Monthly Archives: March 2025

Holly S**t, it’s been a whirlwind since Brenda headed home from Antigua on March 1st.

In the course of only a few weeks, I helped out on the Caribbean 600 race, greeting boats at the dock upon their return, enjoyed some of the events associated with the SuperYacht Regatta and then took Pandora to Trinidad where she is undergoing a few more tweaks to be sure that she is in top shape to run to the Mediterranean.

Now I am back home in CT until I head back to Trinidad in late April.

On March 10th I headed south from Antigua, bound for Trinidad, some 400 miles distant, to address a few new items that I need completed as well as some “mop up” items from when she was there for her big refit over the summer, a few things that weren’t completed because I needed to be in Antigua by November 10th, done or not and just had to leave…

One major problem with having on a schedule is that sometimes the weather isn’t cooperative and our run south to Trinidad was true to form, in this case, with not enough wind. As a result, a lot of motoring. Sadly, being able to delay a few days would have made for a much more fun passage. When on a tight timeframe it can often be frustrating.

On my way north to Antigua, also on a schedule, we motored a lot as well. Normally, Brenda and I don’t move until conditions are favorable but when there is a deadline, you just gotta go.

When I leave Trinidad in early May, it is a very long way, almost 500 miles, to St Maarten, where I will join in a feeder rally, departing on May 18th, bound for Bermuda, to begin my run to Horta in the Azores. From Bermuda we plan to depart for Horta on or or about June 1st, when I will lead the 9 boats that are participating in the Salty Dawg Azores Rally.

One in Horta Brenda will join me for a month of cruising the Azores before she flies to Scotland and will head, again with crew, for Spain.

My run from Trinidad to Horta will be my longest since I retired in 2012. For the last dozen years, Brenda and I have been spending most winters afloat, beginning with a run down the Intra Costal Waterway, ICW, in 2012, as well as four seasons in the Bahamas, two months cruising Cuba’s south coast and most recently, 8-9 seasons cruising the eastern Caribbean.

This screenshot from my Garmin InReach shows Pandora’s tracks every season from the beginning of the pandemic until this current season. That’s a lot of back and forth. The run to the west from the US Virgins to FL, via the Old Bahama Channel, was our track back to the US when crew was not available.

With bad weather on that run and a very reluctant crew (Brenda), it was surely our most miserable passage ever.

When I return to Pandora in late April, I will begin what will be a marathon run to Spain were I hope to arrive by early August.

The total distance from Trinidad to Almaria Spain, where I will leave Pandora from August until the following spring, is nearly 4,500 miles. That’s a long way and will involve crew on every leg, nearly 10 individuals, my most number of crew in one year, ever.

It is unquestionably a very long way and I will admit that I am struggling to know that when I leave Brenda on April 27th to head to Trinidad, I won’t see her again until mid June. Not to put too fine a point on this but I will be at sea for both our 48th wedding anniversary and my 70th birthday. Not great.

The run…

After last summer I decided that I needed a break from long passages and opted to leave Pandora in Trinidad for some work after a decade of long passages back and forth from New England. It is ironic that after only a break for one season from the long runs, I am now planning on my longest run ever but as they say, “you gotta do what you gotta do”. So much for a shorter commute…

However, after so many years in the Caribbean and going to the same islands, again and again, it’s time for a change of scenery so off we go…

A particularly big negative is that this will take us away from our home for much of this summer, our favorite time of the year to be here. And, that also means that we will be here in the winter, the last place I want to be when it’s freezing.

And speaking of summer, a few days ago we went to a local nursery to get some spring flowers with the full knowledge that after they fade, we won’t be able to plant until sometime in August. Not great but after this season, we will be home for most of the summer following April and May in the Med and a return in the early fall for two more months.

I will surely miss seeing friends and going to our favorite harbors in the Caribbean, especially Antigua but four months a year cruising the Mediterranean with so much history, won’t be so bad. Right?

