May 2015

It’s Wednesday afternoon and we are motoring SLOWLY up the ICW toward Hampton VA.   The scenery here is pretty primeval and there isn’t a home for miles.   However, millions of mosquitoes love it here, a factor that I neglected to prepare for when we went to sleep last night.  The wind died down before dawn and we woke up to dozens , perhaps hundreds, making a feast out of us.  Not a great way to begin the day.  Did I mention that it was 04:00 when we realized that we were not alone?  I was killing the stragglers for hours.  I won’t make the same mistake twice.   Well, not tonight at least. Along the way we are passed by periodically by faster boats in the flotilla of “snow birds” heading north.With about two days between us and Hampton, we should be there in time to jump out when the wind shifts back to a more southerly direction, predicted to be as early as Thursday night.  Once the wind shifts we should be able to sail to CT with a good following wind.  Fingers crossed that it works out.  However, if we don’t have enough wind, we will just fire up the “iron wind” and motor the whole way.    We carry plenty of fuel and I will be sure to fill up prior to heading out.

As we cover the miles, a number of fairly minor things have been causing problems.  I expected this as it’s nearly impossible to pick up on all the details in a boat survey, no matter how carefully we went over everything.   For example, the forward macerator pump that empties the holding tank needs to be primed sometimes before it will empty the tank if it isn’t used regularly.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know this so when I tried to use it, I let it run too long and burned out the impeller and pump.  Good news, there was a spare on board.  All better now.

Also, the speedo unit that measures the boat’s speed through the water decided to crap out today.  I noticed that it seemed to be giving some odd readings while we were offshore cor the last few days so I calibrated it to take out the error in the reading, which was clearly not correct.  It seemed to work yesterday but today the unit didn’t work at all and showed a blank screen when I turned everything 0n for the day.

I guess that goes with the territory as this is a complex boat and besides, there are more than a dozen instruments and repeaters on the boat so I suppose that it’s only natural that something will crap out from time to time.  But wait, there’s more.

The owner mentioned that the engine hour readout sometimes doesn’t work  when you first turn on the engine and yet was still counting hours of run time for the motor.  The day of the survey it was working fine.   Alas, it must have been on it’s best behavior as it hasn’t turned on for the last two days.  I guess I should have made a bigger deal about it.  Oh well, hope it doesn’t cost too much to replace.

Well, that covers it for now and I suppose some little “hitches” are to be expected.   I will try not to think about all of those details for now.  The good news is that a lot more is working than isn’t.

On a more positive note, today I noticed that there were some photos on my camera that I had taken over the last week and had forgotten to download.   Just for fun, a few of the more interesting ones.

There is a lot of military air traffic as we worked our way up the waterway with copters and jets nearly constantly in view.  This little helicopter came very close to us.  Jim thought that it was military.  I sure hope that he was wearing his seat-belt. I mentioned in my last post that we caught a tuna.  Here’s a photo of it as it came up to be landed.  Looks pretty big?  Not really but a nice “action” shot, never the less.And, I can’t believe that I forgot about our turtle encounter.  We passed quite a few while we were offshore.  This one had a seabird taking a rest on it’s back.After a bit, he poked his head up to see who was coming by as if to say, “hey you bud, I was sleeping”   I’d guess that this turtle was nearly 4’ across.I sure hope that the wind will turn as planned so I won’t have to worry about replacing crew that runs out of “away time”.  Besides, Brenda tells me that the lawn needs to be cut.  It had better not grow much more before I get home next week.

For now, I’ll have to think “grass stunting” thoughts .  Given that our run north seems to be progressing about as fast as “watching grass grow”, I shouldn’t have any trouble with that line of thinking.

So, for now, inching toward Hampton and home.

It’s Tuesday afternoon and we are motor-sailing past Oriental NC on our way north to Norfolk VA where we plan on jumping outside again for the final run to the CT River and home. 

We decided to continue on the inside instead of waiting in Beaufort as it will allow us to avoid running around Cape Hatteras and also puts us further north instead of sitting for half a week on the HOPE that the wind will shift to a favorable direction as forecast.  And, as the wind will be from the north for the next few days, before turning back to the SW , it’s quite possible that we’d hit nasty conditions off of Cape Hatteras, favorable winds or not, and all that after waiting for a half week to find out if we’d made a good decision or not.

