Sail Pandora

It’s Tuesday morning and we are motoring along in conditions that are more like Long Island Sound on an August day than ocean sailing hundreds of miles from land.   The wind has become very light and is likely to stay that way for at least another day.

In the next day or so, we will reach a point during the trip when we are the farthest from land and in every direction land will be some 500 miles.  There’s not much out here except the occasional ship that passes on the horizon or dolphins that come up to check us out for a few moments before moving on.

Currently, we are nearly 300 miles from Bermuda and even farther from the US.  Perhaps more importantly, we are about 1/3 of the way to Antigua.  But not so fast, as some pretty impressive headwinds will be arriving in a few days so we will have to tack to the east and even northeast for perhaps several days while we wait for more favorable conditions.  Sadly, when we tack we will actually be heading away from our destination, and that will be very frustrating.

The big driver of the adverse winds that will blow from the SE and keep us from making headway toward Antigua, is a major storm off of the US east coast that is expected to form in the next few days.  That storm, or low, will suck wind in from thousands of miles in every direction and disrupt the easterly trade winds that we would normally encounter as we get closer to the Caribbean .

While a big storm off of the east coast brings nasty weather to the US and Bahamas, those same winds disrupt the trade winds and generally weaken the winds down south.

For now, we are motoring in very light winds, heading in the general direction of the Caribbean.  However, in a few days we will have to head on a course that will likely be perpendicular to our destination and while we will be moving along nicely, we will be in more of a holding pattern, waiting for the winds to shift and allow us to turn south again.

I really do hope we can avoid that multi day delay but we won’t know for sure by Thursday.

Another fear is that we will not have enough fuel to make the rest of the trip but I think that we will do well as we did a good amount of “easting”, under sail, over the first few days of the trip and resisted the temptation to head south.   I was pretty sure that a direct run south might not be in our best interest and I am glad that I took that approach as being a bit farther east than some in the fleet will allow us a better angle for sailing south.

As a general rule, you want to do as much easting as possible early in the trip so that when the easterly trades fill in, you have a comfortable point of sail.

Well, so far so good.

So, when will we get to Antigua?  I actually have no idea as it is likely that we will spend a few days sailing perpendicular to Antigua, and that will feel like “you can’t get there from here”, well, at least until the trades fill in again and we can make our way south for the remaining distance to Antigua.

All and all, I can see us arriving in Antigua, but when that is will remain a mystery for now.  Being at sea is a lot different than being in a car with a GPS that calculates the arrival time within minutes.  While roads can become congested, they generally don’t go away.  At sea, when the wind blows from where you want to go, there is just no way to get there until conditions improve.

So, for now when I wonder when we will arrive all I can say is that we will but who knows when.

One thing for certain is that for the part of the trip when the wind is on our nose, the phrase that will come to mind is more like “you can’t get there from here”.

Let’s hope that part of the trip is short.

This is our second full day out and we have gone about 300 miles, not a lot.  This first 24 hours was pretty sporty but now we are moving along at a more leisurely pace of between 5-7kts in basically an easterly direction.

Whenever you head to sea you can only really know what to expect for the first 3-5 days and after that, it’s hard to know as the forecasts just aren’t accurate that far into the future.

We expect to head into an area of very light wind that will likely persist for a few days and after that, perhaps winds that will be pretty much on the nose.  Hopefully those SE winds won’t be too strong and we really don’t know what we will encounter after that.

Normally, the prevailing winds in the northern Caribbean are from the east, sometimes from the ENE and others, the ESE but mostly from the east.  But, given the expectation that we will be doing a good deal of motoring, we have to conserve fuel as best as we can now, even if that means moving along more slowly than we’d like.

Last night was frustrating as the wind dropped a good deal and then veered from the south to the north with a good amount of time directly behind us.  running before relatively light winds in a confused sea was frustrating.  Fortunately, things have improved.

With conditions more settled now but with light winds, I decided to try and use the Hydrovane wind vane stearing unit, and that’s going pretty well.  I haven’t had a great deal of luck with it in the past but now it’s going better.

I am waiting to get an updated weather forecast and will have a better feel for where I should head next.   For the moment, I am trying to make as much easting as I can to take advantage of the easterly trade winds when they finally fill in.

I guess that’s about it for now.

Wish us luck as we continue to plug along.

It’s Sunday morning and we have entered the Gulf Stream, about 100 miles from Hampton.

Peter and George arrived at 3:00 yesterday, not a moment too soon, as I had barely finished my preparations for departure.   I took a few minutes to shower and we headed out by 3:30.   This gave us a few hours to get settled before it got dark.

Aside for motoring out of the harbor and into open water, we have been sailing at a brisk pace since our departure, which is great.  So far, we’ve gone nearly 150 miles, about 1/10th of the trip.  It’s good to have some miles “in the bank”.  Being able to sail early in the trip instead of burning precious fuel is good as we really have no idea of what the rest of the run will be like.

The forecast is quite good for the next few days with the wind gradually veering from the SW to NW and becoming lighter.   This suggests that we will be spending a lot of time motoring and we have been advised not to motor much in the early part of the trip to avoid running out of fuel.

Fortunately, Pandora does very well motor sailing in light wind so I can drop the RPM and conserve fuel.  If needed, I should be able to motor for about a week, 24 hours a day before I run out of fuel.

It is possible that 6 days of motoring could be required but it’s hard to say and while we have a pretty good feel for what the next few days will bring, 5 days out is just too far to have any confidence in the forecast.

