Sail Pandora

It’s Saturday afternoon and we have been aboard Pandora for a week since heading back to Antigua from the US.

We are now anchored in our “normal spot” in Falmouth Harbor and are getting rain showers every few hours, night and day.  It is mostly sunny and then the skies open up for perhaps ten minutes and then it’s sunny again.  As they say “into every life a little rain must fall”.  And, of course a rainbows follow.  This one at dawn yesterday. For the first few days we moved over to historic Nelson’s Dockyard and tied up to the quay.  This involved Mediterranean mooring where we dropped our anchor out in the harbor and backed up to the marina wall, using the anchor to hold ourselves off and safe from hitting the dock.  It’s a tricky process but after you get the hang of it, not too bad.    When we moor this way, Brenda is up forward dropping the anchor.  I power backwards, using the bow thruster to steer the boat.  I say not too hard but my heart is racing the whole time as we always have to do this between a few other boats with feet on each side and of course there is always a nasty cross wind.   And, to add a bit of fun, this is a very popular spectator sport, as is all docking.  Sometimes it feels more like Nascar with the excitement of crashes always a moment away.

In spite of this, it’s very convenient to be able to step off of Pandora right onto the dock. We had some canvas repairs done while we have been in Antigua and that included a new mast boot, to keep the water out of the boat.  Actually, this “fix” included an inner boot of rubber covered by the canvas.  That part was done in Annapolis.

The finished boot looks very sharp.Even more impressive from the back as it’s pretty intricate with multiple Velcro flaps to keep it affixed. .  It’s a bit hard to see but there is a lot going on including fittings for the boom vang and lots of other stuff to work around.  This is what’s under the new canvas boot.This has been a major source of leaking down below, especially on this last passage so I hope that things are finally solved.  Fingers crossed.

Brenda’s also getting settled in and has met some new friends who knit.  They meet twice a week at the Antigua Yacht Club for a few hours.  A very nice group.  The knitter on the right lives in Antigua year round having visited years ago and fell in love with the island. All that electrical upgrades we had done on Pandora over the summer are paying off with plenty of excess electricity to power the boat.  Lots of hot water and I am thinking of having a change done on my electrical panel that will allow us to run our washing machine off of the batteries as well.  We have a very powerful inverter to run appliances and it seems pretty clear that we can use a lot more power with the wind generator, new solar panels and those power hungry lithium batteries to suck all that juice up.

Here’s the solar array and wind generator.   This combo is a remarkable supply of power in the sunny and windy Caribbean.  Of course, Falmouth Harbor in the background.  Beyond the entrance, the island of Monserrate, home to one of the active volcanoes in the Caribbean. Of course, it’s Saturday afternoon and it’s time for club racing.  This lovely classic sloop tacked back and forth before heading out for the races.   What a contrast to all the huge mega yachts lined up cheek to jowl in the Antigua Yacht Club marina. And, speaking of clubs.  I belong to plenty and enjoy flying the flags.    Of course, the Antigua courtesy flag followed by the “white penant” of the Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda.  Of course, I am a card carrying member of this terrific group.  Below that, a big Salty Dawg rally flag. And speaking of the White Pennant.  This beautiful classic yacht, Shemara, built in 1938, pulled in today flying a White Ensign, which is very similar to the Tot Club flag.  This version signifies that someone aboard is a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron.  I have seen this yacht before and wrote about her in this post.  With one million man hours in the restoration, she deserves to be beautiful. On the port side…  The Salty Dawg battle flag and club burgee, the “flying fish” of the Ocean Cruising Club and finally, the Seven Seas Cruising Association Commodore Burgee.   Brenda and I earned that one for living aboard for 12 out of 18 months a number of years ago and also sailing at least 1,000 miles in that  season as well.Beyond that, not a lot to talk about.  Brenda’s birthday is coming up on the 15th and she’s none too happy about being away from family so I will have to work hard to make it up to her.

I guess that’s one part of living aboard that she will never settle into.  Other than that,  we are settling pretty well into life aboard Pandora, here in Antigua.

It’s hard to believe that it is 2023.  Happy new year wherever you are.

2023 brings with it the beginning of Brenda’s and my 11th year of winters south aboard our Pandora(s).  I say “plural” as our current Pandora is the second in that line.  Now that I have cleared that up…

Let’s just say that it’s been a long time since that first winter south and our run down the ICW.    Our first stop after exiting the CT River was to visit Black Rock and and our first yacht club, Fairweather Yacht Club.

This photo of us on the dock at Fairweather as we prepared to head to NYC and south. It’s amazing that this year is a full decade as a retired person.  If you haven’t tried it, being retired is easier than working, most of the time, anyway.

It’s remarkable to think about all of the places that Brenda and I have been since 2012 when we took our first run south.

I can still remember heading down the East River and having our youngest, ride his bike to across town to wave from us as we exited Hell Gate on our way down the length of Manhattan island. This post was about heading through NYC aboard Pandora #1.  Camera in hand, Chris took this shot of us as we headed down the East River.   He then jumped on his bike and raced us downtown and waved us bon voyage from Battery Park.  That moment was so long ago and yet it seems like yesterday.  Christopher was at Columbia University for grad school where he would ultimately earn is PhD in Physics.  Brenda cried alligator tears as we made our way down the harbor, Christopher fading into the distance.