So, we just decided to keep moving and get ourselves another 100 miles north while we can and hope that the wind shifts as planned.  One way or the other, we want to keep moving and perhaps be back in CT a day or more sooner than might have been the case if we waited for the wind to shift in Beaufort.   I guess I have made my “wordy” point on that by now.  Hope so.

I guess we won’t know if it’s the right decision for a few more days so we’ll see.

Anyway, when we left on Sunday morning from St Augustine on our 400 mile “shake down cruise” to Beaufort, we did so on a boat that I had never even had the sails up on, even once.   I worked out fine but I was nervous, I’ll admit.

We were greeted by a nice sunrise in St Augustine which seemed like a good omen.  I decided to ignore the sailor’s adage of “red sky in the morning, sailors take warning”.   Also, to head out over 100 miles from land, right off of the bat, on a boat that I had never sailed, not even once…  The green line is our actual course, which followed the Gulf Stream, for maximum favorable current.   The black line is the point to point run.  I’ll admit that it made me a bit nervous to head that farm from land with a boat I did not know.  What does that say about my crew?  Hmm…  I did have more than a week living aboard.  Not convinced we were ready?  Me neither. But, it all worked out.  We practiced putting a reef in the main before we needed to if that’s any consolation.   

Good thing we practiced as we had PLENTY of wind in the Gulf Stream and put in and shook out both reef one and two multiple times.   I probably could have had up more sail but I was in the mood to be conservative.  Besides, we made the run half a day faster than I expected, cautious or not.  Fast boat. 

In consultation with Chris Parker, the weather router, we opted to head further offshore and catch the Gulf Stream even though it added perhaps 20 to 30 miles to our trip as we felt that getting the 2-4 knot lift from the current in the stream would ultimately make for a faster run.  However, in exchange for that, we “enjoyed” a pretty bumpy trip along the way.  On the bright side, my meal prep was not as complex as my two crew members lost their appetite.  Worked for me.

However that wasn’t until the second night when the wind piped up to around 25kts so we were able to make a nice meal out of the tuna we caught on day one.   Here’s Jim with the catch of the day.Overall, the run was very good even though it was quite hot and stuffy aboard with everything buttoned up against the spray that we were kicking up in the rough conditions.  Nothing major broke but it’s clear to me that this is a very powerful boat with lots of moving parts and it’s going to take a while to get used to her and all her gear.

Today, in the calm waters of the Neuse River near Oriental, we tried out the code “0”, a huge sail that’s more like a spinnaker than a genoa.  It’s on it’s own roller furling system so it’s “easy” to deploy and retrieve.   We were sailing down wind on a broad reach with wind that built to 15kts apparent.  This doesn’t sound like all that much wind but keep in mind that the boat was going over 9kts, down wind.

That means you have to add the speed of the wind we felt to the speed of the boat which meant that we ended up with wind behind us that was approaching 25kts.  The sheets that control the sail are quite small in diameter and sing like a guitar string when pulled tight.  Let me tell you, they were singing.  What a sail.   Quick, take it down… I was plenty nervous about how much the wind was gusting.   But before I doused it, I took a picture of our speed, over the ground, of over 9kts.   And, there was no current so that was our actual speed, according to the GPS.  The water driven log needs some calibration so the GPS was more accurate.  That’s screaming.  What a powerful sail and boat. Enough excitement for one day though.

So, our plan is to make the run from Beaufort NC to Norfolk by Friday so we can jump out as the wind fills in from the SW north of Cape Hatteras.  Tonight we’ll pick a spot on the ICW to anchor and head out first thing tomorrow for Elizabeth City, one of my favorite stops on the ICW.

I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep and a shower.

So, all and all, a “shakedown” cruise of nearly 400 miles turned out fine.  No major issues (that I’ll admit to in writing) except one little one with a head pump that seems to be leaking.  As my friend Christopher says “The more complex a boat is the more that can break.”  If that’s true, than I am going to be doing a lot of fixin.

