Sail Pandora

One of the best things about “experience” is that while living it may sometimes be, shall we say “interesting”, the “telling” is nearly always fabulous for years and years afterwords.  Brenda’s sister Sheryl once said “experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”.  However, sometimes experiences are indeed what you had hoped for too.  And that’s makes for an even better story.

For sure, the telling is even better when it’s actually fun from the beginning and with each telling later bringing back all of those great memories, again and again.  Of course, each time you tell the story it somehow becomes even more amazing.  “You should have seen the one that got away…” or “that storm was so strong, the waves…”. You know the drill…

Our trip to Cuba last winter has been perhaps the pinnacle of “experience it once, talk about it forever…”.

Of course, we wrote about our trip as we experienced it (see March and April posts on this site and Brenda’s www.argoknot.com) at every opportunity we got, some 30 posts in all.   And the telling has gotten even better as since returning home to CT as we have talked about our trip to whomever would stand still and listen.  Fortunately for us, nearly EVERYONE is interested in hearing about Cuba.

We have given talks to many groups, 13 at last count including my upcoming talk to the Pelagic Sailing Club in Boston this coming Thursday.   It’s a thrill for me to talk to groups and I have jumped at nearly every opportunity I have been offered to tell our story including the members of the Essex Yacht Club and The Corinthians within the last week, both groups that have been a big part of our lives.   EYC wins the prize for the best poster.  That’s Chef Michael at EYC with us who prepared a wonderful Cuban dinner to cap off the evening.  Well done Michael. For me, the only thing better than speaking to a group about our voyages, is speaking to a group that I know personally.

Each time I give my presentation, just seeing this photo of Pandora tied up at Marina Hemingway brings back a flood of memories.  And, nothing gets a rise from the audience like this photo of me holding lobsters that we purchased from Cuban fisherman.  Brenda and I “ate” this particular memory at home just the other night as we had a freezer full of lobster tails aboard Pandora when we returned home from Cuba.  “You…Keep your eyes on the crustaceans!”Anyway, it seems that everyone tends to tell stories of the worst conditions and how they “almost….”.  Brenda likes to forget those moments and prefers to focus on “being anchored” as the memories that suit her best.  Lobster is good too.

Another story that always gets a rise is talking about our experience of going to the Rolling Stones concert in Havana.  Now, that’s a memory and a half, with the “half” coming from several of our traveling companions who drank plenty on the way to the concert.  They were hung over before we even got to the concert.
All and all, visiting Cuba was a really wonderful trip with only a few tears along the way.  And, speaking of “tears”, we encountered more than a few no-se-ums one evening, not the happiest memory of Cuba but still a great story and one that’s more fun to tell than experience.  As my mother used to say, “into every day a little rain must fall” but even rainy days and no-se-ums make for great stories to be told for a lifetime.

A good friend from way-back-when, Chris Blossom the marine artist, did a painting of our first boat,TAO as a birthday present to me in 1980.  At that point Brenda and I had only been married for three years.  Yes, we had a boat before we had a house.  “Brenda, what were you thinking?”

It’s  a wonderful painting and brings back a flood of memories of that evening, and many others spent sailing with Brenda.  Chris captured the experience perfectly as we ghosted along off of Penfield Beach in Fairfield CT one summer evening.  Now, that’s Brenda’s kind of sailing, err, becalming.Don’t we look like we are having a nice time? Brenda thought it was ALMOST like being anchored.  How about a little closer view?  It’s such a terrific treasure to us, both memory and picture.   And, it looks just like us.  Well, to me and Brenda it does.And, if you think I am making the “birther” thing up, there’s proof in the lower right hand corner.  “Happy Birthday Bob”  Chris was in his early 20s when he painted this 36 years ago.  Another lifetime.Russell Jinishian, the well known marine dealer, told me a while back that Chris is one of the five finest living marine artists.   Chris has an enormous body of work, but doesn’t have a website of his own.  I guess that’s because he paints pictures of “old stuff” and the Web for Chris, well it’s just so “new”.

I’m biased perhaps, but he does great work and he did one for me.   However, you can see his work, and there’s plenty, on Chris’s page at Russell’s gallery link.

Well, as I was saying, we love to remember the perfect times in our lives. Perhaps less so, the times that we’d rather forget.  However, some are so exciting that we recall them anyway, and always with a a growing fondness, if only because we lived to tell the tale, as the years go by.

Cruising Cuba was not what I would call “easy” as you are really “on your own”.   However, as a class A “you should have been there” sort of experience!  It was without peer, and what memories it has made for us.

While I wasn’t there, the image in this painting I mean, this painting, also from Christopher, certainly depicts an “experience” that Brenda would likely want to forget if she had been there.  We have this painting too, over our fireplace in the den.  It’s “on loan” from Christopher.  I sure hope he never “calls” the loan.   (forgive me but this isn’t the best photo Chris)Great detail and you can almost hear the gunfire. The painting is actually a book cover that Chris did for an old Bantum softcover book, I think, “The Last Action of the Calcutta Lighthorse”.  This link tells the story of their amazing true story of the sinking of a German freighter in WWII.  It was later made into a movie.  Here’s the trailer.  Yes, a bit of a random link I admit, but here goes.So, we sometimes don’t enjoy every moment out there as we cruise or make our way through life but the stories are often great to tell and get better as you tell them again and again. I’ll bet that this trip, again one of Chris’s pieces, would make for some great tales. This piece is of an experience that is more Brenda’s speed.   Chris painted this years ago when he and his family sailed in the Bahamas aboard their Luder’s 33, Acadia. That’s Acadia at anchor in the Exumas.  Bummer for us, but this and the prior piece are not part of our collection.  So, all and all, Cuba has proven to be perhaps the best “live it once, talk about it forever” experience that Brenda and I have ever had.  And to think that it all grew out of “gear failure” a little more than a year ago when I was on my way to the eastern Caribbean.   We didn’t make it to the BVI that year. However, for me, when I am given lemons, I make lemon aid.  And, let me tell you, I am making gallons and gallons of the stuff with this story.

