Sail Pandora

It’s been five years since my last trip “down east” and this morning I cast off the lines and am on my way.   If you happen to wonder if I got the bathroom finished, the one I wrote about in a few posts of late, I have to confess that the answer is, especially if you ask Brenda, an emphatic, if unfortunate, NO.

Unfortunately, I did WAY underestimate the time it would take and the job is looking, to me at least, more like a major addition on an office building than a simple new vanity and shower enclosure.  Oh well.  I can’t be totally faulted for coming up short (I was supposed to have it done before heading to Maine) as there were myriad distractions that I won’t go into.  It’s sufficient to say, and I cling to this belief, that many of the distractions that got in the way of completing the task were NOT MY FAULT!

Ok, now that I have that off of my chest so back to the task at hand.

As I begin this post Pandora is in Block Island Sound making our way to Cuttyhunk island for the night.  My crewmember Rodney, who I have sailed with for perhaps the last decade, off and on, is with me and we are enjoying a lovely day of sailing.  Well, we were sailing up until I stopped typing to put on the engine again as we still have a good distance to go and I want to get there by dark.   In the morning we will head to the Cape Cod Canal to catch the flood tide around 10:00.  Going against the tide in The Canal is a waste of time as the current runs as much as 4kts which makes the 10 mile run interminable when things are “against you”.  Besides, I believe that it’s actually against the rules for a slow boat to traverse the canal against the current.  With that in mind, “going with the flow” really means something when it comes to the Canal.

We left around 06:30 today, heading down the CT River and had to stop for fuel which cost us nearly an hour but that is certainly better than being stuck with no fuel miles from shore.  Yes, been there, done that at least once years ago off of New Haven and I’d prefer to avoid an encore performance so stop we did.  That was a very good thing as it took nearly 60 gallons and I nominally hold about 150.  I might have made it to Maine (that’s where we are going) with what I had and the 10 gallons in reserve but I wasn’t in the mood to test the theory.

After being “on the hard”, me at least, since mid May, I am very happy to be on board again.   It will be fun to rendezvous with some old friends from The Corinthians, a group that we have been a member of for many years.

So, the plan is to spend tonight at Cuttyhunk and to head out of the Canal and across the Gulf of Maine tomorrow morning.   If all goes well, we will be in Maine on Thursday afternoon.   The actual run across the Gulf of Maine is about 24 hours so we’ll have a few days in Maine to enjoy the sights prior to leaving on the week long cruise that kicks off on Saturday evening.

So, for now, I guess that about covers it.  And don’t forget that we “push the button” every 4 hours or so and you can see where Pandora is by going, incredibly enough, the “Where in the World is Pandora” button on the blog home page.

As we passed New London this morning the Brilliant, the schooner from Mystic Seaport, passed behind us.  Pretty nice digs.So, I guess I’ll close with a shot of one of my favorite sights in Fisher’s Island Sound, the lovely home on “North Dumpling”.   As  Brenda would say, “I would live there”.  Indeed.  Loved the whole “stonehenge” thing on the yard.Tomorrow, the Canal and hopefully, we will see some whales as we cross the Gulf of Maine.

Stay tuned for more scintillating posts.

It’s about a week until my departure for Maine and the Corinthian Cruise and I am pretty excited about spending time with my friends Craig and Rodney, guys that I have sailed with for many years.  Yes, I’m bummed that Brenda won’t be with me but after loosing nearly two months because of her bout with melanoma and the fear of the sun that it has naturally caused, it’s going to be a while till the memory of the surgery and all that led up to it, begins to fade somewhat.

In any event, I am happy that she’s agreed to spend time in the Eastern Caribbean this winter so I guess that I’ll just have to say “details to come”.  Of course, I also cling to the belief that everything will work out.  As Brenda has famously said, “Bob and the dog, ever hopeful”.  Yes, that’s me.  Want to go sailing?

For now though, I thought that I’d share some shots of some beautiful boats that were docked at the CT River Museum last week.  The event, billed as “Mahogany Memories”, put on by the CT Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society.  This event has been put on for over three decades and always brings out a healthy crowd of classic boat owners and admirers.

This lovely grand lady was on a trailer on the grounds.  Given the high level of finish on her “wheels” I expect that she’s more of a “trailer queen” than a boat that sees much time on the water.  She came up all the way from VA.    Clearly, she’s perfect in every way.  What a looker. Along with some that don’t often see the water, there were plenty of beauties gracing the docks.   I particularly loved this double cockpit speedster. I’ll bet that she really rips along.  You’d never know that she’s an antique.  Looks brand new.  I guess that’s the whole point.There is nothing quite as elegant as a triple cockpit beauty.
There were also a number of very nice scale models on display.  I was taken by this Chesapeake Bay fishing boat. This model of Aphrodite is based on a 30s vintage commuter of the same name. Her “namesake” is berthed in Watch Hill.  You can even peek into her interior.   I guess the little guy is the “commuter”.  Not a bad way to get to work.  Actually, if I was going to go to work, that’s how I’d like to get there, for sure. And speaking of the yacht Aphrodite, years ago Brenda and I saw her undergoing a major rebuild at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine.    Check out this link to learn more about the “real Aphrodite“.  Now that’s a real yacht.

