Sail Pandora

It’s Sunday morning and it’s been a long time since my last post.  So why is that Bob, you ask?

Well, it’s a long story of computer neglect and I won’t bore you with the details except to say that it’s all better now, mostly.   It seems that my computer, in spite of virus protection etc, had accumulated it’s share of problems over the last few years so I finally “bit the bullet” and took it to a repair place here in Nassau.  Yes I know, it doesn’t sound like a good idea to let someone “have their way” with my life in a country where the video stores openly sell pirated copies of first run movies for $5.00.  Oh well, I left my computer for a few days and magically, all seems to be better now.

So, we have been here since Wednesday I think (time seems to be a bit less well defined here when the water and air are in the low 80s) and we have been touring the area.

On Monday, we expect to head east to the Exuma islands, about 35 miles from here.  Our son Christopher is also due to join us tomorrow for ten days.  We are very excited.  His flight from Thailand, where he has been for the last month, takes him half way around the world and will take something like 75 travel hours, including layovers, some 12 hours long.  His itinerary takes him to these hotspots beginning in Chaing Mai then on to Bangkok, Taipei, Osaka, JFK NY,  Washington DC, Miami and finally here in Nassau where we will meet him in a rental car at the airport.  I wonder how jet lag feels after three days of travel? I hope I’ll never know.

Imagine what fun it is to sleep on planes and airport chairs or three days or more?  Oh, to be young…   I expect he will catch up on a bit of sleep when he’s aboard Pandora.

Nassau is a fun place to visit and we have enjoyed our time here.  Although it’s not, in my opinion, the “real Bahamas”.  For my money, to be out in the more rural islands is preferable to the bustle of the city, here in Nassau.   After a few days “on the hook” or anchor, we opted to come into a marina, where we have been for the last few days.  Amazingly, we ran into a few other couples that we have known for some time and met elsewhere.  It’s a small world.  

Nassau is a city of great contrast from the large poor local population to the constant stream of cruise ships and private yachts that come and go constantly.  However, if you are looking for a glitzy spot to visit there is nothing better than the Atlantis casino across the harbor from our marina.

Brenda and I took our dink over to Atlantis a few days ago to have lunch in one of their restaurants and and enjoyed our visit.  The places was mobbed with tourists from all walks of life and the casino floor was as gaudy and noisy as any I have been to over the years.  I have to say that to be walking through a huge hotel did remind me of my working days.  I can’t say that I miss it at all.

Anyway, it was fun to see something so different.  The outdoors area of the hotel is so polished that it was quite a sight.  This shot shows just how “over the top” the place is.  The huge yachts were a sight as well.  The market umbrellas really set the mood.Brenda and I also got a Bahamas cell phone yesterday although it took a pretty good walk to find the BATELCO store.  After what seemed like FOREVER we now have a working cell phone.  I plan on using it to call my mother.  It was ironic that the store was on Shirley Street as that’s my mom’s name.  Perhaps someone was trying to tell me something.  This sign make it clear to me.  “Bob, call your mom!”.  Will do.  I did.The other night Brenda and I had dinner with the son of the chef at the Essex Yacht Club.  Brent is in the Marines and is stationed at the American Embasy here in Nassau.  It was fun to hear about his life here and he also took us for a drive around Nassau and to see where he lives.  His post here will last a year and then he will transfer somewhere else.  It will be fun to stay in touch.    He’s a nice guy.    He even brought us “official” American embassy shirts?  Double nice guy. Yesterday Brenda and I went for a long walk, longer than we planned and WAY longer than Brenda planned, and visited a number of great spots.   Along the way we stopped at Greycliff hotel in Nassau.  It’s a beautiful historic hotel, supposedly some 200 years old.  We spent some time around the pool.  What a beautiful oasis in the bustling city. While we were there we met this very nice young women, from South Africa.  She had some time off from her job on one of the big cruise ships.  She had grown up on a farm in South Africa.  Very interesting.

We also visited a local distillery for a rum tasting and some lunch.   Yes, it was early in the day so we had just a small taste of their rums.  You must believe me…  What a beautiful spot.  I guess the rum business is going well.  Wonderful colorful buildings. And, yet another picture of me and Brenda.  I guess the above and this shot are sort of like “before and after”.  Now you see us. Above you don’t. The government buildings are pretty here.  Grand, actually. However, once you are out of the “down town” area, it gets really poor very quickly.  I understand that tourists have no business wandering out of town.  Not safe.  However, in town there is substantial police presence.  And, they are very natty.   Internet coverage is a bit challenging for us here.  I signed up for a service here in the harbor but it didn’t work well at all.  To get this posted, Brenda and I visited a local Starbucks (yes, they have them even here) and used their internet connection.   With a purchase, you get an hour of time on the internet. Quick, finish the post.  No time for distractions.  Actually, as I am finishing up I had to buy another coffee as my time had run out.  At least I can type faster with more caffeine.  Faster but with more mistakes. 

As you can imagine, they do a great business selling coffee so folks can check their e-mail. 

So mom, are you there?  We’re still here…

It’s Monday mid morning and we are sailing along with a gentle breeze on our way to Nassau from Chub Cay, a distance of about 50 miles.  Actually, the engine has gotten a good workout since our arrival back in Florida and today is the first time that the sails have been out since my arrival in Florida way back in November. 

Since arriving in the Bahamas a few days ago we have hung out in Chub Cay, about 40 miles NW of Nassau.  We decided to stay put for a few days to wait for a weather window to make the run and stop in Nassau, along the way, in part because our son Christopher will be joining us there for a ten day visit.

Christoper is currently in Thailand decompressing from his graduate studies at Columbia.   It seems that he spent, by his count, something like 500 weeks on physics and is now ready for a change.  Yeah, no kidding.  So, how about heading to Thailand from New York City for a change of scenery?  Yep, that’s a change.