Ok, Cuba… Been there, done that.  Now on to more memories.  I hope that they are at least as good an experience as the telling will surely be.   I guess we will just have to wait and see but “Cruising Cuba” is going to be a hard story to top. I’ll try, that’s for sure, so stay tuned.

For the record, as long as there is someone who will listen, I’ll continue to tell the amazing tale of Brenda’s and my two months in Cuba.   If you want to hear our story yourself, let me know.  Perhaps I can fit in a visit to your group as well.

Time to make new memories. I’m on it. Totally…

It’s Saturday as I write this post and I am aboard Amtrak to Stamford from Williamsburg VA.  I am always struck by how long it takes to get anywhere by boat and how quickly I get back home via a “normal” route.  However, Amtrak is another story with what sometimes seems like “glacial” progress.

Today’s run will take ten hours and that assumes that we are on time.  However, it’s comfortable and I have WIFI all the way, well most of the way…

It will be good to be home with a normal routine for the next two months and will be a nice break from the chores that I find are always needed on Pandora.

Yesterday I met with a mechanic who will take care of an exhaust leak that has reappeared with the engine.  Funny how some problems seem to persist on boats, even when you get them “fixed”.  I “dealt” with this exact same problem a year ago.  Let’s hope that this time is the charm.

I also decided to have an “adult” deal with the leaking cabin ports.  I knew that time was short until “surgery” would be needed on the large Lexan ports on the cabin side but had hoped to put it off till next summer.  However, after the “sporty”  and resulting “drippy” run to Hampton from CT, I decided that “enough was enough” and brought in a “specialist” to fix the problem once and for all.  Well, once for sure.  We’ll see how long “and for all” part lasts.  The problem is that the Lexan ports are nearly 8′ long and while the actual window opening are much shorter, the expansion coefficient for the Lexan means that when it’s cold, and most of my long runs tend to be in cooler weather, the plastic windows shrink and they leak.  And when they leak, it makes me sad.

The solution, I was advised by Roger Martin, the designer, is to put an “expansion joint” in the middle of the Lexan on each side.  That will allow for the material to shrink without pulling away from the outside opening as much.  Let’s hope that this works.  Wish me luck…

So, for the next two months I won’t have to work on Pandora myself.  I’ll just write checks. Personally, I’d rather not go the “check route”.  Let’s hope that things go smoothly.  I was pleased when I met the folks that will be doing the work in Beaufort.  The plastics guy, well he just does plastic and the engine guy and electrician.  Well they seem to be “multi-taskers”.  Fingers crossed…

So, while my trusty check book is helping to get some last minute updates completed for Pandora, I can focus on when and where we will head out from Beaufort.

Our plan is to catch a weather window in mid-January, after the holidays and Brenda’s birthday on January 15th (mark your calendar) to begin our run to the eastern Caribbean.

We don’t know yet if we will head directly to the British Virgin Islands or clear in in St Martin.  I very much look forward to spending time in the BVI but from there, once Brenda joins me in late January, is to head further south. The problem with this plan is that the run from the BVI to St Martin, the next island on our way south, is 90 miles east into the strong “Christmas winds” that blow hard from the east.  To have this be the first run that I make with Brenda won’t be very appealing to her and could very well end up being a “career limiting move” with her, as my son Rob often cautions me when I come up with some lame idea that involves Brenda and unpleasant conditions afloat.

I guess I can only say “details to come” on that score. However, I have to be sure that we end up somewhere that’s easy for my crew to get out of and for Brenda to arrive.

Speaking about the BVI, this video is a good primer on what to expect if we end up in this very popular island chain.  Oh yeah, if we land there in January, we’ll be arriving at the peak of the charter boat season and we aren’t very keen on mixing with what some call “sailing amateur hour”.  That boat is anchored how close?

Anyway, here’s a nice video about sailing in the BVI. Brenda and I expect to head “down island”.  Perhaps we will see the Classic Yacht Regatta in April in Antiqua.  Beautiful boats.And, of course, there’s always the St Barths Bucket Regatta and the Yacht Marie. Brenda and I sailed aboard her in Newport two years ago for three days of racing.  “Would you care for a lobster roll?”.  Yes, indeed.  What a beautiful yacht and she’s really, really big.Wondering how we ended up aboard such a magnificent yacht? Well, I wrote this post three years ago and somehow the owner ended up seeing the post and invited us aboard. Who knows, perhaps we will end up aboard her again this winter. Something to wish for and as Brenda once said, “Bob and the dog, ever hopeful”.  Yes, that’s me.  Can I have a cookie?

I guess that’s enough for now but there’s sure a lot to look forward to in the coming months.  Oh yeah, did I mention that we will soon be grandparents?  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Boy or girl?  Who knows. For now we just call him/her “Nugget”.

And… drum roll please, the bathroom is FINALLY done.  Brenda says that took WAY TOO LONG.  Ok, ok, I agree but it’s done now.  Whew!!!

Tomorrow I present about Cuba to about 100 at the annual meeting of The Corinthians at Beach Point Yacht Club.  It’s a spectacular location to have a lunch on a sunny day. Brenda and I have been members of The Corinthians for many years and I am very much looking forward to sharing our story.

Yes, it’s good to be heading home to Brenda and to thinking about our coming winter of cruising together.  life is good…

It’s Thursday afternoon and we are closing in on the canal that runs from the Albermarle Sound south toward Beaufort where Pandora will be until I return in mid January.

The list of items that need attention has grown in an alarming way including re-bedding of some ports and a few items with the engine.   Oh yeah, don’t forget the new charger/inverter.  That hurts…  All and all, it reminds me why I do most of the work on Pandora myself.  I’d go broke if I hired everything out.  Alas, no choice on this list as I am way to far away from Beaufort to come down and do the work myself.