The window to depart was from Saturday morning through Sunday night but getting out sooner was better for sailing so out we went.

There are a good number of boats still in Hampton, some leaving today and others that just weren’t ready to go.   In some cases, it was crew, who hadn’t arrived in time, and others, mechanical issues.

We have settled in a bit but there is still along way to go, 1,300 miles, until we arrive in Antigua.

Near or far, it’s good to be underway and I guess we can hope to arrive in Antigua by November 10th or so.

Oh yeah, this post went to Brenda via my Iridium Go, a really neat piece of electronics.  I can send messages, email and also make phone calls that sound as good a local cellular.  I can also download files that look just like the tracking page that you can view on my blog under “where in the world is Pandora”.

That link will show my current track as well as that of all the other boats in the fleet.

I’m still getting the hang of the whole thing but the technology is just amazing.

Well, it looks like we will be heading out on Saturday evening to begin our run to Antigua.

As of last evening, Chris Parker, our weather router, said that the “window” for departing Hampton will be Saturday and Sunday, a shorter window than he saw even one day before.

As I write this it’s raining and very windy with totally nasty weather offshore.  However, as that system moves out conditions will substantially improve, for at least a few days before another front exits the East Coast, bringing with it gales yet again.  Such is late fall weather in the north Atlantic.

My crew for this run, Peter and George are coming in Saturday afternoon so as soon as they step aboard, we’re off and on our way.  I had hoped to spend the night and let them settle in before we headed out but there isn’t time so we’re leaving.  Sorry guys.

The goal is to get as far south as possible by later in the week when all this nasty weather repeats itself near the coast.

In past years, we have been plagued by persistent SE winds onthis run and that made for a frustrating trip but this year is looking like it’s going to be mostly light air and wind behind the beam.  If anything, we are unlikely to have enough wind and Chris feels that we may have to motor for half the trip.

With that in mind, we will have to manage our fuel until we hit the easterly trade winds as we get closer to Antigua.  Motoring a lot on this run is nothing new as I usually put about 100 hours on the engine when I head south.

I won’t go into lots of explanation on the whole fuel management issue as there will be time for that later in the trip.

As in the past, I plan on writing posts as often as I can, every day perhaps, and I may even be able to send a small photo now and again.  The new Iridium satellite unit we have is pretty neat and makes all this stuff much easier than in the past.  I’ll send the files to Brenda and she can put them up on this blog.  I always enjoy sharing our journey with everyone so stand by.

And, as in past years, every boat in the fleet, and there are nearly 80 boats, will show up on a tracking map, complete with wind information.  It’s pretty cool, actually.

Just follow this link to see where everyone is.   This screen shot from today shows just how nasty it is out there right now.  And yes, red isn’t good.  It means really windy.   You can see the fleet clustered in Hampton. Beginning on Saturday you will see the boats move out and begin to head south.  The bulk of the fleet is heading to Antigua and some to the Bahamas.

Still lots of little things to get done before leaving but I’m on it.

After so many months of planning I am really happy that it’s finally time…

I can’t believe that I am finally here in Hampton and nearly ready to head out to Antigua.   It seems like forever that I have been thinking “sometime I will go back” but here I am, with departure only a few days away.

The original plan was to depart on Monday the 1st and that date has been engrained in my head for months now, counting down the days and wondering what else I have to do to get Pandora ready to go.

When I left CT last Friday, the goal was to head directly to Hampton, a trip that was supposed to take about two nights and three days, a rum that I have done many times.   It’s not a particularly long distance, certainly a lot less than the 1,500 miles that lie between me and Antigua.

In working with Chris Parker, our weather router, he wasn’t sure when I would get a decent “window” to make the trip and for the week leading up to my departure last week, every day the weather seemed to be somewhat more uncertain than the last.  Finally, after a week of back and forth, bugging Chris on a near daily basis, he told me to head out on Friday afternoon and plan on rounding Montauk point at midnight.  No, don’t round Montauk, at 23:00 on Friday or 01:00 on Monday, but midnight as that would allow the adverse winds that had plagued the run to shift to the northwest and the seas to settle down before I was out in open waters.

As we rounded the point, indeed, the seas were still pretty choppy but after a few hours they laid down and for the next 24 hours we were able to sail along nicely less a few hours of motoring.

Unfortunately, Chris felt that we would not be able to make it much farther than the Delaware river before the wind would really pipe up, perhaps to gale force, albeit a gale from a favorable angle.  With that in mind, we opted to head up the DL river, through the Chesapeake and Delaware canal and then back down the Chesapeake to Hampton.

We were to sail more than 100 miles out of our way to avoid the last stretch of water off of the DelMarVa peninsula and that decision was going to cost us a few more days.

So, up the river we went.  It was fine and while things were snotty out on the ocean, we enjoyed an easy motor up the river, stopping in Chesapeake City for the night before continuing down the Chesapeake Bay the following day.

I enjoyed showing Steve, my crew for the run, around Chesapeake City, one of my favorite stops along the way.   We were able to snag a spot on the free town dock.  Pandora was tied up immediately adjacent to the lovely town green. We hiked up the tall bridge that looms over the tiny city.  The view of the harbor and Pandora in the foreground on the dock, was impressive. It was a nice break but when we left the following morning we ran hard aground, or should I say “soft aground” in the sticky mud near the city dock, a spot that we were able to get into at the high tide when we arrived.  We left the dock but only got 200 feet when we “smooched” to a soft landing.

