Sail Pandora

It’s Saturday morning and PANDORA IS BACK IN THE WATER!  Yahoo, Yahoo, Yahoo!  It’s been a month since she came out and after so many “I’ll be ready to launch in a few days” I can’t believe that she’s FINALLY in.  And, it’s just in time as it’s late October and it’s getting COLD, in the low 40s outside as I write this.  Yes, it’s high time to head south, so here’s the plan…

Now that she’s back in the water I’ll check all the systems and get the refrigeration going again.   Check, check, double-check…  I’ll begin stocking the freezer and other last minute provisions in anticipation of shoving off when the weather allows, later in the week, for Hampton, the staging port for the Salty Dawg Rally that gets underway in early November.  Of course, if you feel like hearing more, you can sign up under “sign up to be notified when I publish a post”. Pretty descriptive, right?

And, on the upper tool bar, you can also click on “where in the world is Pandora” and see where we actually are or at least where we were when we last “pushed the button”.

As I have been going on and on about my bow thruster for the last two weeks (yes it took that long to do the overhaul) and get it going reliably again, I thought it would be fun to post a video of it going up and down, up and down.  I think that is just so great, and mildly amusing.  Among the nifty features of the unit is the remote-control.  You might want to ask yourself “why Bob, would you need a remote when you are only feet away from the “joystick” in the cockpit?  Just use that.”  Well, that’s so I can control the bow while Brenda does the “forward and reverse thing” as we go up to a dock.  It also made that neato video you just saw possible.  Here’s the receiver and “brains” of the unit.  It was relocated inside the boat from in the “sometimes humid”compartment near the motor.  A much better spot, I am assured. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t crap out again any time soon. However, I am pretty sure that it’s going to be a lot better as I have worked hard to modify things to keep everything dry.   And speaking of dry, here’s the now dry compartment, complete with dry drive motor.  Let’s hope it stays that way. And, just in case somehow, some way, water gets into here, there’s a pump ready and willing to assist.  But wait, there’s more.  When the above featured pump has done it’s work, this unit is on hand to pump out down to the last teaspoon.  It cycles every few hours, 24/7 “just in case”.   Let’s hope that it lives up to it’s name. And, to deal with anything that might be missed, and to keep things desert dry, I added a decidedly low tech item to catch those remaining molecules of H2O. Fingers crossed that it all works in harmony and, well, continues to work.  If all of this isn’t up to the task, I still have the option of putting in forced ventilation but that’s another project for another day.

Well, there you have it, and as my day used to say, “more than you want to know about penguins”.  A complete rundown of my “for the moment” functioning bow thruster.

Of course, everybody loves photos of boats “on the move” so here’s Pandora making her way across through the marina at a stately pace.  She won’t look so shiny and clean for a long time to come. I guess I’ll close today with Pandora’s first beautiful sunset since being “back in business” again.  Nice spot, nice spot indeed. I am really looking forward to being in many more nice spots in the coming months and I very much hope that you will stay tuned and make the journey with me.

Time to cruise.

It’s Tuesday morning and I am happy to say that the thruster is ALMOST done.  I say almost as everything is set and adjusted but now I am told that the “mother board” is not good.  BAD MOTHER!!!   Yes, it does sound REALLY BAD.  However, because they feel bad for me, and I guess that business is good elsewhere (they are starting a rebuild job on 200′ yacht at Hodgons Yachts, in East Booth Bay), I am not being charged for that, which is good.  I can only imagine what that would have cost.  The new “mother” will be installed on Thursday and I should be good to go.  While the final bill will be a “bit more than estimated”, I am not being charged for all of the “coming and going” over the last ten days.  I have to give them credit as they worked very hard to keep things moving, even though it kept them there on both Saturday and Sunday of last weekend.

In any event, NO MORE FLOODING is allowed in the thruster compartment and I am optimistic that the two, count em, two bilge pumps will keep things in good shape. I’ll also be putting desiccant bags in there to see if I can keep humidity at bay.  If not, next spring I’ll put in a vent system.  More to come on that.

Oh yeah, remember the “ostomy hole”, the bilge pump outlet installed RIGHT IN THE SIDE OF THE HULL!? Yes, this one. The nasty white “orafice”.  Well, they did a pretty good job of making it look OK with a matching stainless fitting that is of the same design of the smaller one near it.  I had checked into having the hole plugged and repainted, but opted against that as it’s very hard to make a good match on a dark green hull and I expect that the “cure would have been worse than the disease”.  It doesn’t look that bad, right?Anyway, it seems that the issue of the thruster is finally, almost, done which is good.  It’s been painful at best, but at least I now know what to look for in keeping things in good shape.  As an added plus, this “experience” has reminded me, once again, just how important “preventive maintenance” is.  All and all, it’s probably a good allegory for life in general so, with that in mind, a good, if expensive, lesson.