Anyway, he’s still not quite ready to re-enter the real world so is flying from Bangkok to JFK in NY and then on to Nassau where he will hook up with us.  That’s three non stop days of traveling so it will be interesting to see just how cranky and pooped he is when he arrives.  After he arrives on Thursday, we plan on making a run to Allen Cay at the northern end of the Exuma chain, home of ancient iguanas, the only indigenous population in the Bahamas.  This island was one of our first landfalls in the Bahamas last year so it will be fun to go back.  I have been using this photo as my Facebook photo since last year.  These critters are pretty fierce looking but they are quick to run away if you approach them.   They love to get handouts from visitors.  So much for wild but I wouldn’t want to try and pet one.

The closer you get, the fiercer they look.   I’ll bet that Christopher will love to see these guys. Yesterday we moved from one harbor on Chub to another and visited a little marina on the eastern shore.  It’s run by a Bahamian named Howard.  It’s clear that he works hard at keeping the modest place up and I have to think that running a business like that must be pretty challenging.  The place is simple but well kept.  I would have a tough time being in such an out of the way spot year round.   Like so many building in the islands, it’s brightly painted. We dropped by for a drink at the bar and took a mooring for the night.  We were the only folks in the bar and only one of three boats visiting.  We generally don’t take moorings as we prefer to use our own anchor.  However, the bottom there is pretty grassy and my Bruce anchor hook well into weed.  I haven’t run into much of a problem in the Bahamas south of Nassau but the northern areas are pretty weedy.  Perhaps it’s time for a different anchor. 

In the early evening a small skiff with some locals came by and began diving just off of his dock.  They had hand spears and kept swimming down, time after time.  After a few tries they came up with a good size lobster and then another.  Howard told me that some years ago a few pieces of machinery had been sunk off of the dock to provide hiding places for fish and lobsters.  These artificial “reefs” were actually an old pickup truck and a few pieces of heavy equipment.  Great idea as any sort of obstruction attracts plenty of sea-life. 

Had we stayed for another day I would have had to try my hand at spearing a lobster.

Speaking of diving, yesterday I dragged out my “hooka” compressor, an electric air compressor and long hose that allows me to stay underwater as long as needed.  I hook this unit up to my portable generator  for power.   By having this unit and long air hose, I can dive under the water to clean the bottom, something that has to be done periodically.  The process took me about an hour as it hadn’t been done since leaving Essex CT back in October.

The water here is so clear that you can see at least 100’ so it’s easy to see any “wildlife” that comes near.  Generally you don’t see much but yesterday there were two large 8’ long sharks that kept cruising by.  This is a not-so-great shot of one that kept coming very close to the boat.  Trust me when I say that he was really close, and BIG!  I am pretty sure that they weren’t the harmless nurse sharks. i say this becaues,  at one point, he/she came up to the surface and opened his mouth, I guess to take a gulp of air.  I saw lots of teeth, something that nurse sharks don’t have.  Anyway, I decided it would be prudent to wait a while before getting in the water to clean the hull.  After a while they wondered off so I decided to go in.  However, I did ask Brenda to stand watch and to tap on the deck if she saw anyone coming toward us.  Just in case, of course.

Alas, I was able to get the hull cleaned with no loss of fingers or worse.   However, I was still surrounded by plenty of observers.   A barracuda, perhaps 3’ long kept an eye on me the whole time, albeit from a discrete distance.  A 2’ remora, those fish with a sucker on the top of their heads, kept me company the entire time and he was never more than two to three feet away.  Pretty neat, actually.  A small ray with a larger fish tagging along kept cruising nearby and a very small and colorful puffer fish was also hanging around the entire time.

Happily, no sharks.  However, I must have stopped scrubbing at least 100 times to do a 360 scan to be sure that there wasn’t anyone thinking of making a snack of me.

After I finished I spied this beauty passing by to head into the marina.  We were too cheap to spring for the marina and anchored outside.  I expect that the owner of this yacht isn’t cleaning the bottom himself.  Actually, they had a “scout” boat heading in front of them to chart the depth to be sure that they wouldn’t run aground. Well, I am not totally cheap as Brenda and I did go into the marina to have lunch one day.  It was pretty good.

While we were ashore enjoying lunch, I took this photo of Pandora anchored off of the resort beach.  What a beautiful spot.  We’ll have to come back next year.  Perhaps we will spring for a visit to the marina too. So, here we are today making our run to Nassau where we will hang out for a few days.  Interestingly, the chef at Essex Yacht Club, Michael, has a son in the Marines, Brent, and he happens to be stationed in Nassau at the American Embassy.  We hope to connect with him while we are there.  Fingers crossed.

Our plan in Nassau will be to spend a few days till Christopher arrives.  We will rent a car to tour the island.  Meeting Christoper at the airport as he exits the terminal is also high on our list.  Nassau isn’t really that great a place to visit compared with everywhere else in the Bahamas but we are very much looking forward to a few days there.  Besides, one of the best groceries in the Bahamas is there so that’s good too.

For now, I think I’ll go back up into the cockpit to watch the water go by.  Oh yeah, the water here is really deep, over 7,000 feet actually.  And the color, the most perfect color of indigo blue.   Indigo water with the sun sparkling and an easy breeze.  Perfect.Yes, indeed, it’s good to be under sail again.  

It’s Saturday morning and we are here in the Bahamas at last.   We are anchored in a little harbor on the western side of Chub Cay,  an island in the Berry Island chain, about 40 miles northwest of Nassau.  It’s a beautiful cove with clear water.  It’s great to be here, finally.

