Sail Pandora

It’s Friday morning and the temperature outside is an unseasonable low 30s.  When we got here on Wednesday afternoon it was a LOT warmer and then the cold front that has been blasting the US with cold air and snow pushed down, bringing strong COLD winds to coastal Georgia.  It was amazing to us to see how quickly the winds picked up and changed a sorta balmy boatyard into a grey cold and windy miserable place.  You know, the sort of weather that northern sailors deal with each fall and spring when they are working on their boats.

The view late in the afternoon Wednesday was very beautiful from our vantage perched up on Pandora’s bow overlooking the nearby marsh.   Views of palm trees aren’t something that I am used to seeing from a boatyard.  How about a panorama of the spot?  What perfect late afternoon lighting.  Yes, a beautiful view, but don’t look behind me as it’s just your typical yard jammed with yachts in various stages of seaworthiness.  Then, it got REALLY COLD. Believe me when I tell you that the next morning there was no way I would want to be out in the wind.  Happily, our brand new Espar diesel heater did it’s job and made Pandora all toasty inside.   Good thing, as there was no way that a little space heater could have kept up with the strong winds and cold.   

We made great progress down below getting things back in shape with Brenda’s help as a bit of mildew seems to pop up when a boat is stored for a few months. As my solar panels keep everything running, even when she’s on the hard, the freezer and fridge needed a bit of cleaning as well.  I found some things in the fridge that I had missed when I left her back in October that were, well, they were a bit scary.  All better now.

Speaking of cold, when we were in Portugal this fall, Brenda did a bit of knitting and had made good progress on a sweater but it still wasn’t finished.  On the way driving south she finished it just in time to enjoy the unseasonable cold weather here in GA.  It’s great that she has gotten to a point where she can knit while we are driving.  Back before she was such seasoned sailor, that would NEVER have been possible.  Can you say car sick?  Not now…   She was determined to finish the sweater, so she’d have something warm to wear, before we made it to sunny Florida, and she did.  Doesn’t she look like a happy knitter?  I guess it was finishing the piece up that brought on the cold weather.  

I’ll bet the other locals would not like to know that she really did “bring the cold weather with her”.    Good thing it wasn’t a raincoat that she was making.

Yes, it’s plenty cold but today things are supposed to warm up to a balmy mid 50s so I can work on the “outside” of Pandora to finish scrubbing off some of the dust that coated her decks while we were away.   Anyway, sitting here doing this post isn’t getting her any closer to launch.

Oh yeah, we are staying in hotel for a few days.  Not quite ready to move aboard till things are more settled.  Hopefully, we’ll shove off in a few days.

Wish us warm fair winds, and soon.  Yes, soon would be perfect.

It’s Sunday afternoon and we are heading down I-95 toward South Beach Miami to be there for the survey of Ariel, the Aerodyne 47 we are hoping to purchase.   I say “hope to” as you never know what you’re going to find in a survey of something as complex as a sailboat.  However, Brenda and I are very optimistic that everything will check out OK as Miles and Loreen, the owners are just about as particular as we are and don’t hesitate to spend what it takes to keep Ariel in good shape.   Picky and a willingness to spend $$$ is a good combination for boat ownership.

As I begin this post we are in South Carolina with about 300 miles to go to St Augustine, FL.  I pick that particular city as it’s what is on the GPS telling us where our next road change will be and it’s where we hope to find a hotel to spend the night.

It’s interesting to drive distances outside of the Boston, New York, Washington corridor and see how many miles are between road changes and cities compared to the New York area, where making a ride of a few hundred miles usually involves dozens of road changes, not to mention terrible traffic.

Our ride today takes us from Baltimore MD where we visited with our son Rob and his new fiancé Kandice and our younger son Christopher for nearly a week.  What a treat it was to spend so much time with them.  However, after all the eating and drinking it will take some time for my stomach and liver to recover.  As I said, great fun, perhaps too much fun.  Last night, when we took Christopher to the bus for him to head back to NYC it was pretty emotional for me and Brenda, knowing that we won’t see him until May when we head back north.     Hopefully, Rob and Kandice will meet up with us in FL or the Bahamas, between now and then.   That will be great.

The next few days will be pretty interesting as we go over Ariel with a fine tooth comb.  Yes, we’ve seen the boat many times but I can’t say that we have rifled through cabinets and drawers like we will on this trip.

After a day or so in South Beach, where Ariel is now, we’ll head north again to St Mary’s GA to spend a day or so getting Pandora back into the water.  I am particularly excited about seeing her again as I had someone “detail” the hull while we were away to make the hull as shiny as possible.  I had decided to do this prior to deciding to sell her but it will be good that she will show her best for anyone that looks at her this winter as word gets out that she’s available.

When we left CT last week, it was quite chilly, in the low 20s.  Not my first choice of weather.    After Christmas, we had to work double time to get everything down and put away from the holidays so we could get ready to close up the house for the winter.  Putting everything in order to leave a house vacant for 4-5 months isn’t all that simple as you have to plan for the possible loss of power and really cold weather.  With this in mind, when we moved in two and a half years ago, we decided to put in a new furnace and charge the system with antifreeze.   That would assure us that the pipes wouldn’t freeze if we lost power.  In addition, we also blow out all of the domestic waterlines with compressed air so that there is NOTHING in the water pipes that could freeze.

Let me assure you that all of this is simpler to describe than it is to accomplish as it takes about three hours to blow out every drop of water from the hundreds of feet of pipes.  And, on top of this, we also have to put antifreeze in all of the toilets and run a rinse cycle on the washing machine and dish washer to be sure that the pumps are also protected.