Pandora is now scheduled to go in the water on Friday morning so I can check out the “new” Autoprop and be sure that everything is in good shape.  I’ll change the oil, fire up the freezer and fridge and all the other things that have been on hold while she’s been on the hard.

I had also promised an update on the Salty Dawg “fleet” page.  This is a screen shot of the group as of today.  It looks like Domini and Altera “flew” literally, no doubt with their transponder in their pocket aboard a plane.   Altera started in Cape Breton, NS and Domini in Boston.  I think that Brenda and I know the Altera gang from previous winters as I think that they used to own a SAGA 48.  Note that I have “clicked” on Pandora, in the image below, so she is highlighed.   You can see the actual shared page, in real time, by clicking here.  when you get there, you will have to put in SDR where it says “group” or “Pandora” under Name (you can’t do both).  For the date range, you can either choose today only or a range to see where we are right now.  Of course, I’ll be posting as we get closer to let you know when we are hoping to depart.  If you save this page on your screen,  you can just refresh the page and see, any time, what’s going on as the fleet assembles in Hampton and more sign on.  I’ll also have this link on the “where in the world is Pandora” on my home page.

Yes, Pandora is inching forward and I am getting pretty excited about what the next month will bring.  Fingers crossed that “mother” will check out and we’ll be good to go in a little more than a week.

And as they say “but wait, there’s more”.  And that’s true, but you will have to wait till my next post to find out.

Thanks for tuning in, if there’s anyone out there.  Are you listening?  Say something…please.

It’s Sunday morning and, as far as I know, the bow thruster was finished up and tested last evening.  It’s been a long, expensive process and hopefully the improvements put in place, designed to keep it dry, will avoid a long slow decline again.  If “an ounce of prevention”, no make that “thousands of ounces of prevention” will make things better, than we should be in good shape.  The one remaining item to add will be a forced ventilation system which I expect install in the spring.

This whole issue reminds me of the first time I installed an refrigeration system on my Tartan 37 many years ago.  I really didn’t know what I was getting into but really wanted to have a few ice cubes for my G&Ts.   Sounds simple?  Not!!!

I WANTED A FRIDGE. So, I added a compressor etc.  Little did I understand that this would eventually mean more batteries, a high output alternator.  The list went on and on.

Anyway, those ice cubes cost me big time and now, with all the time the “thruster guys” spent crawling around on Pandora, I am reminded, yet again, of how things can get complicated.   Boats in general and thrusters, watermakers and fridges, in specific, are good examples of how you can take simple things, like docking, plopping ice cubes into your drink or having a cup of water from simple to PLENTY COMPLICATED.  I guess that’s what owning a boat is all about.  Right?

So, now with the thruster back in business I will begin to wrap things up and get ready to launch, probably later this week.

I had a call with my crew for the run to the BVI a few days ago and the question of lee cloths came up.  Of course! I forgot about that.  Oops.  Anyway, lee cloths on the way.  I worked up the basic pieces yesterday, one for the port and starboard main settees as well as one for the forward Pullman berth.  I also installed the hardware and will be working up the rest of the items such as clips and straps, needed to finish the job in the next few days.  Thanks Jim for that reminder.   I’ll post some photos when I finalize the installation next week.  They will certainly come in handy when the going gets “spirited” along the way.

There are so many details to work out to get ready for a run like this, especially with a new boat, well, new to me anyway, that it seems TO-DOs keep finding their way onto my list faster than I am able to check them off.  And sometimes, in my desire to make everything perfect, I end up breaking things and then have yet another item to fix.  I am thinking of one particularly stupid example that I did the other day but I’ll “take the 5th” on that one.  Sorry, no comment.  However, parts on the way.

Changing the subject, I have also set a nominal departure date to head to Hampton VA, October 22nd.  I’ll have Pandora launched around the 15th or 16th, which will give me nearly a week, once she’s in the water, to make certain that everything is in good working order.  I’ll also be able to crank up the fridge and begin stocking the freezer.

I should note that I have renewed my subscription for my SPOT, GPS transponder and will be updating my position every four hours while I am underway.  This section of the sight is “where in the world is Pandora“.
I also understand that there will be a tracking service that participants in the Salty Dawg fleet will be subscribing to for the duration of the run from Hampton to Virgin Gorda.  It’s Snap Track and it will allow you to see where Pandora is an how she’s doing relative to other rally particpants.  This is an example of what you’ll see when we are underway.  I’ll post details of this as I learn more.

So, to keep things moving along, I’ll continue to provision and stow everything we’ll need for the winter aboard.   No point in putting her in the water any sooner than necessary as it will just mean that there will be more time for the bottom to become slimy before we head south.  And,a clean bottom means and a bit more speed along the way which will make a big difference over a 2,000 mile run, that’s for sure.

Hopefully, this will be the last post that mentions the “thruster guys” and that from here on out, I’ll be able to turn Pandora any way I wish against currents and wind when I am close to pointy and hard things.  Fingers crossed.

