I just love the ways that the big boys use their boats. What better way to make more room for passengers (well dressed of course) than spending a bit of time standing on the keel.
This is Hugo Boss, one of the big ocean racers and that’s Alex Thomson, the leader of that sailing group. He’s not even 40 year and is no sailing slouch as he owns the world record for a 24 hour run in a monohull at some 500 miles at an average speed of over 20 knots, that’s nearly 25 MPH. Not bad. Pandora? The fastest I have had her at a sustained speed is just a tad over 10 knots, and it was only in spurts over a several hour period. Normally, Pandora pokes along at a respectable 7 knots.
Who would even think of standing on a keel? I fear that my older son Rob would. Actually, he’s climbing, and camping, on Mount Washington this weekend. Isn’t it winter?
It’s worth checking out the Hugo Boss racing site. What an awesome boat!!! And, you have to love the shades on Alex. I wonder if he likes his martinis shaken, not stirred?
However, if you think that it’s all fun and games, this video shows the boat at speed. Not sure the keel walk would work in these conditions.
I wonder if Brenda would enjoy such a sail? Perhaps not. As I used to say in my, shall we say mere youth, “don’t get my wet”.
Would it help if I painted Pandora Black?
Oh, and by the way, the reason that the keel on Hugo Boss is painted international orange is so that if the boat looses it’s mast and turns turtle the rescue folks can see it better in the storm. Not sure that the black hull would show up all that well. Hmm…
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.
I have really struggled over the last month to come up with new ideas to post as I have been house bound getting our home “staged”,shown, sold and then packed and ready to vacate by the, what is now set as a late March closing. Add to that a need to find somewhere to live. Don’t you just hate that home base thing? It seems that we do have a land base to escape to as living on a boat full time probably wouldn’t be a good idea for us.
Actually, as I believe I have noted in past posts, friends of ours that maintain a land home and also spend a good deal of time aboard cruising, have said that keeping a shore base to visit for as much time as needed, is a good way to keep on happily cruising for many years. It seems that while many couples chuck it all and move aboard for years of cruising bliss, a much safer bet for the long term is to split time ashore and afloat. There are plenty of boats for sale in “paradise” abandoned after living aboard for a few years.
Well, I have often ordered “surf and turf” so applying that approach to living seems about right for us. Besides, I am fond of Brenda and she would not be a happy camper on a boat full time. They say that you can rationalize anything and for me the “split thing” sounds about right. Besides, I am having trouble visualizing Pandora with a table saw, bench jointer, band saw… You get the picture. Add to that 5 looms and a gourmet kitchen aboard and, well, it’s not happening.
That’s fine. And, while moderation isn’t my strong suit, it is definitely the best path right now.
So, Bob, how’s the sale of your home in NJ going? Thank you for asking.
It’s proceeding well and the closing is scheduled for late March. Oh, yes, we made an offer on that property in Essex that I wrote about the other day and, after a bit of back and forth, we settled on terms and will likely move in late March or early April. Wish us luck.
So, what’s this have to do with summer sailing and what about “more time on Pandora!”?
The home that we have chosen is in very nice shape so I won’t be all stressed with a renovation and can focus on some fun sailing this coming season. In particular, I expect that to be able to squeeze in a short trip to Maine to participate in the Corinthians Summer Cruise. That should be fun and an opportunity to have a few buddies accompany me for the trip as Brenda will be hanging out with her weaving friends while I am away. We agreed that as she’s about to be away on Pandora for most of the time between September and April that she would not be going to Maine this summer. That’s not to say that we won’t be doing some nice trips aboard together prior to our departure, just not the Maine run.
Now all I have to do is to get packing so that I can find time to install Pandora’s new watermaker and to address the myriad items that always come up when preparing for the coming season. I won’t bore you with a rag list of “to-dos” as there will, no doubt, be many posts going into nauseating detail on each step along the way.
As I mentioned, our new home will be in Essex CT, a place that we have visited many times. We have visited Essex many times and have cruised the CT River often. On one visit we headed all the way up to the Goodspeed Opera House and got a number of wonderful shots along the way.
The bank of the river is lovely and very green.
Wonderful old homes all along the way.
Not many tacky ones at all. This one is a particular favorite. What a site!