And, as if that’s not enough of an explanation, well… let’s just say that there are a lot of details.

When we left Baltimore this morning, we drove away at the wee hour of 06:00 with the goal of driving 12-14 hours today and the balance to South Beach, on Monday morning as we’d like to be in town by mid- afternoon Monday.    So far, so good.

It’s amazing how much the temperature has gone up since leaving CT last week.  Even today, in the 8 hours we have been on the road, the temperature has gone from a rainy 40s to the , well rainy upper 70s.  Actually, right now it’s raining really hard, torrent actually.  Hopefully, this will let up soon.

After all these months of “thinking” about sailing, it’s hard to believe that the “doing” part is less than a week away.

We are looking forward to spending about a month heading down to Ft. Lauderdale so that we can enjoy the sights along the way. However, GA can be pretty cool this time of year so we will likely want to make as many miles as we can in the first few days so that we can be in warmer climes.  Interestingly, there is generally a bump in the temperature when you get south of Cape Canaveral , for reasons that I don’t  understand.

One way or the other, we’re in for some chilly weather for a few days as there is a huge cold front coming through that will chill much of the US and bring pretty cold weather to the South East US coast.  Perhaps we’ll just “cool” our heels  for a few days until more seasonable weather comes our way.

In the meantime, we can think about some of the fun places that we’ll be visiting soon.

Well, Brenda’s driving and probably won’t want to for much longer as she’s much more interested in knitting than driving so I’d better wrap this up.

How about a photo of the intersection heading to Charleston?  Yes, I am sure that’s at the very top of your day for today. Well, it’s at least is evidence that we are heading in the right direction.  And no, I didn’t take it last year…However,  I am much more interested in the memory of sunny Florida.  Yes, that’s much better.   Warm and sunshine, here we come, soon.   Well, at least warm, even if there is rain in the forecast.   Warm is better, for sure.  Yes, warmer by the mile and I’m counting them down, one by one…

It’s Thursday morning, the first day of 2015.  It seems that last time I looked I was forced to read George Orwell’s 1984 and thought “wow, I wonder what things will look like so far in the future.  I wonder if we’ll have flying cars?”

Well, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration as I wasn’t so naive to think that we’d have  flying cars.  EVERYONE certainly knew that we wouldn’t have them until at least the New Millennium.  Hmm…  No wait, we’re there now and I don’t see one of those on my radar.

Speaking of radar, (nice segue Bob) one thing that I never expected to have was just that, radar.  Yes, like everyone else, I too take technology for granted but WOW, radar.  The smallest boats of today have technology that the most powerful navy in the world could only dream of in WWII.  And, I won’t even talk about cell phones.  Maxwell Smart would have loved hiding behind a bush talking into an iPhone.  “Can you hear me now?” I have absolutely no idea where I was going with all that.  Never mind. 

Perhaps the most amazing thing to me is that I sit here on New Year’s Day, on our way south to spend the winter in Florida and the Bahamas.  Yes, I know that I have said that I don’t know if we will make it to the Bahamas this winter, but heck, spring is months away.  And, as Brenda has often said, “Bob and the dog, ever hopeful”.  “Can I have a cookie?”  “Sure Bob, here you go.”

Speaking of puppies, Brenda has recently been telling folks that she feels like she lives with a puppy.  Yes, that’s me.  Always jumping around with lots of smiles and drooling.  Well, that’s what I do most of the time anyway.   I do have “my moments” when I am less puppy-like.  Well, occasionally…

I guess it’s only natural to look back when you begin a new year.  Unfortunately, I’d have to dig pretty deep to come up with some photos from the “olden days”, but I do have a few that really bring back some memories.

Here’s me and Brenda leaving our wedding reception. Love the polyester sport coat.   1977 seems like a very long time ago. A few years later we bought our first boat, a little 20′ Cape Cod sailboat.  Then, a half dozen years later we acquired Sappho, a 22′ Marshall Catboat.  This boat, now some 40 years old, is owned by a good friend of mine, Eric, that keeps her in perfect shape in Wickford RI.  Brenda posed for a shot on board Sappho a few years ago.  It’s been a long time since those years cruising Long Island Sound on a 22′ boat with “sitting headroom”.  Years later we owed a Tartan 37, our first “modern” boat.  She was great looking but still a 70’s vintage design. Then we moved up to the “big times” and purchased Pandora.  Here she is in Wickford RI in Sappho’s neighborhood.  It’s hard to keep track of how quickly the years have gone by as it seems only yesterday that we were just kids in high school.   Well, this photo is of us a few years after graduation, but not that many. It’s hard to believe how much has happened in the last 40+ years that Brenda and I have been together.    From spying her in the high school library to spending the winters sailing in warm waters.

Perhaps if Brenda had known what the future was going to hold if she hung around with me she might have said, “It’s nice to meet you but I really have to study for tomorrows exam in Mrs. Hand’s English class and I can’t talk now. Bye!”  Glad she didn’t.  

Yup, I have been a lucky guy.  Very lucky indeed.

So far, so good.   That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Here’s to a terrific 2015.  Yahoo! 

It seems like yesterday when Brenda and I first laid eyes on Pandora, then Spirit, in Annapolis back in 2006.  After years of sailing on our Tartan 37 Elektra, we were used to a 70s design and to step aboard on a SAGA 43 we felt like we had stepped onto a “real yacht”.  She was so bright down below with her varnished cherry woodwork, so different from the dark teak paneling so popular with earlier boats and she was SO BIG.