As I “gird my loins” in preparation for the “thruster bill”, I need to keep my “eye on the prize” and think about making landfall at the Bitter End Yacht Club in Virgin Gorda.  Yes, that will be very nice indeed.  And, when I arrive, I plan to sit here and have a drink with a little umbrella stuck in it.  That’s of course, if I have any $$ left over from the, well, you know …
Just a few (thousand) details to tend to first.  I’d better get on it. 

It’s Thursday morning and I find myself wondering if WILL PANDORA EVER SPLASH AGAIN!!!

For the last few days I have been fussing, no make that “screwing around” with the bow thruster to try and get the frozen parts out.  I have learned more than I want to know about “freeing” up parts which includes a liberal application of heat.  I have been using MAP gas, something new to me, which is way, way hotter than “your father’s propane torch”.  “How hot is it Bob?”  It’s SCARRY hot.    This gas, which comes in a yellow bottle, comes out with an impressive roar and to apply it to the aluminum parts of the thruster, just inches from a “plastic boat” is pretty scary.  As the gas rushes out in a white hot plume, the aluminum and stainless parts crackle and pop along with the smoking lubricant that I have been spraying all over everything.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?

The key to freeing up frozen parts, I am told,  is to get them  plenty hot and then cold, over and over again.  Each time heat is applied, things move around and it gets a little bit better.  It’s quite depressing just how very, very small a “bit better” really is.

With the whole process going ON AND ON, I decided that I had to take over from the “thruster twins” and do some of the grunt work myself.  To that point, I was talking with someone at the Essex Yacht Club bar last night and “spinning my tale of woe” about the thruster and she asked,  “So, who’s doing the work for you”.  I told her the name of the company and then added, in a much lower and barely audible voice,  “And I am doing some the grunt work myself”.  “Oh…”, she said, seeming to say, “you get your hands dirty, for real?”  “I’m at peace with myself, I am at peace with myself”, I chanted silently.

At their daily rates, I would have ended up with a perfectly functioning thruster, compliments of the “paid help” and no “coin” left over to go anywhere.  “I have good news and I have bad news Brenda.  The good news is that Pandora’s ready to go.  The bad news…  We are broke!” So,it’s DO-IT-YOURSELF TIME! Yippee!

“That’s all fine and dandy Bob, but how’s it going, really?”  Well, my mother used to have a phrase “It’s always darkest before the dawn” and let me tell you, I needed a very powerful spotlight to see where this was going for a while there.  I had tried pounding, heating, pounding again and wasn’t making any progress. And to make matters worse, if I broke something, I’d have to have the replacement parts fabricated as the company that made the unit doesn’t make parts for this model any longer.

As I pounded away, knuckles bleeding,  I also took time to soak the parts in penetrating lubricant.  In order to be sure that things got “lubed” adequately, I fashioned a “lube pond” on top of the frozen shaft using a plastic cup and modeling clay.  Very colorful, right?  Then I POUNDED away some more.  Still, nothing moved.  Not after two days of beating.  What’s a grunt to do…?

The “chief thruster guy” had mentioned that, if all else failed, I could cut some parts and take the pieces to his shop where they would press them out with hydraulic ram.  However, that would cost plenty as the a replacement for the “cut” parts would have to be fabricated.   There had to be a better way.

Here’s an idea.  How about a gear puller, a tool that I have used to remove propellers over the years?  So, after consulting with the “chief”, I constructed a modified puller, or in this case a “pusher” that would allow me to put tremendous pressure on the frozen shaft.  Put a wrench on the black threaded shaft and crank away.  And let me tell you… I cranked away plenty and then some, using my feet to apply pressure and turn the screw. “So how did it go Bob?  Get to the point! You sure can go on and on about things.”   Well I was able to move the shaft by 3/4″, and it only took two days!  Yahoo!  And let me tell you, any movement at all is a VERY big deal.  So, I left it last night for another 8-10 hours of soaking with my “cup and clay lube contraption puddle thing”.

So, today the sun is out and I am optimistic.  Now that there is some movement, I should be able to pull it the next 4″ and remove the shaft, once and for all. Fingers crossed.  I still have a few ideas if that doesn’t work, but one way or the other, I am sure I can get it out as the modest movement yesterday seems to suggest that I have finally gotten things headed in the right direction.

Meanwhile, “back at the ranch” I have also been assembling provisions for the winter.  The pantry is filled and this is the stuff that was left without a home.   So, I looked around and made room in one of the lockers. Voila!  It all fit.   Now, isn’t that tidy?So now, with days ticking away I am thinking hard about when I’ll run Pandora to Hampton.  The original plan was to take Pandora to the marina in Hampton,  visit the boat show in Annapolis, come home and then head back to VA around the 24th to begin preparing to leave with the rally to the BVI.

However, given the way that things are going, I am reassessing things and am now thinking that perhaps I’ll just delay heading to Hampton till later in the month as it will save me from renting cars twice.   It will certainly make finishing up Pandora’s prep much easier as she’s less than ten minutes away.