Fortunately a friendly boater, Alex from Boston, heading south with his family, stopped by with his dink and offered to help.  He took a line from us and tied it to a piling on the dock.  We wrapped it around our anchor winch and between the pull of our powerful winch and the engine, we were able to ease our way along and back to the dock where the water was deep enough to float us.

However, the shallow area that we had landed on extended way farther than I had expected and we ran aground yet again.   Not to worry, as I have a hand held depth finder so I handed it to Alex who used it to “chart” a path for us to pick our way out and get us on our way.Cruisers helping Cruisers, it’s the way of the world, well at least the way of the cruising world, with folks that spend time voyaging in small boats always willing to help out.  Having Alex show up at a critical time made all the difference.  Thanks Alex, I owe you.  They are heading to the Bahamas for their first visit.  I hope that they call me for some free advice.  After 4 seasons cruising there, I have plenty of fun memories to share. Our run down the bay was uneventful with about half of the trip motorsailing hard on the wind until we reached Annapolis where we encountered a pretty impressive line of rain and squalls that stayed with us for hours.   Once that cleared out it ushered in a very nice fresh westerly wind to carry us the rest of the way to Hampton on a beam reach.

So, after heading out of our way by a full two days, we were happy to finish up the run on a very comfortable point of sail, often moving along at more than 9kts.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.  That bow thruster that didn’t work all season and was finally fixed just before leaving CT.   It turns out that a nut on one of the cables on the battery had become loose and when I used the thruster to dock in Chesapeake City, the lead lug began to arc over that loose connection.  One of the lead terminals on the battery burned, along with the plastic boot that covers it.

Later in the day in Chesapeake City, I had gone forward to use the forward head and smelled a nasty odor.  When I opened up the area where the batteries are held, I was horrified to see that everything was coated with a fine black soot.

Well, I won’t go into much detail except to say that it could have been worse, much worse.  The thruster draws hundreds of amps when it runs and when I used the unit, the battery with the loose lug “sparked” badly and in the process melted the lead as well as part of the plastic body of he battery.  It looked and smelled, terrible.

The fact that the entire boat did not burn was just another example of the fact that God is looking after me.  Well, someone is, and while getting the place cleaned up and new batteries purchased and in place wasn’t a picnic, it could have been a LOT worse.

And to make a bad situation way better, Steve is a strapping guy and offered to install the new batteries.   What a savior.  Thanks Steve.

So, we are back in business and I was happy to use the thruster to move Pandora into a slip yesterday after anchoring out in the harbor for the night while we installed the batteries, or should I say Steve installed the batteries, while I cleaned up all the items that had been nearby and were coated with black soot.  The entire process took several hours and we had to launch the dink so we could ferry the new batteries out to Pandora and lug the old ones back to the dock.

Fortunately, the marina was able to order the exact size we needed.  And, as they are a “full service yard”, true to form, they charged me a very “full price” for those precious batteries.

So, here we are in Hampton, none the worse for wear, mostly, after a run that took an extra two days, five instead of three, to get here.

Next steps, final provisioning, some weather briefings a few happy hours  with fellow Dawgs and hopefully, we will be on our way over the weekend.

Chris says that the best window to depart will be between Saturday morning through Monday morning, a pretty wide window by historical standards.

Of course, he had to add, “and you want to be as far away from shore as possible by Thursday evening as it will really get nasty if you aren’t”.  Oh fun…

More to come as we have a weather briefing this evening to see if that window holds.

Today off for a PCR covid test that I need to show the folks in Antigua when I arrive, some last minute provisioning and I wait.  Peter and George, my crew, arrive Saturday afternoon and hopefully we can depart first light Sunday.

Before I break, one more thing.  We all talk about how different sailors are from power boaters.  You know the “stinkpoters” verses the “blow boats”?  Well, this sportfishing boat named “Reel Tails” sort of says it all.   Subtle right?  Wonder what sort of a guy this owner is?  I’ll bet that if he fell in the water the weight of his gold chains would pull him to the bottom.  And, that would probably be a good thing…Last evening we had an impromptu gathering around the marina pool.   A nice turnout given the fact that I only gave them an hour notice.   A very nice group and it was fun to see some of the same folks I spent time with in Maine. Flags flying proudly aboard Pandora here in her slip. So, after months of preparation, I’m finally in Hampton and soon… bound for Antigua.  :}

It’s Thursday morning and I am pretty much ready to head to Hampton to hook up with the other boats heading south in the Salty Dawg Caribbean Rally.   We have loads of boats in the rally, about 80 with some 50 heading to Antigua, 20 to the Bahamas and the rest to other locations along the way.

It’s been a wild ride getting ready to head south.   Nothing new there based on past experience but with all systems on Pandora “go” I think that I am about set for departure.

Provisions are stowed, fuel is topped up, bow thruster “go”, fridge “go” and dings in keel fixed.  And I have even been able to get my new Iridium Go and Predict Wind accounts up and running or should I say “GOing”.

Speaking of my new Iridium Go system, I have to say that this unit has been a bit of  head scratcher to learn how to use it.  To that point, it seems to me that this is one of the most confusing setups I have ever encountered.  The “getting started” book is way to thick and they have online video tutorials that run some 2 hours long telling you how to set up things.

The list of “must do” items to make the GO ready to go includes getting an Iridium satellite phone number, an Iridium email address, downloading the Iridium Go and Predict Wind apps on my iPad and phone along with software to my laptop.  I also had to install an external antenna on the boat and rig up a spot to mount the “GO” unit itself.

