Sail Pandora

It’s the beginning of the third day of our passage from Tortola to New England and there’s not a lot to report except to say that there is still a very long way to go.  Yesterday we entered the convergence zone between two weather systems and the wind became a lot lighter.  This area also treated us to a large squall cell where the wind quickly shifted from the SE to NE.  That put an end to sailing and brought with it much choppier conditions and some rain.  It’s remarkable how different 20kts on the nose feels from that same amount of wind on the beam.  It’s the difference between uncomfortable and wet verses near perfect sailing.

As I write this it’s 07:00 and we are motor sailing and charging the batteries.  I am also taking advantage of the engine to run the watermaker.  We haven’t used much water since leaving but we all took showers in the cockpit yesterday and I also washed the cockpit down well this morning as there was a lot of spray going everywhere when we were in the squalls last night.  Yes, I am anal about salt but it’s just so much more pleasant when things aren’t salty. It’s also quite hot and sticky but noticeably cooler than it was in Tortola and during the first day out.

I mentioned yesterday, I think, that one of the two plotters stopped functioning and because of the way that the system is wired, we no longer have access to radar or our AIS.  We are still transmitting on AIS but we can’t see other boats on our plotter.  Fortunately, there hasn’t been much ship traffic to worry about but that will change as we get closer to the congested shipping lanes of Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware River and New York.

The autopilot is also acting up oddly as every so often, a few times a day, it just decides to head off in a totally different direction, pulling a sort of “crazy Ivan” maneuver, with no warning.  Experiencing a 180 degree crash turn, seemingly “just for fun” is really disarming and takes some of the relaxation out of the passage.  However, compared to other problems that we could have, it’s not too bad.  And, with the boom break in place to soften the blow of a “surprise” jibe, we aren’t at major risk of gear breakage from the autopilot maneuvers.  My last boat, with a very similar autopilot and plotter system, also had this problem and I was able to modify the settings on the computer to solve it.  I’ll call the tech support folks when I get home to sort this out.  Of course, the “dead” plotter will also have to go out for repair.  Let’s hope that they can fix the plotter as I don’t want to think about having to upgrade the entire system as they no longer make the particular model that we have.  Fingers crossed.

While I carry about 175 gallons of fuel, I don’t want to motor any more than we must as I want to be certain that we have plenty to use if we run into unfavorable winds later in the trip.  We continue to be in the convergence area between two weather systems, with little wind so we are motor-sailing but I am hopeful that we will get out of it later today and back into good sailing conditions.

In any event, the trip is coming together about as expected with some excitement but mostly, it’s been an easy run.  Not at all like my trip down in January and that’s good.

Well, I guess that’s about all I have to report for now.  There’s still plenty of miles left between us and home and we aren’t even half the way there.  The earliest that I expect to be home is likely not until about next Wednesday or Thursday.  Hard to say but that’s my best guess and a lot can happen between now and then, so fingers crossed that everything will continue to work out in our favor.

Yes, we are a long way from home, hundreds of miles from land but we are settling in to the passage.  So far, so good with a dead plotter, Crazy Ivan and all.

It’s Tuesday morning and we have been underway for nearly 24 hours.  The sailing has been good and Pandora’s reeling off the miles.

We were originally planning to head out on Wednesday but after hearing the long range weather forecast we decided to head out on Monday with the rest of the fleet.  Our plan to leave later was based on George’s schedule as he had business and family commitments that would not allow him to arrive until late on Tuesday.  However, after hearing Chris Parker’s forecast on Saturday that called for a cold front with strong north winds to exit the east coast around the 24th, I realized that we could not afford to wait past Monday. Besides, Cliff and Jim arrived on Sunday afternoon so we could leave sooner if needed.  And, as is so often the case, it was “needed” so we did.

I feel badly that we had to bolt and leave George but if we had waited we might very well have ended up in Bermuda to wait out the adverse winds or worse, been caught in some really nasty conditions later in the trip.

This is my first Salty Dawg Rally and it’s fun to be making the run north with about 25 boats.  Some are headed to the Chesapeake, others to Bermuda and some to New England like Pandora.  Each morning and evening there are SSB radio nets that allow us to call in and talk to other boats in the fleet.  The others share stories of how things are going, fish caught and gear that doesn’t work.

One boat in particular is stopping in Bermuda as their autopilot stopped working and they are now hand steering, which is very tiring.   I heard that a hatch was left open and a big wave splashed in and flooded part of the autopilot equipment.  Salt water getting into the boat is a constant worry and that’s why we keep Pandora pretty well buttoned up while offshore, regardless of how hot it might be down below.  I have had my share of gear issues this winter and I really don’t want to tempt fate. Losing the autopilot is the thing that I worry about the most as hand steering is not something that we take lightly.  Years ago I was on a boat from Nassau to CT and the autopilot crapped out. We had to steer for about a week with no break.  The crew of four was taxed by that experience.