Anyway, it’s a nice day with temperatures in the lower 80s but that won’t last long as a front is coming through tomorrow that will bring brisk northerlies and much cooler temperatures.

Yesterday was the longest day for us as we left at daybreak and didn’t arrive in Ocracoke until shortly after dark a distance of nearly 80 miles.  Going down the twisty channel in the twilight and then dark was a bit unnerving and I was very glad to have Jim along.  At one point we nearly ran aground as the marks had been moved a good deal compliments of Matthew so the charts weren’t the same as what marked the channel.  A combination of temporary floating marks and pilings sunk in the sand, many of which were unlit and hard to see made it just a blast… NOT!

As we left today, the treachery of the channel was brought into sharp focus as we passed a large shrimp boat hard aground in about the same spot where we had a “near brush” with a sandbar last evening.  Another shrimp boat was standing by that hoped to pull them off.  Several hours later I saw on AIS that the boat was still hard aground and his friend was steaming away.  Mission NOT accomplished.

The channel was so narrow that a ferry that was headed into the channel as I left the harbor stood by outside to allow me to pass.  In all the years I have been out on the water today was the only time that a commercial vessel has ever stood down to wait for me to pass.  Tells you something about the dangers in that channel.  This is the ferry.  The night before, when we were entering the little harbor a ferry came in right behind me and shined their searchlight on me as I was approaching the dock to tie up.  It was unnerving, to say the least and the lights blinded me.  We tied up to our friends on Acadia across the dock.  It is indeed a small world to run into friends unannounced.  We enjoyed our visit. So now, forgive me but I am going to bore you with yet another group of “sunset photos”.  “NOOOOOOOO, NOT AGAIN BOB!”  Sorry… it was beautiful with more than a dozen shrimpers plying the waters in the setting sun. Every few minutes the scene changed.  I was struck by this view that looked like liquid silver in the waning light.  Not sure what I’d do with this photo. Perhaps it would make for nice “wallpaper” on my laptop. Tomorrow I rent a car to head back to Hampton to deliver Jim home and then board a train for Stamford CT and a visit with my friend Craig along with a presentation about Cuba to a group that I belong to.  The Corinthians are having their annual meeting on Sunday.  Other than that, nothing going on, nothing of note at all.

In any event, I guess you could say that I am into the home stretch, well at least the home stretch of this chapter.

Once again, I can only say, “details to come”.

As I begin writing this the sun is just peaking over the eastern horizon.  The water is glass calm as we make our way down toward Ocracoke island and then on to Beaufort where I will leave Pandora until mid January.

The sunrise was beautiful this morning from the earliest light when we picked up the anchor.A perfect reflection of the trees on shore.  Brenda, this would make for a lovely tapestry.  Get on it!  Please?A little while later, a full sunrise reflected on the still water.  What a great way to begin the day.On this trip we are taking a different route, one that my crew Jim enjoys.  We will head further east toward the coast, a route that I have not taken before.  Instead of going through the Dismal Swamp Canal, we took the “Virginia Cut” that has a single lock.

It’s a huge lock that carries commercial traffic and there were quite a few boats there when we arrived.Jim has done this route a number of times, most recently just a few weeks ago.  He keeps his boat in the lower Chesapeake and enjoys heading in a loop down to Ocracoke and then returning via the Dismal swamp canal further to the west.

After leaving Hampton shortly after dawn yesterday we headed down past the naval base.  A cruiser was picking up a mooring out in the river.  Just how many sailors does it take?  A lot, it seems.  Aboard Pandora.  It only takes two, one in a pinch. Hey look…  His and hers aircraft carriers.  If the election doesn’t sort itself out next week, there’s one for Hillary and one for Donald.   Now, that would be fun. And speaking of NYC, which I wasn’t, Highlander, Malcomb Forbes’s old yacht was in dry dock in Portsmouth.  I saw here there last fall too.  She’s looking a bit worse for wear.  Too bad. In any event, we are making our way down the ICW and tonight we will take a slip in Ocracoke, go out to dinner and then make our way to Beaufort by Thursday night.

Interestingly, even though this area feels very remote, we have been passed by a half dozen boats in the last few minutes, all large powerboats heading south as a group.   They will get there a lot sooner than us but their “burn rate” is probably 30x greater than us.  Unlike their “cousins” on the CT River, almost everyone slows way down so that they don’t rock us with their wake.  What a welcome contrast.  I guess that’s because they know they might run into us sometime in the future.  At home, they couldn’t care less as they blast along leaving a 4’ wake to toss us around.  Very unfortunate.

Speaking of “carbon footprint”, on the last day of the programs in preparation for the Salty Dawg Rally to the BVI, we were treated to a live USCG “rescue” right off of the marina docks.  It was just amazing to see the chopper hovering a few hundred feet from us.  Before the chopper arrived a small cutter was on scene to be sure that nobody strayed into the “hurricane zone” while the chopper was hovering overhead.Our “MC” for the discussion that proceeded the “rescue” we had two “Coasties” who shared a lot of terrific information on how to do our best to avoid a ride in a chopper in the future.   Very nice guy but he did look serious.  “I’d like a show of hands if you have an EPIRB on board.  Another if it’s registered with your current information.” Everyone’s hand went up.  Then he smiled.Our rescue chopper is the only one in the USCG that is painted yellow instead of sporting the normal diagonal orange stripe.  We were told that it was a “centennial edition” marking the 100^th anniversary of the USCG.  Think of it as sort of “Eddie Bauer” USCG chopper edition without the soft denim settees.  Well, perhaps not exactly like that because they have to be able to hose everything down after all the salt what they kick up.  “Hey you, scuba man, yeah I’m talking to you! Rinse off before you sit there. This is s a special edition craft you are dripping on.”

“Do I have to go? It’s really windy out there.”  It was windy with about 20kts from the north and the salt spray kicked up by the massive down-wash from the spinning rotors coated all of the boats in the marina with a fine mist of salt.Then they lowered him to the water.  For a second “rescue” he jumped. All and all, it was a fascinating experience with everyone feeling better prepared and more certain than ever that they wanted to do whatever they could to avoid having one of these guys swim up to their boat and greeting them with “Good morning.  I’ll be your rescue swimmer today.”