We knew right a way that a SAGA 43 was the boat for us.  Pandora wasn’t a particularly well equipped boat and it was clear that I had a long process to get her in shape for extended cruising.  However we needed a “proper yacht” to achieve our plans to begin in a few short years when I would retire.  While our initial “3 year plan” to “cast off the lines” was extended by a year or so, compliments of the “great recession”, we did eventually begin cruising three years ago and have sailed for months at a time together between New England and the Bahamas.

I have written extensively about the benifits of Bob Perry’s design of the SAGA 43 so I won’t repeat it here.  However, if you are interested in why we chose this particular design, follow this link to “Why a SAGA 43“.  We just love this boat and found her to be a huge upgrade in comfort and speed from our Tartan 37.

She’s really fast and I have made the run from the Bahamas back to Essex twice and have done so in less than a week each time.  The design is amazing in the speed department and I did a run from Marsh Harbor Bahamas to Sandy Hook in only 5 days.  That’s an average speed of over 7kts.

When we decided to upgrade to Pandora, it was a big leap for us financially and to have a boat that measured in at some 46′ overall was a lot bigger than we had every hoped to have.  There was lots to do to get her just the way we wanted and we had big plans that would require many upgrades to the boat.  So, over the next 5 or so years I upgraded the systems to include many extras that would make her more comfortable and even more seaworthy.

Folks that know us are aware that Brenda is a reluctant sailor and always says that her favorite part of sailing is “being anchored”.   As a result, we often joke that our life together has been “40 years of desperate moves by Bob to help Brenda enjoy her time on the boat”.   No, Brenda doesn’t count the days till we jump aboard again but she has been sailing with me for over 40 years so I guess I have done a pretty good job at helping her feel at home afloat.  After over 7 years it’s pretty clear that when we purchased Pandora it was perhaps the most important “upgrade” ever to our lives afloat.

So, where am I going with all this?  As I have been putting together the brokerage listing this morning to put Pandora on the market, I am finding myself more than a little bit nostalgic for the years we have owned her.   Until we learned that Ariel, the Aerodyne 47 that we are buying, was coming on the market, a boat that originally caught our eye some six years ago, we really expected to be sailing Pandora until we were too old to enjoy time on the water and sold her for a paddleboat or some other depressing vessel down the road.

However, circumstances have changed and I can’t believe that Pandora will be leaving us, perhaps soon.

Over the years I have poured myself, along with plenty of cash into Pandora, to make her as perfect as I could.  As recently as this year, I put in a new Espar heater, a new Autoprop (which I love, love, love) plus many other small improvements too numerous to mention here, with the certain knowledge that we’d be sailing Pandora for another decade.

Well, all of that changed when….  Well, I guess that’s what life is about.  Change.

So, here I am, and it’s December 28th and two days from now we will get a rental car to begin our trek down to join Pandora in GA.   Along the way we’ll spend some time with our two boys, Rob and Christopher along with Rob’s new fiance Kandice.    After we enjoy the New Year’s celebration with them in MD, we’ll head to Miami when Ariel is surveyed in anticipation of our purchase in April.

After that, it’s back to Pandora, in the water and sailing for the winter.

If you’d told me a month ago that I’d be preparing a brokerage listing for Pandora now, I’d say you were nuts.  However, here I sit doing just that. It just shows that you just never know what’s waiting around the corner.  I guess that makes the point of why it’s a good idea to wear a seat belt.   Perhaps I should have held off on some of those recent upgrades.  Oh well. Who knew?

The broker asked me yesterday what I would do if he got an offer on Pandora in February, given all of our cruising plans.  Well, that’s a good question.  I guess we’ll have to cut things short.  That would be just about a perfect example of “I have good new and I have bad news”.

It has indeed been a saga owning Pandora and what a great ride it’s been.   But wait, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  It’s not over yet with an entire winter of sailing ahead of us in warm tropical waters.  I hope.

It’s grey outside here but this awaits us soon, very soon.

Dolphins playing at our bow.Perfect white sandy beaches. Dramatic cloud displays.Magnificent tropical flowers.
Tan piggies on Brenda.  Love the toe ring. Amazing sunsets that go on and on…And give way to serene moon rises.Yes, Brenda and I are blessed to be “living the dream”, in more ways than one.  I guess it’s time to start dreaming about the good times to come on our new boat as our SAGA saga draws to a close.

Sounds like fun.

It’s Saturday morning and two weeks since my last post.   The problem is that there’s just not that much to write about when Pandora’s in storage and I am home in CT “on the hard”.

It’s a busy time with the holidays upon us and Christmas just around the corner. One thing for sure is that it’s a fun time of year and we are certainly busy. Yesterday was a particularly big day for Brenda as she had her gall bladder out after several months of discomfort.  The surgeon felt that with our time aboard and the fact that we are often a long way from emergency help, that it was a good idea for her to just have it out and not risk infection or worse.   The procedure went well and I am sure that she will be back on her feet very soon.   It’s amazing that such an invasive procedure, even though they call it “minimally invasive surgery” can be done on an outpatient basis and in and out in the same day.

Yes, I can’t believe that Christmas is only five days away.  Where did the year go?   A few days after Christmas, when we will head to Baltimore to visit our son Rob in Baltimore with his fiance Kandice, we’ll be heading down to South Beach Miami for a survey on Ariel, soon to be our new boat.  I wrote about this in my last post.  

Even though we won’t be actually buying the boat until April, we are having her checked out now and will recheck things in April prior to final taking delivery. Unfortunately, I’ll own two boats for a while, hopefully not too long, as I won’t really be putting Pandora on the market till we end our winter cruising in late April.   As much as I don’t want to own two boats, the idea of not sailing this winter is even less appealing to me.  The logistics for the delivery of our new boat and getting Pandora where she will listed for sale are still being worked out but I am sure that we will find a way to get it all done.