Speaking of “gear issues”, we do have one issue that came up yesterday shortly after leaving Tortola.  Pandora has two chart plotters, one at the helm and another up under the dodger.  The one at the helm is the “master” with feeds from AIS and radar and the other plotter is a “slave” to that one.  The problem is that the helm plotter stopped working yesterday, it just went dark, so now we don’t have access to AIS or radar on the remaining plotter.  The good news is that the AIS is still transmitting, we just can’t see it on the plotter.   At least other ships can see us, assuming that they are watching.  I just can’t see them.

I had thought about swapping the two units as they are the same but I am concerned that I might somehow make things worse so have decided to just go without AIS and radar for the duration.  I guess it will be just like the “olden days” but with autopilot and refrigeration.  Oh yeah and a watermaker.  No,I guess it’s not really like the olden days, just less than perfect.

At least it will sharpen our lookout skills.

So, that’s about it and we only have about 1,200 miles to go.  Yikes, that’s a long way. At this rate we should be done with the trip in about 8 more days.

Beyond that, nothing much to report.  However, the trip is young and I am expecting some “sporty” conditions later in the week.  Until then, sailing and perhaps a few days of motoring as we cross a ridge, a sort of “convergence zone” between two weather systems, just west of Bermuda, where there will be little or no wind.

Stay tuned for more details and don’t forget to check out the tracking on my blog to see exactly where we are, well at lest within the last two hours as that’s how often we send out position reports.  Also check for a recent post, a few days ago, to see a link to view Pandora and the rest of the fleet.

I plan to write again tomorrow and hope that post will be boring too.  Excitement aboard Pandora when we are hundreds of miles from shore is something that I’d like to avoid, if possible.

Until next time.

After all the weeks of planning we are going to head out from Tortola on Monday for home.   It’s been a whirlwind of activity over the last few days with chores to get Pandora ready and having crew arrive but it’s time to head home.

My original plan was to head out on the 17th but the weather is very iffy for then so I have opted to leave a few days earlier with the fleet.

The big problem is that if I were to wait a few more days I’d run into heavy squalls on our second or third days out, hit a much longer windless patch of perhaps two or more days of motoring near Bermuda and run the risk of being clobbered by a front that is expected to head off of the NE coast around the 26th as we approached CT.  All of which sounds like more work than fun.

Unfortunately, because of this change, moving our departure up by two days, one of my crew George, won’t be here in time to leave with us. It’s a total bummer but I guess that weather and safety trumps just about everything else when it comes to passage making.

Anyway, we still have a few chores to do in the morning but should be underway by noon.  I’ll be sending out position reports to this site which you can access at this link.  You can also right click on any particular position report and see how fast we were going when the tracker sent out the “ping” to the server.

I expect that our trip should be relatively uneventful with the exception of the squalls and will probably involve a day or more of motoring when the wind gets light.  But hey, that’s a lot more appealing than the gales that we experienced on the way down in January.

So, you can track us a number of ways but I am not certain that the rally page will have us on it as I have had difficulty in getting that set up with all the last minute changes in our plans.  Anyway, I wrote about the tracking options in a prior post.  You can check it out at this link.

Underway on Monday.  Finally!  Wish us luck.

I’ll be writing more about how things are going most days while we are underway.

Yes, we are leaving and it’s going to be good to be homeward bound.

Details to come.  Yes, that’s true.

Well, here I am, back in West End Tortola.  I arrived late morning today after leaving home at 0-dark-30 yesterday morning to head to the airport.    My flight to get me to Tortola was actually to St Thomas where I planned to catch a ferry yesterday to West End Tortola from downtown Charlotte Amalie.  Well, that’s at least how it was supposed to work.

However, as luck would have it, “no-can-do” ruled the day, with delay after delay.  The airport, Hartford, was a mess when I arrived.  Who’d expect so many people would be up at the tender hour of 05:00.  What a mob, a sea of humanity.

No problem, I made it through security with plenty of time left for my 06:30 flight and we left pretty much on time.  We landed in Charlotte and I had 3.5 hours to wait for my next flight to St Thomas, still with plenty of time to connect with my ferry .  However, when it came time for us to board in Charlotte, well, we didn’t.

After a long while we learned that catering, yes the folks that bring the little bags of pretzels, were AWOL and the crew had absolutely no idea of when they would be arriving.   We were on board, the plane was totally packed, and we were just sitting there, for a long time.  How long?  Not sure but it was long enough that the pilot came on a number of time to talk about the delay and finally said, “we’re leaving, catering or not.”  The problem was that while they had plenty of lovely snacks for the run down, they needed food for the run back but that now the plan was to fill up again in St Thomas.  We left the gate, finally.

After that we sat, and sat, and sat and finally the pilot came on to say that we had a mechanical problem and needed to talk to the repair guys.  Ok, I get that as it’s always a good idea to have a “happy landing” at the other end of the flight. However, by the time they crew sorted all of this out they decided we just had to head back to the gate and assess the situation.    We need a new plane! Awesome.

We “de-planed” and were sent to another gate…. at the total other end of the airport.   I was one of the first to arrive at the “new gate” only to learn that we had to be sent back to where we had “arrived” as they had “changed the changed gate again”.  Never mind.

Ok, so we got back to the gate and waited some more, much more.   To their credit, they did bring sandwiches and drinks.   A sort of “peace offering”, I guess.