With crew settled for each leg of the run and Pandora getting last minute items dealt with, I am busy ordering stuff for the passage including spare pumps, medical kits and whatever I can think of to allow us to keep safe and moving if we find ourselves in a fix 1,000 miles from anything.

Whatever spars and parts that I have on board it is likely that something that I don’t have a spare for will break. As they say “everything on a boat is broken. You just don’t know it yet.” Sad but true…

And we won’t even talk about the possibility of an orca biting off my rudder along the way. A few weeks ago I actually ran into a guy on the beach in Falmouth Antigua who had his rudder bitten off near Gibraltar. I suppose when you think about the number of boats sailing around, getting your rudder “removed” isn’t all that likely but it is still common enough to be a real concern.

There is actually a website dedicated to tracking orca sightings and attacks to help boats transiting the area steer clear of harm, or at least try to steer clear of the pods. I have no idea of what the percentage of boats traveling through the area are hit but I’d hate to be one. Check out this site dedicated to sightings and “incidents”.

There are a lot of interactions with orcas in the course of a year. The blue are “we saw”. The red are “they bit”. Looks like a lot to me…

There are many more attacks in the springtime farther south, near Gibraltar. That is why it is not recommended to keep the boat for the winter in southern Portugal with the plan of moving into the Med in early spring as that is when the orcas are most active in the area.

That’s a bummer as I would prefer to keep Pandora in that area for next winter as it is reasonably priced and not all that far from the Azores. But with all the attacks, I will be bypassing that area and heading a few hundred miles farther and into the Med to Almeria, Spain.

Attacks April to June of last year. Lots of them and all over the place.

In summer, July and August when I will be passing the area west of Gibraltar there were not as many interactions but it wasn’t nothing. I am told that they migrate north as the season progresses, following the tuna, their primary food source.

For sure, the risk of being hit by an orca is a concern and I am hopeful that I can avoid the worse of it by consulting the “incident map” and see where the orcas area and going elsewhere.

After transiting the “orca gauntlet”, and making my way into the Med, I’ll head for Almira. Along the way I may very well stop in Gibraltar and Morocco to see some sights with my crew if they can take the time.

And, those plans do depend on my not having to stop along the way to have my rudder repaired.

Gibralter to Almeria.

So, where in the world is Pandora…Going?

From Trinidad to St Maarten, Bermuda, Horta, a month cruising the Azores with Brenda and on to Almeria. After that, in 2026, who knows.

I am looking forward to seeing sights like this castle in Almeria.

I am not looking forward to sights like this…

Orcas aside, here is to an uneventful voyage.

Wish me luck.

BTW: I will be posting regularly on passage so be sure to sign up in the upper right of this page to be alerted when I publish a post. Even if you signed up in the past and are no longer getting alerts sign up again as I had problems with the site but that’s now resolved.

I am in Trinidad and plan on heading home tomorrow for about 6 weeks before returning to bring Pandora north in preparation for the rally to the Azores.

Brenda headed home on March 1st to attend to a number of art shows that she is involved in and I stuck around to be part of the Antigua Super Yacht Regatta. This regatta is designed to attract the really big sailing yachts, some over 200′ long that do not normally race and to do so in a “gentleman sort of way” over a four day series.

To see these huge yachts move around the course, piloted by professional captains and very exprienced crew from around the world is an amazing sight. On the final day or racing I was lucky to be invited out on a photo boat that had been chartered by two professional photographers.

We followed the fleet around the course and to see these monsters pass us by was breathtaking.

The Caribbean 600 is over and the 65+ competitors have returned to the dock. It was a tough race with lots of wind and rough seas so there were quite a few that had to retire without finishing the race. More than normal, I was told.

600 miles in strong trade winds make for a wet race as they wound around 10 islands giving a mix of conditions from ghosting along in the wind shadow of Guadeloupe to beating into 30kts of trades. Not my choice, that’s for sure. A tough course.

A friend and I walked up high on the cliffs overlooking the starting line. Off in the distance was the race committee and lots of others, vying for a good look down the starting line.

And down below us some going for a swim in the surf.