We left Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday afternoon and headed out into the Atlantic and Gulf Stream headed over to the Bahamas.  The conditions were very benign with calm seas and only a light wind on the nose.  I would have preferred to sail and avoid 19 hours of motoring but it’s hard to get good sailing conditions that aren’t a a bit too exciting for Brenda.  Further, we would have likely had to wait a week or more to find an opportunity to cross with favorable winds.  Given those options, we bolted.  Good choice as here we are.

Last year, we were able to sail and it turned out to be a bit much for our first run to the Bahamas with fairly rough conditions and certainly more than Brenda had signed up for.   We had too much wind much of the time and were hit with a number of thunderstorms overnight.  Not great.  So, this year I promised her that we would try for an easy crossing and that’s what we got.

In crossing the Gulf Stream, you have to compensate for the current that pushes you north by steering toward a point south of where you want to end up and let the current sweep you north.   That point is calculated based on how much time you expect to be in the gulf stream and then estimating the average speed of the current.   So, I calculated a spot and adjusted our compass heading and off we went.

“So, what happened, where did you end up when you exited the Gulf Stream?”  Thanks for asking.  Actually, we came out within a 1 ½ miles of where I had hoped, just about perfect.  And, that’s after running about 8 hours and about 50 miles.  Pretty good, I think, actually.  At the center of the stream the current was pushing us north at about 5 knots.  That’s a huge amount of water moving north.

After crossing the stream, we entered the Grand Bahama Bank around 9 pm on Thursday.  It’s pretty amazing to be running along and see the depth go from about 2,500 ft deep to 25 in less than a mile which is what happens as you enter the banks.  So, after crossing onto the banks, we headed the rest of the way overnight in water that varied from 25’ to  15’ deep, typical depth for much of the Bahamas.  The water is so clear that you can easily see the bottom much of the time.   The moon was half full so the night was bright.  However, once it set, the stars were out in full splendor.  With no city light around you could see many more stars than what you’d normally enjoy.

We were also treated to a wonderful sunset and sunsets are typically pretty amazing here in the Bahamas, as we crossed the gulf stream.   Of course, we were out of sight of land so to see water all around you and these amazing clouds was a treat.

A very important event for us, especially for Brenda, was to spread her father’s ashes in the Gulf Stream.  Brenda’s father died three years ago this May and it was his wish that his ashes be spread out on the ocean.   Jack, Brenda’s father, loved the sea but he really didn’t like cold weather so it was very fitting that Brenda released his ashes in 80 degree water on such a beautiful day.  Brenda wrote a very touching post that says more than I can say about this special moment.

On a more pedestrian note, along the way we spied many Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish.  These are very unique jellyfish are about 6″ long and float along with a “sail” that pokes above the water.   I am unaware of any other jellyfish quite like these.   As pretty as they are “don’t touch” is the word as they are quite venomous.  The “business end” is below the surface with yards of poisonous filaments that catch small fish and other little creatures that the MOW feed on.  Even washed up on the beach, to touch one of these will cause a nasty sting.  Here’s what they look like drifting along.  Quite pretty actually, like a translucent bubble. The entire run from Ft. Lauderdale to here at Chub took about 19 hours and Brenda and took turns keeping watch as we motored along.  We took turns throughout the night but there wasn’t much to watch for as we didn’t pass a single boat overnight once we were on the banks. 

We checked into customs in Chub.  I took our dink ashore to a local marina where I retrieved the paperwork.  After filling it out I got a ride in an old pickup truck to the airport where I met with the customs and immigration officers.   To call it an airport is different than what we have in the US.  The “terminal” was a very small building on a single runway.   There is no control tower and the terminal is just for customs.  No snack shop or Starbucks here.  The process of clearing in was pretty straight forward but did involve lots of forms and plenty of loud “stamping” with ink pads and official looking seals.   $300 later we had our cruising and fishing permits and our three month visas and I went back to the marina with my “guide” Dave, a local Bahamian.  Pretty simple actually.   I should also mention that the airport has only one paved strip and its only long enough for small planes to land.  While I was there a great looking float plane landed.  The owner came in to clear customs too and then flew out again to head to his own private island in the Exumas, about 75 miles south.  We have visited near his island, Over Yonder Cay.  A pretty wealthy guy I’d say.

Last evening as Brenda and I were sitting up on Pandora’s fore-deck enjoying  an “adult beverage”, a gin and tonic, actually, a small boat with two Bahamas fisherman motored up to sell freshly caught lobsters and conch.   The Bahamas lobsters are very similar to our Maine lobsters, but without the big claws and conch are a really big snail.The fisherman stay out for weeks at a time and live on a somewhat larger boat while fishing during the day.   They catch lobster and chonch buy diving down in the clear water to find their catch on the bottom in the clear water.   They don’t use air tanks, just free dive down to grab their prey.  Believe me when I say that this is hard work.    Pretty tough guys.   We were happy to buy three lobsters and baked them for dinner.  They were delicous.

Having not gotten much sleep the prior night during our crossing, Brenda and I crashed early.  We were plenty tired.

Well, we’re finally here and the weather is terrific.  Our plan today is to visit the BATELCO (Bahamas Telephone) office today and sign up for a Bahamas cell phone to use for the time we are here.   Land lines are not used here and everyone has cell phones.  In many ways, the service here is better than in the US.  We will also get a chip for our i-pad so we can receive and send e-mail.

I had better sign off now as I think I need some coffee to wake up

Oh yea, as I was finishing up this post we had a mild rain squall that lasted all of 10 minutes.  The squall featured a neat little funnel cloud, sort of like a miniature tornado but over water.  They are generally harmless.   The rainbow left behind after the squall lasted longer than the rain. Perhaps we should head over to that island to retrieve our pot of gold.  If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.

It’s Thursday morning and yes, indeed, as planned, we are heading out today for an overnight run to Chub Cay in the Bahamas.  We plan on leaving mid day, after stopping for fuel and water, to cross the Gulf Stream and then on across the Bahama Banks.  Brenda is a bit nervous about being out overnight but the weather is expected to be very mild with hardly any wind at all.  Under power, we will push along over smooth water for nearly 20 hours to get there.

