It’s the beginning of the third day of our passage from Tortola to New England and there’s not a lot to report except to say that there is still a very long way to go.  Yesterday we entered the convergence zone between two weather systems and the wind became a lot lighter.  This area also treated us to a large squall cell where the wind quickly shifted from the SE to NE.  That put an end to sailing and brought with it much choppier conditions and some rain.  It’s remarkable how different 20kts on the nose feels from that same amount of wind on the beam.  It’s the difference between uncomfortable and wet verses near perfect sailing.

As I write this it’s 07:00 and we are motor sailing and charging the batteries.  I am also taking advantage of the engine to run the watermaker.  We haven’t used much water since leaving but we all took showers in the cockpit yesterday and I also washed the cockpit down well this morning as there was a lot of spray going everywhere when we were in the squalls last night.  Yes, I am anal about salt but it’s just so much more pleasant when things aren’t salty. It’s also quite hot and sticky but noticeably cooler than it was in Tortola and during the first day out.

I mentioned yesterday, I think, that one of the two plotters stopped functioning and because of the way that the system is wired, we no longer have access to radar or our AIS.  We are still transmitting on AIS but we can’t see other boats on our plotter.  Fortunately, there hasn’t been much ship traffic to worry about but that will change as we get closer to the congested shipping lanes of Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware River and New York.

The autopilot is also acting up oddly as every so often, a few times a day, it just decides to head off in a totally different direction, pulling a sort of “crazy Ivan” maneuver, with no warning.  Experiencing a 180 degree crash turn, seemingly “just for fun” is really disarming and takes some of the relaxation out of the passage.  However, compared to other problems that we could have, it’s not too bad.  And, with the boom break in place to soften the blow of a “surprise” jibe, we aren’t at major risk of gear breakage from the autopilot maneuvers.  My last boat, with a very similar autopilot and plotter system, also had this problem and I was able to modify the settings on the computer to solve it.  I’ll call the tech support folks when I get home to sort this out.  Of course, the “dead” plotter will also have to go out for repair.  Let’s hope that they can fix the plotter as I don’t want to think about having to upgrade the entire system as they no longer make the particular model that we have.  Fingers crossed.

While I carry about 175 gallons of fuel, I don’t want to motor any more than we must as I want to be certain that we have plenty to use if we run into unfavorable winds later in the trip.  We continue to be in the convergence area between two weather systems, with little wind so we are motor-sailing but I am hopeful that we will get out of it later today and back into good sailing conditions.

In any event, the trip is coming together about as expected with some excitement but mostly, it’s been an easy run.  Not at all like my trip down in January and that’s good.

Well, I guess that’s about all I have to report for now.  There’s still plenty of miles left between us and home and we aren’t even half the way there.  The earliest that I expect to be home is likely not until about next Wednesday or Thursday.  Hard to say but that’s my best guess and a lot can happen between now and then, so fingers crossed that everything will continue to work out in our favor.

Yes, we are a long way from home, hundreds of miles from land but we are settling in to the passage.  So far, so good with a dead plotter, Crazy Ivan and all.

It’s Tuesday morning and we have been underway for nearly 24 hours.  The sailing has been good and Pandora’s reeling off the miles.

We were originally planning to head out on Wednesday but after hearing the long range weather forecast we decided to head out on Monday with the rest of the fleet.  Our plan to leave later was based on George’s schedule as he had business and family commitments that would not allow him to arrive until late on Tuesday.  However, after hearing Chris Parker’s forecast on Saturday that called for a cold front with strong north winds to exit the east coast around the 24th, I realized that we could not afford to wait past Monday. Besides, Cliff and Jim arrived on Sunday afternoon so we could leave sooner if needed.  And, as is so often the case, it was “needed” so we did.

I feel badly that we had to bolt and leave George but if we had waited we might very well have ended up in Bermuda to wait out the adverse winds or worse, been caught in some really nasty conditions later in the trip.