And, of course, the famous Gillette Castle. Tacky perhaps but so “theatrical”. About right or it’s first owner.
And, the historic Goodspeed Opera house. Actually a very short ride from our new home in Essex.
Of course, water isn’t the only way to get around these parts. This small plane was fun to watch as the pilot practiced landing and taking off on the river.
We will also be close to Mystic CT as it’s so close to Essex so I’ll close with a bit about Mystic Seaport, a spot that we hope to spend more time in now that we will be living nearby.
One of our favorite things to do is an evening cruise aboard Sabino, a lovely steam ferry that has it’s home port at the seaport. I took this photo one evening last summer when Brenda and I were cruising around for one of usual cocktail cruises in our dink.
But wait, there’s more. How about a fun video of Sabino’s 100th anniversary at the seaport?
Perhaps a good way to close is with a shot of a “beginning”, breakfast aboard Pandora. Yes, a bit out of kilter, but hey, blame the photographer. Beginnings? Make that “new beginnings”. Yes, there will be lots of these for me and Brenda this year. I can’t wait!!! Now, on to packing. Ugg…
I was looking at the March issue of Soundings today and read and article about Tarpon Springs Florida. The article was written for cruisers who were considering visiting the west coast Florida city but I was particularly struck by the mention of sponge diving, a trade that has been part of the culture of Tarpon Springs since the 1800s. The article referred to a video about the history of the industry. I had a tough time finding the video but finally located it on YouTube. It’s a very interesting look at the sponge industry circa 1930s.
This certainly looks like a tough way to make a living to me.
Interestingly, the method of harvesting natural sponges remains similar today and I guess that the fishery is sustainable or it would have ended long ago. It seems that the biggest change, and one that has contributed to the fishery’s longevity is that they now cut off the sponges instead of ripping them out as is shown in the video. This allows the sponges to grow back.
Nice to see that a traditional fishery can persist and not be another example of over fishing and extinction as is so often the case.
So, will we be sponge fishing aboard Pandora? I can say for sure that there won’t be a hard hat and lead boots for me.
As we prepare for our trip south next fall, a key need is for our family to be able to follow us and our position along the way. In the past sharing such information required equipment that was expensive or, at the very least, complicated. However, with the advent of more sophisticated satellite technology, it appears that there are now systems available that enable us to set things up in a way so that our friends (and random blog readers) to follow us as we make our way south. To say that we are in Charleston is nice, but for me it would be totally choice for someone to be able to look at a map online and see exactly where we are any day or any time of day, for that matter. And as we move along the map will display a trail of bread crumbs to show where we have been.
Yesterday I called Henry Marx the owner at Landfall Navigation, a group that sells all sorts of boating safety equipment. Henry is very knowledgeable and I expected that he would have something to say about this topic. Yes, he’s never shy about saying what he thinks. Today he responded with a note suggesting that the DeLorme inReach unit might do what we are looking for. As a side note, Henry doesn’t stock the product as he specializes in safety products and does not want to take the chance that his customers will confuse this product with an EPIRB which is a critical safety device for the sort of sailing that we are planning. Yes Henry, Pandora has one of those units aboard and happily, we have never had to activate it. And yes, the batteries are up to date and it is properly registered.
The system works off of the Irdidium system of geosynchronous orbit satellites. (I’ll bet you didn’t think that I could spell geosynchronous. No, I can’t but that’s what spell check is for.) I have always thought of anything associated with Iridium as being terribly expensive but this one isn’t at all. The inReach unit itself retails for about $250 and the communication plans run anywhere from $9.95 to $49.95 a month with a year commitment. The variables in these plans are related to the number of position fixes and text messages allowed per month.
The plan for us will likely be the $24.95 one as it allows unlimited position fixes and a reasonable number of text messages. A text might say something like “headed to Andros on Friday”. I understand that it also ties in with Twitter and Facebook but I don’t know exactly how that works.
In any event, in a day when we want to tell the world what we are doing every waking moment, including our trips to the bathroom, this is a great option.
This is an interesting video, sale pitch though it is, about the product.
I NEED one of these. What’s great about this is that when someone asks my mother “It’s 10:00. Do you know where your children are?”. At the very least, she will know where Pandora is and I am never far away. However, I will be sure to never take this particuar piece of equipment into the bathroom. I guess I am just not in the right generation for that.