So, fast forward several more hours and we finally left on another aircraft and arrived in St Thomas about 5 hours after our planned arrival time.   The problem for me is that the last ferry for Tortola had left hours earlier and I had to now find a hotel.  Lucky me.

I had decided to fly into St Thomas as it’s a lot less expensive than flying into Tortola.  Oops.  It didn’t look so inexpensive now.   Hotel at 21:00 hours?  No idea where to stay?  Don’t want to pay much?  Have fun Bob…

The information lady at the airport, who BTW was giving out samples of Cruzan Rum as we entered the terminal.  “Welcome to the Caribbean Mon!”.   Anyway, I asked for an “inexpensive” hotel and she recommended that I call Franko’s Guest House as it wasn’t very expensive.    However, she warned me that she had recommended it to a lady a few days ago and that lady didn’t even get out of the cab and went somewhere else.  Ok, sounds perfect, I’ll take it!

When I arrived, after a stop in the cab at a convenience store to get a toothbrush, Franko’s wife was waiting on the front porch for me.   “Welcome to Ranko’s.”  I thought it looked quaint. Besides, it wasn’t too expensive and anything was better than a nap on a bench at the airport. They have a cute little open air dining area. Believe it or not, he, Franko himself, even took me to the ferry terminal this morning.   Along the way he told me about how, when he was younger, he drank a LOT of rum but after his older brother “gave him a stern talking to” he shaped up and became a carpenter and later opened his B&B.   He does all of the work himself and is clearly very proud of his place.  “I make a little money and fix the place up a little bit ore.”  All and all, a simple place, Franko’s and a very charming experience.

So, I went down to the ferry terminal this morning and as I arrived I spied this terrific float plane.  I totally should have gone in that.   It looked awesome at the dock. Off she went.   I want one of these!I’ll bet that he has to wash things off really, really well every evening with all the salt spray. Yes, really salty. Yes, after all the shenanigans yesterday I should have treated myself to a trip on one of those.   And then he was gone and on his way. So, here I am and Pandora’s looking good and none the worse for two weeks alone.   A few chores and tomorrow I head over to nearby Nanny Cay to take a slip for a few days to participate in the run-up to the Salty Dawg Rally and to wait for my crew.

Yes, I’m here but it’s pretty clear that sometimes you just can’t get there from here.  Or, at least you have to take more than one day.

Finally though, I’m here, back aboard Pandora, and it’s a beautiful day.

It’s Wednesday afternoon and I am just about ready to head back to Pandora in the BVIs tomorrow morning.

She’s been on a mooring in Soper’s Hole, West End, for the last two weeks while I traveled home to visit family and get our home and gardens in order for the coming summer.  After a winter all sealed up, our home was in good shape if a bit overrun with mice.  Fortunately, because I set a lot of traps, most of the mice we returned to were, shall we say, not a threat any longer.   I won’t dwell on that except to say that we seem to be a very popular winter spot for the local mice community.

Anyway, things are pretty well under control and I’ll be flying to St Thomas in the morning and then will catch a ferry to Tortola.  It’s going to be a long day.

This is Pandora on her mooring in West End.  It’s a very pretty spot. In the last few years I have become more involved in the Salty Dawg Sailing Association and will be participating in their spring rally north from Tortola. My plan is to participate in some of the events over the next few days leading up to a planned departure on or about May 15th.  A really neat feature of this event is that you can track the fleet as they make their way north on a dedicated page for the rally.

This link will take you to a shared page that will show all participants.  To see the group, as they make their way north, all you need to do is to put “SDR” in the group section on the left (see below) and then select the days that you want to see the positions for.   Once we leave, you can put in a range of 05/15/2017 to the current day and then see the track of the fleet for the entire rally period to date or just the dates that you want to track the fleet for.  You can also focus on a single vessel on the right and look at that track only.   This is what the page looks like.  I think it’s pretty neat. Anyway, it’s a nice feature and a fun event.  I’ll be leaving Tortola on our about May 17th, after my crew arrives so you’ll be able to follow Pandora on that map too.   The boats in the fleet are going to a number of areas such as Bermuda, Hampton VA, as well as areas in New England so they will be quite spread out.

I also have a dedicated page on my blog “where in the world is Pandora” that will allow you to track our progress with a new position report every two hours while I am underway. Or, you can go right to the shared page/map for Pandora herself by clicking here.  This page includes the track that Brenda and I took over the winter so you can see that we covered a lot of ground.  Here’s a screenshot of what that page looks like, actually. It’s neat that you can also zoom-in and right click on any individual position report and see the actual speed for us at that point.  We may not have much wind, unlike the gales that carried Pandora south in January, according to the long range forecast so we might be going pretty slow.  Of course, as Chris Parker, our weather router would say, “that’s a long way out, so conditions may (probably) change”.

So, that’s the plan and if you check back as we get closer to departure, I’ll report more on our plans.   As always, you can sign up on the home page to get a message when I post so you’ll have the latest.

I also plan on posting to my blog via the SSB radio most days while we are underway so you’ll be able to “be there” with us, minus the motion sickness, and follow how we are doing.