This is my first Salty Dawg Rally and it’s fun to be making the run north with about 25 boats.  Some are headed to the Chesapeake, others to Bermuda and some to New England like Pandora.  Each morning and evening there are SSB radio nets that allow us to call in and talk to other boats in the fleet.  The others share stories of how things are going, fish caught and gear that doesn’t work.

One boat in particular is stopping in Bermuda as their autopilot stopped working and they are now hand steering, which is very tiring.   I heard that a hatch was left open and a big wave splashed in and flooded part of the autopilot equipment.  Salt water getting into the boat is a constant worry and that’s why we keep Pandora pretty well buttoned up while offshore, regardless of how hot it might be down below.  I have had my share of gear issues this winter and I really don’t want to tempt fate. Losing the autopilot is the thing that I worry about the most as hand steering is not something that we take lightly.  Years ago I was on a boat from Nassau to CT and the autopilot crapped out. We had to steer for about a week with no break.  The crew of four was taxed by that experience.

Speaking of “gear issues”, we do have one issue that came up yesterday shortly after leaving Tortola.  Pandora has two chart plotters, one at the helm and another up under the dodger.  The one at the helm is the “master” with feeds from AIS and radar and the other plotter is a “slave” to that one.  The problem is that the helm plotter stopped working yesterday, it just went dark, so now we don’t have access to AIS or radar on the remaining plotter.  The good news is that the AIS is still transmitting, we just can’t see it on the plotter.   At least other ships can see us, assuming that they are watching.  I just can’t see them.

I had thought about swapping the two units as they are the same but I am concerned that I might somehow make things worse so have decided to just go without AIS and radar for the duration.  I guess it will be just like the “olden days” but with autopilot and refrigeration.  Oh yeah and a watermaker.  No,I guess it’s not really like the olden days, just less than perfect.

At least it will sharpen our lookout skills.

So, that’s about it and we only have about 1,200 miles to go.  Yikes, that’s a long way. At this rate we should be done with the trip in about 8 more days.

Beyond that, nothing much to report.  However, the trip is young and I am expecting some “sporty” conditions later in the week.  Until then, sailing and perhaps a few days of motoring as we cross a ridge, a sort of “convergence zone” between two weather systems, just west of Bermuda, where there will be little or no wind.

Stay tuned for more details and don’t forget to check out the tracking on my blog to see exactly where we are, well at lest within the last two hours as that’s how often we send out position reports.  Also check for a recent post, a few days ago, to see a link to view Pandora and the rest of the fleet.

I plan to write again tomorrow and hope that post will be boring too.  Excitement aboard Pandora when we are hundreds of miles from shore is something that I’d like to avoid, if possible.

Until next time.

After all the weeks of planning we are going to head out from Tortola on Monday for home.   It’s been a whirlwind of activity over the last few days with chores to get Pandora ready and having crew arrive but it’s time to head home.

My original plan was to head out on the 17th but the weather is very iffy for then so I have opted to leave a few days earlier with the fleet.

The big problem is that if I were to wait a few more days I’d run into heavy squalls on our second or third days out, hit a much longer windless patch of perhaps two or more days of motoring near Bermuda and run the risk of being clobbered by a front that is expected to head off of the NE coast around the 26th as we approached CT.  All of which sounds like more work than fun.

Unfortunately, because of this change, moving our departure up by two days, one of my crew George, won’t be here in time to leave with us. It’s a total bummer but I guess that weather and safety trumps just about everything else when it comes to passage making.

Anyway, we still have a few chores to do in the morning but should be underway by noon.  I’ll be sending out position reports to this site which you can access at this link.  You can also right click on any particular position report and see how fast we were going when the tracker sent out the “ping” to the server.

I expect that our trip should be relatively uneventful with the exception of the squalls and will probably involve a day or more of motoring when the wind gets light.  But hey, that’s a lot more appealing than the gales that we experienced on the way down in January.

So, you can track us a number of ways but I am not certain that the rally page will have us on it as I have had difficulty in getting that set up with all the last minute changes in our plans.  Anyway, I wrote about the tracking options in a prior post.  You can check it out at this link.