For next summer, I have arranged for a mooring in Wickford RI, in the inner harbor for a few months which will give us a terrific spot to sail our new boat from to enjoy Narraganset Bay and Newport.  

It also looks like we will be taking our new boat, name to be determined, south to the Caribbean next fall which will be a big step for us.  I will likely do the Salty Dawg rally which leaves from Hampton VA around November 1st .  However, the older, and more established, rally is the Caribbean 1500 is an option and the two events leave at about the same time from the same harbor.   Actually, I am not totally clear on the differences between these two rallies but will learn more soon.  

One way or the other, it looks like we’ll be spending time in the Caribbean the winter of 15/16.  More to come.  I am very much looking forward to that. 

With regards to this winter, our plans are coming together with the twist of having the new boat surveyed prior to relaunching Pandora in GA.  Wherever we end up, the Keys or the Bahamas, it will certainly be nice to leave this cold weather for the warmth of the tropics.

We are pretty excited about the new boat and are thinking hard about a proper name.  Yes, I know that it’s bad luck to rename a boat but then it is said that it’s good luck to pick a name with seven letters too.  I wonder if they cancel each other out?

Brenda was a classics major in college so all of our boats, pets and almost our children have had names from the classics.   Our oldest Rob would have been horrified if Brenda had had her way and we had named him Paris.   That’s almost as good as some of the kids of Hollywood Stars.  I recall Sonny and Cher named their son Chastity.  For inquiring minds… He’s now transgender and changed his name to Chas.  To be clear, it’s not clear if he changed to a she, or he to she.  Anyway, we decided that Rob was a safer name for our first born.   It was a good fight but I prevailed after all.  You’re welcome Rob.

Back to boat names.   So, if you accept the idea of a name with classical roots as a good idea that’s what we plan.  With the exception of our first which we didn’t change, our boats have been Sappho, Artemis, Electra and most recently Pandora.  Brenda’s favorite from this list for our new boat is Sappho. 

Sappho was a Greek poet who lived on the island of Lesbos and wrote love poems about women and girls in particular.   I won’t go into a lot of detail, but given the view that boats are considered feminine, there is a certain symmetry to this name.   There’s one vote for Brenda. Oh yeah, it only has six letters.  Oops, not good luck, I guess.

My favorite is Artemis.  First off, it’s seven letters and she was a Greek goddess, born a twin, and was so ready to go that when she she was born she helped deliver her twin brother Apollo.  Now that’s a pretty self sufficient girl. She’s also associated with hunting, the wilderness and the natural world and especially the moon.   So, there, tides, the natural world and child birth.  I did publish an Ob/Gyn physician journal for years.  She’s also known for chastity (there’s that name again), and never married.  However, I’m not a fan on that particular point so let’s not dwell any more on chastity for the moment.

Anyway, there’s a vote for Artemis from Moi.  So, the debate goes on.  I expect that we will work through this by April and pick a name before we take delivery. More to come on that. 

With regards to whether it’s Sappho or Artemis, one unique feature of the boat is that she’s composite construction, made of some pretty high-tech space-age materials, something normally associated with custom made one of a kind yachts,  and I have been reading up on some of those construction techniques.

It’s worth noting that the three Aerodyne 47s made (I was wrong as I thought that there were four) are just about the only “production” cruising boats that I have been able to find that are composite construction.  This method of manufacturing is known for very high strength as well as producing a very light structure.  The main reason that this form of construction is so unusual for cruising boats, is that it costs a great deal more than regular fiberglass building. I won’t go into much detail here but if you are interested, you can follow this link for some narrative on how it’s done.

Compared to Pandora a SAGA 43 and actually a very light boat by normal standards, the Aerodyne 47 only weighs 24,000lbs verses Pandora’s 22,000. That’s pretty amazing as the Aerodyne is 4′ longer and nearly 2 1/2′ wider at 14.5′.    I have friends with boats that are of a similar size to the Aerodyne that weigh in at over 40,000 pounds. As a result, the relative lightness of the Aerodyne makes her a pretty fast boat.

The current owner, Miles, sent me a photo the other day of his speedo showing a speed of over 14kts.  That’s pretty fast and he claims he’s done better.  We’ll see but I am encouraged.  Having sailed in company with him many times, I am painfully aware that’s she’s faster than Pandora.  And that’s saying something as Pandora can generally outrun most anything in her size range and some much larger, pretty easily.

Here’s the shot Miles sent me. Speaking of composite boats, the Volvo Ocean Race, billed as the toughest yacht race in the world, just arrived in Abu Dhabi after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, at southern Africa.   The boats in this race are all composite construction, similar, if a bit more extreme than the Aerodyne, and are very fast and certainly much faster than 14 plus knots.   The designer of the Aerodyne line is Roger Martin who is more known for high-tech race boats.

The Volvo race boats are pretty amazing stripped out racing machines. They are quite a sight at speed.  However, this boat in particular made a navigation error and ended up on a reef in the Indian Ocean a few weeks ago.  Oops.  Happily, everyone is OK, even if the boat is trashed.  Kevlar, composite construction is pretty strong but no match for a coral reef.This video offers some amazing footage of the yacht at the point of impact as well as some commentary about what happened.Well, composite or not, it’s best to stay away from the hard stuff.   Yes, that’s a good idea.  Happily, events like these are quite rare as most boat accidents involve smaller boats being operated by folks that don’t know what they are doing.

Well, back to reality and it’s almost Christmas with just five days to go.  And, while Pandora’s way down there in sunny GA, we’ll soon be aboard for a nice and toasty winter in warmer climes.