It’s comforting to know that the USCG has my back and that if I ever have to “pop my EPIRB” and call for help, that the “Calvary” will be on their way soon enough.  Oh yeah, if you want a chopper ride, don’t go more than about 250 miles from shore as that’s their limit.  Of course, they have boats to but they are WAY SLOWER.

So, with no need for rescue on the horizon, here we are motoring along in flat calm on a beautiful morning.   What a way to go.   It’s beautiful day indeed.

Oh yeah, you know the thing about “cruising is boat repair in exotic places?”.  Yesterday was fun as my head macerator pump croaked and spilled raw sewerage into the bilge.  That was fun.  Sorry, no photos but be assured that there was plenty of cleanup with bleach after I was done, Brenda.

Happily, I carry a spare, now installed, so all’s well.  Such is the fun of boating.

The Salty Dawg rally is going to get underway in a few days and everyone is pretty excited about heading out to points south.  At last count, there are over 80 boats that will be making the run south and anticipation is high that there will be terrific weather in store for everyone’s departure.

In about an hour Chris Parker will be doing a webcast for the group and I will be the moderator online with him serving up questions from the audience.   I did this last year and enjoyed the process.

To be honest, I am a bit bummed that I won’t be leaving with them and have to take Pandora to Beaufort where she will sit for a few months prior to my run to the Caribbean in mid January.  Seeing a good forecast “go to waste” is killing me.  Oh well…  Besides, there are still chores and a few leaks to deal with aboard Pandora that would be annoying if I left now.

As I mentioned, I spoke to a group of “Dawgs” yesterday at the Hampton YC about Brenda’s and my trip to Cuba and it seems that one of the participants Peter did a summary of that and other activities that made for a great “Dawg day” for everyone.  I understand that Peter does videos regularly so it might be worth signing up to see what he puts up next. Anyway, I have to get ready for Chris Parker so I’d better sign off for now.

Audios Amigos! (the limit of my Spanish, BTW)   Well, that’s in addition to “no comprende” a phrase that came in handy in Cuba.  I am not sure even how to spell that.  Never mind for now.

It’s Friday afternoon and Pandora is all snug in her slip here in Hampton VA at the run up to the Salty Dawg Rally that will depart from here for points south, primarily the British Virgin Islands on or after November 1^st.
At last count, there are some 85 boats participating in the rally with nearly a week of seminars and social events leading up to the “big event”.
I arrived here in Hampton on Thursday after a two day 350 nm run from Essex CT with my good friend/crew Jim.  Jim has the distinction of having crewed with me for more miles, some 4,000 miles, than just about anyone else in spite of having sailed with crew for over 30 years.  Of course, Brenda has more miles with me but that’s another story and one that you’ve likely heard, ad/nauseam, if you have read more than a few posts.

So, here I am in Hampton enjoying time with others who love to sail and am having a great time.

The run here from Essex was, shall we say “sporty”, with Pandora plowing along on a close reach (wind forward of the beam) in 25kts with gusts over 30, conditions that are anything but fun.  The good news is that we were romping along at 9+kts for much of the first 24 hours and ultimately made the full run in a little less than 48 hours.  That’s very good time indeed.

Good run or not, I was exhausted when we left as Pandora had “splashed” only day before so I only had a single day to get her prepped, sails back on and ready to go.  Way too fast for me.   She looks positively “ginormous” on the hard next to our little VW wagon. While I know Pandora pretty well by now, having put perhaps 5,000 miles on her in my first year, there are still needling problems that I have not been able to correct so far.   In particular, some pesky leaks that have been hard to track down.  Perhaps the worst are with the long lexan ports on the main cabin that tend to leak when it gets cold and they shrink more than the surrounding fiberglass.   I am hoping to get them replaced in Beaufort NC where Pandora will sit for a few months prior to running to the BVI in January.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with more discussion with “drips” but salt water and cushions don’t mix.  Frustrating to say the least.

While Pandora is fast and can outrun most any other boat of her size and plenty that are larger, that speed and long waterline comes with a negative as she is also a very wet boat and as she plows through the seas, there is plenty of water flying everywhere and deck is constantly wet with a river running down the deck and off the stern.  It’s an impressive sight from under the hard dodger.  Fortunately, the cockpit is roomy and secure. In case you have missed it somehow, Pandora has an impressive and nicely designed hard dodger to keep us out of the weather.  This is a shot of her at the dock today here in Hampton.  I think that she looks like she means business.Today I presented a talk about our trip to Cuba at the Hampton Yacht Club to a group of nearly 60 “Salty Dawgs” and was thrilled with how well received what I had to say was.  They asked lots of good questions and laughed at all my jokes. Well, there was one joke that didn’t get much of a rise out of them.   I’ll live.

Our story of Cuba is one that I never tire of giving and to present to such a nice group of sailors that will very likely go there themselves was particularly rewarding.

Just for fun, this is a link to an article that I wrote in the current issue of Blue Water Sailing about our trip.  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Actually, writing it was a blast and I doubt that you will rank it quite that high.  If so, great.  Let me know what you think.

Well, Pandora made it here safely with a minimum of fuss and I am eager to enjoy the next few days of fun and then off to Beaufort NC.  BTW, that’s pronounced “Beaufort” as opposed to “Beeufort”, pronounced as it’s spelled, in South Carolina.

I should note that it was plenty chilly when we left Deep River on Tuesday morning with frost on the deck when we arrived to shove off.   I can’t say that I like cold even a little and the first 24 hours of our trip was particularly unpleasant.  Happily, I have a diesel heater aboard so at least we were warm down below.

By the second day of our run the temperatures had moderated a bit so it wasn’t quite as cold on deck.  It was also a lot calmer with winds that all but went away for a bit so things calmed down a bit and I could catch up on my sleep.

