January 2017

It’s Monday morning early and we are tied up in a marina here in Roadtown Tortola.  It’s hard to believe that the four of us, my crew and me, have been aboard together for nearly two weeks and on the move most of the time.  Since clearing into the BVI last week, we have moved from anchorage to anchorage each day in spite of the unusually windy conditions.

In each of the three seasons Brenda and I spent cruising the Bahamas it was “unusually” windy and each year those who had been going to the Bahamas for years always said, “this is an unusual winter.  It’s NEVER this windy.”   All I can say is that I am getting a complex and am wondering if there is some sort of little “wind goblin” that has been following me around for the last five years.

Well, enough of that I guess although it will be interesting to see how things go for the rest of the winter when Brenda and I return at the end of the month.  Fingers crossed.

We decided to come into a marina for a night yesterday to get out of the ceaseless wind, get cleaned up and do some laundry.

Roadtown is the largest city in Tortola and is also he home of the largest charter fleet in the Caribbean with literally hundreds (thousands?) of charter boats.   We walked over to the Moorings marina and I was stunned to see how many boats were moored there.   Given the fact that there are boats from this company everywhere in the BVI, it’s hard to imagine that there could be so many still tied up in the marina.  The company “The Moorings” also owns other brands including Sunsail, I think.  Rows and rows of them too.  The marina was quite nice.  It’s hard to believe that with all these boats sitting there in high season that anyone makes a profit.  However, who ever said that boats and profits went together? All of these boats are privately owned and put into charter through these companies.

Pandora is in another marina across the way and it is very nice to be tied up on a dock for a bit.   Oh yeah, and the AC is on and blasting.  Nice a dry with no humidity.    Me and my crew went out for lunch at the marina yesterday for burgers.  They tasted great.   This chicken was walking past our table in the restaurant during lunch.  Can you imagine a chicken walking through a marina restaurant in the US?Chicken’s and all, this is my crew.  Dave on the left, Jerry and Jim to the right. They have worked hard to keep Pandora in good shape in spite of the rough trip down.   I hope that they will sail with me again.  Soon. Beyond the marinas, the main drag in Roadtown seems to be dominated by t shirt shops and other small stores catering to cruise ships.  Two were docked when we arrived and by evening both had left. Well, in a few days we will all disperse for home and Pandora will be snug, I hope, on a mooring in West End Tortola where she will stay until Brenda and I return toward the end of the month.

Tonight I hope to have a farewell dinner for the guys before Jerry heads home on Tuesday.  Dave, Jim and I will sail together for one more night before we too head our separate ways.

All and all, it’s been a fun trip but it’s been very tough to be away from Brenda for this long and I can’t wait to see her later this week.  My plan is to fly to BWI on the 19th and stop for a few days with Brenda to see Rob, Kandice and little, well not so little any more, Tori.  Remember?  She’s our nearly brand new granddaughter. One month old now.  Go figure.

Isn’t she cute?  Grampy who? For sure, Roadtown is the place to rent a boat and there’s no shortage, that’s for sure.

Well, that’s about it for now.  Time to make coffee.   Need to keep my crew happy.  Besides, just about every scrap of food is now gone so I had better run out to a market and find something for breakfast.

It’s Friday and we are motoring into 20kts of wind, headed to a new anchorage at Cooper Island for tonight.  The wind is strong and blowing from the NE which makes running east along the BVI islands a slog to windward.  With a short chop and a bit of an adverse current, it’s a very slow go.  Our goal for the week is to make our way to the windward end of the chain, spend a few days at the Bitter End YC and then have a leisurely run back west with the wind at the end of or week cruising together.

Yesterday’s run from Soper’s hole was about an hour and took us to Norman’s Island, a well protected harbor full or moorings featuring a very nice waterfront beach bar/restaurant as well as the notorious floating boat bar William Thornton or “Willy’s” as it’s known in the charter community.  With some 50 moorings in the well protected harbor there are plenty of charterers on hand to keep these two businesses humming day and night.

The beach bar, complete with terrific free wifi, is as nice as any Hilton resort and yet it’s only accessible by boat.  Of course, there are plenty of day trippers who come over on tour boats from the nearby USVI for lunch.  It’s a nice spot.Beautiful view pf the harbor and clear water.  I went there for the afternoon to relax, check my email and make some wifi phone calls.  An all around nice afternoon.  My crew went snorkeling nearby.

