If I was heading south this winter, I’d be in Hampton VA with the others that are participating in the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean. And, I’d be preparing Pandora for the 1,500 mile run, with the other boats, to head out around November 3rd, or at least as soon as there is a decent weather window.
A complicating factor in all of this is a late season hurricane Oscar that, until a few days ago, was heading right toward Bermuda and the east coast. The forecast always had him veering to the NE but seeing a hurricane headed our way, temporarily or otherwise is always unnerving, to say the least. Watching a storm that’s heading our way, even one with plenty of time to consider what will happen, does give one pause for thought. Here’s Oscar’s track as of Tuesday morning. Two days ago, the track was to the WNW. 
However, that’s not my problem as I am not heading south. Actually, while I am still unhappy about that, I am beginning to see that being home for the winter will help me focus on things that somehow haven’t gotten done here since moving to CT over six years ago.
Besides, with all this extra time on my hands, I will be able to work double time to figure out what to write about in this blog. I also hope to be able to give a few more talks about our travels, something that I really enjoy, and that seems to be coming together too.
Additionally, I have put on a two to three day event in Essex for the last 6 years, in June and had decided to cancel that out of simple fatigue for 2019 but now that I am home for the winter (Did I mention that wasn’t heading south this season?) I have decided that perhaps we do need one more year of the event.
I’ll be doing that in June along with the Seven Seas Cruising Association and will also involve the Salty Dawg Sailing Association (I sit on the board) as well as the Ocean Cruising Club. I joined that group last winter.
The “new” idea for the event, and it’s not my original idea, is to do a sort of “open boat” weekend, where folks from other local yacht clubs could sign up to visit boats that are set up for blue water sailing and are attending the event to see, first hand, what’s involved in getting a boat ready for blue water passages.
In addition, the publisher of Blue Water Sailing Magazine has agreed to run a round table discussion that day to explore the topic with “those who do it”.
Of course, I also plan on taking another run at arranging a search and rescue (SAR) demonstration in the river by the USCG, chopper and all. For the last two years I have gotten approval for a demo but they were called off at the last minute by weather etc. So, wish me luck, as I apply again. Perhaps three will be the charm.
I did get them to show up with a cutter last spring and that was really interesting. 
When I was in Hampton VA two years ago, the USCG staged a SAR demo and it was totally awesome. This particular chopper was their “100th anniversary edition”, yellow instead of the traditional white and orange. 
I wrote about that amazing experience in this post. After that day I said “I want one of those” and begin petitioning the USCG to do an event like that at the Essex Yacht Club. Wish me luck and mark your calendar, June 2019. Exact date to come.
Of course, when you think about the USCG you may also think about terrible weather and folks getting into all sorts of trouble afloat. Actually, it’s not the “big kids”, sailors like us that do what we can to be fully prepared when we head to sea, that take the bulk of the energy from the Coast Guard. It’s the day-sailors and folks on paddle boards that are their “best customers”. However, when I head out to sea I can’t help but think about what will happen if…
And, when I am more than 350 miles from shore I always take a deep breath as that’s the limit of how far a chopper can go to rescue you if things turn bad. Of course, on a run south to Antigua, being 350 miles from shore is, well, it’s for most of the time.
The Volvo Ocean Race goes through some pretty nasty stuff as they slog their way around the world, especially as the make their way through the Southern Ocean. I learned that each boat has a drone aboard. Awesome!
This video is really amazing. Perhaps even more amazing is that the drone can keep up with the boat in all that wind. Listen at the “yahoo” from the crew at the beginning of this short two minute video and watch,at the end, as the helmsman catches the returning drone with his free hand while steering the boat. These guys, and they are mostly guys, are nuts… Oh yeah, they are way out of chopper range, for nearly all of the trip. You may subscribe to Scuttlebutt Sailing News. They recently announced the winner of what I think they said was the “best sailing video”. The winner was a one minute piece done by AzkoNobel, one of the teams in the Volvo race. They cram A LOT into a one minute video. It’s pretty good, actually.All that’s not my cup of tea, and surely not Brenda’s. I am pretty sure that Brenda would prefer a day on the water that was more like this. You may recall that when asked “Brenda, what is your favorite part of sailing?”, her answer is predictably, “being anchored”. 