Hmm… Looking forward to warm.  Yes, indeed.

It’s Saturday morning and less than three weeks until Christmas.  Yikes!  Where did the time go?  Last I looked, it was May and I was bringing Pandora north from the Bahamas.  Anyway, now it’s December and on top of that, it’s been a while since my last post.  So, here goes.

I have wanted to write about something that has been brewing for a few weeks. The news is that we will be selling Pandora and buying another boat.  

Selling Pandora?  Yes, amazingly, that’s the plan.   In truth, we have been lusting over a particular boat, Ariel, an Aerodyne 47 owned by our friends Miles and Loreen for some time now.  They had their boat built in Finland in 2006 and took delivery in spring of 2007 when she was lowered from the deck of a freighter in, I think, Newport.  Here’s a shot of a sistership, one of a total of only four built of this design, hitting the water in Finland.  So, after spending years touting how great the SAGA 43 design is and Pandora in particular, we will be buying another boat.  Yes, this is a very big deal for us and something that I never thought would happen.  To be completely candid, we would not be doing this it it wasn’t for the fact that Ariel became available.  

We had discussed this possibility with Miles and Loreen last winter when we were sailing together in the Bahamas but I can’t say that I really thought that they would take the plunge.  The “plunge” being going over to the “dark side”. Yes, they are buying a POWER BOAT.  I won’t say anything more except that it’s GIANT 50ft+ “ship”, at least a ship by the standards of “little people”, like us. I guess it’s safe to say that their “carbon footprint” will be increasing.  Perhaps they can buy some “offsets” from Al Gore.  

When we purchased Pandora back in 2007, we assumed that she’d be the last boat we’d own.  As recently as this summer, when I put on a brand new Autoprop and the new Espar heater, I expected that we’d be using them for years.  However, all that changed when Miles contacted me a few weeks ago saying that Ariel was for sale. 

As I have mentioned in some prior posts, Brenda and I have been interested in their boat for years, since we first saw it in Block Island, I think around 2008 or so.  Since that time, we have spent time with them from Maine to the Bahamas and after sailing in company with them for hundreds of miles and eating countless meals aboard both Ariel and Pandora, here we are…  And, I won’t talk about the wine and rum consumed at those meals (Let’s just say that some might view them as a bad influence on us).

Well, our comfy position of owning Pandora, all fitted out and exactly as we want her, is going out the window.  Great, now I can focus on getting our next boat just right.

The good news is that Ariel is about right already and I’ll only need to make a few changes to personalize her for us.  Fortunately Miles and Loreen have taken a “money is no object” approach to keeping her in trim which should make it easier for us, down the road.  Well, easier at least until something breaks.  Hey, that’s boating…

So, the plan is for us to sail Pandora this winter in the FL Keys with perhaps a brief visit to the northern Bahamas, the Abacos,  in late winter and then back to the US in April in time to go to a wedding in SC.  Still lots of details to work out but we are very excited. With a decision to get a new boat in early December and the actual handover in late May or so, this is clearly not going to be a typical transaction.

Anyway, here’s a photo of Ariel I took in Newport RI a few years ago.  She’s still green but has been repainted since then.  Miles and Loreen, who live aboard, are very particular owners and keeping her in “as new” condition is a priority.  I sure hope she looks that way “behind the curtain” when we have her surveyed. Fingers crossed Perhaps better, is this one that I took in the Exumas last winter.  Yes, nice spot and a nice boat.The Aerodyne 47 was very limited production line of boats, with, I think, only four built.   In many ways she’s pretty high-tech when compared to Pandora, built of heat cured epoxy, fiberglass and kevlar.   Her interior is composite material including honeycomb core bulkheads and cabinetry and cored granite countertops, a construction approach that is used on luxury aircraft to keep strength high and weight to a minimum.   As a result, while she’s nearly 2.5′ wider than Pandora and 5′ longer, she only weighs about 2,000 lbs more.  This link will take you to some specs about the boat.

This is a shot of the main salon when she was launched.  I think the bottle of Champagne is gone.  No, I am sure it is.   But, the boat still looks very nice down below. The galley is quite well laid out with lots of room to work. Speaking of “work”, there’s even a small workshop aft of the galley. The designer, Rodger Martin, is known for designing some top ocean racing boats.  Part of the appeal to us is that the Aerodyne is very similar to Pandora, having a fairly fine entry, long waterline and flat run aft.  As a result, she’s very fast, especially on a reach where I believe that she’ll do 12kts+.   Pandora can get close to those speeds but being smaller, it takes a more pushing and heavy conditions.  Speeds like Pandora and Ariel are capable of are quite rare in cruising boats.  The pedigree of both designs are influenced by much more extreme ocean racers.  

Interestingly, Bob Perry, designer of Pandora wrote a review of the Aerodyne 47 back in 2002 when it was fresh off of Martin’s drawing board.  He had some nice words to say about the design.

Yes, Ariel is faster than Pandora, in part, because she’s bigger, Pandora’s no slouch in the speed department and I have kept up quite well with Ariel when we have sailed together.  However, the extra length does give her an edge, especially off the wind.

Making a decision to sell Pandora, the boat that we thought was to be our last, was a tough one.  We thought that we’d own Pandora until we were too decrepit to sail.  We expected our next step might be, horrors, a pontoon boat.

Now, wouldn’t this be a great “post sailing retirement boat” for us?  Actually, this is a really scary image.   I like the idea of Ariel as a next step much better.On the bright side, with a pontoon boat, there would be plenty of room for a Weber Grill, wheeled cooler and a slew of cup-holders.  Perhaps that would take some of the sting out of it?  Perhaps not…

“Bob, Bob, stick to the point”.  Sorry…

So, where’s Pandora going?  First, we’ll be aboard for the winter in our usual stomping grounds. And then, who knows.