Well, if it isn’t contrary winds, it’s something else.  I guess it will be clearer later today if I am successful, OR NOT,  in getting things back on track.  All of this also assumes that the “thruster guys” can get back down to Pandora and finish their repairs and upgrades.   ChaChing, ChaChing…

Skinned knuckles and all, I guess that I need to focus on the goal.  It’s warm down south, it’s warm down south, it’s warm down south…  The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  And when this is all done and the bills are paid, I’ll need one. 

It’s Tuesday morning and hurricane Joaquin is only a distant memory.  Well, at least for those of us that were spared the brunt of the storm.  Here on the CT River the worst we were exposed to was higher than normal tides.

Others were not so lucky.  Some in the Bahamas, particularly on Rum Cay, a spot where we spend some time a few years back, really got slammed. I understand that the government pier, the only landing point of any consequence on the island, is gone.  This pier, and it was a fairly substantial one, is just match sticks now.   Here’s what it looked like when we were there.   That pier was the only link that they had to get supplies.  The water leading up to the pier was barely deep enough for the mail boat to power through, leaving huge plumes of swirling sand in their wake. When the mail boat came in during our visit, about everybody on the island showed up to enjoy the spectacle and pick up their supplies.   Check out this link to my post about the mail boat and this important lifeline.

Rum Cay is a beautiful place but I expect that this marina looks very different now, if you can get in at all. Few hurricanes cause much damage in the Bahamas, partly because the residents don’t build right on the beach like we do here in the States.  However, as the islands are so low, most areas only a few feet above sea level, an occasional direct hit, like they got last week, causes great destruction.  It’s going to take a while for them to recover from this blow.

This video gives you an idea of the speed of the winds that battered the islands. This was taken from the second floor of a home and most of the islanders have only one story homes so the flooding hit them particularly hard.There aren’t many photos around of the aftermath but this shows typical out-island homes and illustrates what many are dealing with.  I have heard that in some areas, all of the homes are damaged or destroyed.  So, all of this does make my trials getting Pandora ready to head south pretty insignificant.

As it stands now, Pandora’s bow thruster issues are getting closer to resolution and I am optimistic that she will be in the water by later this week.  Hopefully, we will be able to head to Hampton VA over the weekend, where I will leave her until I return to prepare for the Salty Dawg Rally that gets underway in early November.

It’s sobering to think of what we might be facing here in CT if Joaquin had not veered off to sea after bowling through the Bahamas.   And, to add insult injury, with the loss of the government dock, getting building supplies to the island will be a huge undertaking and getting back to normal will take a long time.

We should certainly count our blessings.

It’s Sunday morning  and I should be on my way for Hampton VA by now, but I’m not…

In boating it’s always something.  In this case, it’s several somethings.  Of course, right now it would be easy to blame my delays on the weather with the powerful hurricane Joaquin, working his way up the coast.  However, it’s not just about the weather that’s keeping Pandora on the hard.   Unfortunately, it’s about a “storm” of a very different sort.

In my last post, I wrote about a problem with the bow thruster.   Well, it’s as bad as I had feared, perhaps worse.  It seems that those “floods” in the thruster compartment, the ones that happened prior to my owning the boat, have taken their toll on the unit.  And now, the “hinge” that allows the thruster to go up and down into the hull, is plenty corroded.  The plan WAS to pull the “pins” that the unit pivots on and clean them up so that the unit pivots more easily.  Ooops! Easier said than done!   When Ben Franklin said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” he must have been thinking of a problem like this one.  I’d say that it’s going to take pounds to fix what ounces would have prevented.   Sucks for me…

So, after fussing with the problem for much of a day the “bow thruster guys”, and they ALWAYS travel in pairs, couldn’t make the pin budge, even a little bit.  So now, the plan is for me to lube them up a few times a day and hope that they free up by Monday when the “team” returns.  Boy, do I hope that it makes a difference.  I was really counting on this not being a huge job.  “Good luck with that Bob, it’s a boat.”

When they came to work on the now infamous hinge pin,  it looked like they were setting up shop for the long haul.  Love the tent.  Like a couple of kids building a fort.  However, these “kids” are getting paid plenty.  So, after a few days of my “lubing” very few hours, I am not very confident that the problem will be solved easily.  What am I saying is that “easy” has already left the room.   The next option will be to remove much of the unit and take it back to the shop and press the hinge pin out with a hydraulic press.  Sounds expensive?  You bet…

It gets worse.  The guys stayed late that evening trying to get at least the bilge pumps installed in the thruster compartment.  I guess that they were tired after a long day.  I sure was.    Well, when I arrived the next morning to inspect the work, I was horrified to see that they had installed the bilge pump outlet right in the middle of the side of the hull.   It looks like a Frigging ostomy hole, RIGHT IN THE SIDE OF THE HULL!!!  There were a number of other options he could have done and one that would have been INVISIBLE.  Ugh…

Fixing this is going to be complicated.  The designer and builder worked hard tol design things so that there are no thru-hulls on either side of the hull, only at the stern.  The rest go into vertical standpipes that are glassed into the inside of the boat.   I think that it’s got to be removed and the hole patched but matching the paint?  It’s not going to be easy, even though it’s a stock color.  I guess it’s best to wait till the job is further along and then I’ll readdress the “Ostomy Hole” with him. What was he thinking?