As we don’t want to arrive in Chub in the dark, we can’t really leave until mid day to early afternoon.  At 6-7kts boat speed and the 150 mile distance, we can’t leave too soon lest we get there before daybreak.  However, if we go too fast, we can always slow down as we get closer to ensure a daylight arrival. You really don’t want enter a harbor in the Bahamas in the dark, as there aren’t many markers for channels, you have to be able to “read” the water.

Interestingly, the best way to tell the water depth is to observe the water color with the darker blue meaning deeper water.  This photo gives a good example of what this looks like.  Note the deep blue water where the boats are moored.  That’s pretty deep and the white area, very shallow, perhaps less than two feet deep.   Pandora “draws” just under 6′ so to stray into the white areas would mean a sudden stop.

This morning Brenda and I went for a walk before it got hot.  For those of you in New England, it’s plenty hot here, in the upper 80s I’d guess by mid day.  We took a ride to shore in our dink for a coffee run.

Along the way, in the middle of downtown Ft. Lauderdale, we spied a whole neighborhood of iguanas lounging around waiting for something tasty to present itself.  They look pretty fierce and the biggest ones are up to 4′ long.  It’s a good thing they don’t get bigger than that as I can only imagine what sort of mischief they would get into if they were 100lbs or more.  They do look fierce though and I don’t think that they would take kindly to anyone disturbing their vigil. It seems that the largest ones had the best real estate.  I guess that’s what life is all about.

It looks like he, and it’s definitely a “he”, is behind bars.  Not so.  It’s just that he happens to be on the other side of the fence.  What’s more remarkable is that he spends his time right across the street from a major shopping mall.   Where else in American can you see a Macy’s and Iguanas at the same time? Some of the smaller ones were spending their time up in a tree.  This guy was one of perhaps a dozen hanging out in a single tree over the water.   Looks pretty comfy, doesn’t he?Well, signing off for now.  Next post, Chub Cay.  Wish us luck.

It’s Wednesday evening, dinner’s done and the dishes put away.  So now my thoughts are turning to our crossing to the Bahamas tomorrow on Thursday afternoon.

The original plan was to leave Ft. Lauderdale early on Thursday morning and clear in to the Bahamas at Bimini, a mere 50 miles from Florida.  However, when it comes to weather, it’s up to God to decide and he has determined that the “window” for getting to the Bahamas is going to be short.   This means that instead of a more leisurely run to Bimini, a run of about 50 miles, followed by a second day run to Chub Cay, another 75 miles, we will have to do a run to Chub from Ft. Lauderdale as a single overnight run.  The problem is that the “benign weather we want for the crossing will only last for a short time and if we stop in Bimini along the way, the weather will likely turn against us.

The problem is that the “prevailing” or “normal” winds for this area are from the east and that’s the direction we need to go.  You can’t sail into the wind so that means that we will need to motor all of the way.  That’s not bad except when the wind is blowing hard against us.  And, believe me, we don’t want to motor into strong easterlies. That would make Brenda sad.  And, we don’t want a sad Brenda.  Not good at all.

As Pandora’s normal cruising speed will only allow us to complete a run of about  75 miles in a single day of daylight, we will have to make this run overnight in order to make about double that distance.  Brenda’s not too keen about being under way in the overnight hours, but it makes sense given the weather.  While we are expecting light winds and a motor boat ride, there are supposed to be strong winds filling in from the east (a bad direction) by Friday afternoon.  If we were to stop at Bimini instead of continuing overnight, we would miss the light winds and end up stranded at Bimini for days, perhaps longer while waiting for good conditions to return.  Last winter our friends stopped in Bimini and were stuck there for a full week.  We’d like to avoid that.

As we want to be further along on our trip without a long wait in Bimini, we decided to just go for it and motor overnight.

So, the plan is for us to get fuel and water on Thursday morning here in Ft Lauderdale and head out shortly after noon.  Given a speed of about 7kts, we should be able to complete the run by mid morning on Friday.

I have made a reservation at Chub Cay marina, the only business in Chub Cay, for Friday night so it will be fun to clear customs there.  I understand that customs is located at the airport and that the marina staff will take us there via golf cart to visit the customs officials.  That should be an experience.  So many of the islands in the Bahamas have only a few inhabitants and the only water and electricity available is precious and made on the island itself.  Not like the US where electricity and water is taken for granted. 

Today we finished provisioning Pandora with all the food we could stuff in the fridge.  Our fridge is more like an icebox with a small freezer that will hold about 25lbs of frozen meat.  The fridge is a top opening deal so it’s more like diving for food than in a normal refrigerator at home.   And, don’t forget, that all the electricity for keeping food is made by our solar panels.  In both the fridge and freezer you have to eat your way from top to bottom, very unlike in a home fridge where you can see about everything at once when you open the door.

This is a photo of our solar panels which measure about 8′ by 8′ and produce about 10 times the power of a car battery each day.  That’s not a lot of power by  “home standards” but the equipment is so efficient that this is still a lot of electricity and plenty for our purposes.

This photo was taken on the CT River not far from our “summer home” and clearly shows the solar panels on the top of the “bimini”.  Anyway, wish us luck on our trip.  I hope to post again once we clear in in Chub.

It’s hard to believe that it’s possible to pass through 40 miles of water and have to go through over 20 bridges, and to do all of that in one day.  As Iwrite this it’s Tuesday evening and while it’s not even 9:00, Brenda’s snoozing.  It may seem odd to you but motoring along all day and constantly having to adjust the speed of Pandora to arrive at a given bridge in time for them to open, is very tiring. 