I guess we’ll see about that.   So far, so good…

It’s Sunday morning early and soon we will drop the mooring, pick up some fuel and water and head out from St Augustine, bound for Beaufort NC, just south of Cape Hatteras some 400NM from here. 

I spoke with Chris Parker, the weather router, yesterday and he felt that Ana would be enough out of the way and the seas down enough to make the run on the outside to Beaufort.  He gave me a few way-points for the Gulf Stream to give us a boost in speed and also probably a better wind angle for our run north.

With the wind from the SW, and our course generally NE, the wind will be behind us and I don’t know enough about this boat’s sailing characteristics to be able to predict what time we will arrive at Beaufort Inlet.  However, the ideal arrival time will be Tuesday ,mid-day as the tide is flooding up the river between 09:00 and 15:00.  As they say, “It’s easier to go with the flow, than against it.”

We have to arrive in Beaufort by Tuesday evening as the remains of Ana will head off to the NE and back to sea and will bring northerlies that will make progress beyond Hatteras impossible until the winds shift back to a more southerly direction, perhaps later in the week.

From Beaufort, the run to CT is another 500 miles or so which will take three or four days given good winds.

Anyway, it looks like today will be the day that I get to sail the “new” Pandora for the first time.  Let’s hope that we don’t run into any conditions that are too exciting.  Having said that, we are certainly hoping for a fast passage and with the wind on our tail, we’ll have to have a good amount of wind to make time.

I am optimistic that Pandora will kick up her heels and give us a good run.  If last night’s dramatic sunset is any indication, we should have a good trip. Besides, I know my friend Rodney would be upset If I didn’t put in a sunset photo, so there it is.  

There was lots of excitement in St Augustine and I was very touched that the locals put on a parade to see us off.  These nice ladies waved as they passed our “reviewing stand”.   I wonder if they dressed up for us or if that’s the what they wear all the time.   Hmm…As is our custom aboard Pandora, we’ll be projecting our position every 4 hours with the SPOT GPS, so you will be able to see where we are under “Where’s Pandora”.   Unfortunately, I don’t have my SSB installed yet so I won’t be able to post any more blog entries until I arrive in Beaufort.  So, for now, you’ll have to be satisfied with “spots” on a map, showing our progress as we move north.

Wish us luck.

 

It’s Saturday morning and as of tomorrow my crew will have been aboard Pandora for a week TRYING TO GET TO CT.  Yes, I am raising my voice with the hope that Ana will hear me and decide to get out of the way so WE CAN GET MOVING!

Well, that’s how I feel.  So there.   Are you listening Ana?  Didn’t think so.

Anyway, St Augustine is a lovely city and I should know as it’s the third time I have been here this year.  I will say that it’s a much nicer spot in May than it was in January when Brenda and I had our first stop and again in March as it was pretty chilly both of those times.  The weather in May?  Terrific.  Warm days and balmy nights.  And, the warm weather makes for great people watching.  

Yesterday Michael, Jim and I stopped at a pub for a beer, two actually, as it was “buy one get one free” happy hour, and spent some time watching the world walk by.  And there was plenty to watch.  Here’s Michael taking it all in. Perhaps it’s just me but there seemed to be a LOT of tattoos.  Not just the little ones that say something in Mandrin on an ankle but the rambling sort that begin at the wrist, flow up to shoulders and back down to the small of someone’s back.  And, that’s just the part that you can see.   Perhaps these folks that turn themselves into a walking art gallery are around all the time but there is nothing like a warm spring night to let you see, first hand, the result of what goes on in those little store front tattoo parlors that seem to be everywhere.

To be fair, there was much more to see than ink on skin.  How about fife and drum corps on the march?The historic district is quite quaint and a great spot to “people watch”, that’s for sure.  Did I mention that there were a lot of tattoos?And, for the “older set”, there was a big band concert on the town green.  I understand that Michael is in a band in RI, where he calls home.  I wonder if 25 years from now everyone listening to band concerts will be completely covered with tattoos?  How about a musical scale running up your right arm and down the left?  Hmm…  Sure as shootin, tattoos look better on a 20 something than an 80 something.   “Is that a picture of a bowl of prunes tattooed on your back Grandma?”  “Shut-up and eat your cereal kid or I’ll send you back to your parents.”