So, with Pandora on “hold” and the weather all sorts of nasty, I feel like Pandora’s embroiled in her own personal storm.  Let’s hope that things settle down aboard Pandora as quickly or at least as soon as the ocean swells subside from our buddy Joaquin.

These days it seems that being “green” is on everyone’s lips.  However, some do it better than others.  How about VW gaming the system with some fancy software in their diesel cars that somehow knows to run “green” when the car is being checked for emissions and yet still be plenty “brown” when running down the highway.  Anyway, it appears that VW isn’t so green after all.  Oops!

I am also amused with articles that I have read recently about mega-yachts that are portrayed as “green” because they treat their waste prior to sending it over the side, or have LED bulbs.  Are you “green” enough to boast that you are burning ONLY 75 gallons of diesel an hour verses 150?  Hmm…

So what about Pandora?  For her, I’d say that “being green” can mean a lot of things.  Of course, the first one that comes to mind when you see her is that she is indeed “green” and a very dark green at that, with her forest green hull.  Yes, she is very green with the possible exception of those scratches and dings from, well, from her habit of making contact with anything that comes within ten feet of her.

The broker that sold the “old” Pandora for us told me that “there are two colors for boats, white and stupid”.  Well, given what a magnet for scratches “green” Pandora is, I have to agree.  However, with apologies to Billy Crystal, “Pandora, you look marvelous“, green or not.  Besides, with a little bit of touch-paint she looks nearly perfect when you apply the “ten foot rule”.    Alas, I digress…

Another way of being “green”, as VW apparently isn’t, is to be energy efficient and Pandora surely performs well by that measure.   Of course sailboats, by definition are “green”, however Yanmar diesel withstanding, Pandora really is pretty “green” by energy efficiency standards.   With her 600 watts of solar panels and the ability to run her systems indefinitely from that source alone, is great.  If it weren’t for the need to have hot water, we could happily go along hardly burning any fuel at all.  And being a bit “brown” is prudent as some girls (read: Brenda)  don’t like cold showers.

So, what’s the other way that Pandora’s green?  Right now the best example of how Pandora is showing her stuff and is particularly “green”, as this photo illustrates  is that there is a veritable crowd of “worker guys”, and their trucks, visiting Pandora regularly.  It’s pretty clear that having them hang around is causing plenty of “green” to leave my wallet.  Ouch!!!  Of course, at the head of the procession was the rigger who made up a new backstay with insulators to allow me to use it as the antenna for my SSB radio. Nice truck guys!  I also had them check out the rest of the rig to be sure that there were no weak spots that I should attend to.   Don’t they look like they are having fun?  So far, they have visited something like four times and no HUGE problems discovered.  Whew but “green” indeed!And, let’s not forget the “bow thruster fixit guys”.   I can’t believe that I even have one of these nifty gadgets, but Pandora’s is on the fritz.  I should also notice that these guys, like riggers, travel in pairs.  Thank goodness that Pandora sports not one but two two chain lockers so each guy gets his very own locker. How cozy. Of course, the thruster worked just fine when the survey was done in May.  Now, not so well.  It seems that there was a “flood”, perhaps more than one, in the bow compartment that houses the thruster motor and controls at some time prior to our taking delivery.  As a result, corrosion has taken it’s toll.   Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

As part of the permanent fix, I am also going to have two, count em, two, bilge pumps installed so that any water that finds it’s way into the thruster compartment won’t stay there for long.  And I won’t tell how much “green” this fix is going to cost.  Can you say “time and materials”?   Not to worry, the “thruster guys” say it with flair.

But wait, there’s more.  It seems that the engine has a, perhaps minor, oil leak that wasn’t obvious at the survey either.  Funny how that happens.  However, now it is.  Isn’t this getting more fun by the minute?   Next week there will be yet another mechanic climbing aboard Pandora to check things out.   I wonder if they travel in pairs too?  I guess I’ll have to wait and find out.

Yes indeed, Pandora is plenty “green” and in more ways than one.  And, if there was an Olympic competition for being “green” in the $$$ department I expect that she’d be a strong contender for “gold”.

Oh well, as my dad used to say “It’s only money”.  Some say that they want their last check (You know, the one you write on the day before you die?) to bounce and if that was my goal, then this round of “being green” gets me just a bit closer.

Well, nobody ever said that “being green” was going to be easy but perhaps there wasn’t anyone that ever said it better than everyone’s favorite frog, my old buddy, Kermit.