And speaking of “what’s next”, it’s not too early to think about where we’ll be going next winter and I think it will be the Caribbean.  Yes, that would be great fun, and it’s only a bit more than 1,500 miles from Montauk.  It’s a good thing Ariel’s a bit faster than Pandora.  Perhaps she could cut off a day of the trip.  We’ll see.

Perhaps I am getting a bit ahead of myself as first I have to go sailing for the winter, buy a boat, sell one (no simple feat) and put out some Christmas decorations.  

Yes, Christmas decorations.  Brenda’s out today, my honey-do list is long and I’d better have made progress before Brenda gets home in a few hours.

Yes, I’d better get a move on.  First things first.  

It’s Saturday afternoon and I am working my way through chores and thinking about all that we have going on between now and when we head south to join Pandora in early January.  The holiday season is just so busy it’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away and Christmas… It seems like just yesterday that I brought Pandora north from Nassau.

Well, I won’t think about how quickly the end of the year will be here. Somehow it always seems like the holidays and a brand new year are so far off in the future and suddenly… Well, they it is right in front of you.  Where did the year go?

This may date me but this Monty Python clip somehow reminds me of how quickly things can come up on you, when you least expect it.   Well, it seems that way to me at least.see
“Bob, that was totally random.  What are you talking about?”  Ok, perhaps that was a bit of a stretch but work with me on this.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away and that Brenda and I will be down in Florida in less than six weeks.   At least I can say that the lawn is all tidied up and ready to sleep for the winter.  Heck, I even split some firewood today.  

Speaking of winter, this shot of our “land home” was sent to us last winter by a neighbor.  I am sure glad that I wasn’t here to see it first hand.  Brrr…I prefer this view.Yes, I love it here in CT in the summer but winter, that’s another story.  I hope to make it out the door in late December without having seen anything like a “winter scene” much less than a the sort of “Buffalo moment” that hit the folks normally famous for their “wings”, a title that they would probably prefer right now.  6′ of snow?  What the &^%$?  

The sort of white I am looking forward to is more like this.  Or, perhaps this.  It’s white right?And, like snow, sometimes there’s white in the sky. And sometimes, the white comes right at you all at once. Don’t get me wrong, I love white, there’s just some types of white that are easier to take if you aren’t a polar bear.

No, cold isn’t my first choice unless it’s one of these.  All kidding aside, I feel blessed to be able to follow my dreams, and the sun. And I am doubly happy that Brenda is willing to live them with me.  Time is short.  

And to quote my good friend Bill, of SV Kalunamoo from a recent blog post when he put it so well..  “But, hey, life is not a race to the the finish. Its a Journey that ends without warning, enjoy it while the winds blow in your favor.”  

Isn’t that the truth.  Time is, well, it’s right around the next corner and I don’t intend to waste it.

It’s Thursday afternoon and I sort of feel like I am dug out of the things that piled up while Brenda and I were in Portugal.  It’s amazing how much mail piles up in a month, and that’s in a world where nothing of value comes in via “snail mail”.  And, I won’t even talk about all the bills that needed attending to.   And, to make matters even “better”, our credit card was compromised while we were away so I had to contact all of the vendors that we do business with via card and change the number to the new one.  I think that it’s the third time this year we have had to deal with a new card.  And, the list of companies to contact is especially long and fun as we also handle bills for Brenda’s and my mothers.

Oh yeah, and our yard was piled high with leaves too.  Now that was a treat worth coming home to.

With only six weeks at home before we head down to meet up with Pandora in GA for the rest of the winter, we don’t have much time for catching up and getting ready for the holidays.   And, of course, everything that goes “up” for the holidays has to come down, and PDQ, as we are headed to MD to visit our son Rob and his girlfriend Kandice a few days after Christmas.  “Quick, put the tree up.  No wait, time to take the tree down.”

Just thinking about all that has to happen between now and the end of December makes me feel a bit overwhelmed.  However, before I feel too sorry for myself, at least I don’t have to count “work” as part of the mix.

Well, Portugal was wonderful and being away for a month made it possible for us to take our time touring around much of the northern half of the country.   Yes, we had a great time putting 2,000 km on the rental car.  I will say that by the last week I was getting a bit tired of packing and unpacking dirty clothes.  “So Brenda, what pair of dirty jeans should I wear today?” Hmm…

So, what were my favorite parts of the trip?  Thanks for asking.

Taking our sweet time was nice as we were able to stay for several days, sometimes 4-5 in a single place.  All around us were folks that were on a week long holiday and they would race from hotel to hotel, always on the move.  We didn’t do a lot prior to the late morning, which was very nice.

The scenery of the country was fabulous and never deciding where we were going next until a few days before we were going to be “homeless” was very nice.  By taking this approach we were able to do some exploring beyond the normal tourist spots and take the advice of locals on what would be interesting.  The good news is that we never had problems finding a nice place to say, even with just a few days notice.

For sure, we did plenty of the things that tourists do, such as seeing some of the fabulous museums and castles.  Did we ever see castles.