After finising up at Columbia he flew to CA to find his future, bunking with a friend for a few months while he began work on a tech startup.  He’s now on his third startup attempt.  He’s still in the fairly early stages of building his company, with more than a dozen employees.  It’s going well.

Even better, he’s back living in NYC again, this time with his partner Melody and their husky dawg, Mila.  After months of begging them to come east, during the early days of the pandemic, they finally agreed to move back east and stay with us.  Nearly a year and a half later living with us, the pull of NYC became too much to ignore and they moved into “the city” and are now on the Upper East Side.

It’s interesting to note that 2012 was also the first year that we spied our “new” Pandora, Arial at the time, on a mooring in Block Island.  I was immediately smitten with her and more than a few years later she was ours. Now she’s a light grey, a lot cooler in the tropical sun.  Here she is in English Harbor, Antigua.   She’s in better shape than ever and really tricked out for long distance cruising, sitting in a place that we could not have imagined all those years ago. What a view from her bow, tropical breezes blowing while it’s cold and rainy up in CT.  A week ago at home  it was in the low teens, a lot different, that’s for sure.  And the boats in the neighborhood are a lot bigger these days. The show of wealth here in the Caribbean, especially Antigua, is remarkable.  How many outboards does it take to push your dink?Happily we haven’t been home for too many winters since that first run to the Bahamas and during that time, our travels have taken us the entire length of the US east coast, the Bahamas, Cuba and most of the islands of the eastern Caribbean.

I still remember how awestruck we were when we first saw the unreal blue waters of the Bahamas.   Anyway, it’s been a long time and here we are in historic English Harbor.  And speaking of “here”, what a spot to sit and have a glass of wine.  Ok, getting another glass of wine…And speaking of here, you should have seen the fireworks on New Year’s Eve.A short but remarkable display. There is nothing like tropical fireworks and we actually stayed up till midnight when the show began.We were not alone with a big crowd in the Dockyard, thumping music and all that ran until 02:00.  We had no trouble “tuning” out the revelers out with the hatches closed and AC humming…

It’s hard to believe how much has changed in the last decade and to now find us wintering in Antigua,  place that I could not have even found on a map when we began heading south in 2012 is still a bit of a head spinner.

So, happy new year to you and I hope that 2023 is a good one for you.

Ah, to our second decade…

As I sit down to write this post, it’s two days before Christmas and Brenda and I are in the midst of a whirlwind family holiday visit tour.  Unbelievably,  a week from today we will fly to Antigua just in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve in English Harbor.   If you haven’t celebrated from the bow of your boat in the tropics… Timing is good for us to be on “tour” as there is no power at our home in CT, compliments of the winter storm that is sweeping much of the country.  Tonight will be the coldest of the year in the mid teens.

We drove into NYC yesterday, loaded to the brim with presents and holiday food, to stay with Chris and Melody for a few days and then on to MD and Rob’s family on Christmas day.  After that, home in CT for less than two days before we winterize our home, head to the airport and fly back to Antigua to begin our winter season afloat.  Whew!  No rest for retired boomers.

I was reminded just how different life in The Big City is, both from our home in CT and winters aboard Pandora when my alarm went off this morning telling me to head outside to move our car to the other side of the street.  I wasn’t alone in my quest for another parking spot, but competing with just about everybody else in town. We had to move in time to accommodate the street cleaners, with everyone jockeying for a spot after the sweeper came by.  Of course, after the sweeper came by a bit after 09:00, I still had to sit in the car until 10:00 when it was “legal” to park again.  Such is life for those too cheap to pay for parking.

Anyway, here in the “big apple”, life is just so different than when we are onboard Pandora.

As a seemingly random segue, when I was in Antigua at one of our arrival events, a Salty Dawg member who had organized our Hampton departure activities, Kathy on Island Time, presented me with a rally flag that had been signed by most of the boats that had sailed to Antigua.  I was very touched.

I mention this as Zelensky, president of Ukraine, when he addressed a joint session of Congress the other night presented a Ukraine flag signed by soldiers at the font line in the battle with Russia, to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house, at the conclusion of his speech. It was a moving moment.

When I told Kathy that Zelensky had stolen her idea, she said “who’s Zelensky?”,   thinking that I was talking about someone in the rally, not knowing who that was.   Being in Antigua and on Island Time, in more ways than one, she was, for the moment at least, oblivious of what was going on in the US.  Good for her!

I get it.  When I told her who I was referring to, she said, “Of course, that Zelensky!”  Such is the life of the cruiser.   It’s so easy to become detached, often in a good way, from all the troubles of the world.

When I am on passage I do wonder what’s going on in the “real world” but am generally focused on the boat, weather and of course,  the proverbial question of “when will we get there”.

I was reminded of this disconnect at 07:30 today when my alarm went off, reminding me to move the car to the other side of the street or get a ticket.   The thought was just so far from my consciousness that had no idea what the alarm was for and just rolled over.  Thankfully, a short while later, Brenda said “when are you going to move the car”.  I bolted up, pulled on my pants, jacket and ran, hoping that I wasn’t too late.  The traffic cops were ticketing cars but hadn’t reached mine yet.  Whew!  I sat and waited nearly an hour for another spot to open up.