Still want more?  I do…  This short video shows how she looks in “real life”.  Amazing.Ok, back to models of great boats.  Of course, who doesn’t love the Sabino?   The actual boat is at Mystic Seaport and is currently undergoing a major rebuild.  Nice model.
Want to see a clip of Sabino herself?  This is a very nice clip from the Mystic Seaport Museum.   If you love steam you owe it to yourself to go on an outing aboard her. However, back to the event at the CT River Museum and my favorite boat of all at the show was the “Osprey” a fairly new addition to the waterfront at the CT River Museum.   After several years of updates and repairs, she’s finally able to show her stuff on the river.  She’s beautiful and a lovely combination of form follows function.  Love her little single cylinder steam engine.    In spite of her diminutive stature, she has a bewildering collection of valves and levers. I have always loved launches and particularly those driven by steam.   Brenda’s goal, when we get out of big boats, is to have a small fantail launch that we can use on the CT River for “cocktail cruises”.

Happily, Chris, the director of the museum, is looking for operators to run the boat so she can be an active member of the waterfront.  “Pick Me, Pick Me!!!”. Yes, I can’t believe it but I am being trained to run her.  How cool is that?

It would be just so great to get out on the river with her.  She even has a steam whistle.   What “kid” doesn’t dream of blowing a steam whistle.  Alas, the Osprey is probably too complicated to operate “under the influence” so my “cocktail cruises” with Brenda will have to wait until we have our own electric launch.   For now, time on the Osprey will have to be fueled by diet Coke I guess.

Of course, that’s in addition to the soft coal that powers her boiler.  Yes, she will have a “carbon footprint” but it’s surely a lovely one and I am excited about piloting her on the river in Essex very soon.

Well, with only a week to go till I head to Maine, I’d better get to work on remodeling the bathroom or there will be Hell to pay with Brenda.  Yikes, still lots to do.

It’s Monday morning and just a little over two weeks until I head to Maine aboard Pandora.  The plan is to participate in the annual cruise of the group The Corinthians, a sailing club that Brenda and I have been members of since 1996, 20 years.  That’s a long time.

Our boys, Rob and Chris, grew up sailing with other kids in the club and the week long cruise each summer was a major event for them as they loved hanging out with the 20+ children that would be along for the week.

This year, as we spend so much time aboard in the winter, Brenda will stay at home and I’ll go with my two friends, Craig and Rodney, fellow Corinthians, for the week of cruising in Maine.

It’s been nearly twenty years since Brenda and I first cruised Maine waters aboard Elektra, our Tartan 37 and perhaps 5 years since our last trip there.  All and all, I believe this summer’s run will be my 16th.  That’s a lot of cruises “down east” and perhaps more surprising to me is that I have been around long enough to have cruised that many times anywhere, much less Maine.

Back in my last life, pre-retirement, the two week run to Maine was always a rush as I assembled crew to do an overnight from Norwalk Yacht Club, where we were members for many years, straight to Camden or Booth Bay.  I had to get there quickly, rain or shine, as there was so little time to waste in getting to the business of cruising. Getting there and back home again was a delivery and nothing more.  I am happy to say that cruising is a lot less hectic now but the “leisure” of it all is tempered by the much longer runs, well that’s what Brenda would say for sure.

The club cruise this year will center on Acadia National Park, a place that Brenda and I have spent much time enjoying over the years.  This post from 2011 shows some of the beauty along with another of our favorite harbors Camden and points in between.

However, post or not, a few photos from our last visit there in 2011.

Here’s “old” Pandora in Five Island Harbor near Booth Bay Harbor.  A lovely spot.And what’s a post about Maine without a schooner shot?  This one takes guest out for day sails out of Booth Bay Harbor.  Of course, then there’s the “big girls” that take folks out for a week at a time.   Her captain and crew are “hot dogging” into a harbor under sail to drop the hook, under sail, to spend the night. All sailing isn’t about going anywhere in particular.  This sweet Friendship Sloop, a type named after the town of the same name, was not in any particular hurry the day we encountered her.
Of course, there’s really nothing more “Maine” than Andrew Wyeth, and here’s his widow Betsy sitting on the porch of her summer home on Allen Island.  The family provides a few moorings for cruisers to tie up to in the sheltered cove in front of their home.  Their hospitality is a far cry from the unfriendly locals in Florida that have worked so hard to successfully ban anchoring in many harbors in Ft Lauderdale and <Miami.  And, perhaps the most Maine of harbors, Camden and a few of the schooners that call the harbor their home. Of course, the most iconic image of all is lobsters waiting to head to market. Yum. We certainly had plenty of Caribbean lobster when we were in Cuba last winter and I look forward to a “taste test” to see which wins out.  I expect Maine lobster will carry the day. Anyway, my nominal departure day will be the 26th of July and that run of less than 200 miles, after our last four winters south, will seem more like a short “day sail”  and not much of a run compared to my 1,000 mile voyages from the Bahamas or Florida back to New England.  In early years, I did the run with a crew of 4, sometimes more.  This time, just two, me and Rodney.  That’s particularly fitting as we started sailing together years ago on a run to Maine.  Besides, it’s only a single overnight.  Funny how perspectives change.

In any event, I am very much looking forward to reconnecting to a group of sailors that have been a part of my life for so many years.  Hopefully, Brenda and I will have time to do a bit of cruising together for a week or so prior to bringing Pandora back.

An interesting rub that came up yesterday that will have a big bearing on when I’ll bring Pandora back from Maine and has to do with the nuclear Submarine USS New Mexico.  Yes, a rendezvous with a sub and Pandora.   How’s that for a segue?  Pretty good, right?

You may recall that I “ran into” the USS New Mexico off of New London last summer and have been corresponding with representatives of the boat since then.  This was the post that “started it all”.

A few months after that chance encounter, Damon, my contact with the sub suggested that I might be able to join them for a “VIP day sail” aboard the New Mexico and we have been staying in periodic contact since then with the hope that an opportunity might arise.