In this part of Florida, the bridges are very close together and all are too low for Pandora with her 65’ tall mast, to get under.   As a result, we have to time our approach to each bridge so that we arrive at the appointed opening time.  Some only open up once per hour, some each half hour and some on the quarter hour.  The problem is that there is barely enough time to get from one to the next in the time alowed.  Pandora’s comfortable cruising speed is about  7 knots, about the equivalent of 7.7 MPH.  This isn’t very fast but typical for a boat such as ours.   This is a picture of one of the better looking bridges.  The bridge operators are plenty friendly but they won’t stray from their appointed schedule by much more than a minute and, if you are even two minutes late, you will have to wait till the next opening which will be at least 30 minutes later.  That doesn’t sound like much but you can loose hours in a day and spend a lot of time circling in the water with the boat while waiting for the next opening.

Happily, we timed most of our bridges pretty well and made it all the way to Ft. Lauderdale where we are now in a day.  40 miles doesn’t sound like much but when you combine that with so many bridges, it’s a long way and plenty of tiring as we had to be “on” every minute.

Enough about the difficulties of bridges.    At least it’s not snowing.  Did I mention that it was in the 80s and sunny?  I probably shouldn’t have.

This is the view that greeted me today when the sun rose.  Pretty nice. As we passed along the waterway, we spied an endless number of magnificent yachts.  I feel pretty good about Pandora but she’s a canoe compared to these babies.   This one is classified as an “expedition yacht” which means that she can go about anywhere in the world.  Some of these yachts even have their own submarines aboard.  We even saw one with a helicopter perched on the back deck.  Hard to believe that one person owns these. 

This beautiful yacht is more for coastal cruising as opposed to ocean crossing.  I also saw this one in Newport RI a few years ago.  She really gets around. This sailboat, Rambler, is quite famous on the ocean racing circuit.  She wins many races  and has competed in some of the world’s most difficult events.  In the “Fastnet” race off of England, a few years ago, she her keel fell off and she turned over in the water instantly. Pretty amazing boat though.  She’s about 100’ long. The keel is a massive lead part under the boat that helps balance the boat and provide resistance to the wind in the sails.  Without it, any sailboat will turn turtle right away.  Pandora weighs about 25,000 pounds and nearly 10,000 pounds of the weight is in the lead keel. Fortunately, when Rambler turned over she didn’t sink and was salvaged so she could race again.  Also, thankfully, none of the crew was hurt.  The odds of a keel falling off are very slim and thankfully, no boat like Pandora has ever lost a keel.

Along the waterway we passed one amazing home after another.  Some tacky and some grand but all really expensive.   I wonder what folks to do earn that much money.  

This is a typical home and we saw plenty.This one was particularly impressive.  Quite modern.This earth mover was toiling away on a little sand island.  I have no idea how they got it out there as it was perched on the mound and yet there was no way to get to shore without going in the water.  I doubt that they float well.  I guess he will have to pile up sand to make his own island all the way to shore.With all the sunshine here in Florida, you’d expect to see solar panels.   We didn’t really see any but did see these wind generators or mills on the top of an apartment tower.  They look pretty wacky but were churning away making electricity.  Pandora doesn’t have a wind generator but she does have large solar panels that supply all of her electrical needs when we are at anchor.   The panels put out enough power each day to run our refrigerator, freezer, computers etc along with enough left over to power our desalination unit which makes fresh water from salt water.  In the Bahamas, fresh water is very precious and if you don’t have your own desalinization equipment you have to purchase water for about $.50 a gallon. That may sound like a lot for water but believe me, it’s a lot cheaper than making your own as the equipment is very expensive.  However, cost aside, having enough fresh water is worth most anything to Brenda who loves here daily shower.  And remember, keeping Brenda happy is job one.  As they say “a happy wife makes for a happy ship”.  Works for me.

We are now anchored in a small harbor in Ft Lauderdale and tomorrow we will head out for some last minute shopping as it looks like we will be able to head over to the Bahamas on Thursday.   The wind will likely be light so it will be a motorboat ride.  That’s fine as Brenda prefers that to more exciting sailing.  We will likely make Bimini our first stop.  Bimini became famous as the winter home of Ernest Hemingway.   I guess they still have plenty of rum there.

Well, I had better wrap this up and get to bed myself as after going through 21 bridges today I am ready for 20 winks and now’s a good time for that.

It’s Sunday evening and the rest of the world is watching the Super Bowl.   Me, I am writing a blog post.  Sorry, but I was brought up in a sports agnostic house. Whatever.

Anyway.  It’s been three plus days since we arrived in Ft. Pierce and we have just about added all the provisions we can to Pandora so we are about ready to head out.  So, Monday morning, tomorrow, we will cast off the lines and begin to head south to Ft Lauderdale to stage ourselves for the run to the Bahamas.

I am a bit uncertain about what will happen when I back Pandora out of the slip in the morning as I fear that the prop will be fouled with barnacles given the fact that she has sat in the marina for three months.  I am also wondering how the slime etc on the hull will be.  However, if we are really slow when we leave, I’ll just have to anchor, get out the hooka compressor and go for a swim to clean off the hull. I did call a diver this afternoon to see if perhaps he could come by to clean the hull today but I didn’t hear back.  I am not surprised with the “big game” happening this evening.

Perhaps I’ll get lucky and he will call me early in the AM and stop by to scrub the hull.  If not, I’ll just have to do it myself.   Here’s a shot of me with all my gear from last year, about ready to clean things up.  Pretty amusing look, if you ask me.However, the water here in the marina isn’t nearly clean enough for me to risk a swim so if I have to do it myself, I’ll wait till we are out in more clear water.  It’s pretty easy to clean the hull as I just use a scotchbrite pad on a plastic handle.  It’s not that bad as long as the fouling isn’t too bad.