A friend told me that when he lived in the city, drivers would take parking spots that opened up all day long, “giving” them up to anyone willing to pay $10 instead of having to wait themselves.  Then they would wait for yet another spot to open up and sell that one for $10.  Park, repeat, park repeat…

I suppose that there is a parallel to this in the cruising community when we wait for a prime anchoring spot or mooring to open up and then race over in our dink to claim the spot.   “Hey buddy, for ten bucks this mooring is yours!”  Beer money!  An idea?

To the point of how different life is aboard, especially on passage.   I tried to capture the feeling excepted from a recent piece that I wrote for a recent club newsletter, that follows about my most recent run from Hampton VA to Antigua.

I wrote…with some heavy edits, I’ll admit.

It’s 04:00 and I’ve emerged from down below to begin my watch and relive Bob, who’s been up since midnight.  He updates me on what’s going on: nothing sighted for the last few hours, little change from the last few days when we never saw another boat or much else for that matter.  I generally do the 04:00 to 08:00 watch as I really enjoy seeing the sun rise over the eastern horizon.  It’s very peaceful, well peaceful most of the time anyway.  We are more than half of the way to Antigua, with 600 miles to go, on the final third of what will be my fastest southbound run yet, 9.5 days.

Pandora has been moving along nicely, reeling off the miles for what turned out to be one of the four days when we covered about 200nm, pretty fast for a cruising boat where that many miles in 24 hours is generally beyond most boats of her size.  Fore days now, I have been focused on the boat, our progress and little else.  My time, when I am not on watch is consumed by chores, keeping things clean, cooking and hours spent reading each day.  I generally read an entire book every day when on passage.

The wind is ESE at 20kts and we are on a close reach with gusts that often brings the apparent wind into the low 30kts and even higher during frequent squalls.  Fortunately, tropical squalls are rarely convective so lightning hasn’t been much of a concern.  The idea of losing my electronics, 500 miles from land, is a sobering thought.  We are double reefed with a 100% jib.  With frequent squalls over the last 24 hours, we have done plenty of reefing, requiring at least two of us on deck.  A rigger had recently adjusted my slab reefing system with new leads and lines that are considerably slipperier than their predecessors so this process is as smooth as could be.

At speed, Pandora is a wet boat and we are taking plenty of water over the bow with beam seas in the 10’ range.  Occasionally, we ship a good amount of water, especially when her fine bow plows into the back of a particularly large wave, but with her generous hard dodger and full cockpit enclosure we stay fairly dry, save for occasional water that washes across the back of the cockpit after sluicing under the enclosure panels.

The run has been fairly uneventful for the nearly a week that we have been underway as part of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, Rally to the Caribbean.  I serve as president of the group and after a few smaller “pandemic” rallies this year’s run was a record for the group with a capacity crowd of 120 boats.  About 30% of the fleet went to the Bahamas with the rest heading to Caribbean, and the bulk of those planning landfall in English Harbor Antigua, the official Caribbean home of the rally.

Our planned departure date of November 1^st came and went with unfavorable weather, and while the Bahamas bound boats were able to leave as planned, they later endured a direct hit from Nicole, huddled in Marsh Harbor, Abacos.

It wasn’t until 11 days later than the Bahamas bound boats left that the remainder of the fleet, including Pandora, patiently waiting in Hampton for the go-ahead from our weather router Chris Parker, departed.

While participants in the rally can opt to leave from anywhere they choose, the vast majority of the fleet staged in Hampton, VA, as this port offers good services and a simpler run to cross the Gulf Stream.  It is also far enough south to avoid most of the late fall gales that plague New England.  We had a Newport start for the first time this year and a handful of boats opted to leave from there.   The run from Newport is farther east than Hampton, with a more direct route to Antigua passing about 150 miles west of Bermuda.

However, unless you have a particularly fast boat you are unlikely to make it to the south side of the Gulf Stream without encountering at least one gale.   As it turned out, this year the wind was unusually favorable from Newport, a welcome surprise.

The run south in the fall always feels a lot like “threading the needle” as we try to find a decent weather window between lows, with the hope of being far enough south and east to avoid unpleasant conditions, and this year was no different.

As we waited for good conditions to carry us south, one low after another exited the coast, keeping everyone in port.  I won’t go into detail but it’s always best to “stay out of the red stuff”.For the last 5 years the rally has been heading to Antigua, a destination that I championed after visiting there on our first run to the Caribbean in 2017.  It is a remarkable place with the government and so many businesses enthusiastically welcoming our fleet.

The arrival of the “Dawgs” signals the beginning of their yachting season and to see Nelson’s Dockyard full to capacity with our boats was a rewarding sight.  As we are the first to arrive, normally in mid-November, nearly all of the local businesses celebrate the Dawgs with parties and special events too numerous to outline here.In spite of the nearly two-week delay we were still able to have 9 events in a little over a week, capped off with an amazing welcome in Nelson’s Dockyard attended by the director of The National Parks, Ann-Marie Martin and Minister of Tourism, Charles Fernandez.  It’s worth noting that both, huge supporters, have welcomed us personally every year except during the height of the pandemic when social distancing made that impractical.

