After a decade of use and thousands of sea miles under her keel, it’s high time for Pandora’s rig to be checked out.  I had known that this was needed when I purchased the boat three years ago as I was pretty sure that her first owner had never removed the rig.  As evidence of this, I had to cut a new opening in the cabinetry to remove one of the fittings that held the mast in place as there was absolutely now way to get at it.   Based on that, I am pretty confident that the rig has been in the entire time since commissioning.   It’s time.

Pandora has rod rigging and it is recommended that it be replaced, or at least carefully checked after 30,000 miles, I think, so one way or the other, it’s high time.  Additionally, as Pandora’s heading into a paint shed this week for a new coat of paint on the hull, the rig needed to come out anyway, so out it came.

I spent hours taking the sails off and making sure that all the wires were labeled and removed in preparation for the job.

On Thursday afternoon Brenda hoisted me up the back stay to remove the SSB antenna wire.  I also loosened the shrouds so that when the crew boarded on Friday morning all would be ready for removal.

She looked pretty forlorn on the dock with the boom removed and sails off. It takes a village, or at least a small mob, to remove even the smallest mast and while Pandora is not a small boat, she’s not all that big.   Brian, the yard manager and default crane guy for the day was ready and looking, well, looking pretty bored, actually. Chris, the “up the mast guy” took his time to be sure that everything was perfect.  Up the mast to attach the bridle. I was very concerned that there was something missing from my prep efforts that would keep the mast from breaking away from the boat after a decade in place and that the crew would have to put the job on hold while I got the prep right.

But, after a few minutes of pulling with the crane, it suddenly lurched up, along with my heart, a foot from the step. The step itself looked terrible, with lots of corrosion.   All four bolts holding the step in place were badly corroded.  Looks expensive.  This one, in particular, also holds the ground wire.  What about using stainless guys, when you built the boat?  Hmm…Some of the hydraulic fittings were a mess.  What about using stainless here too?    There’s a number of these that are in very bad shape and I am told that the plated ones that were used are $10 and stainless, $100.  Oh, I get it…The tide was coming up fast and it looked for a while like we wouldn’t be able to get the mast high enough up to clear the deck.  But we did, barely.  If the mast looked big on board, it looked even bigger on land.  It’s remarkable how many guys it takes to pull a mast.   I can’t even imagine how much it would have cost if I had just said.  “Guys, I want to pull the mast.  Have at it.”  The hours it took me to label everything, pull the sails, run messengers for lines, remove electrical connectors etc…

So, off to Stratford on Monday morning, tomorrow, where Pandora will be hauled and put in a shed for the next five weeks.  I am looking forward to visiting  regularly to chronicle the process of getting her ready for her new paint job.

And, I’ll be able to put some new graphics on her hull and boom and get rid of the nasty ones that are there now.

It’s going to be odd to head down the river and Sound tomorrow with no mast.  Boy, I sure hope that nothing happens with the engine.   You never know…

As complicated as the process of pulling Pandora’s rig was, it’s nothing compared to the rig on a mega yacht.  Check out this short video of how complicated it can be when it’s the rig on a 180′ sloop.  They say that a boat is nothing more than a hole in the water that you pour money into and I’d say that it’s true.    At least I can be confident that my hole is a lot smaller than the owner of that boat.

Having said that, let’s hope that this process doesn’t prove to be any more painful than I expect.

“Wait, is that a sucking sound I hear?  Hey you, let go of my wallet.”

When I talk to folks that have not made long runs offshore in a small boat, the most common question is “do you anchor at night”.  My answer, if I was a bit snarkier than I am, would be “Yes, we carry 15,000 feet of anchor chain and just let her rip.”   But no.  I don’t say that…

The point here is that it’s very difficult to explain what it’s like to be at sea in a small boat.  And yes, Pandora at nearly 50′ is small.  Especially when you are hundreds of miles from land.

