My mother has often chirped, when things are looking a bit bleak and that they will never get better, don’t worry “it’s always darkest before the dawn”.    The highway department has a similar view when they post a sign in a construction zone that announces “the inconvenience is temporary but the repairs are permanent”.   When I surveyed Pandora the other day when I was working on the watermaker, both phrases came to mind.

It seems that it’s about this time each year when I feel like projects on Pandora will never come to an end that I survey the mess that I have on my hands and say “yikes,  this will never get better.

Yes, I am making progress toward launch but this is the view that greets me when I climb aboard these days.  What a trashed mess.A bit of a contrast to how she will look when she’s all cleaned up in a few months.   I hope so anyway.   Perhaps if I just add a lovely herb plant.  Perhaps not. Down below?  Worse or better? You be the judge.   No… trashed equally.

Another angle better?  Not even close.

No gourmet meals being prepared here.

However, if things continue to progress we will soon have “unlimited” water or at least as much water as we have power to generate with our new watermaker.    While the following pictures may look about the same as the ones that I posted a few weeks ago, there is significant progress with many more lovely hoses run from one place to the other.   Trust me, there is much more done now.  Really.

And the membrane, the part of the system that actually separates the water from the salt is now in place.

Lots more to do but primarily, it’s a matter of running output hoses to the water tanks, wiring up the unit and finishing the plumbing.  Lots yes, but the end is near.

Oh yea, the best part was drilling two 3/4″ holes in the hull, one for the intake and the other for the brine overboard discharge.   Holes in the bottom of the boat certainly ranks up there as a worst nightmare sort of thing.  The intake had to have a scoop so that the movement of the boat will help push water into the system so that the pumps won’t have to work so hard.  It seems that a flush hole in the hull actually creates a suction when the boat is moving so a scoop that directs the water is needed.   Not surprisingly, the instructions offer a caution not to place the intake port for the unit down stream from the head outlet.   Sounds like excellent advice.

I hope to be back working on Pandora soon but find myself consumed by working toward our move to Essex in a few weeks.  No rest for the weary.  However, spring is just around the corner so that means sailing can’t be far away either.

The Jules Vern Trophy is one of the enduring sailing records to beat and is awarded to the  yacht with the fastest trip around the world.  The first “running” was in the novel buy Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days in which Phileas Fogg makes the trip around the world (albeit by railroad and steamboat) in 80 days. The current holder of the record is Banque Populaire V skippered by Loick Peyron in 45 days 13 hours 42 minutes 53 seconds.   This is a great video summary of the trip.  Funny, but even at 30 knots a behemoth like Banque Populaire V doesn’t look all that fast.  No, actually it does look fast, really fast.

This running is just one more example of how the French take sailing very seriously and multihulls in particular.    Too bad that we in the US don’t look at it that way.

I guess that Pandora won’t be going for the trophy any time soon.   No, with crew (Brenda), no make that the “honored guest” that says “the best part of sailing is being anchored” I expect that a non-stop run around the planet wouldn’t happen any time soon.  For now, I will have to enjoy videos of others doing this.

Actually, my aspirations fall far short of a circumnavigation.  Oh yea, the answer is that this boat is way faster, as are a lot of boats.  The good news is that there are tons that are slower, at least the mere mortal ones.

One of the major equipment additions aboard Pandora this winter is the installation of a watermaker.  I wrote more about this in a previous post and I thought that it would be good to provide an update on progress to date.  Actually, not a lot as I have been busy on getting ready to move to Essex CT from our home in Upper Saddle River NJ where we have been for the last 20+ years.

Going through two decades of stuff has been challenging but progress is being made as we prepare for a closing on both homes, one sale and the new purchase, later in March.  Many details to take care of but we are definitely getting closer to the move.

I wish that I had more time to work on Pandora of late but I am making progress on the watermaker install.  After much debate, in my head at least, I decided to install the components in the very spacious cockpit locker where it will be easy to operate the system.  Here’s a shot of the dual pump system.   I hope to have time in the next week to install the membrane, the guts of the unit and certainly the largest part of the system at nearly four feet in length.  The key is to situate the unit in a location that is accessible and yet not subject to damage.

This initial install is on a forward cockpit locker bulkhead.   To the upper right of the system you can see one of the two compressors that I have aboard.  In this case, the one that powers the refrigerator.  The other one, installed last year, is for the deep freeze.  A good efficient fridge and freezer will come in handy when we are in the Bahamas next winter. 

This is progress but it’s not nearly done with the through hulls, to supply water to the unit, and other components yet to come.  I will do the entire install myself but will bring in an electrician to do the final hookup to the electrical panel. While I wrestle boxes and packing at home I can only wish that I was working on Pandora. Well, there’s always next week.