As we passed the Chesapeake Bay bridge on our way toward Hampton and Norfolk we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and you know how much I love sunrises.  Beautiful view from the stern. And, in case you are inclined to forget that the biggest employer in these parts is none other than “Uncle Sam”, one of the advanced “stealth” cruisers passed us on her way into Norfolk.  Stealthy or not, she showed up just fine on radar.  Stealth?  Hmm…  Perhaps someone forgot to flip the ‘stealth switch”.   Never the less, I was impressed.Ok, enough for now.  I had better sign off for now as there is a session to go to now.  Besides, it’s happy hour after that and that’s not something I want to miss.

Fun time am I am so excited about my own “migration” south for the winter.  Me and the birds, on our way.

So far, so good. Stay tuned for more…

When I was young and feeling totally overwhelmed my mother would often say “it’s always darkest before the dawn”, her way of telling us that things were going to be better soon.  And those words are as prophetic now as they were then and never ring more true than when I am trying to get Pandora ready for a new season aboard.

The boat yard where Pandora was hauled a few weeks ago has been buzzing with activity with boats being hauled constantly and everyone frantically fitting winter covers, winterizing engines and water systems in anticipation of the freezing weather that is just around the corner.    Yes, winter will soon be upon us as the green of summer gives way to the fiery colors of autumn along the CT River.

Unlike most others, fall marks the beginning of a new season afloat.  While Pandora is “commissioned” year round, we don’t spend much time aboard during the summer.  This summer our time afloat was limited to a few nights for me and Brenda and a quick two week trip to Maine for me with some friends and a club cruise with a few day-sails rounding out the season.   For us, the commissioned season really begins as the leaves drop and I head south in preparation for the winter aboard.

This season we again head south, this time to the eastern Caribbean, beginning in the BVI.  For now, I’ll be heading to Hampton VA, next Tuesday, to hang out with the participants in the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean.   After that, off to Beaufort NC where Pandora will sit in a slip until mid-January when I will rejoin her for a run to the BVI and the Bitter End Yacht Club.

The last few months have been a blur with a frantic rush to finish the bathroom that I began working on early this summer, clear in the knowledge that all that stood between me and “the gallows” was a finished bathroom that Brenda could use , hopefully sooner than later.  I think it looks terrific.  More importantly, Brenda feels the same way.

That project took a few months longer than anticipated was a our master bathroom but it’s done now.   There were delays along the way, but we won’t talk about my two weeks in Maine that brought progress to a standstill.  No, I prefer to say that it was a much more complex job than I had anticipated and I needed a few weeks in Maine to “reflect” on next steps.  Brenda, however, might not see things exactly the same way.  I kept telling her that, as the highway department always says, “thank you for your patience, the inconvenience is temporary but the repairs are permanent”.   Not sure she was totally convinced.

Never the less, I did end up paying quite a price for the delays as once the bath was done I only had a few weeks to get Pandora ready for the water.   And, along the way, we had to fit in two trips to Brenda’s publisher in PA,  trips to the subject of her book, Archie near Albany.  As I write this we are heading from Albany to Baltimore for our second trip to Baltimore to visit our son Rob and his pregnant wife Kandice in just a few weeks, for a baby shower too. Did I mention that we will soon be grandparents?   Yes, so exciting.  Crazy busy too…

Yesterday’s trip to Albany was to photograph some of Archie’s work for the book, a total of 165 pieces that he has in his personal collection.   Some of the larger pieces had to be held up to shoot.  “Just hold that position for a few moments.   Wait…one more shot.  Can you raise the right side ¼”?”What a marathon day…

Today, off to Brenda’s publisher to return the photo equipment.   Here is Archie and Brenda celebrating the end of a long day and job well done. Aren’t they cute together?

So, along with everything I somehow found time to get Pandora ready and this coming Monday, first thing, she goes back in the water.  Weather permitting I’ll head out with my friend Jim for Hampton late Monday or Tuesday.  Fingers crossed that everything falls into place as planned.

The GRIBS suggest a “brisk” run south.  Lots of “flags” forecasting strong NW winds.The biggest project of this season was to take the higher capacity water maker from our old boat and combine it with the smaller unit that came with “new” Pandora.

Both units are Spectra but the one from “old” Pandora is manual and the one on “new” Pandora is highly automated.    This is a shot of the two membranes next to each other in my shop.  The “new” one is a lot larger.Spectra has an automated system they call “MPC”, basically a computer that controls it’s functions including startup as well as deciding when to divert “product water” to the tanks.  It even flushes the salt water out of the system and shuts it down when the tanks are full.  It’s a terrific system.  Expensive, but terrific.

Years ago I did some research on which system to put on “old” Pandora and settled quickly on Spectra as it uses a unique pump that is far more efficient than any other on the market with electricity consumption about a half to a third of what other systems use.  This means that a good solar array, such as is aboard Pandora, can power the system along with nearly everything else aboard.  This is important to us as we don’t have a house generator and still need a good supply of water.    Remember, a clean Brenda is a happy Brenda.

I described why I decided on Spectra in this post a few years ago.

The switch over from “old to new” units was more of a process of creating a “hybrid” system utilizing the automation of the Ventura system that came with “new” Pandora and the extra output and larger membrane of the Cape Horn Extreme system from “old” Pandora.

The basic difference the two units was first, capacity, with the Ventura system putting out 6 gallons per hour, on it’s best day, and the Cape Horn Extreme 7-14 GPH depending on the use of one or two pressure pumps.  The problem is that Spectra doesn’t want to get involved with someone trying to configure what is in essence a hybrid semi-automatic unit.   So, after thinking about the problem for about a year, I think I came up with a pretty elegant solution.

My solution was to use a single pump, which the MPC computer was designed for, as the primary driver for the unit. Along with a second pump, when I needed higher output, on it’s own power supply and switch, so I could switch it on manually when I need more output.   This is a shot of the old pump layout.The new system, with two pumps is set up with the one on the right serving as a ‘booster” when more capacity is needed.   I ran this idea by the manufacturer as well as their rep here in New England and both thought my idea was sound.