Well, the opportunity to spend time aboard the New Mexico hasn’t surfaced yet (pun intended) so I decided to arrange a visit aboard Pandora and reached out to Damon and the Chief of the Boat, Norm to take some of the crew out sailing aboard Pandora.   I sent a note suggesting that I bring Pandora to New London while the New Mexico was in port and take some of their crew out for short sails.

Happily, as of last night they have confirmed that they’d like to move ahead with my offer and hope to have me visit in August.  So, that means that Pandora will be headed back from Maine in late August. That should work well for me and I am very excited.  Details to come…

Well, I had better get to work on our bathroom now as the project isn’t going to finish itself and the new shower had better be “ready”  by the time I leave for Maine.    The plumber Brian is coming here mid morning to put in the pan liner and it’s never a good idea to leave a plumber “on hold”.

That’s all for now.

It’s the beginning of the July 4th weekend, a time when I would have, in a previous life, been fully focused on being out on the water.  However things are different now that I am retired and spend more time “on the hard” during the summer and much of my time afloat in the winter months.

In spite of it being over four years since I retired, I still have to remind myself that “long weekends” aren’t the best time to be out sailing as just about everybody else is doing just that.  What a treat it is to be able to choose when to go based on wind, tide and weather.

Of course, all of this is tempered by Brenda’s “new reality” now that she has had melanoma.  This combined with the fact that once you’ve had it you have a higher chance of getting it again gives one pause for thought.   I don’t blame her for being timid about spending time in the sun given the danger of recurrence and the lingering pain of the surgery.  I doubt that being able to show off her nearly 12 inches of “battle scars” is reward enough for what she’s been through.

A major problem with spending time on the water is increased sun exposure, mainly UVA and UVB rays which are strongest between 10:00 and 16:00 along with the reflected light from the water.  In spite of my best efforts, I have been unable to find anyone to quantify the risk except to say that “you have to limit exposure”.  Yes, of course I get that, but what does that mean?  Live in a cave?  Take up mushroom farming or, as it’s known in the trade, Fungiculture.

Brenda’s surgeon feels that she has to be careful with sun exposure but also says that she might “not want to live in a cave”.  It’s a complicated issue and I can certainly understand her concern.

Anyway, I got to thinking about how to define “risk” and UV exposure in general.  As they say, “you can find anything on the Internet” so I started looking and found a scientific instrument that measures, yes, you guessed it, UVA and UVB light.  It’s a pretty neat gadget with a sensor that you point toward a light source and it will give you a very accurate measurement of these portions of the light spectrum.   There are a number of companies that make these devices and I settled on one made by General Instruments. It cost less than $175 including shipping.   As a point of notice, the reading on the screen in this photo was in shade on our back deck.  In the sun a few feet away the reading was a whopping 8,500.  Still, I was surprised at the reading of nearly 900 in full shade.  I guess that’s reflected light.  Of course, inside the house the reading was “0”.The unit is very easy to use and appears to be quite sensitive.  The sensor itself is attached to a cable so you can place it wherever you wish to take a reading.   Here’s what the company says about it’s use…

“The #UV513AB UVA/B light meter is ideal for applications including UV curing and sterilization, semiconductor fabrication, offset printing, environmental monitoring and industrial process control. – See more at this link:”

So, I decided to do a test to see what sort of “protection” a good quality sunscreen provided.  First, I exposed the instrument to direct sun and got a reading of 8,200 in very bright sun at 10:30.   Yes, really, really bright.  Next, I placed a thin sheet of plastic sandwich wrap over the sensor and the reading dropped by about 12% to 7,200.  Makes sense.  Then I applied a thin smear of a good quality sunscreen, Neutrogena 45, on a piece of plastic wrap, let it dry and put that over the sensor.  I was shocked to see the reading drop to 100, a reduction of nearly 99%, almost as low as being inside actually.  Really Amazing.  Brenda and I have always debated the relative value of different types of sunscreen and what you get by spending more.  Now we can place some bets and see who is right.  That should be fun.

So, my next step will be to see what sorts of readings I get aboard Pandora under the bimini and hard dodger and how much feflected UV there is off of the water.  It will also be interesting to see what sort of UV gets through “sun-protective” clothing.

Well, there’s lots to consider however if I don’t get going on the bathroom remodeling today there will be Hell to pay and I’ll never make it to Maine this summer for cruise with some friends which I hope to do in late July.

And speaking of the renovation.  I demoed the shower yesterday and rerouted some plumbing.  Here’s a “before” shot of the shower.  Lovely.  And, behind the door it was a horrible taupe colored fiberglass enclosure.  You know the type right?Here’s what it looked like after I was “done”.   Wasn’t that easy?Today, I’ll finish rerouting some plumbing that is in the way and frame up for the pan and shower seat.  Of course, a girl has to have a seat to perch on when she shaves her legs.  “Too much information Bob, stick to reno details!”.

Oh yeah, speaking of Cuba, which I wasn’t, Brenda and I have a few dates to talk about our trip including one at “Cruiser’s University” being put on at the Annapolis Sailboat Show.  That will be fun.

We will also be speaking at a special dinner to be held “under the stars” at the CT River Museum in August.  That should be a very special evening with a Cuban theme.  They even plan on serving mojtos.  I love mojitos!   I plan to donate a very special bottle of 11 year old Santiago de Cuba rum to be auctioned off that evening.  That particular brand is the only brand in Cuba that is made in it’s own distillery.  It is very fine rum and you just can’t obtain it here in the U.S. Oh yeah, one more thing.  Remember my dead lawn mower?   And you know how much I love to mow the lawn.   Well I was able to find a used commercial 48″ wide Bob-Cat mower.  Now I can “love” cutting it for a lot less time each week.  Well, that’s the theory at least.   So far, not so fast as it’s a “beast” of a machine.   So far, mowing with this is more like “the dog walking me”. Yes I have a plan.   A plan to head to Maine.  That seems pretty likely.  And a plan to measure UV.    What Brenda and I will be able to do with that information is anyone’s guess.