Perhaps the best one was in Sintra, a short distance from Lisbon. We stayed in this fabulous inn outside of town with a magnificent view of the castle from our room.   The places we stayed were so wonderful.  Perhaps the beds weren’t always as comfortable as a top hotel in the U.S. but they were certainly more scenic.  We had the corner room in the tower of this.  And, our view was the photo above.   Really amazing. And, when you got close, it was breathtaking to see the level of detail in the castles, built hundreds of years before our country was even founded.  We loved having an opportunity to meet real local folks.  A highlight was our visit to a “factory” that makes traditional pottery.  The owner spent an hour showing us around his place.  There were only 4 working in the shop and they were all members of the same family.  I should note that we heard about this spot, which has probably never had a tourist visit, from the owner of a restaurant that we ate at.  I wrote more about our visit in this post, if you missed it.  We purchased more than would fit in our luggage to bring home.   Unfortunately, this piggy didn’t survive the trip.  Too much jammed into our luggage. Perhaps we will have to order a replacement.  So nice to meet someone that is really proud of their work.

Another highlight was our visit to a bobbin lace school and museum.   Brenda is very interested in this technique and has been studying for a few years now.  To visit a real working school was wonderful.  It’s worth noting that there are precious few places like this anywhere and none in the U.S.  

In this school young girls, some as young as four years old learn the traditional techniques.  Brenda was in heaven.  It was fun to watch the “girls” compare notes.  They spoke only a little English but way better than we spoke Portuguese. Never the less, there was a common language in lace. Lace making is impossibly complicated.  Well, at least to me. However, like everything else, it looks easy when an expert does it.  To manipulate dozens of bobbins as fast as the teacher is stunning to watch. She has been doing this technique since she was a young girl.  It shows.   As they say, practice, practice…Language barrier or not, there was a very personal connection for Brenda and it was fun to watch.

I loved the boats we saw.  No, not enough posts about boats for a blog dedicated to sailing but hey, not bad for a “land trip”.  So much color.  In a world of “plastic boats” these were very refreshing. And octopus.  The lovely pottery jars that they catch them in. Watching the fisherman unload bins of octopus, or should I say octopi?And, best of all, me eating them.  Yum…  What’s the world coming to when we take pictures of our meals? I loved the food and wine.  Perhaps the most memorable glass of wine for us was sitting on the wall of an ancient castle in Lisbon with wine we purchased from a “food cart” called ‘Wine with a View”.   Not something you’d see in New York, that’s for sure.   Imagine buying wine on the street from a cart?  You can not beat this view. 
Yes, food, it was terrific.  Better than that was the scenery that went along with the food.  This nighttime view in Porto was the best.  Wine, cheese, olives and bread.  What a magnificent evening. We stayed in some really amazing inns like this one that had been in the same family for several hundred years.  The “barn” was 900 years old.  That’s several times older than our country.  And the family that owned it treated us like family and even gave us a wonderful bottle of port while we were there. When we left they all lined up on the front porch for a family picture. I do hope that they visit us here in CT someday.  We’d like that very much. And the Douro valley in very northern Portugal.  Breathtaking.  The place we stayed here was on the top of a mountain and had been in the same family since the 1700s.  That’s hard for me to relate to.  My house was built in the 1970s.

The Douro valley is in northern Portugal and by early November it was beginning to get cold.  However, with all the walking we did we managed to stay warm while we were out.  We did a LOT of walking each day or our trip.

We just loved walking through the vineyards.  The highlight of our visit to Douro was our picnic in the vineyard.  Yes, perfect. Yes, we had a great visit to Portugal.  Even with a few rainy days thrown in. I could go on all day about what fun we had but it’s sufficient to say that Portugal is worth the trip.  The scenery, food and people.  Really great.

Well, enough of Portugal.  Time to think about sailing and it won’t be long till we are aboard Pandora.  I won’t think about the fact that St Mary’s is currently in the 30-40 degree range.  That’s cold.  I am told that it’s not normally that cold.

Let’s hope not.  We are trying to avoid winter, after all.

This is more like it.  Blue waters and warm sunshine. Yes, that’s what we want.   Our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.Wish us luck.  

It’s Tuesday morning here in Lisbon and its our LAST day in Portugal; we fly home tomorrow.

It’s been a great trip and it’s hard to believe that a month has gone by since landing here in mid October.  Yes, we are certainly living in a different lifetime from when I was working when we measured vacations in increments of weeks or most often, days.  I have to say that I am liking this lifetime.  Yes, I like it a lot.

As a cap off to our trip Brenda’s old friend Leslie from England flew down to spend a 24 hour whirlwind visit with us on Sunday.  Although they had not seen each other in seven years, they struck up again as if it had only been a month; two girls having a great time, with a token male in tow.

This photo just about says it all.  Happy friends, in the rain.We walked all over Lisbon, in the rain, (It was, in case the umbrellas didn’t tip you off.) for the entire day yesterday and drank our share of wine.  We are in Portugal aren’t we?  Remember that they say “if it’s a meal without wine, it must be breakfast”.  Yes, that has worked for us.   I will say that the “girls” somehow managed to cover days of talking in just a bit longer than 24 hours and it was a lot of fun to watch them together and they did their best to make me feel part of the conversation.  It’s a good thing that I am firmly in touch with my “feminine side”.

We went out for a terrific lunch in an overpriced tourist restaurant and I had octopus, the best yet.  Yum…  Brenda didn’t want a taste at all.  She isn’t too fond of the “sucker thing”.   Good.  No need to share anyway. How about that pool of olive oil it was served in? Yes, that’s Portuguese cooking.  Lots of olive oil used here.  Fabulous.

We walked much of the day, rain or not, like the three tourists that we were.   Along the way we stopped for coffee to dry off.  It was very nice day.

