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Finally, Pandora is back in the water again and getting ready to head out.  So, let our 2013/2014 season begin.

Pandora looking good and ready to go at the dock in Deep River.  As I write this,we are sitting on a mooring in West harbor on Fisher’s Island.  We left Deep River as planned at noon today and covered 34 miles against the tide in excellent time.  Arriving at Fisher’s at 16:00 we covered the distance at about 8 knots with a fresh SW breeze that topped out at some 20 knots as the afternoon wore on.  I always find myself exhausted the first night aboard as getting ready for a few days aboard takes about as much effort as getting ready to spend months cruising.

Brenda and I are headed for Newport to enjoy the sites of the city and spend some time at the boat show.  We have signed up to man the SSCA booth for a few hours on Sunday.  It’s a great group and we are happy to help out.   Anyone that spends a lot of time aboard should really be a member of this group.  Without them, we would never have attempted our run down the ICW and to the Bahamas.  Check them out at www.ssca.org

This trip is a “shakedown” cruise after three months of work , some by me and some hired at the yard and so far, so good.   I do feel a bit of vibration in the engine that shouldn’t be there so I will have to have that checked out when I head back to the marina for final provisioning prior to heading south to Annapolis later in the month.    We will leave Pandora in Wickford for a few weeks prior to heading home for last minute details.  It’s pretty exciting to be looking forward to spending time at sea again.

I’ll be using the SPOT unit again for our upcoming trip.  So just click on the “where’s Pandora” link on the home page.

Let the season begin!!!

Only a few days left till Pandora splashes and we begin our sailing season.  It seems like forever that I have been working to do everything needed to put her in tiptop shape for our trip south again this fall.

Friday was a particularly important day as I installed the new bearings and re-shipped the rudder.   I can’t believe how tough that job turned out to be as just getting out the old bearings was a bear.  After that I had to do all the measurements so that new bearings could be made.  Nothing off the shelf for Pandora, custom all the way.  Ugh!!!  But you knew that already as it was covered in older posts.

Anyway, the rudder is now back in and operational.  Whew!!!

There was a cast of thousands on hand for all the fun.  I can’t wait to get the bill. At the peak of the action, there were five guys on hand.  The 5th is operating the lift to pick up Pandora high enough to slip the rudder shaft into the lower bearing.  We actually put the rudder in twice as the first time we put everything together “dry” to be sure that it fit.  And it didn’t.  The upper bearing didn’t line up with the lower and middle one.  That sucked.

After what seemed like forever, everyone left me alone to determine next steps.  I ground out the inside of the sleeve that the upper bearing fit in to allow for some movement so that the shaft would like up properly.  In an operation where 1/1000 of an inch makes a difference, being off by 1/8″ was a huge miss.  Fixing the miss-alignment didn’t take as much time as you’d think.  I just jacked up the rudder, checked the fit, dropped it again, ground some more and so on.  After a while I was able to get everything in line.  Once all that was done, it fit perfectly.  Ok, dry fit, check.  Then, everything came apart, epoxy was slathered all over the bearings and we put the rudder back in, only this time, for good.  We also applied wax to the rudder shaft to be sure that any epoxy drips would not stick where they were not wanted.   This doesn’t look like much, but this is the upper bearing all epoxied into place.   Still nasty looking, you say?  Nothing like a new deck plate to make everything look OK.   Some things are best covered up and out of sight.Yesterday I re-installed all of the steering components and tuned things up.   This is what the space looked like prior to the install of the new bearings on Friday.   Not much here. And, a few hours later, pretty crowded.  Looks easy?  Sort of…I never thought that I could be excited about something as mundane as a plastic sleeve, the new mid-station rudder bearing.   Pretty slick.  The entire weight of the rudder assembly rests on the pin (bolt) on top of the black bearing.  I got a new bolt as I don’t want to take any chances.  I also fabricated some rollers from stainless steel tubing and some water pipe.  They help the rudder turn more smoothly.  Got to be sure that everything is solid and well secured as dropping the rudder into the ocean would make for a very bad day.  “Guess what Brenda, the rudder fell out.  No way to steer.”  Yes, a career limiting move,  no make that the end of my sailing career.  Best to avoid that…Yesterday I finished up on the rudder install with some final tweaks.  I also rebuilt one of the winches that was being a bit sluggish.  That was a messy job.  Lots of old grease to clean out.

I tackled some gelcoat repair where there were some imperfections in the cockpit.   One of the guys at the yard mixed up a matching color.  He did a fairly good job.  At least the patches will look better than having dark chips knocked out of the surface of the cockpit.

Today, still more little details to attend to.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, she’s supposed to splash.  I will be JUST SO HAPPY when all the work is done and we head out for a few days.

Soon I’l be lounging in the cockpit instead of squirming around in the aft locker.   Lounging is definitely better.  Yes, lounging, not squirming.    That would be good.

It’s just so nice to live near the Connecticut River, a place that Brenda and I have enjoyed for so many years.  We have brought each of our five boats up to Essex and even to a tiny little creek off of the river, Selden Creek.  This is an amazingly idyllic spot off of the river and separated by Selden Neck, a nature preserve.  Happily, the creek is a short dink ride from the marina where Pandora has been hauled for the last few months.