After all this, I was still completely flummoxed by the whole deal and ended up contacting the Iridium folks.   Well, that didn’t work so I contacted the folks at Predict Wind.   A very nice person,  Keryn, in Auckland, NZ,where the company is located, agreed to walk me through the setup.  We had a bit of a tough time connecting due to the 12 hour time difference, but we ultimately we worked it out and last night she patiently walked me through the process of setting things up.

Keryn, the same person in the videos, really knows her stuff .  She took quite a long time to walk through the steps in setting up the apps.  For some reason, my laptop wasn’t able to run the app properly but the iPad worked fine so that’s what I will use.

There are literally hours of video tutorials to teach you how to use the system.  Have an hour?  Check out this one, the first of many and I do mean MANY. Watch them all and you’ll know the program inside-out but you might not have any time to go sailing.

Any  email you want to send over the system will have to be done via smart phone or tablet, not on the PC.  As a side note, I enjoy writing blog posts most days on passage and I do so in email, send them to Brenda who puts them on my blog, this blog.  The GO does not support email on the laptop app so I will have to type them on my iPad.   I HATE pecking away on my iPad for email so I ordered a keyboard, one that was recommended by the NY Times.

I have to say that the keyboard really works well and was very easy to set up, literally a few clicks of a button and it worked.

I wish that setting up the GO and Predict Wind was that easy but at least they have great customer service through Keryn.   As an added bonus, she has a very nice “Aussie” accent so all is better now.

The GO unit and Predict Wind will set you back more than a boat dollar but it’s way cool and if you love tech, you will love this system.

Perhaps the neatest part is the routing.  You put in some rudimentary polars, including your speed hard on the wind, on a reach and when heading down-wind and the computer does the rest.  Then you put in your departure and arrival points, download the gribs from multiple models, and the system calculates the likely route, one each for the various models you have chosen.

First put in the departure and arrival points.  The system has “land avoidance” so it will route you around any “hard stuff”. Then you choose which grib models you want to view.  In this case, I did all of them.  Then it calculates your assumed route and as you move the slider the boat moves down the course.  However, the route assumption in this case, doesn’t wait for a good “window” and assumed tthat I was planning to leave immediately, regardless of the weather that is forecast to be in my path.

As you can see from this, the wind is pretty stiff by day two of the trip.  Hard on the wind with apparent winds in the high 20s.  Not pleasant at all.

If I were to wait another day or two, say Saturday, the winds are a lot more pleasant.  But I haven’t figured out how to delay the start given the GRIBS that I downloaded.  I expect that can be done.  Details to come on that point. 

There is a blizzard of data available in the app, and I won’t even begin to try an explain all that you get but it’s overwhelming in a sort of cool way.   Highest wind speeds to be expected, time sailing verses motoring, percent of time hard on the wind, reaching and down wind sailing.  Me?  I’d nix the “hard on the wind” stuff. 

And, that’s where a weather routing guy like Chris Parker comes in.  The cold calculations of a computer and GRIB files does not take into account what might happen in the days following the 5 days that you have on file at any given time .  And anyone who has been offshore knows that things change.

Working with Chris will allow him to work with you to “put something in the bank” in case things change, which they surely will.

As they say “gentlemen do not go to weather” and while Predict Wind doesn’t know about that, Chris does.  Chris might have a different take on that saying, perhaps “if you want your crew to be happy, don’t go to weather”, except when you have no other choice.

And speaking of Chris, I plan to talk to him today to see if he still thinks that Saturday will be a good day to head out.

One more thing.  You can track me at this link as I make my way to Hampton at this link.   And, once the rally heads out, on November 1st or thereabouts, there will be a group tracking page with everyone listed so you can follow along.

Wish me luck.  At least I can say that with Pandora, all systems are “Go”, Predict Wind too and all the stuff that always seems to need attention on a boat.

At least I have a new toy to play with.  Hope I can remember all the buttons to push.

Yikes, what a month.  I’ll admit, and Brenda will willingly say, that every fall it is a whirlwind, and not in a good way.  Getting Pandora, and us, ready to go away for the winter is complicated.

Yes, every year is a challenge and this year, even worse, when you toss in all the responsibility that goes along with my role as rally director for The Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean.

With nearly 80 boats heading to warmer climes, and me at the center of all the “fun”, it is turning out to be quite a ride.

You may recall that I took on this job as “interim rally director” last May when the “then current” director resigned abruptly and as I probably contributed to his departure, (don’t ask) I felt obligated to help keep things moving along.

So, here we are, months later and I am no longer able to hide behind “interim”.  I’ll admit that the job is a bit overwhelming.

Having said that, this role is turning out to be very rewarding, if in a “head snapping” sort of way as I lurch from one thing to another.  Trying to keep everyone involved in the rally happy and yet still keep up with our home here in CT and Pandora is a handful.

Pandora is now mostly ready with all mechanical systems working and ready to go.  But there are always last minute issues that crop up.  Fingers crossed…

In getting Pandora ready over the last few month, the big issues that needed addressing were the bow thruster that crapped out somehow over the winter and a refrigeration system that stopped working properly following our time in Maine.

First the refrigeration.  When I got back from Maine I noticed that things in the fridge were freezing and that the temperature was going down as low, sometimes lower than the freezer.  After a lot of back and forth with the manufacturer we determined that one of the zone valves that directs where the coolant is to go, fridge or freezer, had frozen in the open position so whenever the freezer called for cooling, the fridge got colder too.   Can you say, “popped sodas?”

As everyone knows, it’s nearly impossible to get someone to work on a boat these days and it took about a month to get someone out to fix things.  In order to be sure that the repairs could happen quickly, I ordered exactly what we needed and had it on hand when the tech arrived.