As the sun set and moon rose above the mountains it was amazing.And, after dark the “animals” came out to play.  Willy’s boat bar, and it’s a sort of converted small freighter, is on a mooring in the cove and is THE spot to be seen after dark.  And as well kept as the beach bar is, Willy’s is the exact opposite and the PERFECT place for the charter gang to “let their hair down”, way down, well into the wee hours.

The bar tenders were eager to serve and serve they did early and often.  The guy on the left was also busy dealing in what one reveler called “Colorado Salad” on the side and in plain sight.  No need to be secretive in the BVI mon.As the evening ramped up, two boat loads of charterers, festooned in flashing lights arrived ready to rumble.After a few beers there was a handy sign on the head to keep everyone up to speed on the rules. Willy’s also has a particularly charming custom of putting four shot glasses of who knows what into specially drilled holes in an old waterski.  The idea is for four to stand together and as the board tips, everyone drinks at the exact same pace. And the pace is really, really fast.After a few rounds with the waterski, this fellow decided it was time for a nap.  Doesn’t he look cozy in his dink? He even took time to peek over the side from time to time.After a while his girlfriend, well that’s what I think she was, decided to keep him comfortable. How sweet for her to support him like that.  There was pounding music and plenty of dancing.  I was particularly amused by a group from Ukraine headed up by a sort of soft and pudgy “mini oligarc” holding court with his girls.  The girls seemed way more interested in impressing him than he was in them.    I guess he thought that he was “all that and more” on his 50’ Moorings charter cat.   Perhaps the girls didn’t realize that his father moved in circles where the boats were about 10x that length.   Perhaps they were in “training” for bigger things.

As the evening wore on, I was even lent one of those lovely flashing hairpieces.  Even when I was all dressed up and totally awesome, I was only asked to dance once and by a Brit in her late 60s.  Perhaps she thought I too was a mini Oligarch.  I did my best not to break her bubble.   I don’t know, seemed like some sort of angelic halo to me.  For sure, compared to the “dink nappers” was was a perfect angel.Norman’s Island is a must stop spot for charterers and the beach bar, well very nice and with GREAT WIFI.   I recall clearly that I had fun.  However, I have a feeling that many of Willy’s customers, while they aren’t sure what they did they were pretty sure that it was fun too.   Better them than me.

I guess, as they say, “you had to be there” to appreciate it.    Yes, Norman’s a classy spot, well at least until the sun goes down.

Sure, I’ll have another Caribe.  No, perhaps not.

It’s Thursday morning and the sun is just coming up over the mountains here in West End Tortola.  After  8 days at sea, 189.5 hours actually, and over 1,100 miles of blue water along with three days of gale force winds, not to put too fine a point on it, we arrived at our destination only a little worse for wear.  Our average speed was just over 6kts which was less than I would have expected since there were plenty of times when the GPS reading in the double digits as we plummeted down the face of 20’ waves, several times topping out at better than 17kts.  “Hang on guys! ”  However, as we crawled up the face of the next wave we’d quickly slow to something like 4.5kts.    I guess it’s all about averages and well, that’s the average.

Anyway, this blog isn’t about numbers (well mostly) so I won’t beat that horse any longer.  All and all, it was a good run, if in a more than “salty” way than I would have liked.

All I can say is that WE HAD BETTER HAVE FUN here in the Caribbean as it was totally frigging hard to get here.

I did learn two things from this trip.  First, I can endure hardship better than Brenda (I knew that actually) but not as nearly as well as Jerry and Dave, two of my crew who seem completely nonplussed by constant depravity and discomfort.  Amazing!   The second thing I learned is that Pandora is an AWESOME boat.  My thanks to Rodger Martin for designing a world class ocean ride.   But, I guess I already knew that too.  Oh well, I must have learned something but I won’t think about that too much for now as my crew, who will be cruising with me here for the next week, really want to, as my father used to say, “get the lead out” and move on with our day.   Besides, we have snorkeling to do.  More to come on that score.

Amazingly, after over a week at sea we somehow managed to time the sight of first landfall at sunrise yesterday.  This was our first real view of as the crew shouted, with enthusiasm and in unison “land ho”.   “Bob, Bob, there’s no way that happened.  You’re totally making that up.”   OK, OK, call it editorial license.   We were happy to be here at last.