Antigua, the self-styled “sailing capital of the Caribbean” is very focused on the cruising community at every level as they know we will arrive thirsty, ready to party and with a lot broken stuff that will need to be fixed after a long 1,500nm run.

This year Pandora came through with minimal “issues” which was a first, and yet I still ended up with a rigger, canvas maker and electrician aboard upon arrival.   And, with nearly 100 boats arriving within a few weeks that’s a lot of broken stuff…

Over the last decade Brenda and I have sailed the full US East Coast from eastern Maine to Key west, thousands of miles in the Bahamas, Cuba, and nearly every island from the USVI south to Grenada.  I can say with confidence that making landfall in Antigua is my favorite.  Once you arrive you have made all of your “easting” so everywhere else you might go to from there is a reach.  During a season of exploring the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, you need never do a run of more than 75 miles as the islands are all so close together.

Located solidly in the easterly trade winds that, with rare exception, are from the east, perhaps slightly north or south of east but always from the east, sailing there is a treat for anyone who has sailed in the NE where wind direction changes daily. While heading east for a cruise in the NE is fairly simple, returning home means, more often than not, beating against the prevailing SW winds that are prevalent during the summer.

For many doing the rally, the 1,500nm to Antigua is their longest run to date.  And while most boats are crewed by couples, nearly everyone takes on at least two additional crew for the run.   Sure, some do the trip themselves but with gear breakage always a risk, having extra hands aboard is prudent.

Since the pandemic, many have taken stock of their lives and have decided to focus more on their “bucket list.”  For many this involves heading south and SDSA and the rally is the perfect way to gain needed skills.  And crewing on a rally boat is often a first step for many and with more than 100 boats, there are plenty of berths.

Since I retired over ten years ago, our lives have certainly changed.  And as a long time member, and now the reluctant president of Salty Dawg, I can say with confidence that I would not have ever made the leap to sail the 1,500 miles to Antigua had it not been for what I learned through the group.

Heck, I can still recall how I felt as I exited the Cape Cod Canal for an overnight run, my first, way back in the early 90s, on my way to Maine.  At the time, I was pretty confident that I had no business being out there.  Little did I know that in  years hence,  I would be on yet another 1,500 mile run to the Caribbean, this time in the company of more than 100 boats, myself having accumulated nearly 20,000 miles at sea since that first run to Maine.

After living through the pandemic, I can say with confidence that “life is short and you will never be any younger or healthier,” so don’t wait!  Cast off the dock lines and head south.  After making a long voyage in the company of dozens of other boats you will be a part of a rarified group of sailors, those who have successfully completed a major blue water passage.  Estimates are that only about 1,000 boats head south in any given year so that is indeed a very select “club.”

As I woke up to that jarring alarm this morning, unsure of where I was, I was again reminded how different things are ashore, especially here in Manhattan, than when I am aboard Pandora.

I am so excited about the next week, visiting family and seeing the excitement about Christmas from our three grandchildren.   And their Dad, our Rob, is whipping them into quite a frenzy over the whole Santa thing, using their own personal “Elf on a Shelf” to help things along.

A very creative dad who never seems to run out of things for Elf, or for the kids to do, here Elf ziplining in the den.   Love the tutu.  Looks like Elf is in touch with his/her feminine side.  Of course, these days Elf is able to identify with whatever… For me, it’s wonderful to move between the many “worlds” that make up our lives.  But for sure, confused or not, I am very happy to wake up, unsure where I am from time to time, today bolting out to move the car and I hope to continue to do all this as long as I can keep up the pace.

A few more days with Chris and Melody, then off to see the kiddies, home to winterize our “land home” and on to Antigua.

Indeed, it often feels like a “collision of worlds” but USUALLY in a good way.

Oh yeah, and all this happening in the midst of a “polar bomb” that’s impacting much of the lower 48.  Yes, plenty of variety for us these days.

I have to say that given the choice, as we head into the teeth of the northern winter season, I am all about those sunny beaches of the Caribbean.  Besides, I won’t have to worry about moving the car…

It was some 25 years ago when I first installed mechanical refrigeration aboard one of my boats. The install was quite simple.  I drilled some holes for wires and cooling lines, maneuvered the cold plate into the cooler, hooked up the wires electrical leads and turned it on.  Done!  Not…

It turned out that it wasn’t all that easy after all.  What about an energy audit?  Did I balance the consumption against my power reserves?  How would I put the power I used back into the battery?  No, no and NO!

That simple install turned out to be just the beginning of a tortured process that would last years and cost more than a few boat dollars.  And those cold beers, well they were a long time coming. If you also plan to make some upgrades, you should look for a boat storage unit where your boat will be protected from certain elements that could cause some damage. 

So, here I am decades later and I finally feel like I have things fairly well figured out.  When I think back to that initial install and where we are now, I am struck by how much things have changed, the sophistication of the equipment and how much greater our energy needs are now when compared to years ago.

Back in the “olden days” the need for power was primarily focused on a few lights and perhaps mechanical refrigeration, if we even had that, with little else.  Nowadays, it is not uncommon to have a whole fleet of devices, computers, cell phones, rechargeable lights, autopilot, navigation instruments, microwave, TV, watermaker and much more, all needing greater and greater amounts of power, loading up our little “grid”.