Here in the marina the water is pretty murky but there is lots of wildlife.  This manatee swam right by Pandora twice today.  Well, that’s how many times I saw her/him.   Not too pretty looking.  Supposedly, early explorers mistook these guys for mermaids.  They must have been pretty lonely to have mistaken one of these “sea cows” for nautical beauties.   This shot shows pretty clearly the whole deal.  They are about 8′ long.  This guy’s back was completely covered with algae too.  Not the spic and span skin of a dolphin and plenty sluggish swimmers.  No wonder they get struck by power boats so often.  Amazing creatures. And, these guys aren’t the only wildlife in the area.  There is a mangrove stand near the fuel dock that is the evening gathering place for hundreds of Ibis birds and a few pelicans.  In the dark the white birds look more like litter sprinkled on trees.  It’s amazing to watch them fly in from all over as the sun sets.  And, this pelican was perched on a piling in the marina just outside of the bar area.  I wonder if he was looking for some fish and chips.  It’s funny, but to me pelicans look pissed off.  “hey bud…who you lookin at?  Yes, I’m talkin to you.”Well, the plan is to head out early or, if we are lucky, to have the diver clean the bottom of Pandora to get off three months of slime before we head out.  I guess I’ll have to see if the diver calls me back first thing.

One way or the other, we hope to be on our way Monday morning.   Fingers crossed.

It’s Saturday morning and we are now in Ft Pierce, having arrived in the driving rain on Thursday afternoon. It was an enjoyable ride down from CT and didn’t seem nearly so long as the 1,000+ miles would suggest. By breaking up the trip and making it more like a week on the road, verses a single hard push south, we had time to adjust to a slower pace, if you can call moving south at 70 mph for hour after hour “slower”.

With virtually no traffic at any point once we were out of the NYC area, I guess you could call it slower or at least relaxing.  Now that we are here in Ft. Pierce, staying put for yet another few days sounds very appealing. Our $19/day rental car has come in handy and it’s been easy to say “OK, how about another day on that rental”.  Years ago, I would have pushed to get all of our errands done in a single day but now…

I spoke with Chris Parker, the weather router, on the radio today and he suggested that we might be able to cross to the Bahamas by mid week so I guess we will get moving on Sunday morning to head down the coast toward Ft. Lauderdale. (Remember that there’s a “where’s Pandora” button on the home page of this site where you can see exactly where we are most any time.)

Crossing to the Bahamas from Florida is easier from further south because you are working with the northern current rather than trying to fight it.  The current in the Gulf Stream runs as much as 5kts (about 5.5mph) toward the north, so in the day it takes to cross the stream, you get swept north quite a bit.  With that in mind, you have to aim further south than you would think in order to avoid missing your destination on the Bahamas side completely. 

So, I think that we will likely leave the marina in Ft Pierce on Sunday and begin making our way south via the ICW, on the inside as opposed to the ocean side. There are plenty of bridges to go through as we get closer to Ft. Lauderdale so it will take two days to make the 100 or so mile trip.  As you can imagine, the scenery along the waterway is very interesting and there are plenty of amazing homes packed along the shore.  Central Florida is certainly home to the 1% crowd.

I find that it’s plenty hard to get ready to leave Pandora for a few months and even harder when we return to her after she’s sat for some time unattended.  There is so much to do to get everything in place to head out again. You’d think that it would be easy to get the boat ready again after a few months away, especially since we have been doing this for years now.  However, it’s just not that easy because when things sit unattended, they don’t always work when you come back.  In spite of all my efforts in getting things “ship shape” when I left in November, there were bits of mildew here and there along with food in the fridge that I should have tossed but didn’t when I left. 

While we have a detailed list of provisions in a spreadsheet aboard, of all of the food and stores that we have stowed aboard Pandora, most of which was put aboard in CT, it seems that we are always a bit unsure of what we have and what’s now needed for our few months in the Bahamas. Shopping over there is uncertain at best as it’s a very rural country.

One particularly vexing example of trying to get everything aboard in preparation for a trip, is medications. While our list is not that long, it’s hard to convince the insurance company and pharmacy to fill orders for 4 months of prescriptions when they only want to send a 30 day supply. Prior to our departure from CT, we ordered several months and had them shipped here to the marina.  Alas, when we arrived, some of the items we had ordered were nowhere to be found.

The mail order pharmacy folks were happy to send the rest of the order, but it took an hour and a half of frustrating phone calls to get things resolved.  And, to make matters worse, we had to find a UPS store in Ft. Lauderdale to have them shipped to since we will only be here in Ft. Pierce for a few more days, not long enough for our order to get here.  However, we are certain that we will be to Ft. Lauderdale at some point prior to heading over to the Bahamas.  As you can see, it’s plenty difficult to resolve the logistics of not having a regular mailing address when you are moving from place to place on a boat. I can’t wait till all of these issues are settled and we are underway.

Our frustrations are not unique to Pandora as we had drinks last evening with another couple that we had met last winter who are also having a difficult time getting ready to head out.   And, in their case, it’s even tougher as when they leave the US they won’t be back for years as they are planning to go through the Panama Canal and across the pacific ocean on their circumnavigation.

It’s a long way around the world, believe me, at about 5mph, the speed of a cruising boat. To go around the world is about 25,000 miles and that takes a very long time when you go so slow. And that assumes that the wind is blowing from the right direction. 

As I wrote that last paragraph, I am struck by how normal their plans seem to us given the folks that we hang around with these days.  These are serious voyagers where taking boats across vast oceans is more of the norm.  Well, for me right now, I am more focused on just getting Pandora out of this marina so we can begin making our way over to the Bahamas, not far but it seems like a big move to us right now.