I have had problems with sound from the pumps resonating through the bulkhead and decided to add some vibration dampers.  Note that the black square dampers in the corners isolate the pump unit from the bulkhead along with the damper “feet” that isolate the booster pump from the board itself.  I purchased the mounts from McMaster Carr.  They have just about everything you can imagine. I hope that this cuts down the noise.

I wouldn’t have been able to identify a workable solution, or had the guts to put it in place, if it weren’t for the support of Bryan Cooney from Headsync, the rep for Spectra.  Brian was very patient with me and even visited Pandora to review the system.  He endured many phone calls over the last year to listen to my ideas on how to configure things.   This is particularly noteworthy as I was doing the work myself which mean that there wasn’t much in it for him beyond my purchase of a few parts.   Thanks Bryan.

At the risk of sounding like a “Spectra groupie” I really feel that their units are the only way to go.   I have asked Brian to speak at the SSCA event that I am organizing in Essex next June.  I hope he can make it.

Anyway, the syste is in place and all set now and Pandora is ready for action, or at least showers for Brenda.  The new system!She’s also all shined up.   You can see your reflection in her hull.With the sometimes overwhelming list of “to-do’s” and finding myself potentially facing grave “marital strife” if I didn’t get that bathroom done, it felt pretty dark there for a while.  Mom, your words rang true once again as the sun did finally did come up.

Things got pretty nasty aboard in the middle of it all. Crap just about everywhere.  Some spilled out into the cockpit. However, sun the sun came up after all and everything is back in place. So now, let’s hope that the weather window is there for a departure for warmer climes as planned next week.

Stay tuned for updates, as always.

It’s less than a week until Brenda and I leave to head to our son Rob and his wife Kandice’s home in MD for a baby shower.  Yes, we are going to be grandparents , finally.   Yahoo!   And, after we return from that jaunt, Pandora goes back in the water and I’ll head to Hampton VA, two days later, to participate in the run-up festivities for the Salty Dawg Rally.   And, it’s pretty important that I get there in time as I am on the schedule to talk about our trip to Cuba.

No pressure but I had better keep this post short…

The last few weeks have been really busy with travel to various spots including the Annapolis Sailboat Show and a bunch of other destinations to numerous to mention.  But I think it’s safe to say that we are uber-busy these days and the pace is wearing us both a bit thin.

One of the many projects on Pandora has been to replace the water heater and that brings me to the title of this post, “Listen to your surveyor”.  When I was considering purchasing Pandora we had a surveyor to go over everything and as he went through the boat over the course of a day, he pointed out things that were both good and bad.

By the end of a very long day everyone was tired, nerves were more than a bit frayed and one of the last areas he inspected was the compartment where the water heater was located.  He noticed that there was some water under the heater and it looked to him like the heater had been leaking for quite some time.  The owner was quick to say that “oh, it’s just condensation from the AC”.  That was a plausible explanation except that the AC unit was UNDER the water heater and it was doubtful that the water would travel UP HILL to the heater.  Alas, the moisture never went away and a year later I decided to check it out.

I was hopeful that it would be nothing more than a weeping pipe fitting that could be rebedded, so I decided to remove the heater and take a look.    Of course, like all boats, it was shoehorned into an impossibly small space with tons of other stuff around it.  Here’s what I faced as I thought “where do I begin?”.

First I had to remove all of the AC and heater duct work.  Not so easy.Now, wasn’t that easy?   Heater exposed.  Doesn’t look bad at all.
However, as is so often the case, the “beauty was only skin deep”.   I removed the stainless outer case and all of the insulation to see what I was up against.  Oops, major “up against”, in store for me.  Here’s what lurked beneath. This shot is a bit fuzzy (no make that a lot fuzzy) but you can still see major corrosion on the hot water outlet fitting.  It’s the dark spot on the lower left fitting in the picture.  That hole was eaten right through the aluminium fitting. But wait, there’s more….  On various other spots on the tank I could see that corrosion had worked it’s way through the heater casing.   This spot is on the back of the unit, far from any fittings.  The water had eaten through the shell itself.   See the grey weeping spot?Water eating through aluminum?  I learned recently that product water from a reverse osmosis unit is very corrosive on aluminum, something that was news to me.  It seems that RO water is very low in PH and eats most any non-noble metal.   Think aluminum.  This turned out to be a problem for me as I use the RO unit for most of my water production as did the last owner.   Here’s what I found on a water engineer magazine site about the problem.   It said…

“The problem associated with reverse osmosis produced water is not in the processing, nor in the ability to provide needed quantities of water to supplement current supplies, nor is it in supplying finished water free from toxic contaminants, but it is in supplying finished water which is very corrosive to metal distribution piping. For anyone who does not know, reverse osmosis finished water has a relatively low pH (in the range of 5-6) and little to no alkalinity or hardness to act as a buffer. Thereby, this finished water is quite aggressive on metal distribution piping existing prior to the installation and operation of the RO system.”

Oops.  Aluminum and RO water don’t play well together.  So, what’s the solution?  Simple, just reintroduce minerals into the water as it comes out of the RO system, before it enters the tanks and other fittings that may be at risk.   I will do some research on that and report what I learn.   For now, a brand new water heater with a stainless steel holding tank.

Yesterday I installed the new heater.   It’s a lot smaller too and much better insulated.  We had this exact same unit on our last boat and loved it.  It keeps water hot for two days.  It’s made by Isotherm, in Italy and costs about twice as much as the Force Ten unit that I replaced.  I also opted for a 6.5 gallon tank, again about half the capacity of the last one and yet have found that it’s plenty of hot water.  Doesn’t it look cozy in it’s new home?Well, plenty of room around it until the heating and AC ducting goes back in.  After that, “what heater?  I don’t see no heater…”For now, everything is in place and it works.  That’s good too.