And, I am POSITIVE that I have a plan to finish the bathroom renovation.  Yes, that’s PLAN ONE for now.

I guess I have covered enough random stuff for one day.  The shower stall awaits. Time to get to work.   Good news… No UVA or UVB risk there.

Don’t believe me?  I have a nifty meter to prove it.  So there!!!

Who knew?

It’s Saturday afternoon, everyone has flown the coop and Brenda and I are alone again.   Our Gam in Essex that I organized for the Seven Seas Cruising Association began a full week ago with guests coming in from all over.  The three day event was a success with nearly 100 in attendance and we had a full house at Bob and Brenda’s B&B, otherwise known as B&B’s B&B.

So, now that everyone has headed on their way things should begin to settle back to normal.  In my last post I mentioned that Brenda had been diagnosed with melanoma, a very dangerous form, no make that the worst form, of skin cancer.   She had her surgery over two weeks ago and is now beginning to feel herself again.   Happily, she had her follow up with the surgeon and they did not find any remaining malignancy which is such a relief.

The timing of the surgery and Gam were unfortunate as we had a boat load, make that many boat loads of folks visiting Essex and staying with us only one week after Brenda went under the knife.  That made for a tough week as she tried to keep up the near constant steam of parties and events that surrounded the event.

The Gam got off to a rousing start the night before the formal events got underway.    Pandora hosted a dink raft-up out in front of the Essex Yacht Club and ended up with 30 aboard.  She was riding a bit below her marks.  We all had a great time.  Her cockpit was jammed.With plenty of overflow to the forward deck. Over the three day event we had a great lineup of speakers including Chris Parker who did several sessions on weather, a topic that can be very confusing. Happily, Chris is very good at making complex issues understandable.    Here he is at the CT River Museum, where we held the last day of the event, standing in front of a reproduction of the “turtle” the first military submarine.   The original was built in nearby Old Saybrook back in 1775.  It’s not Brenda’s idea of a cruising vessel. It was a thrill to have Chris do his morning and evening broadcasts from my home office.  Somehow he was able to manipulate his antennas at his studio in FL via the Internet as well as broadcast over the SSB.  How he do that?Jake from Life Raft and Survival came down from RI to talk about safety equipment and wowed us all by doing a live life raft inflation out on the lawn.   How convenient to have him present as he was able to take my raft, which needed servicing, back to the shop with him.  That saved me a trip and made his trip worthwhile, I hope.   I’ll be filming the inspection of my raft up at their shop in the next few weeks and will write about it in a future post.  That should be very interesting.   Let’s hope that’s the only time I see the thing inflated.  Tom Whidden gave our keynote presentation at dinner on Sunday.  He did a wonderful job presenting a mix of high tech racing, including the current Cup competition and shared some thoughts about what’s going on in contemporary cruising boat design.  Tom has a remarkable background as a member of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.  He has won the America’s Cup three times and finished first in class A in the Bermuda race 5 times. He is a very accomplished sailor and we were very lucky to have him speak to us.  I’ll admit that it was a bit easier for me to convince him to speak to us as he’s the current Commodore at Essex Yacht Club.  Thank you Tom.

With nearly 100 attending we had quite a mix of cruisers including this couple that brought their trawler up from Annapolis alone to attend the Gam.  They are both in their 90s.   We should all be as spry at that age.  Perhaps it’s the wine.  I cling to that belief. There was much more including a talk by George Day from Blue Water Sailing Magazine about preparing for offshore sailing.  Alas, no pictures of George.

All and all, it was fun to put the event together but I am sure glad that it’s finally over.  Happily, I had plenty of help from my buddies George and MaryMarie as well as others.  Perhaps I’ll take a few weeks off before I start lining up speakers for next year.  Yes, time off, good idea.

A day after the Gam crowds left, our friend Lars arrived in Essex for a visit.  We had spent time together in Cuba and it was fun to see him on our home turf.  His boat Luna, has taken him around the world, beginning in Norway,  over the last 12 years with stops in too many countries to count.   Here’s Luna in Santiago de Cuba where we met him back in early March.Here’s Luna on the dock at Essex Yacht Club for a much needed scrubbing down. Perhaps not quite as scenic a spot or perhaps it’s just the angle of the shot.  Essex is beautiful, for sure. Lars and I headed up by car to Mystic Seaport for the Wooden Boat Show yesterday.  I always enjoy seeing all of the beautiful boats and hardware on display from the vendors.

Speaking of Cuba (well I was a few photos ago) there was a boat at the show that resembled Pilar, Earnest Hemingway’s boat.  The original boat is in Havana. Unfortunately, we didn’t see her when we were there.  While the sign on the boat we saw at the show seems to imply that this boat was “the one”, upon close questioning, the owner fessed up that it was not even the same hull design but that the boat was made to “look like Pilar”.  A nice boat, never the less. This was a neat find, a Cape Cod Catboat named Pandora.  A bit smaller than our Pandora but beautiful.   I am happy that our Pandora doesn’t have any exterior teak with the exception of a teak cockpit table. How about a cold molded camper?  Quirky but well made.   It even has roof racks It comes complete with a galley.  Sure hope that it’s always sunny when they are working “in the kitchen” as it’s outside.   Love the paper towel dispenser. Everywhere you turn, beautiful boats.  How about this drake tail stern?  Lovely. And this beauty built by Gannon and Benjamin, the storied boat builder on Martha’s Vineyard.And, magnificent details on boats everywhere you look.  I loved this steering station.  Terrific bright red cast wheel. Lars and I had a fun day at the seaport.  He left today to head east.  It was nice to see him again.  Hope it’s not too long until our paths cross again.   Perhaps Brenda and I will visit Oslow Norway (by plane for sure) where his “home port” is, even though he hasn’t been there in many years.
And all of this just scratches the surface of all that happened in the last week, and the “onslaught” began only one week after Brenda “went under the knife”.  No wonder she’s exhausted from all the “fun”.