If you are ever considering a trip south to the Caribbean for the first time, or are an “old timer” and do the trip regularly, I really encourage you to join the Salty Dawg Rally to Tortola from Hampton VA.  It’s a great event and the trip itself follows a near week of seminars in Hampton prior to departure.  How about doing it in November of this year?  Join in the fun.   I’ll be there.

Stay tuned as, Yes indeed, there are Dawg Days on the horizon for Pandora.   It should be a fun trip.

It’s Monday morning and I am here in MD at our son Rob and DIL, Kandice’s home for a few days.   As I begin this post it’s around 06:00 and I am sitting here with my granddaughter Tori, she lives here too, and she’s none too happy to share me with my post.

Hours later…  Tori distractions and all…

It’s sort of jarring, in a good way, to be in such a different environment after months aboard Pandora with a near constant eye toward the weather.  I got up with Tori our new granddaughter who’s also currently blissfully oblivious to the weather at around 06:00.  Now it’s after 09:00 and I am just turning back to this post.  Somehow I don’t recall the utter inability to get anything done when Rob and his brother Christopher were this young but that’s probably because I realized that it was hopeless and didn’t even try to focus on anything other than them.

I guess I can’t totally blame Tori for not letting me get any writing done as she is quite cute, if distracting.  I was finally able to get this “happy” shot of her by using burst mode on the camera.  With 5 frames a second I got it.  That’s good as in that one second her emotions ranged from absolute happiness to a near meltdown.

Get the picture?  I finally did too.Of course, the reason that I am now writing this post is that her father is up and watching her.

Over the weekend we went to the birthday party of one Rob and Kandice’s friend’s one year old.  It turns out that Katie’s (the mom) father Denny (the grandfather), is involved with a WWII Liberty Ship, the John W. Brown, one of only two operational ships of it’s class left in the world.   There were 2,711 of these ships built for the war effort and an amazing number, 1,554 of them, were lost to enemy fire, the highest percentage losses of any branch of the service. Because of these tremendous losses, there was an urgent need to build these ships faster than the German U Boats were able to sink them.

As a result of these very heavy losses and the need to move troops and materiel to Europe during the war, it was very important to find a way to make these ships, and they were over 400′ long, finished and ready for sea as quickly as possible.  As a result, the building process was streamlined and while it took an average of 11 months to build a similar ship during WWI, using prefabricated parts, these ships were built in less than one month, a remarkable increase in efficiency.

These ships were built at a number of shipyards on both the east and west coasts with the first ship of this class launched, the Oliver Perry, in 100 days in Richmond CA.  This video talks about being able to construct a ship in less than a month.  Later on, there was competition between yards with a record set of launching in 7 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes from the laying of the keel to launch.   The ship was the Oliver Perry.  It’s an interesting story and worth reading.

And, speaking of Oliver Perry, he was a pretty important guy and there is a totally modern sailing ship bearing his name, beyond the first Liberty ship and others, that sails out of Newport RI.   She’s an educational vessel and a real beauty.This brief newsreel from the 40s talks about the process of building the Liberty ships, the first class of ships ever built in a modular way.  On the other hand, and not to be too random but this guy spent 8 years building his own boat. Eight days?  Eight years?  Random?  Yes indeed but sort of neat and he did that in Philadelphia and it’s even near Baltimore where the Brown was built.   Besides, this site is SAILpandora, isn’t it?  So there should be “sailboats” too.  Right?To get things built fast, it helps to have Uncle Sam behind you and the proverbial “ax to grind” with a powerful enemy in Hitler to help speed things up.

So, here we are 75 years later and the Liberty ship John W. Brown is now berthed in Baltimore and is still able to go to sea and goes out on a few cruises a year, mostly locally, for special occasions.  That would be an awesome way to see the Baltimore waterfront.

This is a great tour of her, the best video I found. They also have a simple website for her. . With so much great video footage available, I’d put up a “resource center” to catalog the “best of class” documents and video from the Web on the site but who am I to say.

Anyway, here I am in MD, Pandora’s down in the BVI and I’ll be getting together with my crew this week to talk about our run north.  I sure hope that the run up to CT is easier than the run south was back in January, gales and all.

This video, shot on that run, doesn’t begin to show what it was like and how big the waves were.  As is so often the case, “you had to be there” to appreciate it.Well, once is enough in the “gale department” so I hope that this trip is easier.

I guess that’s about it for now and it’s nearly 10:30 so I’d better get on with my day.  Rob needs help in the yard and Brenda is watching Tori.

Question:  Have you ever noticed that perfectly mature adults always talk to babies in a high pitched voice?   Why is that?

Perhaps I’ll explore that in a future post.  Perhaps not…

Besides, that would be a completely random segue in a post that has already pushed “random segues” to the limit.

It’s Wednesday morning and I am snug on a mooring in West End, Soper’s Hole, Tortola, where Pandora will stay for two weeks until I return.  Yes, I am heading home to CT, but first to MD where I will visit our son Rob, his wife Kandice and, of course, little Tori, our granddaughter.  Actually, Tori isn’t quite so little any more, well at least not as little as she was when I saw her more than two months ago, prior to heading out for the winter aboard Pandora with Brenda.