You’d think that just casting off the lines should be easy but it’s amazingly tough. While Pandora is not a big boat, there are an amazing number of details to attend to and places to loose things. Actually, without a detailed list, I expect that things could get lost for years. Pandora is 43’ long and 12’ wide. While that might sound big, believe me, it’s not. This is a schematic of what the boat looks like “down below”.  We sleep in the front bunk.This is what the main cabin looks like when things are “ship shape”.  Pretty nicel , we think. Think of spending time aboard a small cruising boat like Pandora as cramming into a spot about the size of a large bathroom with someone, for weeks at a time. Sounds confining? Perhaps, but the views are fantastic.  Here’s Pandora at a dock in Rum Cay last winter.  Pretty nice…Well, there are lots of chores to do today so I had better sign off and get to work or we will NEVER leave and that would be a bummer.

It’s Tuesday morning and Brenda and I are on our way south in a rental car, headed to Ft Pierce and Pandora. As I begin this post we are tooling along 95 south and have just entered Georgia.  The last few months have been an emotional whirlwind as my father’s health declined and we dealt with things that we had (thankfully) precious little experience with.

A very important step in all of this was to find a good place for my mother Shirley to move to and after several weeks of exploration, I found her a very nice apartment in an assisted living facility in East Haven CT.  Happily, the place is not too far from some of her friends of many years, which was important.  As an added bonus, her apartment, located on the third floor, has a commanding view of Long Island Sound, a piece of water that I have passed through so many times over the last 40 years of sailing.  So, one week ago we moved her from her apartment of nearly eight years to a nice new place.

Happily, my mother paid me the ultimate compliment a few days after she moved in when she told me that she liked her apartment and that I had chosen well.  Yahoo!!!  What more could a son ask for.  She’s the greatest.

When I told her that I was planning to abandon her to head out for three months in the Bahamas she thrilled me again by taking my hand and saying that after all of my hard work that I deserved to take a long trip.  Well, that made my little doggy day.  We’ll see how she feels about me ditching her after a few months.  Ditching her Bob?  Well, that’s exactly how I feel. I will say, in defense of myself, that the place is just lovely and with a lot of help from Brenda, her apartment is very well decorated .  Thank you Brenda!!! That’s not the first time I have uttered those words.  Yes, indeed, thank you Brenda.  

So, after leaving New England, and single digit temperatures, far behind, we are now in the deep south passing wetlands that so remind us of our trip south on the Intra-Coastal Waterway, the ICW, one year ago.

One of our favorite destinations on that trip was St Augustine and we plan to stay in a lovely historic inn, The Old City House Inn,  downtown in the historic district, for the next two nights before finishing our journey to Ft Pierce and Pandora later this week. Today we will have lunch with our friend Peter who recently sold his SAGA 43 after settling as a snowbird in St Augustine with his wife where they live for the winter and summers in Maine.  A few years ago they too were passing through St Augustine on their way south aboard Lumen, their SAGA and they loved the city so much they decided to buy a land home and settle here as their winter home.

Peter collects classic cars in a big way. Peter and his business partner own about two dozen cars. That’s a lot of cars. They have a website www.mainelineexotics.com.  Peter told me that his site is currently being updated but should be ready in just a few days.  I’d check back as he owns some really exotic cars.   Peter’s collection is clearly in a different league than ours.  However, Brenda and I do own a single classic.  A nice little, fully restored, red 1962 MGA Mk 11, one of the last of the MGAs built.  Big collection or not, owning even a single classic is just terrific.  Not a bad way to spend time enjoying New England summers when we aren’t out sailing in exotic places.  This is a view of our little car near our “summer home” in a beautiful cemetery overlooking the CT River.That’s as opposed to our “winter home”, Pandora.   Not much use for a convertible car in New England in the winter so that makes it a good time to head south in my book.

The last two days of driving south have been interesting, in boring sort of way, as we passed over mile after mile of highway, watching the late January landscape go from winter grey to the first pink buds of spring.  Yes, here in GA the buds on the branches are starting to swell in anticipation of warmer weather.  I can’t say that I have ever used the words “spring” and “January” in a single sentence.  I guess there’s a first time for everything.

My brother Bill has been driving this route for years as he delivered show horses to and from FL and the winter show circuit.  He too has marveled at the changes in temperature or seasons on his way back and forth, sometimes three times a week. He told me that one year he drove to FL and back thirty times.  Yikes.   He also mentioned that on one visit as he headed south, it was snowing hard as the light faded one evening and as the sun rose the next morning he was driving among palm trees.  Now, that’s a fast season change in just eight hours.

Speaking of Bill, as we headed south on Monday, just outside of Richmond VA, I called Bill and found that he was headed north in the same general area.  So, we talked on the phone for a short time, just long enough to wave to him as he raced past us going north as we headed south.  How amazing to actually see him pass us as we went by in the opposite direction.  Who’d expect to see pass a single particular truck on a 1,000 journey.  Well, it seemed pretty neat to me and Brenda.

Well, it’s now Wednesday morning and we are in St. Augustine.  Nope, I didn’t get my post done on the same day.  I’ll blame it on Internet trouble. 

It’s fun to visit friends along our travels and we met our friend Peter yesterday for lunch after arriving here in St. Augustine.  It was a treat as we only see him on occasion as we move up and down the East Coast.   These periodic visits with friends are very much a part of cruising aboard Pandora as acquaintances enter and leave our lives only to re-enter again, year after year.

Over the last few weeks the number of e-mails from friends like these have increased with questions about or plans and timing for crossing over to the Bahamas.   Just last week I spoke to Ted and Ginnie aboard Firecracker, another SAGA 43, when they were getting ready to head further south in anticipation for crossing to the Bahamas.  Yesterday I tried them again and the phone went immediately to voice mail, a sure sign that they are out of cell range and probably on their way to the Bahamas or already there.  As an interesting aside, Ted’s boat is called Firecracker as he was born on the 4^th of July.  It must be nice to have everyone shoot off fireworks on your birthday.