Alas, I digress.  So, back to Ana.

I plan on talking to Chris Parker, the weather router, today about next steps and am hopeful that he will suggest that we leave on Sunday morning to head outside to Beaufort NC, just south of Cape Hatteras. a two to three day run, I think.  After that, I understand that there will be some northerlies again as a front passes offshore, north of the cape.

After all that,  I am hoping that things will clear up and we’ll be able to make a jump the rest of the way to CT.  I fear that this is going to stretch beyond two weeks and I’ll end up with some new crew for what is beginning to look like will become the “second half” of the trip.  I know that it will be tough for Michael and Jim to commit more than two weeks to this.  Perhaps my biscuits will convince them otherwise.

If not, luckily, I have been contacted by two guys who ready my blog, one of which I have sailed with before, who have put up their hands to finish the run if I need new crew along the way.

It’s nice to know that someone out there is reading this stuff.

So, more to come on this.  Let’s hope that we can get to the “main event” soon with the new Pandora and put some ocean miles on her and soon.

Oh yeah, I forgot.  Yesterday I was finally able to sort out the antenna issues with the satellite radio on the plotter so now I’ll be able to keep track of weather while we are out of cell range.   That makes me feel much better and gives me confidence that I’ll get advance warning if my buddy Ana, or one of her friends, decides to make plans to move in our direction and give us some trouble.

For now, it’s clear that Ana’s calling the shots and we’ll be waiting here in St Augustine while she makes up her mind on what’s next.

At least it’s not Cleveland…

It’s Friday morning and we are motoring up the ICW on our way to St Augustine. where we will spend a day or two.  Unfortunately, we are still tied to the ICW as it’s just too rough offshore to make a run out in the ocean.    Things are particularly nasty as you get up toward Hatteras with Ana poking along to the NW at only 1kt, a very slow moving storm indeed.

Here’s what conditions are alike now off off of Cape Fear (Brenda just loves that name). The winds are running 35-50kts from the NW with gusts to 65, nearly Hurricane strength and it’s kicking up seas to 10-20’ tall.  Big waves.  Not a great spot to hang out.   And, to make matters worse, it’s not clear as to when this will settle down enough to make a run past Hatteras.

However, Chris Parker, the weather router, believes that that we can jump out from northern FL at some point, perhaps as early as the beginning of the week and begin our run outside.  Hopefully Hatteras will be settled by late next week, by the time we pass that area.  After that, 4-5 days to the CT River.  Well, who knows how long it’s going to take.    What a change from the last two years when I was able to make the run the entire way from the Bahamas in a week.  

There are a number of spots on the ICW where municipalities make free docks available to visiting boaters and New Smyrna, where we tied up last night, is one of those.  The town is lovely and we enjoyed walking around town to get a bit of exercise last night.  Here’s Pandora tied up to the free dock and a floating one at that.  Notice the davits holding up the dink.  That’s the work that was done last week.  I really like how they turned out.  The yard did a great job.  The new logo of the name looks great but it doesn’t show up quite as well as I had hoped on the dark green hull.  Oh well, I am not doing it again.  At least it’s subtle.This boat has all sorts of electronics and one that is particularly intriguing is satellite weather.   I had some problems getting it to work as it seems that I didn’t do a very good job of reattaching the antennas that I had removed from the arch when the welding was done.  However, today, after a few days of tinkering with the antenna (first I had to figure out which of the 5 was the right one) it’s working again.  This service shows weather for the entire eastern seaboard in real time.   It includes rain, waves, wind, lightning strikes (Brenda will particularly enjoy watching that) and a bunch of other data to help us understand what’s going on with the weather ahead of us when we are offshore.   As I have not yet installed my SSB radio, having this service is particularly useful.  This screen shot, cockpit reflections and all, shows how much information it has on the screen.  Very cool.Anyway, while the “where” we are going is not a question (Connecticut) there’s plenty of doubt about the “when”.  I guess it all comes down to Ana and what she has in mind.  So far, she’s proving to be in no particular rush to get out of the way.  “Ana!  Get a move on. “  I don’t think she is listening.  Women…