To see a full moon rise at dusk with a single sail on the horizon…The growing glow on the eastern horizon as a raceboat crosses our bow.  
A Swan, with a hotshot delivery crew overtaking us on their way to Puerto Rico hundreds of miles south of Bermuda last fall. Hundreds of miles from, well, anything, and still, they came so close…A rainbow after a passing tropical shower.
Something as simple as a sunset is an event as it goes from blues and grays…To a fiery display…Sometimes there are others out with us to enjoy the majesty of it all.
More often, it’s just the broad ocean, as flat as glass.  “Bob, where are the ocean swells?”  Ok, no swells.  I’ll admit it wasn’t the ocean but I’m trying to make a point here so go with me on this…Sunsets at sea have no peer.Anyway, I won’t beat this to death “Bob, too late, you already have.” except to say that it’s hard to understand, unless you’ve been there.

To be at sea, day after day, alone.  Never sure what will come next.

Still don’t get it?  But wait, there’s hope…  This video, a time lapse movie of a month at sea on a container ship does a wonderful job of illustrating what life at sea is like.  Of course, minus the wave action on a small boat.

Sunlit days, making landfall and spectacular star filled nights…And no, they don’t anchor every night.

It’s about this time every year that I being thinking in earnest about what our cruising plans will be like for the coming winter season.  In past years the question was easily answered as we had new areas to visit and a pretty clear idea of what the coming months would bring.

So, as I sit here, in my office, on the 4th of July, arguably one of the busiest boating weeks of the summer, I really have no clear idea of what’s coming this fall.

The problem is the classic problem of, “life gets in the way” with multiple “events” coming our way that will make it hard to know what’s in store.

The good news is that our son and his wife are expecting twins, perhaps at nearly any time now, and anyone who’s spent time cruising and had grandchildren, especially the “new” kind, know that their arrival on the scene can be really disruptive to the “cruising lifestyle”.

Additionally, Brenda’s been working on a book for some years now and feels that it’s “high time” that she get it off of her plate and off to the publisher.    The good news is that she has a publisher and knows what has to be done.  The bad news is that some of the materials that she really needs to complete it are not under her control so it’s tough to say exactly how long it will be until she can finally get what she needs and get the project done.

One thing for sure is that the publisher’s next deadline to receive the completed manuscript is this coming March.  So, if you do the math, you’ll see that this falls smack dab in the middle of the winter cruising season.

And, as I sit here on July 4th, it’s hard to say, what we will be doing this coming winter season.  I can say for sure that winter in freezing New England and winterizing Pandora leaves me “cold”, but I guess we will have to just wait and see how things develop.

In the mean time, after months of deliberation on when and where, I have arranged to have Pandora’s hull painted and she will be going into the paint shed by mid July.  I’ll be pulling her mast for a rigging inspection close to home in the next week or so and then will take her to a yard in Stratford CT for paint.

The most complex part of the job will be dealing with the rub rail which is wood and wasn’t ever properly prepared to hold a finish.  As a result, the paint on the rail has badly peeled, something that I am hoping to avoid going forward.  That part of the job, as minor as it appears is a big part of the overall cost.

The crew will also sand and paint the bottom, a treat for me as I have never hired anyone for this messy job and have always dealt with bottom paint since my very first boat back in the late 70s.   What a luxury.

Someone once told me that there are two colors for boats, “white and stupid”.  And, with Pandora’s dark hull, some think she’s black, she’s about as stupid as possible.  And, in spite of the fact that most boats are white, I don’t think that Pandora will look good at all with a white hull.  However, we do need to come up with an alternative as the dark hull color is tough to live with under the tropical sun and not only does it get hot down below, but the paint has not held up well since being painted less than five years ago.  Additionally, a dark hull shows every scuff and scratch, much more than a light hull and with a boat that’s used as much as Pandora is, she has plenty of “battle scars”.

Last winter, in Marigot St Lucia, we spied this lovely yacht Elfjie, owned by Wendy Schmidt, wife of Google’s chairman.   I mention this yacht as she’s painted a light grey, Columbia Grey, an unusual color for a yacht.  Most large sailing yachts tend to be painted dark blue or black so she really stands out.  Here’s a shot of her with Pandora in the background.  I wonder if in grey, Pandora would look like Elfjie in Columbia grey?  Probably not  but the color is  still nice. The key will be to choose a color that will be light enough to stay fairly cool and yet still provide enough of a contrast to Pandora’s white decks to retain her sleek look.   We are thinking that medium grey might work.