Over the summer I upgraded the house batteries to lithium, replaced four of the 5 solar panels and added a wind generator.   Here’s what the “array” looks like.  A lot of capacity in a small space. As recently as last year, on passage, I had to run the engine to charge the batteries at least once a day.  As I don’t have a house generator, unusual for a 47′ boat, running the main engine, with the marine engine mounts taking care of vibrations, heats up the main cabin terribly as we made our way south.  Pandora is a wet boat so we have to keep everything sealed up to avoid an errant wave finding it’s way below making things a lot steamier down below. 

While we don’t have a generator, beyond my little gas Honda 2000, I should mention that the main engine has a power takeoff to a large alternator that can easily put out 200 amps at 12v for extended periods.  That, along with our house inverter, are powerful enough to run our AC while motoring, which we did for nearly three days of near calms on the trip this fall as even an hour of engine runtime each day adds a lot of heat to the main cabin. 

Prior to our recent upgrades, we had an AGM bank of just over 1,000AH but for practical purposes I wasn’t able to use more than about 25% of that capacity before recharging.  While my new lithium bank totals, slightly less, about 840 AH, I can easily use 90% or about 750AH before recharging.  That’s a tripling of  usable capacity.

On passage, with both plotters, many instruments and the autopilot going, we use, on average, about 8 amps which can deplete the batteries pretty fast in the overnight hours.   Happily, the new wind generator, in about 20kts apparent, now puts out enough energy to offset the entire suite of electronics.   Note that this is a 12v power curve so you’ll need to divide the amps by 2 to get the correct output at 24v.  In this case, the curve in 20kts of wind matches the house load for Pandora when we are underway, a huge gain when on passage. As the generator output matches exactly what the power curve of the unit is rated at, suggests that the new batteries will take power as fast as you can give them with virtually no resistance. I chose the Marine Kinetix unit as a few of my friends have one installed on their boat and are happy with how well it performs and how quiet it is. I also found Jeff in tech support particularly helpful as the install on Pandora was a a bit more complex being a 24v boat.

Having had a difficult experience with a wind generator years ago due to how loud it was, I have been thrilled with the fact that the unit is basically silent.  You can only hear a very slight hum when at anchor and you have to listen closely to even hear anything at all.   Under way, in any wind up to about 30kts when it begins to power down, the only way to tell it’s working is to look at the spinning blades and the amps that are showing on the controller.

In addition to the electronics and other equipment load that is covered by the wind generator, the largest load aboard Pandora is refrigeration and that was easily handled by the new solar panels.  I was surprised to learn that solar panels loose efficiency each year and in my case, the four older 80w panels were probably down to about 40 watts each so replacing them has made a huge difference.

The amazing thing was that on passage, once we hit the trade winds, the boat batteries were fully charged each day and never went below 84% of full at any point during the last 600 miles on our way to Antigua.  Amazing and way beyond what I had expected from the upgraded system.  No more daily running of the engine unless there isn’t enough wind.

I had heard that lithium batteries take a charge much faster than traditional batteries but to see this happen in the “real world” was impressive.

That’s pretty amazing and with even a reasonable amount of sunlight the solar puts back the power used by the refrigeration.

After messing with power issues for so long, it’s remarkable to see how much better things are now.  The lithium bank has made more of a difference than I expected as the batteries suck up power at a rate that I have never seen before.  Even if the batteries are nearly full, they continue to suck up all the power available right up to 100%.  That is so different than lead acid where the acceptance rate slows to a trickle the closer the batteries get to 100%.

Charging now takes a few hours to reach capacity verses all day, if at all, for the agm deep cycle battery.  And, having the wind provide enough power to cover the overnight usage on passage is a very big deal.

Sure, our energy needs continue to grow but I now have excess power storage capacity, multiples beyond my old AGM bank and now I can even keep everything fully charged on passage without running the engine, something that was never the case before.

So, with the wind generator spinning happily and those new solar panels sucking up the sun, Pandora is on her own for a few weeks, making ice and keeping that elusive beer cold along with a nice bottle of champagne to celebrate our return on December 3oth.

Fortunately, that rabbit hole isn’t nearly as deep as it used to be.

It was great fun being on the dock with all the Dawgs but yesterday I moved Pandora from English Harbor to Falmouth where she will sit on a mooring until Brenda and I return after the holidays.

It was nice to move over to where the water is clear and the first thing I did after getting her settled was to go for a swim, my first of the season.

Here’s the view I woke up to this morning.  It’s been a week since I arrived in Antigua but in a way, it feels like it’s been much longer. A beautiful way to start the day, complete with a rainbow. When I arrived a week ago Monday, ending a 9.5 day run from Hampton, I was eager to begin the daily events that I organized during the run south.  While I had spoken with all our supporters over the few months leading up to our arrival, the nearly two week delay in departing made it tough to know when we’d have enough boats in Antigua to begin having events.

As the fleet got closer and I had a pretty good feel for when we’d have “critical mass”, whatever that means in “party terms”, I began putting events to dates.