So glad that she’s on the mend and that the tests show that she is clear of cancer.  That’s very good news, indeed.

I’d say “that’s all for now folks”.  Oh yeah, one more thing.   Did I mention that we had to buy a new car too last week as our 1999 SAAB finally bought the farm?  Oh yeah, and our lawn mower croaked too and you know how much I just love cutting the lawn.

Other than that, noting much going on.

It’s mid June and Pandora has been back north for about a month.  I can’t believe that it’s been that long but in a way it really seems like another lifetime since Brenda and I cruised much of the coast of Cuba.

I am presenting to a number of groups about our trip and beginning the process of putting my thoughts down about the trip has brought back many great memories.

My first presentation on Cuba will be this coming weekend at a three day meeting that I am putting on in Essex for a group of cruisers affiliated with the Seven Seas Cruising Association.  SSCA is  a group that anyone who cruises or is contemplating doing so should be a member of.  With dues of about $50 a year it’s money well spent. Besides, they work hard on our behalf to help shape legislation for anchoring rights and other important topics for the cruising community which is reason enough to be a member. They also have a very informative monthly newsletter, more of a magazine actually, that alone is worth the price.  Not a member?  Click here to see what you get as a member and sign up.  You’ll be glad that you did.  Me too.

So, when I am not busy preparing for meetings, I am thinking about what to do to make Pandora a better home afloat for me and Brenda.  As Brenda enjoys cooking and is very good at it, I have been hard at work on some modifications to the galley to make it more “cook friendly”, no make that “Brenda friendly”.  One important refinement was to convert one of Pandora’s five hanging lockers, the one in the galley, by putting in shelves to store pots and pans.  After a year we have found that this space just doesn’t get used very much as we have plenty of other places to hang clothing.

So, I added three shelves so that we could more easily store the cooking stuff that we’ve found to be very hard to fit anywhere in the galley.  We had been keeping this stuff under the washing machine (Yes Brenda is very happy that we have one of those aboard Pandora).  Technically, the pots and pans fit there but the racket that I caused getting things in and out was jarring at best and not a great spot to root around in each day.  With a deep slanted floor, and narrow opening, every time we opened it up, pots and pans came spilling out all over the floor with a jarring clatter.

This is the locker (before).  Not much to look at.  Yup, a locker. I was careful to fabricate substantial fiddles on each shelf to keep everything in place.  I also wanted to be sure that the design of the woodwork matched the other fiddles elsewhere exactly.  I was happy with the results.  This is the same space.  I challenge anyone to tell that it wasn’t original to the boat.   Notice the granite insert on the top of the stove/oven.  It was stored in the “old” hanging locker so I had to find another spot to put it when the stove was in use. How about keeping the stove top insert on top of the washer/dryer?   I fabricated a fiddle and attached it with a double sided adhesive foam strip.  I think that it looks good and the insert slips in right behind it.  I also put a short 3/4″ tall strip on the back end of the washer to keep things from sliding outboard when we are on a starboard tack.  Cutting boards will also be stored there, another item that we find hard to store, out of sight.  Problem solved. The addition of shelving to the locker has freed up the area to the right of the stove for other items.    This area used to be filled to overflowing and was a source of constant frustration to Brenda.Now things are more thoughtfully stored and easily accessed.  These changes will also make room for a larger food processor that will help Brenda be more efficient in the galley, a good thing to be sure.  Besides, when I am putting away things first thing when Brenda’s still catching her “beauty Zs” I won’t disturb her with pots clanging into an overflowing locker.   Perhaps that’s the big payoff.

I do have concerns about having a food processor on board.  Getting the infernal thing clean without a dishwasher “Come on Bob, no dishwasher on Pandora? What sort of boat do you have?”   Alas, nope!  It’s me, I’m the designated DW. Dish washing isn’t a problem for Brenda because of the “galley rules” aboard Pandora.  The rules are as follows… whoever cooks doesn’t have to do the dishes unless it’s me.

Hmm… that means that I ALWAYS do the dishes, at home too.  Ok by me as I wouldn’t want to do anything that stifles Brenda’s creative work in the galley.  So far, so good.

Galley storage done?  Check.  However there are still many other little and not so little projects on the list that I’ll have to get to.  After this weekend event I will be able to turn my attention to what’s next.

Of course, all of this takes a back seat to this summer’s big job of gutting and remodeling of the master bath, the land home one, which I haven’t begun yet.   And don’t forget the lawn.  Such is life…

On another subject, and not a very happy one at that, Brenda was recently diagnosed with melanoma and had surgery last week.  While they caught it fairly early, it turned out to be a quite a big deal.  Post surgery and that took hours, she has two really angry looking incisions, one on her upper right arm that’s about 6′ long and another one, 4′ long, under her armpit.

The surgery was done at Yale and we’ll be going back next week to find out if there is anything to worry about going forward based on the tests done to the lymph nodes that they took out.  The prognosis is good, according to the oncologist but it’s been a tough few weeks, to say the least.