We’ll also want to revisit her name graphics which were designed for us years ago when we owned our last Pandora.   As this shot shows, or doesn’t, it’s hard to make out her name from any distance.  There’s just not enough contrast and it looks fussy to me in any event. On “old” Pandora we had a drop shadow on the name and I’m thinking that we should loose that affectation on the new color hull.  This is a number of options the designer suggested, shown on a grey background.  Which do you like?  None of the above?One of the problems with graphics location and scale on the hull, is that we have a hefty rub-rail.  That’s good for tangling with docks and pilings but not so great for fitting graphics.  I am also wondering if we should have the graphics sized so that the “tail” on the D goes above the rub-rail.  I also wonder about the “stars”.

One reality is that the aft portion of the hull curves under the transom so putting the logo down lower may not work as well as these treatments might suggest. Well, there’s lots to think about as I prepare Pandora to head into the paint shed.  The good news is that she will be there for about five weeks so there’s plenty of time to think about color and graphics.   As we think about the proper color of grey, I’d be interested in what color you’d choose.  From our way of thinking, the lighter the better.  We are also probably going to have them use a  product called Alexseal, it’s commonly used in large yachts as it is easier to fix scratches and dings than on a hull painted with Awlgrip.  The bad news is that it’s not quite as hard a finish as Awlgrip.    Here’s a link to the color chart.

I plan on photographing the prep and painting process over the time she’s being worked on and will be posting photos of the progress.  It will be nice to see the job progress without me doing the heavy lifting personally.

When she leaves the shed in late August the season here will be just about over so I sure hope that my next step won’t be to book winter storage in the northeast.

Well, as they say, “sometimes life gets in the way” and I guess all of that will just have to play out.

One way or the other, I’ll let you know…

P.S.  Almost forgot.  The reason that I am sitting around doing posts today and not working on that bath remodeling project is that yesterday when I was doing the demo and breaking up the cast iron tub with a sledge hammer, I was hit in the face by a good sized errant piece of cast iron, try 8″,  that flew up after I slammed the sledge hammer on it.  It struck me just under the right eye and gave me quite a cut, right down to the cheek bone.    Good news, the bone didn’t break.

After a few hours visiting my doctor and then off to a plastic surgeon I’m all stitched up but it will be a week until I can resume my project.  This delay, and it could have been a lot worse, will also keep me from dealing with Pandora’s mast removal.

When the surgeon asked me how it happened, and I told him, he said that I really needed to come up with a better story.  Well, I could call it “domestic violence”, and yet another part of life that gets in the way, I guess.   So, more time for blog posts, for now…

Any ideas?

Last weekend I hosted an event, a Gam, for the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) for the 6th year.  The event took place over a two day period and was a success, even if attendance was down a bit.  It’s a big job to put on an event, big crowd or not and I have to say that as the date approached I thought “I am NEVER doing this again”.

However, as the “curtain went up” and I looked out over all the folks in the audience, my position softened a bit.  A 7th in 2019?  Hmm…

In the run-up to the event had made a big deal out of the planned USCG chopper search and rescue (SAR) demonstration that was to happen on the river and was sad to have it canceled at the very last minute because of bad weather.

In “real life” the USCG goes out in terrible weather but for what is in essence a training exercise, they are more circumspect on considering the risk.  I’ll admit that Saturday’s weather wasn’t ideal, with a lot of haze and a very low cloud ceiling.  Oh well, there’s always next year.  I think that the captain of the chopper felt as badly as I did as I was when she called me to share the bad news as she was keenly aware of how long I had worked on getting approval.  It had taken THREE YEARS.  At least I am persistent.   Next year, the fourth..  Wait!  I thought that “three was the charm”.  Oh well.