Not so fast it seems… the guy, and he was well recommended, wasted hours “diagnosing” the problem on his own, spending the better part of a day making some adjustments to the existing valves. declaring that the problem was fixed.  All the while his assistant sat by ready to hand him a tool but mostly just fiddling with his phone.

Well, it wasn’t fixed and again he came back to Pandora only to learn that he needed to do some fabrication in his shop.   Did he take the new valves with him when he left?  No, so I had to make a trip to his shop to drop the parts.

Ok, so back he came for a THIRD visit and finally fixed what I had told him was the problem from the beginning.   I won’t say how many hours went into what should have been a simple “fix” but it is finally done and the fridge is cooling happily.  The bill?  He adjusted it but it was still nearly a boat dollar.   Amazingly, the replacement of a single valve costs more than the installation of the entire new unit in St Lucia two years ago.  Painful…

Doesn’t look like much does it?  The little black square blocks are the two zone valves.   Messy but it works.  To make matters worse in replacing them, they are located under and behind the oven.  In order to get to them I had to invert the gimbled oven and open up an access panel, a really tight spot. Actually, the install looked a lot better before it was “fixed”, but one of the reasons that the valve failed is that it as oriented in the wrong direction.  The “correct” setup was to have the stem oriented vertically so that gravity could assist when the valve closed.  In the original install, when Pandora was built, the valves were not set up this way which caused them to fail over time.   I will say that it looked a lot less messy back then.  However it doesn’t show and now it works just fine, messy or not. Cold beer anyone?  Pandora’s got em.

The other issue, the malfunctioning bow thruster, took all summer to fix.  When I put Pandora up for last winter, the thruster worked fine but come spring it no longer “thrusted”.   The bad news is that there is only ONE company in the northeast that can even service the unit and they were booked solid and generally didn’t even return my calls.

Finally, after months of calls and emails, I was able to get them aboard.  There was a lot of back and forth about why it wasn’t working but finally the motor was removed just to be sure that it was ok, and it was but needed a bit of cleaning.  Back in place still no “thrust”.  At that point, we feared that it was the electronic controller that was at fault and replacements are unavailable.

One thing lead to another and the tech Andrew, who really knows these systems, narrowed the problem down to a corroded wire.  Isn’t that always the way?  A sort of “is it plugged in” answer that is so hard to figure out.

So simple and yet it took months to get it resolved, mostly because they were so swamped that they could not visit.

When Andrew visited for the second time and finally “fixed” the thruster, I could have hugged him.  Awkward as that might have been, nobody was more shocked that the unit was working again than me.  I expect that he was too.   The big issue looming over the job was that if the control box was damaged, I was screwed as the unit is no longer manufactured.   But it turned out to be OK and Pandora’s thruster is back in business.  Whew…

There have been myriad items to fix and add to get her ready to head south and I am very pleased that it’s all come together.   One upgrade, small though it may be, was the addition of a “storm window” on the front of the dodger, a hard plastic cover that I can clip over the opening window when things get snotty.

While the zipper window is mostly waterproof, sometimes a big wave can hit it and there is an annoying spray that comes through the zipper.  This addition will strengthen things a lot.  Chad, the canvas guy, did a nice job on this along with lots of other little “tweaks”.

And speaking of “tweaks”, my wind vane steering system, only really used on long passages, works pretty well but in order to keep the boat balanced, I have to lock the wheel with a bit of rudder to make it easier for the vane to steer the boat.  The problem is that the steering lock on the wheel hub isn’t strong enough to hold the wheel steady in big seas so I had to fabricate something to hold the wheel firmly against any movement and yet still be easy to release when needed.

I have tried a number of approaches over the years and none have worked particularly well.  However, after lots of “chin stroking” while sitting in the cockpit, I came up with a solution and fabricated it out of starboard, but not until I had made a number of trial designs out of plywood and pine.

Here’s the unit attached to the steering pedestal.  I think it’s pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. Each “jam cleat” is set up with a line that goes up from the bottom of the steering pedestal to one of the wheel spokes to hold things steady.  It’s easy to pull the line out of the cleat and to secure things for minute adjustments.  It will be interesting to see how it works.  I’m optimistic.

Perhaps the most concerning issue I faced in getting Pandora ready for the trip to Antigua was to have her hauled out yet one more time, to access the damage from a “grounding” in Maine over the summer.  I won’t go into much detail except to say that I misread a mark and hit a rock.

“You ran aground Bob?”  Yes, I did.   Of course, you know what they say about running aground don’t you?  “There are those who admit to running aground and those who lie about itveryone.”

Yes, I admit it, I ran aground and it was very upsetting.  I did dive on the boat right after it happened and I was pretty sure that the damage was cosmetic.  Fortunately, I was right.

Pandora, it seems, is a pretty tough boat and her keel is different than most boats.  The actual keel is composite and the only lead is the “torpedo” that is cross-bolted onto the bottom of the skeg.   And it’s a long keel so any “loads” put on it are distributed over a long area.  Especially helpful when you bump into something hard, like a granite bolder.

Fortunately, when we hit, we rode up on the rock as opposed to hitting the keel dead on, so the damage was cosmetic and on the bottom of the bulb.  It looked very nasty.  I won’t go into much detail except to say that I was able to clean things up beginning with a 5lb sledge hammer to bang down the high spots before filling things in with and apply some thickened West System epoxy.  It was cold outside that day and I needed to get three coats applied, faired and then coated with bottom paint, all within 24 hours.