“Grampy is coming to see me?  Who’s Grampy?”“Whatever.  I’ll get dressed up anyway, just in case he’s nice.  Do these pigtails make me look older?”My friend Craig headed back to work after a week aboard as we ran from Antigua to the BVIs and I have been alone since Saturday although I’ll admit that it feels like weeks. I don’t do “alone” well.  Actually, I haven’t been alone, just without Brenda, which is about the same thing.  “Bob, Bob, you are such a sap!  Pathetic, you’re an adult!”  Yes, I know but it’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

After Craig left on Saturday I decided to head over to St Thomas, Charlotte Amali, the largest harbor in the American Virgin Islands, so that I’d have access to my phone for “local” calls since I was going to be alone for a few days.  As luck would have it, my friends Maureen and Bill of Kalunamoo were there to so I followed them around for a few days.  That was a good distraction and it was fun to see the sights through the eyes of someone who’d “been there”.

The harbor was a riot of activity as there was some sort of week-long festival going on.    There was a nasty wrap-around swell coming into the harbor that made it pretty uncomfortable to be on board with Pandora rocking one way and the other all night long.   During the day there was loads of boat traffic that added to the confused waters in the harbor.

There was a powerboat race one afternoon and the crowds lined up on the waterfront to watch the action.This guy did a lot more “tooing and frooing” (sp?) than was really necessary as he showed off his boat.  Not sure how he did it, but he somehow found a way to make his outboard way louder than normal.   He did look pretty pleased with himself.   I guess if that was my boat, I’d do the exact same thing.  I am positive that my son Rob would be that way also, the “motor-head” that he is.

On shore there was plenty going on with stalls selling drinks and food along with blaring music pumped out of oversize speakers, each louder than the last.  There were also a number of steel drum orchestras, if that’s what you call them, including this “mobile” version with it’s own custom trailer.   I guess that this saves them a lot of packing up time when they need to get on the road.I enjoyed watching this group of kids playing their hearts out.This girl was clearly absorbed in the music.  Love the hair style.  I wonder it hurts to comb it out.If there was any doubt that I was back in U.S. waters with all the racing powerboats, the tricked out cars lining the road made it perfectly clear.   This line of VWs on display was terrific.No, this Bug is not “factory original” but awesome.  I wonder how many sets of tires he, and the owner must be a “he”, goes through in a year, or month?The waterfront is lined with historic warehouses with lovely alleyways lined with restaurants to explore.   A very popular pastime for visitors is to climb the “99 steps”, actually 103 but who’s counting.   They end at “Blackbeard’s Castle” although it’s now the site of an inn and restaurant.  The view of the harbor from up top was beautiful.With gardens and wonderfully restored buildings.
There’s Pandora out in the harbor, dwarfed by the nearby cruise ship.  The water looks smoother than it was.  Did I mention that it was bumpy? I loved this sculpture of three women who led a slave revolt in 1878.  Beautifully done.So, after a few days enjoying the sights in St. Thomas I headed back over to Tortola were I’ll be leaving Pandora while I head home.   Happily, Bill and Linda of Sapphire are here and will keep an eye on Pandora to be sure that all is well until I return.

The plan is for crew to join me here for the run north to CT in mid May.

I am looking forward to being home and then my return to Pandora.  I sure hope that the run north is smoother than our run was to get here in January, gales and all.

But, that’s another story and one that I am not looking to repeat any time soon.

Home Ho! Totally ready.

Nope, not in Antigua, I’m back in the U.S.S.A.   Actually, not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m in St Thomas, Charlotte Amalie, the largest port in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Yesterday I dropped Craig off at the airport in Tortola, capping a week together and a run from Antigua to the BVIs with a stop in St Martin along the way.

It was nice to spend time with Craig and great to have help to bring Pandora the 200 miles back to the BVIs where I will be meeting crew for my run north to CT in mid May.

I was even able to save Craig the cost of a cab ride as I took a mooring near the airport.  So near in fact, that it was only a one minute walk to the terminal from the beach.  That’s close.  I’ll bet that this isn’t a normal view of a walkway to the terminal when you head out to catch a flight.  Me neither.Brenda and I had heard about a “full moon party” that was held in Trellis Bay Tortola, the harbor where I dropped Craig at the airport, put on by some artist guy named Aragorn in a spot aptly named “Aragorn’s Studio”.  Aragorn?  I saw the guy and it seemed to me that he looked more like a “Burt”, albeit with an artist flair.   I wonder if he changed his name?  Actually, his real name is Dick. Hmm.  Surely “Dick’s full moon party” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Here he is working in his studio.  He’s the guy on the left.  He invited me into his studio, sand floor and all.    So much for OSHA safety regulations.  “Don’t worry, you’re in the islands mon.”  This link will tell you a bit about his background.
So, twelve times a year he throws a “full moon party” a sort of cookout in celebration of the full moon.   There are twelve full moons a year and twelve parties.  Get it?  Pretty symmetrical.