Fortunately, Ginger and Peter of SV Irene came to our rescue to fill in the agenda.  Ginger presented to us about their trip in the summer of 2016 through the North West Passage.  Thank God for global warming and their successful trip or I don’t know what I would have done to fill the void.  “Hey everybody, listen up, let me show you all the great shadow puppet characters I know.  This is a bat, watch it fly away…”

Anyway, chopper or not, they did bring a rescue boat and gave tours.  The crew even stayed for lunch, flack jackets and all.   It was fun and they made a big hit.  Folks lined up at the dock for a peek aboard. I’d be thrilled to be rescued by these guys but it wouldn’t be so great to be boarded if I had something to hide.  “Sir, just how much rum do you have aboard?” He looks like he’s all business.  “But officer, all of these cases are just ships stores and for personal consumption. Really!” “Yeah, sure, over the next 100 years. Can I see your documentation and passport please?”Every aspect of these boats are designed for tough conditions.  And, blasting along at 45kts in rough conditions, these seats would come in very handy.  “Pick me! I want to go for ride!  I’ll even post photos on Facebook and write a blog post about it.  I promise!On Friday night, for the “early birds” Brenda and I hosted a get-together aboard Pandora.  We had a fun crowd aboard.   They filled the cockpit and then some.Some sat down below.   There was plenty of food to go around. Many arrived in their “private launches”.    I guess they sent their crew home early except the poor guy who was hugging Pandora’s transom.   “Hey, you, crew guy, Stay in the launch.  Buffy and Charles aren’t ready to leave just yet.” I wonder if anyone noticed Brenda’s most recent addition to Pandora’s decor?  The rug pays homage to our roots as catboat sailors.    Alas, just like every boat we’ve ever had, nothing quite fits.   It’s lovely, never the less. So, the weekend was a big success and we had fun.  After it was over my event partner George was just happy to sit and relax.   Everybody loves George, especially his canine buddies.  “Can I have a cookie Dad!  Please?”  Does this guy look mellow or what?There you have it, the 6th annual Summer Solstice Gam has come and gone along with the weather that kept the USCG Calvary from showing us their SAR stuff.  Such is the boating life where somehow it’s always about the weather.  Better luck next year.  Yes, me and the dog, ever hopeful.  Perhaps 4 will be the charm.

And speaking of the 4th, it’s Saturday and the 4th of July is just around the corner.  Hey, here’s an idea?  Let’s go hang out on the river?

Yes, that’s the plan.  Just us hanging out with thousands of our closest friends.

“Thanks for the wake buddy!”

It is summer, after all.

When Brenda and I purchased our very first boat, the 20′ Cape Cod catboat Tao in the late 80s, we kept her in Bridgeport CT and often sailed to Port Jefferson on Long Island and occasionally, destinations as far away as Nantucket and New Jersey.  And let me tell you, that’s a really long way in a 20′ boat with a 5hp diesel engine.

As all my photos of Tao are slides, and exist in a massive pile somewhere in the attic, I can’t show them here.  However, I do have a photo of a painting that my good friend and artist Chris Blossom did for me as a birthday present way back in 1984.  She was a beautiful, if tiny, boat and the closest that we ever got to owing a classic.  Built in the late 70s, she was classic in design but modern in construction.  I first spied the yacht Marilee, the subject of this post, in Port Jefferson in the early 80s, when we sailed Tao across Long Island Sound from her home port in  Bridgeport CT.  The ten mile sail seemed like a real journey back then with no dodger and only sitting headroom below.

We’d generally set out from Bridgeport on a Friday evening to make our way to Port Jefferson, or “PJ” as we called it at the time.   We’d rendezvous with friends and raft up with them for the weekend before heading back home on Sunday afternoon.  Some years later, when we all had young children and slightly larger boats, in our case, another catboat, a whopping 2′ longer, we’d designate one of the boats as the “kid boat” and the “adults”, such as we were, would sit on another, enjoying the relative solitude with the kids nearby but not underfoot.

It was during that time that I first saw Marilee, anchored in Port Jefferson harbor with a big brown and yellow striped sun awning covering her decks.  I never saw her under sail and expect that she wasn’t in good enough shape to head out anyway as were so many of the aging classics in those days.

Brenda and I, some years later, became active as board members for The Catboat Association and were invited to a fundraising event in Tom’s River NJ, not far from our home at the time, also in New Jersey, as house guests of Peter Kellogg, the billionaire philanthropist and one of the supporters of Marilee’s restoration for the America’s Cup Jubilee celebration in Cowes England, home to the first race for what was to become the “America’s Cup”.