Underway on Monday.  Finally!  Wish us luck.

I’ll be writing more about how things are going most days while we are underway.

Yes, we are leaving and it’s going to be good to be homeward bound.

Details to come.  Yes, that’s true.

Well, here I am, back in West End Tortola.  I arrived late morning today after leaving home at 0-dark-30 yesterday morning to head to the airport.    My flight to get me to Tortola was actually to St Thomas where I planned to catch a ferry yesterday to West End Tortola from downtown Charlotte Amalie.  Well, that’s at least how it was supposed to work.

However, as luck would have it, “no-can-do” ruled the day, with delay after delay.  The airport, Hartford, was a mess when I arrived.  Who’d expect so many people would be up at the tender hour of 05:00.  What a mob, a sea of humanity.

No problem, I made it through security with plenty of time left for my 06:30 flight and we left pretty much on time.  We landed in Charlotte and I had 3.5 hours to wait for my next flight to St Thomas, still with plenty of time to connect with my ferry .  However, when it came time for us to board in Charlotte, well, we didn’t.

After a long while we learned that catering, yes the folks that bring the little bags of pretzels, were AWOL and the crew had absolutely no idea of when they would be arriving.   We were on board, the plane was totally packed, and we were just sitting there, for a long time.  How long?  Not sure but it was long enough that the pilot came on a number of time to talk about the delay and finally said, “we’re leaving, catering or not.”  The problem was that while they had plenty of lovely snacks for the run down, they needed food for the run back but that now the plan was to fill up again in St Thomas.  We left the gate, finally.

After that we sat, and sat, and sat and finally the pilot came on to say that we had a mechanical problem and needed to talk to the repair guys.  Ok, I get that as it’s always a good idea to have a “happy landing” at the other end of the flight. However, by the time they crew sorted all of this out they decided we just had to head back to the gate and assess the situation.    We need a new plane! Awesome.

We “de-planed” and were sent to another gate…. at the total other end of the airport.   I was one of the first to arrive at the “new gate” only to learn that we had to be sent back to where we had “arrived” as they had “changed the changed gate again”.  Never mind.

Ok, so we got back to the gate and waited some more, much more.   To their credit, they did bring sandwiches and drinks.   A sort of “peace offering”, I guess.

So, fast forward several more hours and we finally left on another aircraft and arrived in St Thomas about 5 hours after our planned arrival time.   The problem for me is that the last ferry for Tortola had left hours earlier and I had to now find a hotel.  Lucky me.

I had decided to fly into St Thomas as it’s a lot less expensive than flying into Tortola.  Oops.  It didn’t look so inexpensive now.   Hotel at 21:00 hours?  No idea where to stay?  Don’t want to pay much?  Have fun Bob…

The information lady at the airport, who BTW was giving out samples of Cruzan Rum as we entered the terminal.  “Welcome to the Caribbean Mon!”.   Anyway, I asked for an “inexpensive” hotel and she recommended that I call Franko’s Guest House as it wasn’t very expensive.    However, she warned me that she had recommended it to a lady a few days ago and that lady didn’t even get out of the cab and went somewhere else.  Ok, sounds perfect, I’ll take it!

When I arrived, after a stop in the cab at a convenience store to get a toothbrush, Franko’s wife was waiting on the front porch for me.   “Welcome to Ranko’s.”  I thought it looked quaint. Besides, it wasn’t too expensive and anything was better than a nap on a bench at the airport. They have a cute little open air dining area. Believe it or not, he, Franko himself, even took me to the ferry terminal this morning.   Along the way he told me about how, when he was younger, he drank a LOT of rum but after his older brother “gave him a stern talking to” he shaped up and became a carpenter and later opened his B&B.   He does all of the work himself and is clearly very proud of his place.  “I make a little money and fix the place up a little bit ore.”  All and all, a simple place, Franko’s and a very charming experience.