So Dick, AKA Aragorn, is a sculptor and makes all sorts of metal sculptures.  His work is very unique.  For the full moon party, he has made some huge open sculptures that he apparently stuffs with flammable stuff and lights them on fire, out in the water.This is what it looks like when the party is in full swing.   Well, I’m sure it looks great, but I guess you had to be there.  Perhaps next winter. And, there is a “full moon guy” too.   As you’d expect, the parties are held on the full moon so they happen on the lunar calendar verses the tourist calendar.  Even though there is a “real” full moon that same night, he provides a large round white sculpture that I think has spotlight projected on it to simulate the, not surprisingly, “full moon” just in case it’s not going to rise at a convenient time on the appointed evening.   As you’d expect, the “full moon guy” faces Aragorn’s (Dick’s) “moon”.   Aragorn is clearly a showman.  I’m impressed.

His studio is out back and is a jumble of materials and partially finished pieces. Clearly, he draws inspiration from nature in the Caribbean. With a marine theme throughout. This piece is about 8′ wide.  While there’s plenty for sale in his shop, the grounds are littered with much of his work as well as that of other artists that share his space. A lot of his work is fabricated from “found” items.  Once a cargo net?  Now, who knows but it is very purple.
I liked this driftwood “lizard”.  Or, perhaps it is a dragon.  I guess it’s up to you and perhaps how many rum punches you’ve had. Certainly, his signature pieces are the “fire balls” that star at his parties and this is how they start out.  He told me that they are mooring buoys and that finding them is getting harder and harder.  He gave me his card and asked me to keep an eye out for more like these.  I’ll bet that there would be an “Aragorn T shirt” in it for you if you find some.
I dropped Craig off and then had to decide what I was going to do with myself for the next five days until I headed back home for a two week visit prior to returning to the BVIs with crew to run Pandora north.   Those that know me understand that “alone” isn’t something that I do very well.

Not to repeat myself, but I really only want to be all alone while I am in the bathroom and that assumes that it doesn’t take too long.  “Brenda, can you come in with me and sit for a bit?  I need company.”

I was also a bit anxious about managing a 47’ boat, Pandora, for anchoring and picking up, horrors, a mooring if that’s the only option by myself.  The constant struggle for Internet and phone access is beginning to wear on me so I was also focused on being in a place where my T-Mobile phone was going to work consistently.  Oddly, in spite of that service having an “international plan” we found that it just didn’t work well in the BVIs or Antigua.   In other islands, it worked fine and provided excellent, if a bit slow, Internet access.

As the American Virgin Islands were only a few miles away I decided to make a run for the main harbor in St Thomas, Charlotte Amali.  Perhaps not the most scenic spot but convenient and provisioning there for the run north will be easier than Tortola, not known as the “gastronomic hotspot” in the Caribbean.  Did I mention that we love the French islands?   Can I have another baguette?

I don’t want to give the impression that St Thomas, with it’s fine T shirt shops, hasn’t got any good dining but I don’t believe it’s chock full of patisseries and I sincerely doubt that I’ll find a fresh baguette for $1 in these parts.  However, at least I’ll be able to visit an “American style” grocery to stock up on food for the trip north.  Can you say “Guys, how about soup for dinner tonight?  No? Hamburger helper?”   What do you expect from a country where cheese “American Cheese” named after the country isn’t even cheese?

So, here I am in St. Thomas and as luck would have it, my friends Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo are here too.  How convenient and now I have Maureen to keep me on the straight and narrow while I am away from Brenda.   “Down Bob, down Bob, only one ice cream per day for you.”   No, I’m exaggerating, if only this once.   Maureen would never say that.  She likes ice cream too.  It’s terrific to see them again.

My mother always says that I generally luck out.   What are the odds that some of my favorite cruising buddies would be here too?  For me, pretty good it seems.  Lucky me.

When Craig joined me in Antigua, we spent a few days seeing the sights albeit at a faster pace than Brenda and I have been at the last few months.  And, with only one week to move Pandora the nearly 200 miles from Antigua to the BVIs we had to keep moving.

Given the short timeline for our trip we opted to make the 100 mile first leg run from Antigua to St Martin at night.  We had a great run with a 16-20kt wind on the beam and made the run in 12 hours, an average of 8kts.  It was quite a ride and I always marvel at the amazing stars on an overnight passage.

From St Martin to North Sound in the BVIs, a somewhat shorter run, also took us about 12 hours as that run is nearly due west so the easterly trade winds were behind us.  However, we were also able to make that leg under sail the whole way.  It’s great to be able to run 200 miles in two legs and to be able to sail the entire time.   This was Craig’s first experience with “trade wind sailing” and he was liking it.  We even caught a small bonito tuna on our last day as we passed between some smaller islands in the BVIs. It’s much different than sailing in New England where winds always seem to be blowing from exactly where you want to go.