Of course, melanoma is not something to be messed with and sun exposure is clearly a risk factor, especially tropical sun, which, in spite of our best efforts, we get plenty of each winter.  We try to stay out of the sun as much as we can but there’s no denying that winters in the tropics mean more sun than winter in CT.

It’s worth noting that the “spot” looked like a large freckle and it was hard to see that it was something that, if left untreated, can kill you.  What’s particularly alarming is how fast the lesion appeared as she had been to the derm in October of last year, less than six months before she was diagnosed and had surgery.

So, there are a lot of questions to be answered and it’s anything but clear if our travels will take us south this coming winter.

For now, I’ll continue to work on Pandora to get her ready for “whatever” comes next.  You just never know what life will throw at you, I guess.

So for now, all I can say is stay tuned…  Details to come.

I’ll sign off now as I still have work to do on my presentation about our trip to Cuba.

When Brenda and I cruised the south coast of Cuba over the winter, we decided to take a land trip from Cienfuegos to Trinidad de Cuba.

Along the way, we witnessed a remarkable sight, the beginning of the annual migration of 100,000,000 Cuban land crabs (Gecarcinus ruricola) marching from their home in the mountains to the sea to lay their eggs.   As they near the end of their 6 mile journey, a particularly long way, it seems to me, for a critter that always walks sideways, they must cross a busy coastal road shortly before reaching their destination. What a sight as they scurry sideways, claws held menacingly skyward.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to stop and take photos that day as we crunched our way through along the road.   However, all is not lost as there are videos on YouTube about this and nearly every other topic that you could possibly imagine.

Along with touching crab videos, there are plenty to choose from that you’d probably want to skip.  However, you’ll have to wait a moment longer for a particularly poignant example of that ilk.  First, here’s a short and really fascinating, to me anyway, clip chronicling this remarkable migration to the sea.

You won’t believe just how many of these, not so little crabs, make their way from the mountains to the sea and back again each spring.  How about 100 million?   When we were there it was early in the season so the spectacle was limited to a road covered with mere thousands.  Plenty yuck enough, if you ask Brenda.   I understand that there are only a few places in the world where you can witness such a spectacle and Cuba is right up there.

And, if you happen to be lucky enough to have a home along their route, you’d find yourself with thousands of crabs “beating a pathway to your door”.  No, make that to your door, over your roof and down the other side, quite literally, each year.

So, if you happen to live in “crab city”, and double lucky you if you do, here’s a video of how you can prepare them for a nutritious meal, Cuban style.  And, of course, you’ll see that they are very much alive while you are “preparing” them.
No land crabs in your neighborhood?  Fear not.  And I expect you are at least as thankful as Brenda is for that as she’s more like “Julie” in the terrific movie “Julie and Julia“, when it comes to preparing “recalcitrant crustaceans”.  This “clip” from the movie offers a very personal take on preparing your own.  Familiar?  Of course, our heroine might have had a better time of it had she had just ripped off the legs and claws before putting them in the pot. Eeeewww!!!

Anyway, our visit to Trinidad de Cuba, as chronicled in this post, crabs aside, was wonderful and I encourage you to put it on your itinerary along with a bit of Gecarcinus ruricola salad (of course, that’s Cuban Land crab to the non Latin literate among us)  Yum…

So, there you have it.  just when you thought I had written on just about every imaginably inane topic… Scintillating detail about land crab migration and cooking instructions to boot.  Who knew?

It’s Memorial Day weekend and we are NOT out sailing aboard Pandora.  After a winter aboard we are both happy to hang out “on the hard” and enjoy some time at our “land home” here near the beautiful CT River.

As I was catching up on all of the snail mail that had piled up while we were afloat, and let me tell you that a LOT accumulated in the nearly 5 months we were away, I spied a reference to the winner of this year’s Lora Piana Caribbean Superyacht Regatta held in March.  The winner was P2, a boat that we had raced against two years ago in Newport.  When I say “we” I am referring to our time aboard the 182′ ketch that we were invited to sail aboard in that race that was held in Newport.

When we were aboard Marie, she was the LARGEST yacht in Newport Harbor and let me tell you, there are a LOT of REALLY BIG yachts in Newport.   Marie has done well on the superyacht racing  scene but not quite as well as P2, a really high tech composite yacht that we raced against.  So, what is a superyacht owner to do when they loose a race to another?  You buy her, of course.

It it seems that P2, which we spied in Ft Lauderdale this winter, has been sold, to none other than Ed, the owner of Marie.   Here’s a recent shot of P2 that I snagged from Boat International magazine‘s description of P2.  The shot was taken in Ft Lauderdale near the Los Olas bridge.  This is a remarkable boat if you can call a 150’ yacht a boat.  Hey wait, Pandora looks a bit like her.  Right?  Well Pandora looks like at a minuscule 47′ version if you squint your eyes really, really tight.  Perhaps Pandora could be a tender to P2, a really little one.   Here’s an idea.  As Ed still owns Marie, his 180′ ketch, he can use her as a tender, or perhaps a better description would to call her a “hotel”, when Ed is out on P2, doing her stuff, tearing up the racing circuit.

Here’s a video of P2.  What an amazing boat!  Ed’s growing “collection” of yachts also includes an earlier build, his “smallest” superyacht, the mere 110′ Tenacious which you can charter alone or as part of a package including his private island in the Exuma Chain in the Bahamas, Over Yonder Cay.   Tenacious, compared to Marie and P2, is diminutive (HA!) at a mere 110′. However, like her big sister, she has a brace of cannon aboard and Ed isn’t bashful about using them when the mood strikes and it does often.

