September 2015

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…

It’s Saturday morning and just two weeks from my scheduled departure for Hampton VA where Pandora will be berthed until I leave in early November for the BVI and our winter of cruising in the Caribbean.

It’s hard to believe that the “iron doors of summer” have slammed shut, Labor Day weekend has come and gone and it’s already getting cooler at night.   With temperatures overnight recently in the 50s, change is certainly on the way.  I guess it’s time to head south for the winter.  Let the migration begin.

You may recall that, a few weeks ago, when I was bringing Pandora from RI, I had a chance encounter with a US Navy sub off of New London.  I posted about it here and on FaceBook.    I also, through comments on my FaceBook post, was able to identify the boat as the USS New Mexico.  So, I decided to send a note to the boat directly and put a note on the boat’s website.

Some on FaceBook suggested that I’d “be in big trouble” for posting pictures of a sub sighting so carelessly.   Well, it turned out that even folks on nuclear subs enjoy getting pictures of themselves and were pleased that I had taken time to write about their arrival.  And, by the way, “could you send us those pictures you took so we can post them on our site?”.    Sure!  And they didn’t ask me to destroy them so I guess that I wasn’t in trouble at all.  Whew!

Anyway, I sent the photos, thrilled to be asked for them.   Fast forward a few weeks and what should arrive in the mail but an “official” USS New Mexico sub cap.  How great is that?   “Brenda, does it make my head look fat?”   Nice hat, fat head or not.Well, it proves that the sword, or at least the keyboard, is mightier than the sword, or something like that.

But wait, there’s more…

I also received a “challenge coin”.  An official coin of the sub.   Front… Back…Interestingly, this is the second coin I have received from a someone in the service, the first when Brenda and I had dinner with a friend’s son, a guard at the US Embassy in Nassau Bahamas but that’s yet another story.

Curious, I looked up the history of these coins, called “challenge coins” by “those who know”. It seems as amazing as custom bobble head and that they have become very popular of late among those in the military where they are shared among service personnel and given as gifts on occasion.   This link to Wikipedia gives an interesting background to the tradition which is reported to have begun perhaps during WWI, although it has become much more popular in recent years.

According to a description in Wikipedia, many in the “service” carry the coin of their unit and are sometimes “challenged”…

“The challenge, which can be made at any time, begins with the challenger drawing his/her coin, and slapping or placing the coin on the table or bar. In noisy environments, continuously rapping the challenge coin on a surface may initiate the challenge. (Accidentally dropping a challenge coin is considered to be a deliberate challenge to all present.) Everyone being challenged must immediately produce the coin for their organization and anyone failing to do so must buy a round of drinks for the challenger and everyone else who has their challenge coin. However, should everyone challenged be able to produce their coin, the challenger must buy a round of drinks for the group.”  (Wikipedia)

Sounds confusing…  Yup.  Not to worry, it doesn’t apply to those who have one but aren’t in the service.  One way or the other, I’ll keep my coins aboard Pandora, just in case and for good luck.

While I received my USS New Mexico Challenge Coin in the mail, I was given the Bahamas Embassy coin in the traditional way…

“Coins given as awards for accomplishments are normally given to the recipient during a handshake, passing from the right hand of the giver to the right hand of the awardee. It is also normal for the giver to offer a brief explanation of the reason for awarding the coin.”  (Wikipedia)

It seems that my “accomplishment”, in that case, was buying dinner.  Works for me.

One way or the other, it’s a wonderful tradition and one that I am trilled with being a part of, if only in a very small way.

Perhaps I’ll close with a few photos I “borrowed” from the USS New Mexico’s site.  This one is even better than mine.   It certainly suggests that the Virginia class of subs is what President Roosevelt mean when he famously said  “speak softly, and carry a big stick.”Sailors looking pretty natty.So, I guess that the moral to the story is that next time you see a sub, take a photo.  It might land you a cap.

You never know..

 

It’s Wednesday morning and Pandora is in Deep River preparing to be hauled in a few days.  The run from Wickford last week was eventful, a combination of a wonderful sail and a chance encounter with the USS New Mexico.    I wrote a post about that moment, when she passed my bow off of New London.  If you missed it, you can click here to catch up.

I posted some photos on FaceBook and was amazed by the amount of response I got.  Some suggested that I had “sinned” by “blowing their cover” and had put the US Navy’s security at risk.  However, that turned out to be a bit of an overstatement as I put a note on the boat’s home page and within hours received an enthusiastic note from the Director of the Navy League in New Mexico thanking me for taking the photos and writing about the experience.  I was also thrilled that he wanted to use my photos on their site.  So much for the “cloak of secrecy” being blown.   I may even be able to find my way on board for a visit.  However, I won’t say that too loud as I may jinx it.  Mums the word.