Anyway, this was the first view of land for us in more than a week and how sweet it was.  And unlike those “adventures of yor” who didn’t have GPS, we actually knew where we were.  GOOD MORNING TORTOLA!A frigate bird flew out to make a formal greeting and to be sure we were flying our “Q” flag.And speaking of “frigate” the crew was more than happy to pull down those “frigating” sails. And in the “you can’t make this s*&% up” department a rainbow formed as we entered sheltered waters.  “No way Bob, you Photo Shopped that.”  Yes way…a real BVI rainbow to greet us.   Those Brits, they really know how to say welcome.Yes, welcome to paradise and to paraphrase my late father after 8 days at sea, it was “good to be seen” as we arrived in the beautiful BVI.

It was a remarkable if often really annoying journey and I am so happy to be here. What a beautiful harbor.  Time to make the donuts.  Hungry crew.

As I write this we are “enjoying,” NOT, our third day of gale force winds.  A gale is at least 35kts of wind.  If you think that sounds unpleasant,and it is, the 40+ gusts that we have been contending with for the last three days have been even more fun.  Oh yeah, and I won’t even mention our “own little squall” that trailed us for about 8 hours last night.  Somehow it stayed on top of us nearly all night.  And, all of this kicks up some remarkable waves in the 15′ to 20′ range that blast along and under us from behind every 10 seconds or so keeping us clipping along in the 7.5kt range.

You’d think it would be faster but 7.5 knots is an average that takes into account that the boat slows considerably as she “climbs” up the backside of a wave where her speed is quickly slowed to perhaps 4.5 to 5kts.  However, on the face of the wave Pandora surges ahead in a thundering rush usually topping out in the mid teens.  At a few points we saw speeds of 17+kts on the GPS.  To have the boat go from a crawl up the back of a wave and blast down the other side in a surge, all in perhaps about one minute, feels a bit like a free fall and is a remarkable experience.  To do this for three days without a break gets pretty old. Jerry, one of my crew, remarked to me today that this experience in the dark of night with heavy rain falling and waves surging against the boat feels like being on a runaway freight train in a dark tunnel.  Good description.

As you can imagine, the pressures on the boat are tremendous and we have had our share of breakages and leaks.  Fortunately, most are fairly minor but when the autopilot failed two days ago, we all thought that we were in for a horrible few days.  Pandora tracks well in rough conditions but steering under those circumstances is very challenging and can quickly tire even the most enthusiastic crew.  So, as we were powering down a wave late Sunday afternoon, Pandora all of sudden veered off course and rounded up into a huge wave.  Fortunately, someone was at the helm in case something went wrong so two of us were able to wrestle her back on course within a few minutes.

I pride myself, as Pandora’s previous owner did, in having spares on board for a lot of systems and there are literally thousands of dollars of spares tucked away.  However, I didn’t know if the broken specialized bolt that linked the autopilot ram to the steering quadrant was somewhere in all the hardware that I have tucked away.  Amazingly, after searching for nearly two hours, I finally found the precious piece and had it installed in less than ten minutes.  I just KNEW I had seen it somewhere!  YES!  Let me tell you, Dave, Jim and Gerry were ecstatic too.  Remarkably, I ultimately found a second spare.  I had seen these in the past but had no idea what they were.  Now I do.

Since Pandora has been banging around constantly I try to do a careful review of all systems several times a day to be sure that nothing looks like it’s about to break.  Today I found some critical bolts on the steering quadrant that had worked themselves loose and was also alarmed (an understatement) to find the watermaker lurching from side to side.  The screws that held the base to the workbench had pulled loose.  I was shocked to see how tiny they were.  Fortunately, I was able to put in some new larger ones with some help from Jim — a major mess averted.

The last few days have been very difficult, and if this trip is what might be called “typical” then I am not sure I’d want to do it again.  However, I should note that when we were making a decision on a weather window to leave Beaufort, Chris Parker, the weather router, did mention this front and said that it would be important to stay in front of it to stay in good weather.  Naturally, the front moved in faster than predicted, so we missed that window by about 12 hours.  Had that not happened, our trip would have been much easier.

I think that the moral of the story is that if things look iffy, perhaps it’s better to hold off and try later.  I guess that’s often the case in life. Or, to put it another way “pick your battles.”  Yes, it’s been a very tough ride but my crew has been terrific and everyone is getting along well.