Yup, being green can be tough but I’m up for it so, to paraphrase Admiral Farragut, “dam the torpedos, full steam ahead”.  Ha!.  I’ll bet you didn’t think that I’d find a way to fit in yet another reference to submarines.

So, Caribbean here we come!  It’s going to be great and, if a liberal application of “green” helps us get there safely than I am all for that.  Besides, it’s a BOAT and as every one knows that means (B)ring (O)n (A)nother (T)housand.

So far, Pandora is being true to her “green” self in every way.

It’s been a busy week with a whirlwind trip from CT to New Bern and Oriental NC to prepare Pandora (the old one) for her survey and transfer to the new owner.

On Sunday,  VERY EARLY, I headed out to drive down to New Bern NC where Old Pandora had been docked at a broker’s office for the last five months since Brenda and I brought here there back in May in preparation to be sold.   The drive from CT was a long one and with a stop at a friend’s house along the way for lunch in Ocean City MD,  it took more than twelve hours.   It’s been years, perhaps never, since I drove for a dozen hours and I have to say that “I am too old for that”.

On Monday I cleaned the boat and moved her the 25 miles from New Bern to Oriental where she would be surveyed and hauled.   The survey took much of the day and fortunately went very well.  You never know what to expect in a survey, good care or not.  Besides, “you don’t know what you don’t know” and so often problems are crop up in a survey that were there an you didn’t even know about.

It’s been a long time since I have been in a boatyard to see a boat that I owned being hauled and not have to pay the bill myself.  Here’s Pandora being hauled for the last time in my presence. Part of the survey process is to take the boat out for a “sea trial” so that the buyer can get a feel for the boat under way and to see if all of the systems work as advertised.  That’s not a particularly big deal, as I have sailed her many thousands of miles, but I have to say that I was nervous as the wind was blowing nearly 30kts, well above the sort of wind that I’d classify as “fun”. Besides, it had been five months since I had done any sailing aboard “old” Pandora and I have to admit that I was a bit nervous knowing that much was on the line.  well, off we went, up with the sails and in with a double reef.  Still too much wind for my taste.

I was pretty sure that everything about the boat was fine but you never know what’s going to show up with a surveyor climbing over the boat for seven hours with a flashlight, peaking into every nook and cranny.  Fortunately, everything went well and she “passed the test”.

We took her back to the dock, the surveyor finished up his review of the boat and happily, the new owner accepted the boat.  Yahoo!  Amazingly, after months of having her on the market the buyer actually turned out to live nearby so all we had to do was to move her to a different marina in the same harbor as he and his wife live only about a 1/4 mile away.

I stayed a bit longer with the buyer to answer some more questions and then headed out to drive home.  The new owners, Dan and Leslie, plan on taking her south to the Bahamas in just a few years, which is good.  At least Pandora knows the way.

Well, the drive down was LONG but the drive back home on Tuesday afternoon, no make that Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, was even LOOOOOONGER.  I left Oriental at around 3:30pm and arrived home nearly twelve hours later with many quick stops along the way to “clear my head”.  I will say that the crowd that inhabits truck stops, in the wee hours, somehow seem different than the those you see on a Saturday afternoon in July.  Perhaps it’s the 1/2 gallon “sippy cups” of Red Bull.

Anyway, they say that the two happiest days in a boat owner’s life are when he buys a boat and when he sells her.  I’d say that’s true and sleeping aboard her for Sunday and Monday nights this week did bring back memories of the many years we owned her.  However, being the owner of not one but two vessels did temper the nostalgia a bit.

Well, it’s “out with the old” and I am back in CT now and ready to “get with the plan”, finishing up getting “new” Pandora ready for her run south.  There’s plenty left to do but I am getting there, bit by bit.  Hopefully, she’ll be back in the water next week with fresh bottom paint, all polished up and ready to travel.

What’s a blog post without two pictures of both my boats in slings at a boatyard. Here’s “new” Pandora in the slings when she was hauled recently.  She looks HUGE.   That’s me power-washing the bottom.  I look, well I don’t look so huge.  “Love the socks Bob, can you pull them up any higher?”  This keel is one of the reasons that she’s such a fast boat.  The fin is fiberglass reinforced with carbon and the bulb is lead.  That means that the weight, nearly half of the boat’s total, is concentrated way down low. Yup, Pandora looks big when she is out of the water. I replaced the prop with the Autoprop that the prior owner says “ate my transmission”.  I had the US distributor for Autoprop visit the boat and review the engine, transmission and prop and he thinks that I should be fine.  I sure hope that he’s right as the Caribbean is a very expensive place to do work that’s already expensive and, besides, I don’t want a new transmission.  I do like this prop and had one on “old” Pandora too.I also stretched out my 200′ of anchor chain and marked each 25′ section with red paint and some wire ties.  I don’t expect that the paint will hold up for all that long.  Shiny for now though. So, here we are, a “one boat” family again.  However, with the constant onslaught of projects, I do sometimes find myself wondering what it would be like not to have a boat and think about what would I do with all those “boat dollars”  Hmm….  No, never mind.  Besides, with all that nervous energy swirling around with nowhere to go, I expect that I would “burst into flame” and that wouldn’t be good, not good at all, especially for Brenda.