Here’s a video of Tenacious filmed along with  his island, Over Yonder Cay.  Check out the bright yellow seaplane, which I just love, that will whisk you there to begin your charter.  That wonderful yellow seaplane was there when Brenda and I visited Over Yonder this winter.  She’s quite a machine.   Here’s some highlights from our visit, including the main house which we toured on our last visit, a few years ago that occupies the highest point in the Exuma chain with remarkable views.

I just came across this new video of OYC.   And yes, OYC is really is as nice as the video suggests.
How about a video of Marie sailing shortly after her launch in the Netherlands a few years ago.  The audio is a mix of, I think Dutch, and some English. It’s a great tour of the boat too.  I’d say that she is still the “Queen” of Ed’s growing “fleet”.Alas, she’s just not quite as fast as the carbon fiber P2.  Here’s a video of the race we were “in” where P2 beat Marie.
Being the generous guy that he is, Ed will give you the opportunity to charter P2 and perhaps win a few races yourself.  Here’s the charter page for P2, so get on it!

I thought that this article from Boat International about Ed and his two “old” yachts, Marie and Tenacious was interesting.  Perhaps they will want to interview him again now that he owns P2 as well.

So, after coming to grips that there was a yacht with a better racing history than Marie, Ed what every racer wants to do, but usually can’t, he bought the boat that beat him.  Of course, if you can’t beat em, buy em.  And, if you want to know what it cost…   And, if you have to ask, well you can’t afford it.

But wait, there’s more.  If Ed loves sailing he’s also pretty happy to spend time around vintage airplanes and is a benefactor to a museum in Texas The Texas Flying Legends.  I found this article from a publication Warbird News that provides a good amount of information about the museum’s “fleet”.

I did a post a while back about The Texas Flying Legends and an airshow that they put on in St Barths.  In that post, I mentioned that Marie was kept at Over Yonder but was wrong.  It’s Tenacious that’s there.  It was a fun post so I won’t fix the mistake.  Call it “editorial license”.

Perhaps I’ll close, on this Labor Day Weekend, with a fitting tribute to the men that flew these amazing warbirds and sacrificed so much to allow us to have the freedom that we all enjoy today.

 I will be writing a number of articles and giving a few talks about our visit to Cuba over last winter. I thought that it might be fun to share a draft of one of these articles with you.  It includes a number of links to prior posts, both Brenda’s and mine.

So, here goes…

Since the 1950s and the beginning of the US trade embargo, Cuba has been largely off limits to Americans.  This, combined with very limited capital for investment, has made for a country that has been, in large part, “frozen in time”.  To visit Cuba now is akin to taking a step back into the Caribbean of the 1940s and the time of Hemingway.

Brenda and I have wanted to visit Cuba for many years and as relations between our two countries have begun to thaw, we decided to “jump the gun”, before things really begin to change, and head there aboard Pandora for an extended two month visit in early 2016.

Receiving needed approvals to visit Cuba for an extended visit from “Uncle Sam” proved to be quite tedious and involved nearly six months of research and much back and forth with three government agencies, Commerce, State and the USCG.   Finding someone to insure Pandora during our visit was not finally resolved until a few days before we headed to Cuba from the Bahamas.

The US government currently allows Americans to visit for twelve reasons, with a journalism general license the “reason” we chose.   As part of this effort, Brenda’s goal was to better understand the fiber arts of Cuba, of which little has been published.  In particular, she wanted to find one particular woman in Havana who had been featured in another American’s blog post several years ago and, believe it or not she found her.  This is Brenda and “the girls”.  Cuba is a large island, much bigger than most realize, over 600 miles long, and our trip long took us along the entire south coast and a good portion of the north coast.    Along the way we found ourselves about 100 miles, a mere overnight run, from Jamaica, The Caiman Islands and Cancun on the Yucatan peninsula.  All much closer than most realize and as Cuba becomes more open, this will likely change cruiser’s perspective of what it is to visit “the Caribbean”.    The ability to use Cuba as a jumping off place to Central and South America, will make the western Caribbean much more accessible to Americans than has been the case for a great many years.

Visiting Cuba isn’t for the “faint of heart” as there are very limited services and even fewer marinas, especially along the less traveled south coast.  This combined with the requirements of the Guarda Frontera, a sort of military coast guard that makes you check in and out of most of your stops along the way can make it challenging at times for those of us who are used to going where we want, when we want to go.  However, if you can make a point of learning to “go with the flow” you will probably find the process quite straight forward and perhaps even charming.   And, finding internet access can be remarkably frustrating as it’s mostly available in government run tourist hotels.  In one case, we actually took a horse and buggy to check our e-mail.   Talk about culture shock.Our travels brought us south through the Bahamas to Georgetown and then a three day run south traversing the Windward Passage, past Haiti, around the eastern tip of Cuba and west to our port of entry, Santiago de Cuba.    The process of clearing in with Pandora and getting our Visas approved was quite an experience.   We both wrote posts about this and our visit to the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Of course, everyone thinks of vintage American Cars and remarkable Colonial architecture when they think of Cuba and we saw plenty throughout the country.The Cubans we spoke to were very excited about Obama coming to Cuba, which occurred while we were in Cuba, and many voiced hope that much good will come from his visit as they took on a greater role on the world stage.  And speaking of “stage” what a trip going to the Rolling Stones concert was.  You might enjoy Brenda’s take on that.  What a hoot!