Brenda and I took a “cocktail cruise” aboard Pandora’s dink the other evening to enjoy some wine and cheese while watching the scenery drift by.  The tide was flooding so we followed the current up the creek while watching the shoreline drift by.  The sun was low and the colors of the marsh were spectacular.  At a time of year when most everything is getting a bit yellow from lack of rain, the marsh was still lush and green.  As we drifted with the lazy current, the view behind us was so peaceful. Brenda looking pretty relaxed in the bow of the dink.  Happily, we had a few cushions for her to sit on.  The cliffs on the side of the creek brought back elicit memories from years ago when the boys jumped from them.  Yes, I know, it’s private property and jumping isn’t allowed any more.  So much for the progress of civilization. As we drifted with the current we came upon a white heron.  He/she wasn’t as happy to see us as we were to see him.  It was getting dark so we had to do double time on our way back to the marina.  No running lights…  Brenda just “loves” going fast in the dink.   Not!!!

It’s hard to believe that Pandora is actually going back in this coming week.  Our plan will be to join a Corinthians cruise to Shelter Island late next week and then on to Newport and Wickford.

Still a few last minute items to attend to on Pandora.  The last few days have been very busy getting everything installed.  The rudder’s back in but that’s the subject of another post.

It’s been so long since Pandora’s been in the water, it’s hard to believe that she will ever be underway again.  However, the end of her time on the hard is nearing an end. Really!!! Trust me on this.  You know how they say that “life gets in the way”?  Well, it did.  However, things are getting back to normal again and it’s time to go sailing.   Yipee!!!

I am happy to report that Pandora’s about ready to launch with only a few more last minute items to attend to.  The yard is finishing up on the engine and I have applied the barrier coat and put on the bottom paint.  Doesn’t she look great?I also refurbished the warp cutter on the propeller.  This nifty device, a Spurs cutter, is designed to rotate with the prop and cut any lines that might entangle the prop shaft.  It has come in handy in the past, I can assure you.   It wouldn’t be much fun to go for a swim to free the prop, especially at night.  Yuck!  It looks like it works and it does. Another view shows the business end of the cutter pretty well.   Best to keep your fingers away from these babies when they are spinning around.  The cutter to the left is kept stationary by the blue block on the cutlass bearing while the one on the right rotates with the propeller.  Very powerful and quite effective. Finally, the infamous rudder bearings.  The three black sleeves are the bearings and they will support the rudder shaft in the stern of the boat.  The center one, with the silver stripe on the top, has a “lip seal”, a rubber seal that will keep water out of the boat and yet still let the rudder move as needed.  It’s a pretty neat design. 

The aluminum disk is the steering quadrant. Cables run around it and up to the wheel.  As you can imagine, this gives huge leverage to the wheel in keeping Pandora on course.  Also, the bronze lever is for the auto pilot.  Beefy as well.    All and all, a powerful combination to keep Pandora pointed in the right direction.    That’s assuming that I can get her back into the water.  I was delayed in getting the rudder back in as I messed up the measurements, that have to be within thousands of an inch, on the upper bearing so I had to reorder a new one.  However, in the grand scheme of things, not a major issue and besides, I had other things in my life that were slowing things up anyway.   The new bearing should be at the boatyard now so I hope to fit it and prepare for putting the rudder back into the boat on Wednesday or Thursday.   Fingers crossed that everything will fit.  So far, so good.

As soon as Pandora is back in the water, perhaps by the end of the week, we hope to head out to Block Island and onto Newport.  I can’t wait.

It’s hard to believe that Pandora has been out of commission for over two months. Two months when most of the rest of the sailing world was in full gear, heading out on vacations all over the North East.  

All the while, I have been working away, sometimes only for an hour or two a day during the heat spell, to get Pandora back in the water and on her way.

In a way I don’t really feel that I have done much and yet, the magnitude of sanding a 43′ boat down to bare gelcoat is a job and a half, for sure.

Here’s what Pandora looked like when she came out of the water over two months ago.  Pretty nasty…And, after weeks of work and many, many sanding disks in the trash.   After the application of two coats of epoxy primer and two coats of Trinidad bottom paint, a new lease on life for Pandora.  I still have to move the stands that are all around Pandora and sand, prime and bottom paint, today…

Oh yeah, I also got my MaxProp back the other day and re-installed.   It had developed a bit of slop in the gearing.  No propeller should have this many parts.  The prop is really an impressive piece of engineering.    Here it is “engaged” and ready for action. When I don’t need the engine, the prop can be “feathered”  Not a lot of resistance now.  Just a little different. I have to say that this is as much a work of art as a propeller, and it costs about as much to buy, and repair.   However, we won’t get into that.

There’s certainly lots to do today if she is going to splash next week.  So, I ask you, is summer nearly over as I write this in mid August, or is it about to begin?   I say that it’s just beginning.

With our plan to spend some time in Newport, the Chesapeake and on to the Bahamas for three months this winter, it’s indeed about to begin.

Still lots to do before launch.  Time to get cracking…