So, for now, it’s out with the old and well, out of the water with the new, the “new” Pandora that is.  Still lot’s to do but at least I am down to only one Pandora and that’s plenty.   Is that the sound of “boat dollars” being sucked out of my bank account I hear?  Well, at least the sound is a little less deafening, for the moment, until something else breaks…

It’s Saturday morning and just two weeks from my scheduled departure for Hampton VA where Pandora will be berthed until I leave in early November for the BVI and our winter of cruising in the Caribbean.

It’s hard to believe that the “iron doors of summer” have slammed shut, Labor Day weekend has come and gone and it’s already getting cooler at night.   With temperatures overnight recently in the 50s, change is certainly on the way.  I guess it’s time to head south for the winter.  Let the migration begin.

You may recall that, a few weeks ago, when I was bringing Pandora from RI, I had a chance encounter with a US Navy sub off of New London.  I posted about it here and on FaceBook.    I also, through comments on my FaceBook post, was able to identify the boat as the USS New Mexico.  So, I decided to send a note to the boat directly and put a note on the boat’s website.

Some on FaceBook suggested that I’d “be in big trouble” for posting pictures of a sub sighting so carelessly.   Well, it turned out that even folks on nuclear subs enjoy getting pictures of themselves and were pleased that I had taken time to write about their arrival.  And, by the way, “could you send us those pictures you took so we can post them on our site?”.    Sure!  And they didn’t ask me to destroy them so I guess that I wasn’t in trouble at all.  Whew!

Anyway, I sent the photos, thrilled to be asked for them.   Fast forward a few weeks and what should arrive in the mail but an “official” USS New Mexico sub cap.  How great is that?   “Brenda, does it make my head look fat?”   Nice hat, fat head or not.Well, it proves that the sword, or at least the keyboard, is mightier than the sword, or something like that.

But wait, there’s more…

I also received a “challenge coin”.  An official coin of the sub.   Front… Back…Interestingly, this is the second coin I have received from a someone in the service, the first when Brenda and I had dinner with a friend’s son, a guard at the US Embassy in Nassau Bahamas but that’s yet another story.

Curious, I looked up the history of these coins, called “challenge coins” by “those who know”. It seems as amazing as custom bobble head and that they have become very popular of late among those in the military where they are shared among service personnel and given as gifts on occasion.   This link to Wikipedia gives an interesting background to the tradition which is reported to have begun perhaps during WWI, although it has become much more popular in recent years.

According to a description in Wikipedia, many in the “service” carry the coin of their unit and are sometimes “challenged”…

“The challenge, which can be made at any time, begins with the challenger drawing his/her coin, and slapping or placing the coin on the table or bar. In noisy environments, continuously rapping the challenge coin on a surface may initiate the challenge. (Accidentally dropping a challenge coin is considered to be a deliberate challenge to all present.) Everyone being challenged must immediately produce the coin for their organization and anyone failing to do so must buy a round of drinks for the challenger and everyone else who has their challenge coin. However, should everyone challenged be able to produce their coin, the challenger must buy a round of drinks for the group.”  (Wikipedia)

Sounds confusing…  Yup.  Not to worry, it doesn’t apply to those who have one but aren’t in the service.  One way or the other, I’ll keep my coins aboard Pandora, just in case and for good luck.

While I received my USS New Mexico Challenge Coin in the mail, I was given the Bahamas Embassy coin in the traditional way…

“Coins given as awards for accomplishments are normally given to the recipient during a handshake, passing from the right hand of the giver to the right hand of the awardee. It is also normal for the giver to offer a brief explanation of the reason for awarding the coin.”  (Wikipedia)

It seems that my “accomplishment”, in that case, was buying dinner.  Works for me.

One way or the other, it’s a wonderful tradition and one that I am trilled with being a part of, if only in a very small way.

Perhaps I’ll close with a few photos I “borrowed” from the USS New Mexico’s site.  This one is even better than mine.   It certainly suggests that the Virginia class of subs is what President Roosevelt mean when he famously said  “speak softly, and carry a big stick.”Sailors looking pretty natty.So, I guess that the moral to the story is that next time you see a sub, take a photo.  It might land you a cap.

You never know..

It’s Wednesday morning and Pandora is in Deep River preparing to be hauled in a few days.  The run from Wickford last week was eventful, a combination of a wonderful sail and a chance encounter with the USS New Mexico.    I wrote a post about that moment, when she passed my bow off of New London.  If you missed it, you can click here to catch up.