While off in the distance the yachts were getting ready for the start, practicing their tacks and jibes.

As the various classes started, with the smallest ones going first followed by larger boats. Even the smallest weren’t small but compared to the super-maxi…

Rounding the starting mark.

It turned out that we were in the perfect place to observe as each boat came very close to where we were and tacked.

And there was a lot of tacking to gain an advantage, sometimes coming so close to each other that it looked like they would collide.

To see these huge yachts coming at us was an impressive sight. This is Lucky that ultimately won “line honors” being the fastest boat over the course.

This boat, is owned by Roy Disney and is campaigned all over the world.

The boats that are the most sophisticated have a “canting keel” that allows them to move the keel from side to side, up to about 45 degrees. This helps keep the boat more upright in strong wind. When the keel is moved over that much the boat needs to have a long dagger board put down to keep the boat from sliding sideways. This shows the severe angle of the keel.

No shortage of crew on these giants. Every ounce of “rail meat” is needed to keep the boat as level as possible.

To see these powerful machines beating to weather was a sight.

And, to make things even more exciting, there was a helicopter buzzing all around, often hovering very close to the water and banking over us.

More often than not, they passed very close and below us. Not common to see the top of a chopper up close.

One thing that is unique about this race is that every boat, regardless of first, last or retired is greeted at the dock when they arrive. I thought that it would be fun to volunteer and agreed to be on call on Wednesday morning, from 02:00 to 06:00, when the first boats were likely to show up.

All of this was organized by Helen, relentlessly cheerful and yet runs a very tight ship. And, here with her infectious smile and enthusiasm made it all so much fun. In honor of all the volunteers they had two parties for us. it was great fun.

My “crew” of greeters. Note at least one beer at 04:00. Oh, to be young…

The first to be greeted were a few boats that had to retire as they had broken stuff. Torn sails, a track ripped off of the mast, a broken rudder, just to name a few. Even though the arrived dejected from a race that did not turn out as they had hoped, we cheered them with enthusiasm.

We had a banner that they unrolled for the photo and we delivered beer for all on board which was a big hit, as you can imagine.

As my shift was the very first one, less than 48 hours after the start, only the fastest boats were likely to be completing the race by then.

That turned out to be quite something as Lucky, a boat that used to be called Rambler 88, was the first boat to finish, earning “line honors”.

I have to say that being there as they returned to the dock around 05:00 was quite a thrill. As you can imagine, being the first to complete the race was also a reason for press to show up in force so there was quite a crowd on hand.

Check out this video chronicling the win by Lucky. It’s a short piece but full of action. She is a huge white boat. Really impressive.

As she came around the corner from behind a huge motor yacht, it was impressive to see them back into the dock in the dark.

After a hard run, skillfully guided to the dock.

Quite a crowd had been forming to greet them.

Clearly, the Lucky campaign is well run. Even before we had a chance to give them the banner, dozens of hot pizzas arrived. I subsequently learned that a local restaurant opened hours early to prepare food for the crew.

And, there was additional food on the dock in coolers and boxes that was hoisted aboard as the celebration began.

Interestingly, they have a canting keel that can be moved from one side of the boat to the other to provide more righting moment and keep the boat more level, although they still sail on their ear. As the draft with the keel down is something like 20′, they have to cant the keel about 20 degrees to reduce draft in the harbor. However, this means that the boat will heel alarmingly so they hoist three huge water bags on the opposite side of the boat to compensate for the weight of the keel and keep her fairly level at the dock.

This is one sophisticated boat and I can only imagine what it costs to move her around the world for many the many competitions that they participate in.

Only a few weeks ago they received line honors in the RORC transatlantic race from the Canaries islands to Grenada and setting a new record run for the course. This 10 minute wrap-up on the race is worth watching.

All and all, it was a wonderful experience but I can say with confidence, that a 600 mile run, island to island, is not for me. I guess that I don’t like being salty all that much.

However, to volunteer and greet them as they arrived. Great fun.

And even better… the parties.

The Caribbean 600 race. What a spectacle.