So, I went down to the ferry terminal this morning and as I arrived I spied this terrific float plane.  I totally should have gone in that.   It looked awesome at the dock. Off she went.   I want one of these!I’ll bet that he has to wash things off really, really well every evening with all the salt spray. Yes, really salty. Yes, after all the shenanigans yesterday I should have treated myself to a trip on one of those.   And then he was gone and on his way. So, here I am and Pandora’s looking good and none the worse for two weeks alone.   A few chores and tomorrow I head over to nearby Nanny Cay to take a slip for a few days to participate in the run-up to the Salty Dawg Rally and to wait for my crew.

Yes, I’m here but it’s pretty clear that sometimes you just can’t get there from here.  Or, at least you have to take more than one day.

Finally though, I’m here, back aboard Pandora, and it’s a beautiful day.

It’s Wednesday afternoon and I am just about ready to head back to Pandora in the BVIs tomorrow morning.

She’s been on a mooring in Soper’s Hole, West End, for the last two weeks while I traveled home to visit family and get our home and gardens in order for the coming summer.  After a winter all sealed up, our home was in good shape if a bit overrun with mice.  Fortunately, because I set a lot of traps, most of the mice we returned to were, shall we say, not a threat any longer.   I won’t dwell on that except to say that we seem to be a very popular winter spot for the local mice community.

Anyway, things are pretty well under control and I’ll be flying to St Thomas in the morning and then will catch a ferry to Tortola.  It’s going to be a long day.

This is Pandora on her mooring in West End.  It’s a very pretty spot. In the last few years I have become more involved in the Salty Dawg Sailing Association and will be participating in their spring rally north from Tortola. My plan is to participate in some of the events over the next few days leading up to a planned departure on or about May 15th.  A really neat feature of this event is that you can track the fleet as they make their way north on a dedicated page for the rally.

This link will take you to a shared page that will show all participants.  To see the group, as they make their way north, all you need to do is to put “SDR” in the group section on the left (see below) and then select the days that you want to see the positions for.   Once we leave, you can put in a range of 05/15/2017 to the current day and then see the track of the fleet for the entire rally period to date or just the dates that you want to track the fleet for.  You can also focus on a single vessel on the right and look at that track only.   This is what the page looks like.  I think it’s pretty neat. Anyway, it’s a nice feature and a fun event.  I’ll be leaving Tortola on our about May 17th, after my crew arrives so you’ll be able to follow Pandora on that map too.   The boats in the fleet are going to a number of areas such as Bermuda, Hampton VA, as well as areas in New England so they will be quite spread out.

I also have a dedicated page on my blog “where in the world is Pandora” that will allow you to track our progress with a new position report every two hours while I am underway. Or, you can go right to the shared page/map for Pandora herself by clicking here.  This page includes the track that Brenda and I took over the winter so you can see that we covered a lot of ground.  Here’s a screenshot of what that page looks like, actually. It’s neat that you can also zoom-in and right click on any individual position report and see the actual speed for us at that point.  We may not have much wind, unlike the gales that carried Pandora south in January, according to the long range forecast so we might be going pretty slow.  Of course, as Chris Parker, our weather router would say, “that’s a long way out, so conditions may (probably) change”.

So, that’s the plan and if you check back as we get closer to departure, I’ll report more on our plans.   As always, you can sign up on the home page to get a message when I post so you’ll have the latest.

I also plan on posting to my blog via the SSB radio most days while we are underway so you’ll be able to “be there” with us, minus the motion sickness, and follow how we are doing.

If you are ever considering a trip south to the Caribbean for the first time, or are an “old timer” and do the trip regularly, I really encourage you to join the Salty Dawg Rally to Tortola from Hampton VA.  It’s a great event and the trip itself follows a near week of seminars in Hampton prior to departure.  How about doing it in November of this year?  Join in the fun.   I’ll be there.

Stay tuned as, Yes indeed, there are Dawg Days on the horizon for Pandora.   It should be a fun trip.