As I finish this up we are about 100 miles from Tortola and should arrive there around dawn on Wednesday.  I have to say that there have been a number of times in the last few days when I would have been happy to be just about anywhere than aboard Pandora.  However, if we arrive in Tortola and the sun is out and I am holding some sort of tropical drink with a little umbrella, I expect that all will be forgotten.

All and all, we have done well and nobody even got sick.  That’s good too.

Well, I am looking forward to spending time in the BVI with my crew but more than anything else, I can’t wait to see Brenda again.  I have missed her terribly and on top of that, I am looking forward to seeing our new granddaughter Tori again.  Oh yeah, it will be fun to see her parents Rob and Kandice too.

Yes, I am glad that this trip is almost over.  And in spite of the fact that Pandora has proved herself to be a wonderful blue water boat, I can’t stop from thinking “are we there yet?”. Boy, I sure hope so.

Hello Brenda!!!  I REALLY, REALLY can’t wait to see you. XXXOOO to come…

It’s nearly midnight on Saturday and we are sailing along at a very good clip, sometimes more than 8kts.  That’s pretty fast especially in the choppy ocean conditions that we have now.  And, ocean conditions it is, as we are 450 miles from the nearest land and 600 miles from the US coast.  We are really on our own, that’s for sure.  If we were to get into trouble, the only real option would be to get help from a passing ship and there aren’t many around.  We did have two come by today but they were too far to see as the closest they came to us was about 20 miles.

And, one thing about being out here by ourselves, is that it is critical that any problems be addressed while they are still manageable.  When conditions are rough little problems can become big ones very quickly.  For example, each morning we take a good look at the deck, lines and the sails to see that everything is in good shape. A small wrinkle in a sail that wasn’t there the prior evening can spell trouble and a little hole in a sail rubbed by another piece of hardware can lead to a major failure.

Yesterday Jim, one of my crew, was looking at the mainsail and noticed a small rip about 40′ up from the deck.  We pulled the sail down and then realized that the “little” rip was actually a pretty big hole, nearly 10″ long.  Fortunately, I had some adhesive sail repair cloth on hand which we applied on each side of the tear.  I am pretty sure it will hold until we get to Tortola.  Fingers crossed.

We also did some preparation for possible gale conditions expected Monday when we may encounter winds in the 30-40kt sustained range with gusts to 50.  Even though the winds will be behind us, that’s a lot of wind. With that in mind, we spent time today rigging a third reef in the main which will allow us to reduce the mainsail area by about 75%.  We were also having trouble getting good sail shape from the first reef which we have used for much of this trip so far.  The problem was that the reef wasn’t flattening the sail enough so the boat was heeling much more than it should have and it made for a very uncomfortable ride.  After about two hours of work today, everything seems to be in order.

Making sure that we are very well prepared will keep things from getting out of control when conditions get nasty.  It’s particularly important when you consider that no one can come out to help get the boat to shore when we are this far from land.  So, a problem that is easily fixed if we were a few miles from shore becomes a very big deal out in the “real” ocean.

And speaking of “remote” I can’t believe that I was able to send this text to Brenda via my SSB radio so she can post it to my blog. Amazing, actually.

So, we have been at sea for four days now and are half of the way to Tortola.  And, as I write this we are barreling along in the dark hundreds of miles from anywhere.  It’s different, that’s for sure.

With most of the “issues” resolved for now, it’s nice to know that we should have good sailing conditions for much of the rest of the trip, even though some of those miles may be “pretty sporty.”  At least I can say that I am as prepared for a possible gale as I can be.

I am feeling pretty relaxed right now, or is it that I am just tired?  Hmm…  The last few days have been pretty stressful as I have had to sort out a number of problems and worry about the nasty weather we are heading toward and all the while wondering if we were prepared.  There’s something about the word “gale” that tends to stress me out for some reason.

I guess it’s impossible to know but now I feel that we are as prepared as we can be.  Fingers crossed that I’m right.

I hope that you have been able to follow our progress as I am using a new tracker that is pretty neat.  It even allows you to click on an individual waypoint to see how fast we were going at that particular time.  Cool, I think.

Wish us luck as we continue our way south.  Thanks for “watching.”