Here’s what he had to say about my post.

“Hi Bob,

I am the Chairman of the Navy League Committee here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that supports activities surrounding the USS NEW MEXICO (SSN-779).  It is our committee that runs the website where you posted your email about seeing the USS NEW MEXICO return to New London.  I forwarded your email immediately to the Commanding Officer, CDR Todd Moore, and the Chief of the Boat, Master Chief Steven Fritzler.  Thank you so much for sharing your photos from your blog and for your note of appreciation for a job well done to the crew of the USS NEW MEXICO.  With your permission, I would like to post some of the pictures from your blog at our website, www.ussnewmexico.net .  Also, if you have any others that we could share, I would be glad to include those as well.  Just forward them and we will be sure to include credit for the origin of the photos.  We all loved your description at the chance meeting of a multi-billion dollar vessel at sea, and no matter who had the right of way, your sailboat needed to make way.

I look forward to hearing from you again, and checking out your blog from time to time for updates.  You included two of our favorite videos in your blog.

Damon”

Well, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to get a response.   So, what do you do to top a photo of a sub taken while underway?  Not sure, perhaps I’ll someday have a chance to take a photo from on board a sub?  One can always dream.  How about a day sail?  Hmm…

I also recently wrote about a visit to the designer of Pandora Rodger Martin, and while I was there, at the Newport Shipyard, I spied an amazing cold molded sailboat and wrote about that too.   Well, Rodger, after reading that post, dropped me a note and mentioned that the boat, Foggy, was designed by Frers, styled by the famed architect Frank Ghery, famed designer of the Guggenheim museum in Spain. and built at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine.  It seems that there was considerable secrecy surrounding the building of the yacht launched in July after two years of construction for an “unidentified client”.  You won’t find any information on Foggy on the yard’s site.   I did find a very interesting article about the yacht on www.panbo.com, and it was clear that the author was very excited about the yacht.   You can see the entire article here.  It is indeed a remarkable vessel.

With credit to Panbo,  here are a few photos of the boat rumored to be the personal yacht of Ghery himself.  It’s remarkable, to say the least. How about these sky lights and port holes?  Steve White, owner of BBY, speaks about this remarkable yacht and it’s impressive engineering in the following video.  Supposedly, there will also be some sort of dodger although it wasn’t installed when I saw her in Newport, and I am sure that it will be as awesome as the rest of the boat.  Rodger also told me that the additional detailing on the bowsprit was constructed with a 3-D printer of sintered titanium, whatever that is, it’s plenty cool.Well, that’s enough about other people’s boats for now, that would be OPB, so what’s happening to lowly Pandora?

Thanks for asking.  there are still tons of things to do and time is short.  Yesterday the rigger pulled the back stay and will be putting insulators in it so I can use it as an SSB radio antenna.  Of course, the stay itself is not “standard” having been built in Finland so I’ll need a new one.  Great… What else is new.

I also finally was able to install a new strainer for the water cooling for the freezer and fridge.  The old one, and a pint sized one it was, kept clogging up and starving the water flow to the compressor.  Not good and lead to a few overheat moments.   Double not good.   That would be for b0th the compressor and for me when I discovered the problem.  Here’s a photo of just how teeny tiny the old one was. And, let me tell you, a ton of water pumps through this each day, especially when it’s hot. The new setup is much more substantial.  I wanted to provide more volume of water and have strainer that was less prone to loading up with weed than the old one as I’ll be leaving Pandora in Tortola for over a month.  Yes, someone will be watching her and checking things regularly, but I really, really don’t want to have a freezer of food spoiled or worse, loose my fridge compressor.   The strainer to the right, in the photo below, is for the water maker and is about twice the size of the one that I replaced on the fridge.  Fingers crossed that this will perform as planned, or should I say “hoped”. And, as Gilda Radner once said, “it’s always something” and Pandora’s no different. The other day the unit that keeps track of the battery decided to crap out.  I understand that there are two fuses on the unit and I spent hours hunting for them, only finding one so far.   This little baby is critical as it tells me the state of the battery charge and having a unit that works every time is really important.   Before I spend another $300 on a new one, I’ll try and find the other fuse.  If not, UPS on the way.

Well, I guess that’s about it on boat sighting updates so I guess it’s time to hit the road and get to work on Pandora.  Time’s short.  Yikes!!!