Fortunately, our partners here in Antigua were very willing to support us on short notice and jumped through some pretty big hoops to be ready to greet us with very little warning.

The staff of Nelson’s Dockyard worked hard to accommodate more boats than ever and we filled the place to capacity.  One issue that proved to be challenging was the need to plug in all those American boats that needed 110v as half of the dockyard is wired for European 220v, a problem for many in the fleet.

When we are on anchor there is no need for AC but when you pull up to a dock and the boat isn’t naturally pointing into the wind, it can get hot down below.  Marinus the marina manager and others in the Dockyard worked hard to accommodate the sweaty cruisers, but in some cases it took a few days to accomplish this and get power to all the boats.

Anyway, we’ve had a lot of events, sometimes more than two a day, and everyone had a great time.  Here’s a group photo of many that did the rally.  There were probably 100 more than this but crew generally flies out right away upon arrival. One of the highlight events was a few nights ago in Nelson’s Dockyard, a dinner event attended by more than 100.    The evening was wonderful and was hosted by Ann-Marie Martin, who runs the National Park system and has been a key contact for me over the years.

They went all out including a steel drum band. I loved the traditional dancers, including one on stilts.  Minister of tourism, Max Fernandez, was also there and spoke to the crowd.  Between him and Ann-Marie, they whipped the crowd into quite a frenzy.

Next week is the Charter Boat Show, where all the big yachts show their stuff to charter brokers who come to the island to check out what’s available for their clients.  When you are spending several hundred thousand on a week long charter, sometimes more than a million, you want to know that it will be perfect.

A week ago the marina was empty.  Now it’s filling up fast.   How about this selection?   Pick one.  Not sure Eos is available for charter.  At about 300′ long she’s one of the largest sailing yachts in the world and is owned by Diane Von Furstenburg and Barry Diller.  Nice dink aboard Eos. You get a sense of the scale of these yachts and this isn’t one of the largest.  It takes crew all day to polish them. She is owned by a guy, Patrick Dovigi, a Canadian.  He’s only 43 years old and made his money in waste management.  I’ll bet they handle trash very efficiently aboard.

So, here we are and the big kids are now arriving, day by day and soon there won’t be an open slip to be had.

As much fun as it’s been to be here in Antigua, I’ll admit that it was a bit of a downer that Brenda wasn’t here with me.  As we were so delayed, she had to stick close to home with the holidays looming large.

I am looking forward to heading back home for the holidays tomorrow.  I will put Pandora on a mooring where she will remain until we return around the new year.  With the new battery bank, wind generator and solar array, there won’t be a problem keeping the freezer and fridge nice and cold.

It’s been a whirlwind week and next week I’ll begin planning some events for January and throughout the season.  No rest for the weary cruiser.

It’s been great fun being here and I look forward to a season of cruising when Brenda and I return to Pandora.

It’s Thanksgiving day, I’m here in Antigua but Brenda’s not…

Pandora is on the dock with dozens of other Salty Dawg Boats.  The weather is a lot different here than back in CT and it’s another beautiful day. Ok, a little closer as Pandora hardly shows up next to that big cat.With all the delays in getting the Salty Dawg Fleet to Antigua, half of the month of November has come and gone.  Holiday plans were upended and many found themselves away from family, well at least those who’s family didn’t fly to Antigua.

I am not sure how many boats are actually here or will be very soon, but perhaps it’s about 60-70.  Hard to say without a laborious review of the tracker page showing the tracks of 100 boats.

Anyway, here I am and Brenda’s not…

As we got closer to Antigua I sent out a barrage of emails to those who I had been working with to cobble together as many events as possible before I was to fly out on December 1st.  Sadly, the day that we tied up on the dock was the day that our events, as originally planned, were to end and I was to fly back home with Brenda for Thanksgiving.  It was weird to know that I had just arrived and my two paid for seats on a flight home were going to leave, unused that very day.

So, of the 18 events that I had put in place months ago had to be re-scheduled but I was only able to fit in 9, one every day until my departure.  More to come, as there will be plenty of our boats still on the island for the holidays.

Last night North Sails put on an open house with a local jazz band.  Andrew, the proprietor, also invited folks from the Antigua Yacht Club and others from the island.  It was a huge success. This evening Angie, over at the Antigua Yacht Club is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner and I expect that it will be packed now that most of the boats are here in Antigua.

There are still events planned for every day until I leave including an arrival dinner at The Admiral’s Inn and a special welcome event here in Nelson’s Dockyard where most of the Salty Dawg boats are tied up.  I have been working with the Commissioner of the National Parks and understand that the Minister of Tourism, Charles Fernandez will be with us as well.  It will be a fun event.

As fun as all this is, I have to say that not having Brenda here with me is a bummer but with the arrival of the fleet pushed back so far and the approaching holidays, she just has too much on her plate with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, pun intended, for her to fly down and join me.

However, she is with our son Chris and his partner Melody in NYC enjoying Thanksgiving.  At least I can video call in.  I’m looking forward to that.

So, that’s about all and at least I can say that the Gang is all here, sort of…

I’ll make the best of it for now and look forward to a video call at least.

It is a beautiful day…

It’s Monday morning, the beginning of the 10th day of our voyage.  As the sun came up we were treated to a squall.  Actually, yesterday ended and today began with squalls and I expect that we have not seen the last of them.