We arrive in North Sound BVIs at 04:00 and picked our way into the anchorage.   After a few hours of sleep we cleared in and took a mooring at the Bitter End Yacht Club, a very nice resort.   It’s very well manicured with paths along the water.  There are also plenty of “villas” up on the hill and plenty of spots to sit and relax. Perched on the hill, some of the villas look more like tree houses. Here’s Pandora on her mooring off of the beach.  We chose mooring “0” as it was the closest to the dock.As the sun set Pandora looked lovely framed by the palm trees. That evening a yacht, more like a ship, pulled up nearby. It was nearly 300’ long.
Savanna, doesn’t have a traditional transom. Actually, nothing about this yacht is traditional and her name is spelled out in cushions on the aft deck.  How trendy.  She sports a plumb bow and looks like she means business.Savanna sports a crew of 20.   A few of them on the dock give a feel for the scale of this boat. So what does it take to be able to afford such a yacht?   The answer is a net worth of $1,000,000,000.  Did I get the number of “0s”right?  That’s a billion.  And they say that when considering how much to spend on your yacht assume that you should not spend more than 10% of your worth on such an endeavor.   It seems that’s exactly what Lukas Lundin did when he had her built as it’s estimated that it cost him $100m by the time Savanna was launched in 2015.

His father was a co-discoverer of a very large oil field in the middle east and he’s now chairman of the company that bears his name.  Good thing as I’ll bet that Savanna has a pretty health appetite for oil.   Before you get too jealous of good old Lukas, he’s divorced.  I guess that a billion dollars can’t buy marital bliss.

However, he does have Savanna and she’s a remarkable vessel.  Unfortunately, she can’t be chartered so you won’t be able to see for yourself.  This article has some great shots of her interior.

So, here I am, back in the good old US of A, sort of.  Unfortunately, while I can make “local” calls on my T-Mobile international phone, I can’t get wifi over the phone so here I sit in a coffee shop typing away.

The harbor here in St Thomas is quite large, with room for many boats as well as huge cruise ships.    This one came in this morning and maneuvered itself up to the dock. As it turned to back into it’s berth it looked like it was going to sweep a few boats away in it’s wake.  It looked precariously close to this powerboat but probably wasn’t.I am told that sometimes there are four of these monsters in residence with one having to anchor out and use it’s stern thrusters to keep from swinging into the anchored boats.

I’ll be here for a few more days and then will head back to the BVIs where Pandora will be on a mooring for a few weeks till I return to bring Pandora north in mid may.

No, I am not in Antigua any more, or Kansas, but I am getting closer to home, inch by nautical inch.

This is it!  I am heading to the BVIs this afternoon for an overnight run with Craig so today is my LAST day in St Martin.  As we prepare to leave it’s time to say goodbye to French food, baguettes, croissants, French wine, fine pastries and little bags of aromatic spices at farmer’s markets.

When I unzipped my camera bag this morning an intoxicating aroma of the islands wafted out and I was reminded that I had purchased some small bags of spices in the outdoor market yesterday.   I have to admit that I have been terribly spoiled by the French islands over the last few months to a point that I have developed a preference of one bakeries’ baguettes over another.

As access to great bread will come to a screeching halt after today, I plan to buy a “brace” of baguettes and a few croissants to bring along.  Yes, I know that baguettes get stale in a day but a stale baguette will be far better than any bread available in the BVIs.   “Bob, Bob, you are such a snob.  It’s disgusting!”.  Yes, I know and considering that I am one of those who “eat to live” verses those who “live to eat” that’s saying something.

As I write this I am sitting in a lovely little cafe, this is what’s in the case behind me.    I must avert my eyes lest I find myself drooling with nose and cheek pressed against the glass.  Oh wait, there’s more.  Is it sin to eat an eclair before noon?Well, at least I’ll have photos to look at and remind me of what awaits next winter when we return.

Last night Craig and I had dinner at a lovely little French place on the water.    And yes, that’s a bottle of French wine in the ice bucket.  I know that putting up photos of one’s meals is tacky but I can’t help it.  But wait, all’s not lost as the BVIs have the boat bar Willie T’s.  I visited it in January.  It has a certain charm.   Lovely clientele.   Very sweet, taking a nap together. Ok, Ok, I am exaggerating as there are some lovely spots in the BVIs but nothing competes with the French islands, nothing and I’ll miss it here.  But, as my father used to say “there’s always next time” and there WILL be a next time.

When Craig arrived on Monday morning we headed ashore but everything was closed because of the long Easter weekend.   There is, as is the case on most islands, a fort overlooking the harbor.

From the summit, the view of town and the harbor is beautiful.   We are anchored between the French side and Dutch side which is on the other side of the mountain to the left.  We are to the right of the small island in the middle of the photo with the little pointy top.  Actually, and not to be indelicate, that island, surely named by the French, is called “witch’s tit”.    Yes, I think I can see the resemblance to a certain anatomical feature if I think like the French.  Oui!The downtown area surely has a French feel with all the red roofs. As the lagoon on the French side is too shallow for large yachts, unlike the Dutch side, they have built a large marina surrounded by a breakwater in the harbor.   Here’s Craig “conquering” the fort.   Notice that he is sporting the same dorky type of hat that I wear.  So practical though.
And speaking of the French, which I was until I began focusing on Craig’s hat, ocean racing is dominated by the French and there is no shortage of go-fast yachts.  These are built with the singular goal of getting from here to there as fast as possible.  This machine was tied up at the St Martin Yacht Club.  She clearly means business.  No creature comforts here. Absolutely no protection from the wind and waves.   But, wow, I’ll bet she’s fast.   Looks completely miserable to me. Brenda’s goal is to “retire” Pandora and to get something to putt-putt up and down the CT River, preferably with a glass of wine.  Perhaps one of these would suit her.   It has just about everything she might want.    A motor, 5HP anyway.  A grill, check, umbrella, check, cooler, check and plenty of cup-holders.  Perfect!   And, while it was designed in France, with the name of Donuts Dream, it looks to me, totally “American”.  It even has running lights for use when it’s dark.  What more could you want?   Baguettes perhaps? Well, they have them here.    The donut boat company even has a facebook page.   You can follow them if you dare.  Nobody will know if you do, I promise.All kidding aside, BVI’s or bust it is and in about a week I’ll be back in the US with Brenda and will soon see our “now not so quite new” granddaughter Tori again.  I don’t know who’s more excited, me or Tori about my return as it’s been a few months since I last saw her.