Next step, I have to modify and install the larger Spectra reverse osmosis water maker that I have from my last boat as it has twice the capacity of the one that “new” Pandora came with.  Of course, I’ll also have to come up with a way to re-mineralize the water that comes out of the system so corrosion will be less of a problem.     Having said that, I will have to review what else might be aluminum aboard that needs to be replaced.    Fortunately, the water tanks are not aluminum.  Whew!

So, there you have it.  Mystery solved.  Don’t use anything aluminum in the water system if you have an RO water maker.  Don’t tell anyone but my last boat had aluminum water tanks.  I wonder how long it would have been until they failed?   Now, that would have been a really fun project.

So, back to the title of this post and the moral of the story.  When you are deep into a survey of a boat that you are thinking of purchasing and the surveyor says “this may be a problem”, listen to him and don’t let the owner say “it’s only condensation” as it might come back to bite you.

However, there is a bit of sun under this little rain cloud as I now know about the corrosive properties of RO water and besides, we have a terrific new water heater. And, that will make Brenda happy.  Warm water, happy crew.  Or, as some have said, “happy wife, happy life”.

Next, find a way to put on a “re-mineralizeer thingy” and all will be right in the world.  Well nearly right as there are still lots of chores and time is really, really short.

As was once said, “time to make the donuts”.  Yes, indeed and be sure and listen to your surveyor!

It’s been a while since my last poste but, in my defense, I  have been VERY busy. Good news!  The bathroom is nearly done (a PRIORITY for Brenda, but you knew that already) so now all that’s left is for the counter and shower door guys are do their thing.

Whew!!!  Now I can turn my attention to getting Pandora in shape for the run south.  And I had better get moving as I have to be underway for Hampton VA as of October 25th, about three weeks from today, or not to put too find a point on it, in 22 days.  No rush.  Ha!

The reason that I have to be underway by then is that I am participating in the run-up events for the Salty Dawg Rally to the BVI and while I am not actually doing the rally, I am speaking about our trip to Cuba last winter at a luncheon on Friday of that week.   And, to make matters worse, I will only be home, between now and when I leave for Hampton, for about half of that time, 12 days.  But, who’s counting.

And, on top of that, I am also the luncheon speaker, again about Cuba, at the annual meeting of The Corinthians on November 6th, when I have to be back home.

And, somehow, between the Salty Dawg Rally events and the Corinthians luncheon I have to run Pandora to Beaufort NC, which is about a 4 day run from Hampton.

Other than that, I can just sit around, write blog posts and eat bon-bons.  Such a life of leisure.  Not a care in the world.

“So, what is so pressing with Pandora Bob?”   Well, I have to put in a bigger watermaker and somehow deal with a leaky water heater which I am not sure is on it’s last legs or is just leaking from a fitting.  And, as with just about everything on a boat, it’s shoehorned into an impossibly small space.  I am not sure I can even get it out at all.  And to put in the new watermaker, well somehow I have to find a way to relocate other equipment to make room for the larger membrane and extra pump.

Of course, there are myriad other details to tend to as well.  However, it’s nothing like the list that I had to deal with the first year as I prepared to head to the Eastern Caribbean.  Remember that trip that didn’t happen?

Dear reader, you may recall that I tried to get to the BVI but had to abort a day or so out of Hampton because of what I’ll describe as “technical issues”.  I won’t belabor repeating the list of things that went wrong but bagging the trip seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, if I hadn’t changed my plans I wouldn’t have ended up making the run to Cuba.  Oh yeah, Cuba. remember that?

Well, you may recall that I left Hampton with crew bound for the BVI with about 57 other boats and as we crossed the Gulf Stream, things began to go wrong.   I wrote about the details of this fun filled experience in a post on Noember 7th.   And then later in Moreheak City NC, I chronicled the issues in more detail.  At that point I still thought that I was going to resume my trip to the BVI after Thanksgiving.  Oops, change of plan, again.

If you can stand yet one more link to ancient history, I was reading back through my posts from last November and recalled a post, where I wrote in all seriousness and for the first time, “hey, I wonder if we can get permission to travel to Cuba“?   Hmm… There’s a thought.  And we went.  But then you already knew that.   And one thing lead to another and I ended up taking Pandora to Florida and then began in earnest to do my best to “make lemonade out of lemons” and head to Cuba.

On the off chance that you missed it, all the posts from March and April are about Cuba and our travels.  And, not to put too fine a point on it, but there are 19 posts in those two months that I somehow managed to put up in spite of the HORRIBLE Internet access in Cuba.

So, here we are, full circle and I am planning on heading to the Caribbean once again.  Perhaps this time I’ll actually make it and, as I so often say, “details to come”.

About those plans.  The broad strokes are this.  I plan leave to head to Hampton VA later this month, spend a few days there and then head to Beaufort NC where Pandora will sit in a slip until mid January when I will join crew for a run to the BVI and a good deal of the winter aboard.  I say “good deal of the winter” as Brenda and I are going to be grandparents in mid December and unless you are one, a grandparent, you can only imagine how big a draw that will be for us.

And, add to that, Brenda’s bout with melanoma last spring and you can see that there is a big ??? regarding our time afloat going forward.   So, how long will we be in the Caribbean?  Who knows but I am going to give it a shot and we’ll see what happens.  Me determined?  As Brenda will tell you “YOU HAVE NO IDEA!”

Yes, I admit it…

But, before I break to head off and work on Pandora, I thought that it would be neat to talk about our visit to RI to Life Raft and Survival equipment, where we had our four man Viking Raft serviced.  Of course, anyone that heads offshore and doesn’t have a raft on board is, in my opinion, nuts.

We have a Viking life raft and it was due to be repacked.  Actually, it was more than a year overdue for it’s three year repack.  Oops!  I thought that it would be fun to be there when they inflated it and checked out the raft contents.