The wind is just forward of the beam, close reaching, in the upper teens, pushing us along at 8 kts or so.  When a squall comes by, the wind, within moments, increases to the upper 20s with apparent wind in the low 30s.  With a reef in the main and the jib out, we are pushed along at 9-10 kts for a bit before the wind nearly dies, as fast as it freshened.

As these squalls are coming at us on the beam, they pass by generally in about a half hour with peak winds only lasting for a short time.   I know that facing squalls freaks out most people and I’ll admit that I’d be very worried if my sails and rigging weren’t in top shape.

With all the “squall drama” I would prefer to have the trip to end with more benign conditions but if I have to chose between slogging along motor sailing in light wind or fast sailing with squalls, I’ll take reeling off the miles anytime.

So, it’s looking like we will be arriving in Antigua at about dusk so I am not sure if I will head into English Harbor or Falmouth.  For sure, we will anchor, rinse out the cockpit and enjoy what will likely be a “post sundowner”, that’s a sundowner that happens after sunset. Get it?

And on Tuesday, tomorrow, our first arrival event begins, with events daily through the end of the month when I head home.

This abbreviated event schedule will not be the end of it as there are still plenty of programs in the wings to schedule.

So, with about 75 miles to go I have to say that I am really looking forward to my first “post sundowner” of the season.

No rest for the weary voyager.   ANTIGUA, HERE WE COME!

It’s mid morning on Sunday and we are about 130 miles from our destination, English Harbor Antigua.

It’s hard to believe that we are so close and yet STILL NOT THERE!

Or, perhaps from a more adult perspective, we are more than 90% of the way there.

As we move along on the last leg, we are spending more and more time putting in and shaking out reefs as we encounter squall after squall.  Wind speeds within an hour can vary from 14kts to nearly 30kts in squalls. It’s frustrating to tie in and then shake out reefs so often but it is important to keep sail area balanced with the wind.

In the last 30 minutes we decided to take out the remaining reef only to be hit with wind that piped up within 10 minutes to nearly 30kts and there was no sign of a squall or any dark clouds on the horizon.  Go figure.

Keeping our speed up is important as we’d really love to get into English Harbor in the daylight.  I have never gone in when it is dark, opting for Falmouth, with it’s wide and easy entrance, instead.

At this point it’s hard to say if we will arrive when it’s still light and even less certain if it will be early enough to tie up to the dock on Monday at Nelson’s Dockyard.

One thing for sure is that as soon as we arrive, and I expect that some 25 boats will arrive within 12 hours of each other, we will begin our events.
As of last April, when I left the island, I had nearly two weeks of daily events planned only to have the entire schedule thrown to the wind with our nearly two week delay.  It is ironic that the first event on Tuesday will mark what should have been my flight home for the holidays and the end of the events that I planned so long ago.

It is ironic is that I will be on-island, theoretically early enough to catch my already booked flight on Tuesday.   However between the rescheduled events and getting Pandora cleaned up after ten days at sea, just isn’t reasonable.  I want to be sure that she is ship-shape when Brenda and I return in late December.

Also, the last few days of sailing have given me some insight into how the new wind generator, solar panels and lithium battery bank are working out.

I have to say that it is even better than I had expected.

In the past I have not been able to run my watermaker on passage unless I had the engine on as the load from the instruments and refrigeration was more than the solar panels were able to sustain.

However, the replacement panels are amazing, putting out enough power to fully top the batteries up before noon and the overnight input from the wind generator has a big impact as well.

An unexpected benefit is how easily the lithium batteries accept power.  With my old lead/acid batteries, the closer that they got to being fully charged, the slower the charging process, meaning that as the day progressed less and less energy was put into the batteries.

Not so with lithium as they are able to absorb current as fast as you can feed it to them until they are fully charged.  It is only then that they shut off.  Because of their “all or nothing thirst for power”, the charging efficiency is multiple times better.

In a way, having this setup is sort of like water management when you have a watermaker.  No longer do you have to worry as much about every gallon you use.  And, now knowing that almost no mater what I use from the batteries, the panels and generator will put it back.

I log a number of critical numbers every two hours when we are on passage, wind speed, direction, boat speed etc and now I have been logging batter percentage to full.  In spite of using loads of power for all matter of electronics, refrigeration and even the watermaker, the charge level of the battery bank has never dipped below the mid 90% range.

Granted, it’s been plenty sunny but hey, it’s always sunny in the tropics.  However, I expect that even if it was partially overcast, that we’d still have full batteries sooner rather than later.

It’s making me wonder if we might be able to run our washer on the inverter from Solar?  Something to think about.  No Honda droning away on the deck.  Brenda would like that.

It’s worth noting that in the time it too me to write this post I was interrupted with calls to reef twice.   No rest for the weary delivery crew.

However, with one day to go until our arrival in Antigua and I can almost taste it.  What can I taste you ask?  Not sure but it definitely includes a rum punch.