Grampy is coming to see me!Grampy who?

I won’t think about that right now.

Well, that’s it, French food out, bar crawling in the BVIs, in.   No wait, home to Brenda.  Yes, that’s in.  Totally in!

Can’t wait.  I’m coming Tori.  Soon.

For now, I’ll take a baguette to go.  No make that 6.  I do need to keep my strength up.   Oh yeah, toss a few eclairs in the bag too.

It’s Easter Sunday and I have to admit that it doesn’t feel much like Easter. Brenda’s in MD with our son Rob and his family and it’s a beautiful day here in Antigua.  However, I’d rather be with Brenda and kin, frankly.

Yes, it’s a beautiful sunny day which is good as yesterday was uncharacteristically cloudy and rainy, something that I haven’t seen in at least a month.  Yes, we do get showers with fair regularity but a grey day with showers and rain, not so common.

Craig arrived on Saturday afternoon and seems to be settling into the cruising lifestyle.  Last night I invited two couples, Sue and David of Sans Cles and Al and Tess of Inomar, both Salty Dawg Sailing Association members and live aboard cruisers.  Sue and David are heading toward Panama for the hurricane season and no return home date on their calendar and Al and Tess will be heading back to work after taking a year off to cruise.

I thought that Craig would enjoy getting the perspective from cruisers to better understand “how the other cruising half lives”.

Yesterday we cleared out at customs as it’s our plan to set sail later this afternoon for the 100 mile run to St Martin.  Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to visit St Barths along the way, we have decided to bypass that island as it’s likely to be somewhat rolly in the anchorage with the expected north swell.

The wind forecast is for moderate easterly trades which should make for a very nice run.  I expect that we will pick up anchor and get underway around 16:00 this evening.  Of course, if you are curious, you can follow along under the link “where in the world is Pandora” on the home page.  Or you can go right to the dedicated Google Maps page and see where we are “sort of” right now.

Customs, where you clear in and out here, is located in English Harbor, home of Nelson’s Dockyard.  As they are hosting the Classic Yacht Regatta, only a week away, a remarkable collection of boats are beginning to arrive for the festivities.

After finishing up the paperwork required to leave Antigua, Craig and I walked out to the lookout at the head of English Harbor, to the spot where British troops were once stationed to watch out for enemy ships.    Along the way was a beautiful flowering tree with perhaps a dozen hummingbirds vying for the most choice flowers.  Now, we are working to get a glimpse of the beautiful classics.  Turn around, face the harbor and there is plenty to look at.  A few days ago these docks were nearly vacant.  Now, more yachts arrive every day.  In a week’s time the place will be wall to wall classics.  As we watched, the three masted schooner Spirit of Bermuda rounded the point and prepared to enter the harbor.   She was built in Rockport maine and launched in 2006 and serves as an educational vessel and ambassador for Bermuda.  I have seen her in Maine and now here.  She’s a sight to behold with her impossibly tall masts.    You can crew on her if you’d like to spend time aboard.  Check out their site. The deployed their dink to help maneuver into position to med-moor against the bulkhead at the dockyard.They dropped their two bow anchors and backed toward the dock yard wall. The line handler caught the lines tossed to him by crew.  Neat, what you can do with action shooting at 4 frames per second.  Action shot, anyone?Even though they had a large crew on board, a tender pushing the stern as needed and line handlers on shore, it still takes brute strength to bring everything together.
While this will soon be the near exclusive domain of classics, there are a few super high tech beauties there.  It’s hard to believe that the “little” one on the left is nearly 100′ long.  Nice cockpit.  However, not a lot of protection from the sun.  Well, this is the last post I will do from Antigua this year as later today we begin heading home, sort of.   Craig and I will be leaving this afternoon for our run to St Martin, a few days there and then on to the BVIs where Pandora will sit for two weeks while I head home for a short visit.

It’s a bummer to be away from Brenda for so l0ng but at least I know that as I head toward the BVI every mile brings me closer to her and home.

Well, wish us luck in our overnight voyage tonight.  It should be a great sail with wind and a clear night to carry us on our way.    Antigua’s been nice but I can almost taste the baguettes and pastries.  You gotta love those French islands.

Yes, it’s good to be heading home, sort of…