Peter, at that time, was involved in a fund raiser for the A Cat class in Toms River and, as representatives of the CBA board, Brenda and I were invited to attend the event as his guests and stay at Peter’s summer home.  Even though he was no longer an owner of Marilee at that time, it was clear that he was still very proud of her as we saw all sorts of memorabilia including a painting of her that he had commissioned during his years as a part owner.   So, once again, Marilee, sort of, came back into our lives.

My dream,at the time, was that I’d someday own a “real” classic but as the years passed, and while we once came precariously close to purchasing an old wooden Crosby catboat,  we became much more practical in our choice of boats which is certainly evident in current Pandora, which couldn’t be further afield from Tao.

To be completely candid, Brenda is of the view that if I was truly “balanced” I’d have a little electric launch on the CT river and “stop with all that toing and froing, already” (to the Caribbean).  But, that’s another story.

And, speaking of Pandora, I have posted a LOT of photos in the past but it still seems right to me to put her up yet again for comparison.Anyway, back to my story.  So, for the nearly 40 years since first seeing Marilee in Port Jefferson,  I have continued to have an eye for beautiful yachts and am particularly drawn to those that I encountered from the deck of Tao.  Now, many years later, some of these, and Marilee in particular, rejoin our world from time to time.

I have written about many classics over the twelve years that I have kept this blog, and especially during our last two seasons in the Caribbean.   With regards to Marilee, I was just “reintroduced” to her, now for a third time, the very same Marilee that I first saw from the deck of Tao so long ago.

Marilee, is a member of the NY 40 class, designed by the Nat Herreshoff, the iconic yacht designer and was launched in 1926.  She is one of the last two hulls launched of the 14 in the class, built for members of the NY Yacht Club by the Herreshoff company in Bristol RI.  In the photo below, she’s the one with the “fighting 40” boxer logo on her sail.  This was the informal name for the class when they were raced as one designs by members of the club.  I found this shot on her “official” site .  It’s an impressive shot and she’s clearly in good company. The NY40 class boats were raced by club members for a number of years but that was ultimately interrupted by the outbreak of WWI.   By the time racing was resumed, the boats were sold as their owners moved on to more modern designs.

Only four of these iconic yachts have survived and live on with owners who have  pockets deep enough to keep these beautiful classics in prime condition, no simple feat.

Marilee is one of these lucky yachts, perhaps the finest of her class in existence, and reentered my world, yet again, when I viewed a documentary film that chronicles her history and most recent restoration.

Those who follow this blog know that I make it a point to find my way aboard as many classic yachts as I can and while I have never been aboard Marilee, she has been in my mind as a very special yacht since our days of sailing our own “classic” Tao.

It wasn’t until the early 80s, around the time that John Wilson “launched” Wooden Boat Magazine, and, in part, catalyzed what has become a wave of restorations of many of the remaining classics worth preserving, like Marilee that she was brought back from near death.

She underwent her first major restoration in 2000, funded by a small group of New York Yacht Club members, including Peter Kellog, in preparation for the America’s Cup Jubilee in Cowes England.  She did well and won many races during that series.

Fast forward to this morning when I saw that wonderful video chronicling her most  recent restoration.    Yes, I know that most restoration videos, a sort of “we replaced 40% of her frames…” type can be boring, but this video is particularly well done and includes fascinating historical information along with some details of her restoration.  You should watch it.So, there you have it, a boat that I have never been aboard an yet still somehow feels like she has been a part of our lives for years.

These chance encounters with Marilee are a lot like the cruising lifestyle, where friends come and go with the seasons.   And while it may be months or years between those chance encounters, seeing them again brings back a wave of memories as we say “hello” yet again.

For me, Marilee is one of those memories of times past.  Our children are grown and have kids of their own and it’s nice to know that Marilee, that we first saw when we were newly married, is still out there and has a caring owner who is willing and able to put resources into keeping her in the condition she deserves.

I wonder when I’ll next “see” her again?  Time will tell…