It’s Saturday morning just after dawn and the sun has risen in brilliant yellow on the eastern horizon.  We are sailing along in about 15-18 knots on a close reach, still working to put some miles to the east in the bank, anticipating that the wind will freshen to the low 20s as we get closer to Antigua, making if more difficult to hold our course in waves that will likely build to 10’ before we round the southern side of Antigua and arrive in English Harbor.

I am always trying to predict when we will make landfall when I am on passage and that desire to know “when will we get there?” is alway just below the surface, it becomes an obsession as we get into the trade winds and Pandora is reliably ticking off mile after mile.

Will we average 7.5 or perhaps 8kts between here in Antigua for the last 450 miles?  It’s hard to say but one thing for sure is that the forecast is for conditions to deteriorate as we get closer, with wind in the upper 20s and increased squalls to the mid 30s, conditions that are doable but unpleasant, for sure.

The sense of urgency is driven by a desire to finish the run but also by fear of being caught in the unpleasant conditions coming our way late Monday and into Tuesday, when I sincerely hope and expect to be snug in port.

Another driver for me to know “when” is that there are so many unknowns, hanging over my head after the weeks of delays in getting the rally started.  How am I going to schedule arrival events when the fleet is spread over nearly a thousand square miles and their arrival will likely happen over a period of a week or more?

And, the less than subtle pressure I am feeling of when I will fly home knowing that I already have a flight that I booked, the day after our likely arrival.  Yes, that’s convenient but after all that the fleet has been through I don’t think that it would be particularly good form for me to bolt the very next day, before the bulk of the fleet has arrived.    And, to make matters worse, my flight, booked months ago, is a few days before Thanksgiving.  No pressure…

Besides, I want to celebrate with the fleet too and it would be such a downer to put Pandora on a mooring and head out without even saying goodby.   “say hi to everybody.  Gotta go…”

Tough issues but back to Pandora.

We finally shut off the engine last evening after motoring non-stop for over three days beginning Tuesday evening.   It gets pretty hot down below, near 90 degrees with the engine running and the boat all buttoned up, so it’s always a relief when We finally shut it down.

Up until this season, keeping the batteries charged when we were able to sail has been very difficult, needing to run the engine twice a day and adding even more heat to the cabin.  However, the upgraded solar and the wind generator, has been a game changer.

I don’t have quite enough experience with the setup yet but the wind generator seems to keep up pretty well with all the instruments and autopilot.  At 20kts apparent the generator produces enough power to fully offset the load when we have all the instruments and our trusty autopilot running.  That does not account for the substantial load that the refrigeration has on the system but I expect that the solar will be able to put back at least a portion of that power, even if we are on a port tack which tilts the panels away from the sun.

The extra input combined with the lithium bank that accepts power much better seems to suggest that even on passage, we should not have to run the engine except when the wind is light.

So, here I am, the sun is up and it’s time to make a pot of coffee.

After a week under way, this is our 8th day, it’s nice to know that the end is near.
Perhaps now I can turn my attention to what happens when we arrive.

A tot of rum?  A beer?  A swim?  All of the above or as I used to say when I was small, I’ll take “both of each!”.

It’s Friday morning and we are far enough south that we should pick up the easterly trade winds sometime today, hopefully around mid day.

The trade winds are consistently from the east and this time of year they will begin getting stronger and peak in December and January.  These winds can be quite strong as mentioned in prior posts but it’s a bit unclear as to how much they will impact our ability to make it to Antigua.

Fortunately, we are in the front part of the fleet with the bulk of boats behind us.  That’s good but we aren’t as far east as we’d like so the angle of the wind and our course will put the apparent wind forward of the beam which can make for challenging sailing when the wind and seas are up.  Exactly how far forward the wind will be will have a lot to do with how easy, or not, our run is the rest of the way to Antigua.

By the time we get to Antigua, hopefully sometime around mid-day on Monday, the wind will not be too strong and won’t be blowing south of east.   However, for those boats that are 60-100 miles north of us, the winds Tuesday might be so strong that they will opt to bail into St Martin to waif for more reasonable conditions later in the week.

As much as I want to get to Antigua, if things get nasty, I too will opt to take a break and then continue on to Antigua a few days later.

The problem with all of this is that even a few days out it’s hard to predict exactly what conditions will be like and the difference between 25kts and 30kts is bigger than you’d think and even that small difference could make the trip quite unpleasant.

Additionally, while we have been blessed with very few squalls, we expect to hit more of them as we move south.  Squalls come with more wind so that 30kts could be 40kts and if there are enough of them, they could also cause the seas to build up higher.  As it is, we are expecting seas in the 10’ range that will be coming at us from the side of the boat.  That’s not a terrible angle but will be interesting, for sure.

Thinking forward to arrival events in Antigua, it continues to be tough to plan with so many uncertainties.  With this in mind, I have been in touch with some of our key contacts in Antigua and we also plan on sending out a note to all skippers to ask if they have a feel for their arrival and about travel plans. Armed with this information, we should be able to begin scheduling at least a few events over the next few weeks.

I’ll admit that it’s a bit frustrating as I try to know the unknowable and somehow organize events with so little certainty.

For the moment all I can really do is to plan to keep Pandora moving in the right direction and do my best to end up in Antigua with no stops along the way.

One thing for sure is that this is all interesting, perhaps a bit too much so.

Details to come, is about all I can say with certainty.