In order to get things to set up faster, I tented the keel and put a heater and 500w flood light below. Happily, the damage was only cosmetic so now the keel is fair again and actually looks better than it did before the grounding.   Go me…The marina manager, Brian, was very accommodating and even took the time to launch me on a Sunday following a “short haul” that ended up not being quite as short as it should have been , 24 hours or not.  I appreciated his help.  He was actually pretty amazed that I was able to get her fixed and ready to launch so quickly.   Me too.

So, there you have it and I am hoping to be heading to Hampton to join up with the rest of the fleet, all vaccinated, before heading to Antigua, hopefully on November 1st.

There are still so many details like provisioning and getting clothing aboard for me and Brenda that it makes both of our heads spin.

Somehow all that’s going to get done by next week.  Oh yeah, we leave today to spend the next four days with our grandchildren in MD.  Now, that’s going to be fun.

I keep having to remind myself, and Brenda, that being in the tropics this winter will be a lot better than digging out from heavy snows.

Soon we will be aboard in Antigua again…Hanging out with all the Dawgs, and there will be plenty of them. Ok, so I’m almost ready to head south.  Now, if I can just get a weather window to head down to Hampton.  One step at a time…

It’s about a month before the Salty Dawg Rally heads to Antigua and everyone is wondering what life in the Caribbean will be like this winter.

As rally director for the group, it is my job, among other tasks, to try and tease out what the coming season in the Caribbean will be like and how restrictive conditions will be for those heading south this year.

My primary focus has been on Antigua and in particular, the arrival of the fleet in mid November and the two weeks of events that are on the calendar.   When the fleet arrives in mid November, that’s early in the season so it is still unclear as to what we will encounter.

A big part of this uncertainty is that most islands in the Caribbean have seen tremendous vaccine hesitancy among their population and, as a result, a large increase in virus cases.  Unlike here in the US, where being vaccinated is more of a political statement and a desire, especially in the RED states, to show solidarity with a certain ex-president.

In Antigua, hesitancy is driven more by some of the more far out hoaxes like Bill Gates putting microchips into the vaccine.  Injectable microchips?  I thought that there was a “chip shortage” right now.  Heck, how can they put chips in billions of vaccine doses when car manufacturers can’t get enough to make cars.  Hmm…maybe Bill Gates purchased all of them and they have been injected…  Oh boy, that’s an idea…

Anyway, government leaders in Antigua realize that without tourists for yet another winter season visiting the island, that they will be in real trouble.  The simple fact is that the vast majority of cash fueling their economy is from visitors and with the virus raging there won’t be nearly as many tourists.

With that in mind, the Prime Minister recently implemented a mandate that makes vaccination compulsory for anyone employed by the government, hospitality workers and I think those businesses that get a large amount of their funding from the government.  Don’t hold me to the exact makeup of who is subject to this new ruling except to say that it effects a large part of their population.

So, as of October 1st, next week, anyone in those groups that hasn’t had at least one dose will be on furlough and stuck at home.  And, by October 15th, they will stop being paid.   Hesitant or not, I expect that not getting paid will be a big motivator.

And, speaking of personal liberties, curfews are now in place and beaches are closed except from 05:00 to noon every day.   Additionally, pleasure boating is banned on both Antigua and Barbuda.  No more clandestine trips to the beach for partying.

The goal of this program is to reach herd immunity by November and the only thing that really stands in the way at this time will be if officials back down.

I understand that there are even some highly placed government workers that are resisting this mandate and it will be interesting to see how things unfold.

“So, what about the rally?  How’s that going Bob?”

Thanks for asking.  The rally is going really well with more applications nearly every day.   As of a week ago we were running pretty well, well ahead of last year at this time.   We had a Zoom briefing to talk about all this and I was astounded that nearly 225 signed up to hear what we had to say.   Our record arrivals in Antigua was about 55 boats and I expect that we will easily beat that number this season.

So, from now until the week before the rally departs on November 1st we will be having weekly briefings for anyone who is signed up and paid on Fridays.   I expect that they will be well attended.   And, once we are in Hampton we will have daily briefings, again via Zoom to keep everyone up to date on plans and to keep an eye on weather for the passage.

One big question about the coming season will be how easy, or hard, it will be to travel from one island to the next as that inevitably means clearing in and out of yet another country.  In particular, France and the French islands have been cracking down very hard and the islands are basically closed to cruisers.

However, like Antigua, France is taking a very hard line with their “refuseniks”, with furloughs, banning the unvaccinated from restaurants and even outside dining.  Not unexpected, when these restrictions went into place, the vaccination rates went up overnight.

Getting many that are hesitant about “taking the jab” to go for it is often as simple as saying, sorry, you can’t visit your favorite café or bar unless you are up to date on your shots.   Simple yes and it seems to work.

Well, not so simple in the US, the land of liberty, where everyone feels that they can do what they want, when they want and to whom they want.   So much for social responsibility.

Fortunately, keeping everyone safe in the rally will be at least a bit easier as anyone who participates must show proof of vaccination in order to join the ra;ly or the fun in Hampton, our point of departure.  Heck, unless you are vaccinated and show proof of a negative PCR virus test,  there is no visiting Antigua anyway. Simple…

And speaking of “mandates” I have had a few uncomfortable discussions with those who want to do the rally and yet refused the shots, but the overwhelming reaction has been very positive.

And, speaking of being safe, we are working with a well known infection disease specialist, Dr. Richard Wenzel.  At the risk of pushing a pun to the limit, he’s a “big dawg” in the ID field.