Life Raft Survival Equipment (LRSE) is a pretty scary name for a business but it would be a LOT more scary to be on a sinking boat without a well maintained raft or worse, no raft at all.  This is one piece of equipment that I sure hope will never be used.  As you can imagine, Brenda’s feelings on this topic are a bit stronger.

Anyway, our raft is a Viking four man offshore raft.  We chose it because it was not too expensive, if you can call $3,000+ not too expensive, and it was a good brand used by many cruise ships and commercial boats.    It’s in a valise pack which means it’s in a fabric pack and must be stored in an area where it won’t get wet.  It’s vacuum packed which suggests that it’s waterproof but we were shown a raft just like ours and the same age that had gotten wet.   It was a mess and probably had to be junked.

The tech put it on the floor, out of it’s soft bag.   The shrink wrap is silver and pretty tough. Normally it would inflate with CO2 in a rush of compressed gas.    However, in this case he attached a compressor and inflated it in a more controlled way.
It still inflated fairly quickly, in just a few minutes. The arch and canopy started to take shape. Then it was fully inflated and the pressure release valve was hissing happily. It was like opening a VERY EXPENSIVE present.   What’s inside?We unpacked all the “perishables”.  They didn’t look very perishable to me but everything had to be replaced.  I asked them to save the stuff for my ditch bag.   Spares or not, I sure hope that they never get used.   And, if they do and Brenda’s on board, well, let’s just say that I wouldn’t put a big bet on future cruising. Good news, the waterproof compartment in the cockpit that houses the raft kept it completely dry so repacked it’s as good as new and back on board.

LRSE has presented at my June SSCA event in Essex for the last few years, complete with a live life raft inflation.  I hope to have them back again in June 2017 but want to be sure that we keep the demonstration fresh so perhaps we will go though the contents of a raft and ditch bag and review each item.    For me, seeing our raft inflated was the first time I had ever seen the contents in any detail.

With a newly serviced raft I can be confident that when I head south that there’s a well maintained raft available, if needed.

I also have to begin boning up on the cruising guides and charts that I have for the Caribbean and I have a lot of them.  Yes indeed, lots to do and time is short.  I had better get to work on Pandora or I’ll find myself sitting in an armchair in front of a fire reading about cruising instead of doing it.

Gotta go…

When I made a run south from Greenport to Ft Lauderdale last week, I spent some time getting to know the crew, Captain Mark, First Mate Pete, Engineer Anthony, Chef Mark and Stewardess Heather.  A great crew and a real change of pace for me after years heading here and there on small boats.  Well, my boat Pandora is not that small but at 47′ she’s a shrimp, canoe, dink, whatever compared to a the 130′ motor yacht that they crew on.

Anyway, along the way Pete, the first mate, and I got to talking and it turns out that, along with his working aboard mega-yachts, he’s also an accomplished yacht illustrator.  I had actually seen his work in the past in Showboats International, which I subscribe to.  It’s a VERY glossy, and apparently successful magazine of super yachts, if thickness is a measure of success.

One of the features of the publication is a page each month that includes illustrations of notable yacht launches along with some details of the build such as where she was built and the number of crew.    This is a layout from a recent issue that was done by Pete.  
To be a reader of this publication and to then run into that same illustrator proves once again that it is indeed a very small world.  You know, the whole “six degrees of separation” thing?  Interestingly, Facebook has determined that there really isn’t six degrees of separation, it’s more like 4.74, not to put too fine a point on it.   Check out this link to Facebook to learn more.   Twitter did a similar analysis and they think that the number is 4.67. Close enough.

As I used to tell our boys when they were younger, “watch what you
do in public, you never know who might see you…”.  Indeed.

So, Pete’s process is to take a number of photos of a boat and to create an illustration.  Most of them are done in profile, like this piece that he did for the South Street Seaport Museum.  

He also does pieces in perspective like this sell sheet that he did for Palmer Johnson, the yard that built the boat I headed south on. Most of his work seems to be focused on large yachts.  I particularly like this one of Foggy.  Frank Gehry, the famous architect, designed and owns her. Here’s a shot of the boat herself.  She’s a real work of art in her own right, with some very unusual features.  One of the standout features of the boat are her “portlights” in the hull and deck. Pretty arresting and, it seems, pretty leaky.  Oops. A shot of Gehry himself aboard.  He’s the one on the right.  I guess it was a sunny day.  No leaks. I show Foggy in particular as yet another example of “degrees of separation”, when I was at Newport Shipyard last summer.  Foggy was there.   I did a post that had some information about his boat.  The yard owner, where she was built is Steve White, grandson of E.B. White, the poet.  In a video I included in my post, Steve talked about the challenges of making the deck lights leak proof.  Ok, perhaps he has to rethink the engineering on that one.

The boat pushed the boundaries in every way.  Not your typical bowsprit. Lighting?  Talk about complicated construction.  Can you say points of (water) egress?I guess pushing boundaries isn’t new to Gehry when you consider this as one of his designs.I wonder if the windows on this building leak.  I’ll bet that he doesn’t have to live in it on a rainy day at anchor, so perhaps that’s OK. 

Another boat that Pete illustrated is Kismet.  I spied her in Ft Lauderdale and included her in a post, last year.  She’s so big, at over 300′, that my blog won’t fit Pete’s illustration of her.   Oh yeah, if you get the itch, you can charter her for $1,200,000 per week.  Plus fuel, of course, crew tips, etc., etc…Want to learn more about her?  Check out her charter site.

So, what’s all this leading to anyway?  I really liked Pete’s work and commissioned him to illustrate Pandora.   I just received it today and am thrilled.  Nice work Pete.

He even included a special piece commemorating Pandora’s trip to Cuba.  It needs a few tweaks but it’s great. So even if you don’t have a megayacht you can have Pete illustrate your “super” yacht.  If you want to connect with Pete yourself here’s a link to his site.

So there you have it, 4.74 degrees of separation from you to, well, anyone, or at least Pete and even Frank Gehry.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to watch what you do in public.  You never know who may be watching.