on a Saturday afternoon in July.  Perhaps it’s the 1/2 gallon “sippy cups” of Red Bull.

Anyway, they say that the two happiest days in a boat owner’s life are when he buys a boat and when he sells her.  I’d say that’s true and sleeping aboard her for Sunday and Monday nights this week did bring back memories of the many years we owned her.  However, being the owner of not one but two vessels did temper the nostalgia a bit.

Well, it’s “out with the old” and I am back in CT now and ready to “get with the plan”, finishing up getting “new” Pandora ready for her run south.  There’s plenty left to do but I am getting there, bit by bit.  Hopefully, she’ll be back in the water next week with fresh bottom paint, all polished up and ready to travel.

What’s a blog post without two pictures of both my boats in slings at a boatyard. Here’s “new” Pandora in the slings when she was hauled recently.  She looks HUGE.   That’s me power-washing the bottom.  I look, well I don’t look so huge.  “Love the socks Bob, can you pull them up any higher?”  This keel is one of the reasons that she’s such a fast boat.  The fin is fiberglass reinforced with carbon and the bulb is lead.  That means that the weight, nearly half of the boat’s total, is concentrated way down low. Yup, Pandora looks big when she is out of the water. I replaced the prop with the Autoprop that the prior owner says “ate my transmission”.  I had the US distributor for Autoprop visit the boat and review the engine, transmission and prop and he thinks that I should be fine.  I sure hope that he’s right as the Caribbean is a very expensive place to do work that’s already expensive and, besides, I don’t want a new transmission.  I do like this prop and had one on “old” Pandora too.I also stretched out my 200′ of anchor chain and marked each 25′ section with red paint and some wire ties.  I don’t expect that the paint will hold up for all that long.  Shiny for now though. So, here we are, a “one boat” family again.  However, with the constant onslaught of projects, I do sometimes find myself wondering what it would be like not to have a boat and think about what would I do with all those “boat dollars”  Hmm….  No, never mind.  Besides, with all that nervous energy swirling around with nowhere to go, I expect that I would “burst into flame” and that wouldn’t be good, not good at all, especially for Brenda.

So, for now, it’s out with the old and well, out of the water with the new, the “new” Pandora that is.  Still lot’s to do but at least I am down to only one Pandora and that’s plenty.   Is that the sound of “boat dollars” being sucked out of my bank account I hear?  Well, at least the sound is a little less deafening, for the moment, until something else breaks…