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

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

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

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

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

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

We should certainly count our blessings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But wait, there’s more…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You never know..