It’s becoming clear that OPB or perhaps better said, OPS  (Other Peoples Submarines) sailing would be a lot easier than this.  Perhaps I can head out for a cruise on the USS New Mexico.  “In your dreams Bob. REALLY…”

On Friday, as I headed from Wickford RI toward the CT River, where Pandora will be hauled for the next few weeks prior to beginning my run south to the Caribbean for the winter, I was passing New London and heard something on the radio about a sub passing a tug in The Race.  Before I knew it, I saw this approaching me from port.   Or, was I approaching him?  Hmm…  In case you are wondering, he did show up on AIS, cruising at 9kts.   However, no info about size etc.   I guess the Navy doesn’t want their “silent service” guys to show up on everyone’s chart plotter.   It just wouldn’t do for a multi billion dollar sub to be spotted on a $400 AIS receiver, would it?Anyway, I turned to port and luffed to let him pass.   I surely didn’t want to head in front of him, pint size sailing boat right-of-way or not, and besides, the guys on the support boats looked plenty serious as they approached.  They weren’t smiling or waving HI as they passed, flack jackets, machine guns and all. I couldn’t believe how close they came to me, or was it me to them?   I would guess about 100 yards.  I am used to 1,000′ exclusion zone for military ships.   To get a shot of the whole boat I had to zoom my lens all the way out.  She was REALLY close. Just how close?  This close…I was wondering why a sub would sport a yellow “Q” or quarantine flag and when I posted some photos on Face Book I learned about that and more.  I got an amazing number of responses and someone noted that it was the state flag of New Mexico and that the sub, only the second warship in the history of the US Navy to be named so, was the USS New Mexico.  Someone else sent a link to the New London Day, with an announcement of the boat’s arrival.  Here’s a story and pictures of her arrival to an enthusiastic crowd.  She was just back from a tour of the North Atlantic covering 36,000 miles.  One of her “port” stops, about a year ago, on a previous tour, was at the North Pole.  They surfaced through the ice near where the Nautilus, the first atomic sub did so years ago.

This is a short video of her surfacing in March of 2014 at the North Pole.   The weather that day was a lot different than it was when she steamed by me on Friday off of her home port, New London.   With the North West Passage more open to shipping each year, compliments of global warming, I guess that the USA wanted to make it clear that we plan to be active in the Arctic.   While they were on the ice, they flew a New Mexico state flag that was later presented to the Medal of Honor Award recipient Hiroshi Miyamura, who received the recognition in 1951 for his valor in a battle during the Korean war. This moving description, which I have repeated below, of the actions that earned him the award is from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website.

“Cpl. Miyamura, a member of Company H, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. On the night of 24 April, Company H was occupying a defensive position when the enemy fanatically attacked threatening to overrun the position. Cpl. Miyamura, a machine gun squad leader, aware of the imminent danger to his men unhesitatingly jumped from his shelter wielding his bayonet in close hand-to-hand combat killing approximately 10 of the enemy. Returning to his position, he administered first aid to the wounded and directed their evacuation. As another savage assault hit the line, he manned his machine gun and delivered withering fire until his ammunition was expended. He ordered the squad to withdraw while he stayed behind to render the gun inoperative. He then bayoneted his way through infiltrated enemy soldiers to a second gun emplacement and assisted in its operation. When the intensity of the attack necessitated the withdrawal of the company Cpl. Miyamura ordered his men to fall back while he remained to cover their movement. He killed more than 50 of the enemy before his ammunition was depleted and he was severely wounded. He maintained his magnificent stand despite his painful wounds, continuing to repel the attack until his position was overrun. When last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers. Cpl. Miyamura’s indomitable heroism and consummate devotion to duty reflect the utmost glory on himself and uphold the illustrious traditions on the military service.”

Amazingly, Miyamura survived that day and was presented the award by President Eisenhower.   It was fitting that the flag, flown in the frigid North Pole winter be presented to Miyamura as he had endured a harsh winter as a POW, following his capture.  He survives to this day and is in his 90s.  I am sure that there are other MOH recipients who’s story is as compelling as this one but to see the New Mexico steam across Pandora’s bow, and to learn of this story, only improved what was a moving moment.

The USS New Mexico was commissioned in Newport News and is said to be the most advanced member of the Virginia Class of subs.  This is an interesting time lapse video of her being brought out of the shed and launched in Newport News.
One of the best parts of spending time on the water is seeing things that are totally unexpected and my “encounter” with the USS New Mexico certainly tops the list.  It was a treat for me and Pandora, thanks to some serious looking but tolerant guys with machine guns and flak jackets in fast black boats,  to spend some “quality time” with such a remarkable vessel.  For inquiring minds, like yours. Here’s  link to the “official” USS New Mexico site. 

It won’t be long until Pandora heads into Hampton Roads, near where the sub was built as I join up with other Dawgs preparing to run in the Salty Dawg Rally to Virgin Gorda in early November.

As I write this I realize just how short the time until Pandora begins her 2015-2016 “tour” so I’d better sign off and get to work.