However, when you get right down to it, the most remarkable part of visiting Cuba for us was the people.  We loved spending time with them, especially in the most rural areas.   Brenda did a wonderful job of describing what this was like.  I struggled to capture what made Cuba such a remarkable place for us to visit.  This post was my attempt to capture this spirit.

All and all, there is really no better way to visit Cuba than to cruise the coast and now is the time as it won’t be long until it changes forever.  The pristine reefs, the dramatic scenery and, most of all, the people are remarkable.  Don’t miss out.

I find it fascinating to me, how my “random” mix of posts has lead to some very interesting opportunities over the years.  And, as is the case with life in general, they always pop up at the most unexpected times.    Case and point:  The recent post about my “up close and personal” sighting of a humpback whale on our run home from Florida this week seems to have opened yet another “door” to an opportunity that I didn’t even know existed.   Let me explain…

In that post, I was trying to make the point that sometimes I loose sight, when I am underway aboard Pandora and, I suppose, in life in general,  that if I stop and look,  I’d realize that I have already arrived, a twist on the oft quoted and perhaps equally trite “the journey is it’s own reward”.

I wrote about an amazing interaction with a Humpback Whale near the Hudson Canyon, about 100 miles east of New York.   The canyon was cut in the continental shelf about 10,000 years ago during the last ice age when sea levels were some 400 feet lower than they are today. 400′ lower?  And we are worried sick about a change in sea levels of a few feet.   During the last ice age, and it wasn’t the first one, all that water ended up as ice and snow that piled up over a period of thousands of years.  Yikes, I’ll bet that would cause quite a run on snowblowers at Home Depot.  Thinking ahead, I wonder if Al Gore has invested any of his speaking fees on Global Warming in Home Depot stock. Perhaps not as he seems pretty sure that it’s going to get a lot warmer before it begins to get colder.   Canoes anyone?  Anyway, I digress.

So, after I put up that post, I put a near breathless link to my blog on Facebook about my sighting.  So, what happens?   The next day I get a comment on my blog from someone at NOAA.    No, not the “other” Noah, the “40 days and 40 nights” Ark Noah?  I get a comment from someone with the Woods Hole NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  You know, the folks that brought you the Titanic, well at least photos of the Titanic?

Anyway, my first reaction when I saw the message was that I was about to get scolded for harassing cetaceans and reminding me that I should keep a safe distance.   My many experiences, over the years, of being warned to stay away from naval vessels conducting exercises, has made me wary of such things.  Sort of akin to receiving a dreaded letter from the IRS. “It has come to our attention…”

Fortunately, it was nothing of the sort.  The correspondence was from a Nathalie (her real name) who runs a Caribbean program for tracking migration patterns of humpback whales.  Sounds like a pretty good gig, if you ask me.   “Sorry honey, I’ll be away on on a business trip WORKING IN THE CARIBBEAN on your birthday.  I promise to make it up to you, really.”  This program, which she manages, enlists the help of cruisers in keeping track of migrating humpbacks.

So, Nathalie it seems, is also a “snowbird”,sort of like me and Brenda, splitting her time between the eastern Caribbean and Woods Hole.  Humpback whales  travel from the Gulf of Maine to the Caribbean and back, every year.  And, some of them (the whales) also take trips across the Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands.  Here’s a map of humpback migration patterns from the NOAA site.  Want to read more? Click here for the full PDF. I have an idea…. “Brenda?  How about we follow migrating humpback whales east too?  It’s not that far, just a quick jaunt to the Cape Verde Islands.  We could duplicate the migration patterns of Megaptera novaeangliae.”  Brenda majored in Latin and Greek so she’ll know exactly what that means.   “You know, NOAA needs us to do this.  The future health of the humpback whale population may depend on it!   And besides, the Cape Verdes, well they look pretty close on the map.  And as you see, they aren’t far from Africa at all.  Want to go to Africa too?   We’d almost be there by that point.  Besides, I like to eat and look at all the feeding areas.  And, they have “OTHER” areas (in yellow) too.   That’s always fun.”  “Down boy, down boy, get a grip Bob”  “Oh…” (he says dejectedly)

I cribbed this image from caribtails.org, a site managed by NOAA, supporting an organized effort, with cruisers like us, designed to track and identify individual humpbacks and to better understand their lives and travels.  It seems that whales have the same travel plans as me and Brenda for this year and next.  What a coincidence! “I love Maine!  Brenda, let’s go there too!”

Each whale has a unique pattern of tail fluke markings that allows the identification of individuals.  Who knew?  NOAA’s site has a number of good resources including some tips on how to have the best experience for you and the whale as well as some suggestions on how to get good photos.  Their fluke markings are as distinctive as our fingerprints.  Here’s two examples from NOAA of how different they can be. 

I am hoping that my photo, not taken from the best angle I now know might not be sharp enough to be identified in their database.    It would be terrific if I could learn more about “my whale” and where she/he has been sighted.  If he’s “new to science” perhaps they will name him “Bob” or her, “Bobbie”,  Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.  “Yes, Bob, totally!”  Anyway, if the photo doesn’t check out, perhaps Brenda and I will get another chance to see her/him next winter in the Caribbean.

That would be just so great and I can’t wait for another opportunity to holler “thar she blows”.  And, now I know that she’s also blowing “thar and thar” as they make their way north and south with the seasons.

“Brenda, we need a new camera!  We absolutely MUST be prepared!”

So, there you have it.   A chance sighting of a whale on my way north this week has opened a door at NOAA.   How cool is that?  Perhaps I’ll get a tour.   Yes, that would be fun.

You just never know where life will lead.  I guess I might also get hit by a truck today.  No, I’m going with this, for now instead.

Yeah, this is way better, for sure.