I posted some photos on FaceBook and was amazed by the amount of response I got.  Some suggested that I had “sinned” by “blowing their cover” and had put the US Navy’s security at risk.  However, that turned out to be a bit of an overstatement as I put a note on the boat’s home page and within hours received an enthusiastic note from the Director of the Navy League in New Mexico thanking me for taking the photos and writing about the experience.  I was also thrilled that he wanted to use my photos on their site.  So much for the “cloak of secrecy” being blown.   I may even be able to find my way on board for a visit.  However, I won’t say that too loud as I may jinx it.  Mums the word.

Here’s what he had to say about my post.

“Hi Bob,

I am the Chairman of the Navy League Committee here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that supports activities surrounding the USS NEW MEXICO (SSN-779).  It is our committee that runs the website where you posted your email about seeing the USS NEW MEXICO return to New London.  I forwarded your email immediately to the Commanding Officer, CDR Todd Moore, and the Chief of the Boat, Master Chief Steven Fritzler.  Thank you so much for sharing your photos from your blog and for your note of appreciation for a job well done to the crew of the USS NEW MEXICO.  With your permission, I would like to post some of the pictures from your blog at our website, www.ussnewmexico.net .  Also, if you have any others that we could share, I would be glad to include those as well.  Just forward them and we will be sure to include credit for the origin of the photos.  We all loved your description at the chance meeting of a multi-billion dollar vessel at sea, and no matter who had the right of way, your sailboat needed to make way.

I look forward to hearing from you again, and checking out your blog from time to time for updates.  You included two of our favorite videos in your blog.

Damon”

Well, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to get a response.   So, what do you do to top a photo of a sub taken while underway?  Not sure, perhaps I’ll someday have a chance to take a photo from on board a sub?  One can always dream.  How about a day sail?  Hmm…

I also recently wrote about a visit to the designer of Pandora Rodger Martin, and while I was there, at the Newport Shipyard, I spied an amazing cold molded sailboat and wrote about that too.   Well, Rodger, after reading that post, dropped me a note and mentioned that the boat, Foggy, was designed by Frers, styled by the famed architect Frank Ghery, famed designer of the Guggenheim museum in Spain. and built at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine.  It seems that there was considerable secrecy surrounding the building of the yacht launched in July after two years of construction for an “unidentified client”.  You won’t find any information on Foggy on the yard’s site.   I did find a very interesting article about the yacht on www.panbo.com, and it was clear that the author was very excited about the yacht.   You can see the entire article here.  It is indeed a remarkable vessel.

With credit to Panbo,  here are a few photos of the boat rumored to be the personal yacht of Ghery himself.  It’s remarkable, to say the least. How about these sky lights and port holes?  Steve White, owner of BBY, speaks about this remarkable yacht and it’s impressive engineering in the following video.  Supposedly, there will also be some sort of dodger although it wasn’t installed when I saw her in Newport, and I am sure that it will be as awesome as the rest of the boat.  Rodger also told me that the additional detailing on the bowsprit was constructed with a 3-D printer of sintered titanium, whatever that is, it’s plenty cool.Well, that’s enough about other people’s boats for now, that would be OPB, so what’s happening to lowly Pandora?

Thanks for asking.  there are still tons of things to do and time is short.  Yesterday the rigger pulled the back stay and will be putting insulators in it so I can use it as an SSB radio antenna.  Of course, the stay itself is not “standard” having been built in Finland so I’ll need a new one.  Great… What else is new.

I also finally was able to install a new strainer for the water cooling for the freezer and fridge.  The old one, and a pint sized one it was, kept clogging up and starving the water flow to the compressor.  Not good and lead to a few overheat moments.   Double not good.   That would be for b0th the compressor and for me when I discovered the problem.  Here’s a photo of just how teeny tiny the old one was. And, let me tell you, a ton of water pumps through this each day, especially when it’s hot. The new setup is much more substantial.  I wanted to provide more volume of water and have strainer that was less prone to loading up with weed than the old one as I’ll be leaving Pandora in Tortola for over a month.  Yes, someone will be watching her and checking things regularly, but I really, really don’t want to have a freezer of food spoiled or worse, loose my fridge compressor.   The strainer to the right, in the photo below, is for the water maker and is about twice the size of the one that I replaced on the fridge.  Fingers crossed that this will perform as planned, or should I say “hoped”. And, as Gilda Radner once said, “it’s always something” and Pandora’s no different. The other day the unit that keeps track of the battery decided to crap out.  I understand that there are two fuses on the unit and I spent hours hunting for them, only finding one so far.   This little baby is critical as it tells me the state of the battery charge and having a unit that works every time is really important.   Before I spend another $300 on a new one, I’ll try and find the other fuse.  If not, UPS on the way.

Well, I guess that’s about it on boat sighting updates so I guess it’s time to hit the road and get to work on Pandora.  Time’s short.  Yikes!!!

It’s becoming clear that OPB or perhaps better said, OPS  (Other Peoples Submarines) sailing would be a lot easier than this.  Perhaps I can head out for a cruise on the USS New Mexico.  “In your dreams Bob. REALLY…”