Too small a boat you say and yet you do like the umbrella deal? Try this one instead. Besides, aboard Pilar Rossi, which we spied in St Barths two years ago, everbody gets their own spot in the shade. 
Yes, even I agree that easy sailing or being anchored in a beautiful spot suits me just fine. Besides, when I was really small and splashed with water, my response, I am told was, “don’t get my wet”.
So, to close the loop on the title of this post, “If I were headed south”, I’d be waiting until the weather looked good. As the saying goes “here’s to smooth sailing, with the wind on your back”.
Let’s hope that the folks in the Salty Dawg Rally have just that. Bon Voyage…
See you in Antigua.
Conversely, the farther she gets from “terra firma” the smaller she looks and feels. Try 500 miles from land in big seas. Pretty tiny.
There will be a nifty zipper door installed in the stern so I can get into the boat easily and still, sort of, keep out the chill winter winds. Good luck with that. Note that the aft solar panel was kept exposed to be sure that the batteries are kept up all the time. 
I even took some scrap material out of the dumpster and fashioned a cover for our dink. I used an electric heat gun to shrink the material. Pretty neat cover, if you ask me.
Winterizing the boat’s water systems proved to be every bit as complex as I feared. The last time I had to winterize a boat was seven years ago and that boat was WAY simpler.
Must come down. You know the feeling.
Of course, as “tough” as we may like to think we are. Most of us prefer to see days that feel like this as there is indeed, and to quote Ratty from the classic “The wind in the willows.”
And, I will work hard to be sure that Pandora is ready for launch and a fun filled 2019 season of “messing about”.
However, it could be worse… Of course, this begs the question “how much does it cost to live on a boat?” For him, perhaps a bit less than others. 
How about this launch, better known as a “launch limo”. We spied this one in St Barths, the playground of some pretty well heeled boaters. 
Hard to say what yacht that “dink” belonged to but it could have been Eclipse, what was at that time, the second largest yacht in the world, owned, by Roman Abramovich. His life seems to be made up of many superlatives and while he has the second largest yacht in the world, he recently reached a new milestone when he settled on what has been reported as the #1 most expensive divorce ever reported as being over $400 million that went to his ex. And, that’s on top of an earlier divorce from his first wife who only received a measly $150 million. I expect that Roman would agree with the song “breaking up is hard to do”.
Of course, if you have a nice dink, it’s good to have a convenient spot to put it like this “garage” on the starboard side of this yacht we spied in Ft Lauderdale. 
And, I am sure that Kismet has a pretty nifty launch too. She’s certainly large enough to fit one, or perhaps several. 
Well, there you have it. So may ways to get ashore, some a bit flashier than others. Me, I just want to get somewhere…
The Windward Islands: 
I enjoyed preparing for and giving these talks and would appreciate your feedback on what I might do to make them more interesting or perhaps other topics that you’d like to hear.
And finally, the cruise that introduced us to the eastern Caribbean in 2017. 
Yes, it’s going to be a long winter but at least I have lots of friends that can keep me posted on what they are doing, cruising in the beautiful waters of the Caribbean.
So, back to my sagging davit. I knew that it was going to take a lot of pressure, hundreds of pounds at least, to push the sagging stainless, 1 1/2″ tubing and a brace of the same diameter back into place. And to get it to settle at a level point again would mean that I’d have to push it up way beyond level so that it would end up where it belonged when I released the pressure.
Additionally, I drilled two small holes in the base of the barrel and attached a messenger line to a cleat on the dock so that after I was done the water would slowly drain out and I’d be able to turn the barrel over and drain it. My fear was that the barrel would be too heavy to deal with and I wouldn’t be able to retrieve it.
The moment of truth. I pumped the jack up and up, wincing with every pull on the lever, expecting to hear the cracking of the deck or perhaps a weld breaking. I didn’t. I should note that I removed the bolts holding the aft end of the solar panel in place out of fear that the movement would put too much stress on the aft end of the panel and break the bolts or, worse, the panel. 
After several rounds of applying pressure with the jack and then releasing it, I the stepped back and viewed the davits from several vantage points to see if it was level again. I took a spirit level to the swim platform and compared that to the davits.
Big boat, big projects await. My mother says I’m big. Perhaps she’d feel differently if she saw Pandora. 
so how much does a dink full of water weigh? A LOT….