Along with having published over 500 scientific papers published, he is also involved with the New England Journal of Medicine, a very prestigious journal in it’s own right.   This guy knows his stuff.

Would you take medical advice from this guy?  I would and we are…His recommendations to the feet also includes advice on how to keep everyone safe on passage.  Even those that are fully vaccinated run the risk of a “breakthrough” infection and the idea of being at sea, 500 miles from land and getting sick is pretty scary to me.

With that in mind, all of the predeparture events in Hampton will be held outside instead of in the pavilion that we have used for years.  It can be cold in Hampton in late October but we just can’t take the risk of someone getting sick on passage.

Our events will be split between a brew pub on the water, the Bull Island Brewing Company.  With as many as 200+ participants, it’s going to be crowded never the less. Our other events will center on a small street down town with lots of spots for outdoor dining, Queens Way, a short walk from the waterfront.The local Convention and Visitors bureau in Hampton has been very helpful in pulling this all together.  Good thing as I am just swamped with stuff in the buildup to departure.

And, in Antigua there is a small group there that has been very helpful in backing me up and helping to set up events every year.

So, now you can see why I have been a bit remis in writing posts in the last few months, which I will admit pains me.   I’ve been pretty busy.

And add to that a need to get Pandora ready for the run, getting crew and travel plans for the holidays.  No rest for the weary, retired cruiser.  That’s me…

So, with three weeks until I head to Hampton and then on to Antigua, there is a lot to get done.

This morning I meet up with a refrigeration guy to fix a creaky valve on my fridge and freezer so soon that system will be back in operation.  Fortunately, that’s a pretty simple fix, well simple in comparison to problems with my bow thruster where the tech finally showed up after months of chasing him down.

Fingers crossed that they can fix the problem.  The idea of trying to med-moor without a way to control the bow makes me very nervous.

Nope, I won’t go into all the stuff that I have already done to get Pandora ready for the trip except to say that the list is long and involved more than a couple “boat dollars”.  But no project has proven to be more daunting than coaxing Brenda back aboard as our run home to FL during the pandemic still looms large in her memory and not in a good way.

Oh, how I hope that sailing in the Caribbean will be easy and fun this season as being “locked down in paradise” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in spite of what some might think when snow is drifting up against their front door.

So, what will cruising the Caribbean this winter be like?  I am optimistic but only time will tell.   Optimistic?  That’s me, or as Brenda would say, “Bob and the dog, ever hopeful…”

Well, lots to do so I’d better sign off.  More to come soon, I hope…

It’s almost time to leave Maine and head home.  With the remnants of Hurricane Ida to our east things are beginning to settle down here in Booth Bay Maine.

As recently as a few days ago, it was unclear as to what track Ida, even though she was much weakened, might take as she headed up the coast, so the forecast for Friday, tomorrow, was very uncertain.

When I spoke with Chris Parker, our weather router, a few days ago, the forecast was completely unclear with forecasts suggesting that the wind could be anywhere from about 10kts to 35kts NW with higher gusts.  It is very difficult to forecast wind with such a fast moving low.  Fortunately, now 24 hours away from our departure, the winds will likely be on the very low end of the forecast and while we will probably have to motor much of the way, it’s nice to know that it won’t be too “salty” a run to the Cape Cod canal.

Last night was really rainy and today the dink had about 5″ of water in it.   That’s a lot but the winds were very light and the rain a lot less than others faced in CT and NY where there was widespread flooding.

In any event, our plan is to head out from here in Boothbay Harbor for the canal, early tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed that the wind will behave and drop to a reasonable level.

The crossing should take a bit less than 24 hours and with an 08:30 current change in the canal on Saturday, that should put us in Buzzards Bay fairly early on Saturday morning before expected westerlies will kick in.  The big question is how far west we will be able to get before the wind picks up right on our nose.

Time will tell but it will be nice to be heading home and wish us luck.

So, change of topic.  Since leaving Rockland a few days ago, Brenda and I made a brief stop at Allen Island, summer home of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth.  They owned, two islands off of Port Clyde, Allen and Benner Islands for many years and built a number of homes on both islands.  It is clear that a great deal of thought went into the design and siting of each dwelling as they blend into a wonderful image that evokes one of Andrew’s paintings. They were even careful about who they picked for their dock builder and the instructions they gave him. The ramp, the supports and railings, and the dock protection, everything was on point and made for people like us that like to sail around and visit here.

We have visited this spot many years and have always picked up one of the half dozen courtesy moorings that the family keeps at the ready.  I have asked for permission over the years but on this visit we were the only boat in the harbor so I didn’t want to bother anyone on shore.

It was nice to be there again but sad too as the loss of Betsy and Andrew end an era.  I mentioned a visit “Knitting with Betsy” a number of years ago when we visited and saw Betsy knitting on her front porch while Brenda knitted aboard.   I Wrote about that wonderful experience, if from a distance, in this post.

Now that both Betsy and Andrew have passed, it looks like the only inhabitant on the islands is the caretaker who we saw when he took their resident lobster boat Archangel, to head into Port Clyde.  He didn’t seem concerned with our presence as he passed by in the morning prior to our departure.

This is a shot of the main house and the porch where Besty and her companion knitted so long ago.  Sadly, no Betsy on this visit. Behind, Pandora nothing to disturb the tranquility except the occasional lobster boat out checking traps and plenty of sea birds.On our way to Booth Bay we passed Eastern Egg Rock, where there is a colony of puffins.  Sadly, we did not see any as we passed by.  This is the only colony of puffins on the US East Coast as they were hunted to extinction 100 years ago.  This colony was carefully transplanted from Canada many years ago.