For those who have seen my blog over the last few years, you have seen reference to my “spot” GPS transponder that marks our location on a Google Earth map so our friends know where we are most any time.  I have even gotten “spot messages” from a few folks recently who want us to keep track of their travels too.  It’s fun to stay in touch with this “movable neighborhood”.  Great fun indeed.  Note that on my home page, there’s a “where’s Pandora” button.  When we are aboard, and we will be there soon, you can click on the link and see where we are.  I think that’s pretty neat.   We will make a point of “pushing the button” each day and more often that that when we are underway.

Oh, I should note that our room here is really quite cute.  Happily, Brenda approves too.  The inn is above a pretty little restaurant.  There’s only seven rooms.  Very quaint.  Each room is very different and ours has a tiny balcony overlooking the street. Nice view.  The only problem with the weather is that the ice storm that we were racing to avoid is now a rain storm here.  It’s in the low 40s and rainy.  Not perfect Florida weather.  However, it is January and warmer in a relative sort of way as the temps at home in CT are a somewhat less balmy low teens.

Yes, it’s getting warmer but only sorta so.  Well, it will be better soon as the weekend is expected to be in the 80s.  That’s good and just what I am looking for.

Bahamas, here we come.  Soon is not fast enough…

Speaking of boating and just for fun, here’s a short piece of a less than delicate way to bring a ship up to the shore.  It seems that this ship, after years of work on the English Channel, was to be scrapped in Turkey.  So…what better way to get her up on dry land than to drive her full speed and crash up onto the beach.  Not to subtle but efficient in a crash and bang sort of way.  Do not try this at home.

My family often jokes that my life for the last 35+ years with Brenda has been a series of desperate moves designed to help her enjoy her time aboard as much as I do.

So, do I think that this is a fair assessment?  Yes indeed, I have done pretty well except for the times, which might possibly have been too frequent, when she hasn’t enjoyed it.  It’s those not so fun times that our oldest son Rob refers to as “career limiting  moves” (CLMs).

Examples of CLMs include.. a day spent thrashing to windward.  CLM.  Nights spent at anchor with no wind and temperatures in the high 80s or worse.  CLM. Day after day of rain and nothing to do.  Well, you get the picture.

The good news is that after so many years of cruising with me, Brenda continues to spend months every year aboard.  That’s very good.  I guess that means that the good times outweigh the CLMs.  Good.  So, with that in mind, what am I planning as my next set of “desperate moves”?

Yes, that’s the burning question for me as we prepare to return to Florida and Pandora in a few week for our second visit to the Bahamas.  I do find self thinking “what next?”.    Will we go for a third season in the Bahamas next winter or branch out for something new?

We do enjoy the Bahamas very much.  What’s not to like about warm temperatures and chrystal clear water?  Yes, it’s pretty nice.

However, I know that Brenda really wants to visit places that have great architecture, art and restaurants.  The Bahamas have some of that but that’s not what they are known for.

Here’s an idea… Brenda majored in the classics.  Latin and Greek.  So, where can we go with Pandora where there’s lots of that sort of thing.  Yes, you guessed it. Europe, across the “Pond”.

Also, she I know that enjoys river cruising and our trip down the ICW last year was very enjoyable.   So, recently I mentioned the idea of taking Pandora on a canal tour from the English Channel all the way to the Med.  She loved the idea.  How cool is that?

So, I decided to do some preliminary research.  I found that there are some 5,000 miles of canals in France, most of which are deep enough to float Pandora, and the operative word is “most”.  This map shows just how extensive they are.  The dark blue colored canals are plenty deep to float Pandora, the lighter blue ones, just barely, I think.  I have contacted an expert on the subject and he seems to think that we can plow our way through the shallow parts and not get stuck.

This map shows just how extensive the network is.  Pretty amazing.  I am told that the part of the trip that is in central France will be the most challenging for our draft.  I guess we’d enter in Rouen and exit in Petit Rhone.  For now, I am keeping my fingers crossed regarding the “skinny water” in central France.  Besides, I don’t want to go fast anyway.  Too much to see along the way.

The site, www.french-waterways.com is a great source of information on the canals and the moderator/editor, Grehan, has been very responsive to my questions.  It is his opinion that with my 1.8m draft I should be able to push my way through the low spots and do fine everywhere else.  I guess I will need more information on that score but it’s an encouraging start.

I found this interesting video on the site.  It’s a first hand overview of what it’s like to go through a lock in France.  It’s amazing just how narrow the locks are.  Many of the locks are only 14′ wide and Pandora,with her 12′ beam will fit with about one foot on each side.  I tried to find other videos that showed the countryside but didn’t find quite what I was looking for.  I’ll continue to explore to find some worth sharing.  For now…Brenda finds it amusing and sometimes alarming that when I get an idea into my head…I do it.  When the boys were young, they had all sorts of ideas and plans of things that they were going to do and Brenda’s approach was to just smile, nod and wait for them to forget and move onto something else.

Oops, that doesn’t seem to work with me.  Yes, my ideas evolve, often a lot.   However, when I get an idea in my head, more often than not, we end up doing it.  Yikes…

She says that I remind her of a ferret that we once had as a pet years ago named Ricki.  Well, when Ricki got something in his mind (and it was a small mind), it was impossible to change his direction.  You could pick him up and turn him around time after time and the same thing would happen…he’d just turn around and head to the same place, again, again and again.

Me?  I am sort of like Ricki.  I get an idea in my head…

I guess that’s why Pandora is named Pandora.  Brenda was very clear that when we acquired a boat that could cross oceans.  Well… I’d want to cross oceans.

So, now it’s up to me to come up with cruising ideas that include places that Brenda finds compelling.  Canal cruising in France?  Pretty compelling to a girl that loves the classics.  And, I am counting on that.

That’s all for now.   I guess I have more research to do.  Wish me luck.