Lisbon looks wonderful in the rain from under the big umbrellas at the sidewalk cafes.  Notice the intricate tile work on the sidewalk.   That sort of detail work is all over Portugal.  I particularly enjoy the contrast of old and new, especially when they are perfectly color coordinated like the trolley and building.   Love the little motorized carriages.  Everything looks so clean and new, well not new exactly, but it looks great in the rain.  Lisbon is a remarkably clean city, actually. It’s going to be tough to leave Portugal as we have had so much fun here during our visit.  However, I am very much looking forward to being home again, at least for a bit, until we rejoin Pandora for the winter in Florida.  I hear it’s near freezing in CT.  And the lawn.  Well, I don’t want to think about that today…

Brenda and Leslie were very gracious when I muscled myself between them and asked for a photo moment.  Nice picture I think.  Well, I had better wrap this up as it’s our last day in Portugal and time’s a wasting.   We are tourists after all, and even though we have been here a month, THERE’S ONLY ONE MORE DAY and tourists don’t waste a moment.

Off we go.

It’s Saturday morning and we have what is arguably the nicest room yet here at Cabecas do Reguengo near the town of Portalegre in central Portugal. Their site is very interesting if you read Portuguese, that’s great.  If not, check out their site anyway and click on “EN”, for English, on the upper right of the home page. One way or the other, it’s a very interesting spot and the story behind it is particularly unique as the owner is a retired ballet dancer.

Really nice room.The bathroom is marvelous and marble.  The picture does not do it justice.This is the view that we woke up to today.  Not bad for a rainy day.   The siting of the building, new this year, is very well thought out.  The hotel is a completely modern design and yet looks right at home among the older homes dotting the nearby landscape. They also have a vineyard on the property and the wine is very nice.  We liked the white as it’s more full bodied than most Portuguese wines, more like a California with a fair amount of oak.  Very nice. It’s obvious that the hand of an artist was behind it all.  What a view to wake up to, infinity pool and all.  Yesterday we drove the 4.5 hours south from northern Portugal where we had spent much of the last two weeks.  This is our final stop prior to returning to Lisbon on Sunday where we will spend the last few days of our trip before we return to the U.S.  I expect that we’ll fine some fun things to do to occupy us until the 12th.

As a special treat, Brenda’s friend Leslie is flying in from England to spend the night with us on Sunday.  I expect that the “girls” will be up to all hours as they have not seen each other for years.   It’s a good thing that we have two rooms as I am sure that they will be up all night talking.  “Brenda? Leslie?, is it bedtime yet? I need sleep…”

Anyway, the ride yesterday took us from the mountainous north of Portugal where vineyards and olive trees dominate the landscape to this area where it’s much more postural with cows, sheep and rolling hills.    After days of terrifying switchbacks and steep drop-offs, it’s nice to again be in a “less dramatic” area.

This video is of the white knuckle run down the road from our inn high up on the mountain in the Doruo valley to the village of Pinhao down near the river.  Trust me that this video doesn’t do justice to the nail biting around hairpin turns, all the way.This town isn’t on the itinerary of most tourists as it’s overshadowed by some of the more dramatic destinations such as Sintra, with huge castles looming over quaint villages. Never the less, it’s lovely here but the attraction for us was the tapestry museum and workshop, one of the best in Europe, a place that Brenda, a tapestry artist herself,  just had to see.  We visited it yesterday and it was indeed fascinating.  I’ll post one shot of a major piece, and it’s huge and quite impressive.   That’s Brenda to the left.  Big piece…The level of detail is really impressive.  However, I’ll leave the details to Brenda who will no doubt write about it in her blog soon. More to come on that.

On our last day in Casal de Loivos, perched on the side of a mountain, we decided to head out for another walk in the vineyards for a picnic.  Years ago, when Brenda and I were in college together, we used to picnic with wine, cheese and bread.  Our outing brought back memories from another lifetime.  Nice memories for sure but I very much enjoy being a “grownup”.

Anyway, we collected the items for lunch the day before in shops in the nearby village so we were ready to go.  What a great time we had in spite of the light drizzle.  Actually, after hiking up the mountain we were plenty warm and happily we found a beautiful olive tree to sit under with our legs dangling over an ancient stone wall on the side of, you guessed it, a vineyard.  Rain?  What rain?  That’s just dew…  It was a perfect moment.

We had a very nice spread of local wine and all.  I even remembered to bring a cork screw.   Good thing or I would have had to whack the bottle against a rock to open it.   Editor:  However, notice the “fine crystal” to the right of the bottle. Oops, I forgot the glasses.  Not to worry, I’ll cut up a water bottle, with a cheese knife. (Don’t try this at home, Professional wineglass maker in residence)  I used the top part of the bottle as it almost looks like a wine glass, if a bit tippy. Brenda took the bottom.  Besides, it held more.  Cheers!  Big smile, even before my first sip.   Perhaps it was the altitude. What a lovely spot to picnic, legs dangling over a stone wall. The olive trees, laden with fruit almost ready to harvest, were such a wonderful silver grey green. And the ancient grape vines, ready for a winter nap.  Haunting.We walked further up the mountain flanked by beautiful stone walls. Along the way we came upon a “mature” women cutting old growth from vines in a vineyard (yes, lots of vineyards there) and putting them on a fire.  We stopped to talk.  There was lots of “talking at each other” us in English and her in Portuguese but not much was accomplished.  I have no idea what she said but she said it in the nicest possible way.  The haze from others burning vines hung over the valley like a fog.  What a day.  Perhaps this shot of late season grapes still on the vine says it best. Beautiful and so peaceful. Here in Portugal, it’s all about the grapes, and wine.  They are very proud of their wine.  Yes, wonderful wines.  And a great country to visit.  We chose well, coming to Portugal.

And where we are staying now for a few days?  Brenda chose particularly well.

Yes, perfect.