The colony was started by bringing young birds to the island, the first to be there since the late 1800s and became a model for rebuilding flocks of seabirds elsewhere with great success.  Today there are 1000 pairs nesting on the island.  Read about the project at this link, a rare example of us repairing the damage by man so long ago.

Sadly, we didn’t see any puffins but there were many birds flocking around the island, evidence of how many birds make Eastern Egg their home.

Maine is known for the many beautiful lighthouses and we passed on of the most unique one as we approached Booth Bay, the Ram Island Light, with it’s unique walkway heading out to the light.  I wonder what it is like to be on that walkway when the  seas are raging. Booth Bay Harbor is a beautiful spot and one that we have visited many times over the years.   The harbor is well protected and this church is particularly stunning when the sun is setting.  At night the face is lit.  The harbor is pretty built up but being so close to Brown’s Wharf has made for good wifi. Every night the sunset over the far side of the harbor is beautiful.  Of course, last night, not so nice as the remnants of Ida descended on us. However, 24 hours later the sun is out and while it’s still plenty windy, I can see how tomorrow will likely be a wonderful day as we cross the Gulf of Maine.

While I will miss Maine, it will be nice to be back home.

For sure, Mila our Chris’s and Melody’s husky will be happy to see me.

Well, it’s nearly the end of August and Pandora will be heading toward home next week.  As I write this I am in Rockland, counting down the days and not in a good way.

Brenda spent much of yesterday with an artist’s, artist friend who lives in Maine full time and enjoyed her time with her.  Me, I just sat for hours in a coffee shop, wifi and all.

Somehow doing bills, working on some details next steps with Pandora and some Salty Dawg stuff ate up the entire morning.  When Brenda returned after lunch, her response was, “you’re still here?”.  Yup, still here and no blog post to show for myself.

So, it’s another beautiful day here in Rockland.  Last night a cold front came through and instead of the mid 80s humidity that we have endured for days not, today’s high is a more Maine Like mid 60s.  It will be lovely.

Before I go into some of the fun details of what the last two weeks here in Maine have been like, I’ll share yesterday’s sunrise, framed by a huge ketch anchored far out in the harbor.  What a perfect way to begin the day. Those of you that sleep late miss moments like this.  And, speaking of memorable sunrises, when we were in Castine, before hurricane Henri passed up the east coast.  The currents are swift in the river there and the sunrise made for a beautiful moment with the current pulling hard on a channel marker.Castine is the home of the Maine Maritime Academy and it was fun to see the cadets out marching through town.  Lots of “hup, hup” stuff going on and plenty of loud chants by the officers, dutifully repeated by the cadets. They also were out for training on their lifeboats, learning to row in perfect time.  Back and forth across the river they went with the bosun keeping time. Their “boat”, the State of Maine was in town.  At one point the cadets filed one at a time up the gangway to board the ship. It was unclear to me if that’s where they live or if there are dorms.  Castine is a charming little town with loads of history. There are a number of very nice independent book stores, something that seems to be fairly thriving in the small towns in Maine.  Perhaps their trade is driven by tourists that want to curl up with a good book when it’s foggy, cold and rainy.  Melody, an artist herself, saw a tiny kiosk mounted on a sidewalk post outside of one shop where artists can swap out their work.  Put in a piece of art and take one.  I love the idea.  Perhaps we need one in our home town. We also spent time in Buck’s Harbor where we had a lobster bake.  I wanted Chris and Melody to experience eating lobster outside on a picnic table overlooking a quintessential Maine harbor.  While we were there a schooner full of vacationers pulled in and dropped her hook.  There are many schooners in Maine that take out vacationers for week long cruises, stopping in one quaint spot after the next. Buck’s is home to a beautifully maintained Concordia yawl, a well regarded design coveted by those that love wooden classics.  Her owner also has a Pulsifer Hampton, another charming design.  I’ve never seen two of them together and with matching canvas, no less. From Buck’s we headed back up to Castine to wait out the hurricane.  Fortunately, it turned out to be a non-event and we never saw winds much more than a brief period in the high teens.  There were many boats in the harbor tucked down near shore including the 1030s vintage Ranger, one of a number of restored America’s Cup boats making the rounds of the classic racing regattas.  She is an impressive sight and huge at over 130′ long. She draws more than a dozen feet, which she needs to, in order to balance her impossibly tall mast. I was taken by this tug boat converted into a yacht.  I don’t know anything about her but our paths have crossed a number of times this season. It’s not always sunny and to see a schooner drifting by in the fog is an impressive and ageless sight. Sun, threats of hurricanes, fog, rain, the weather is always changing in Maine and is one of the reasons that I love being here.

So, as I finish up this post, we are planning to head to Allen Island, the site of the family summer home for Andrew and Betsy Wyeth, now diseased, the famous artist and his wife.  I’ll have more to say about that perhaps in a few days.  From there we hope to go to Booth Bay where my friend George will meet us and help me bring Pandora to Fall River MA where I am having some work done on her electronics.   Conveniently, Brenda will drive his car back home for him.  Very convenient.

Our time in Maine is nearing a close but I am optimistic that our cruising season is not and that we will soon be back in the Caribbean for a winter of cruising. However, I will say that the details of that are still up in the air due to the lasting threats of Covid-19 and the Delta variant.  Life is never simple, even for the vaccinated.

I’d better sign off as the coffee is ready.