Well, it’s happened, we are now back in CT and home for the next two weeks.   As we have for the last 6 winters, we had made sure that the house was thoroughly winterized with antifreeze in the boiler, had been inspected by a professional who has undergone hvac training for heating repair as well as heat pump repair, all domestic water pipes blown out and antifreeze in the toilets, dishwasher… before we shut the front door to head south.

So, now it’s late February, the house is warm (sort of), the water turned on and all that work, getting the house closed up is, well, down the drain, literally.   

We arrived late yesterday afternoon to a wintry landscape of snow and ice.   This is the view out of our front door a few moments ago.   Note the nod to nautical, the anchor on the porch.  Contrast that to the sunset behind Pandora, our last night aboard.   “Behind” is the operative word.  Sunsets in the Caribbean are always behind the boat as the wind is always from the east.   How inconvenient it would be to have to crane our necks if it wasn’t always behind us.   Love those trade winds. So much for tropics for the next two weeks.

So back to arriving home.   I had set the furnace to a cool 40 degrees for the winter when we left and somewhere along the line the furnace failed and when I went to turn up the heat, NOTHING HAPPENED.   Yikes, it was 43 in the house and no way to make it warmer.

After a quick call to the oil company and our plumber, I realized that I could try the reset button on the furnace and voila, it turned on.  However, I still want to have someone out to look things over as I have no idea what caused it to fail and somewhere along the way it had gotten VERY COLD inside.   So cold that water inside the fridge froze.   That’s cold.

Well, it’s now warm in the house, although that is a relative description as I now have on an undershirt, long sleeve shirt, fleece, long pants, socks.  Well, you get the picture and that’s in contrast to my normal tropical attire of shorts.  Just shorts,  that’s it with the addition of a shirt to keep the sun off as needed.   Oh yeah, while the water here is frozen, the water in Martinique is “dip worthy”.  Hmm…

And, speaking of Martinique, Pandora is now on a mooring in Le Marin, which has the least expensive moorings I have ever encountered.   Believe it or not, Pandora’s monthly rate for the mooring is about $135 a month.   A MONTH!  Can you believe it?  Not to torture the price thing too much but a mooring in Sag Harbor, The Hamptons in NY,  for Pandora at 47′ is $94/night.  That’s for ONE NIGHT!   In Martha’s Vineyard it’s in the $50/night range and Nantucket around $85/night.

And, to tie up Med Moor on the dock is cheap too, something like $35/night.   The place is so reasonably priced that the entire year is booked, with short windows sometimes available for transient visits, by December of the PRIOR YEAR, including summer in-water storage.   Amazing.

t’s no surprise that the place, with 600 slips, some say as many as 1,000 and hundreds of moorings, is always full as it’s so reasonably priced.   Pandora is actually in this shot but she’s so far out in the harbor that she doesn’t even show up.   I’d estimate that in the general area there are perhaps as many as 2,000 boats in slips, on moorings and at anchor at any given time.   And, as you can imagine, just about any sort of marine related service is readily at hand and at reasonable prices.
So here we are in CT for two weeks, punctuated with visits to MD and our family, before heading back to Pandora to resume our visit to the Windward Islands, south to Grenada.

After that?  Not sure but I am leaning toward bringing Pandora north this spring in spite of the fact that it’s such a long trip back north,  a real slog.

For now, I’ll just focus on staying warm and look forward to the fun of re-winterizing the house once again before we head back to Martinique.

After a few months in tropical weather, all I can say is “wow, it’s different up here”.

It’s rare to see a classic boat here in Martinique where the only really old ones are generally nearly or totally derelict.   However, as we moved from St Anne to Le Marin today, to put Pandora on a mooring, this lovely motorsailer passed us going the other way.She’s a beauty, built in the 50s, a steel motorsailer.   This video talks about her recent refit in Belfast Maine.It’s indeed rare to see classics south of Antigua and a treat.  I only wish that I had seen her when she was anchored in St Anne so I could have gotten some better shots.  Anyway, we saw her.   Her cruising schedule is taking her far and wide this season although she was shipped from Newport to the American Virgins by ship.  Want to follow her?  Check out her FaceBook page.  Not a lot of current information there although it seems that she was designed by Walter McGinnis in Boston and build by Abeking and Rasmussen in Germany, the same yard that built the iconic Concordia Yawls.

On another subject, yesterday Brenda and I went for a hike along the shore near St Anne.  It involved some ups and downs, more than Brenda wanted and als0 was a bit longer, no make that a LOT longer, than I had expected.  Oops.

Anyway, it was a beautiful walk.   This view, of the anchorage, shows how many boats are anchored off of St Anne.  A bit farther down, a view to the south toward St Lucia, where we hope to visit when we return from CT in early March. Along the way we saw a number of specimens of this very interesting tree, a Caribbean Birch, called that because the bark peels like a north american birch.   It’s also called a tourist tree, because it is red and peels like a sunburned tourist.  They are very fast growing and look impressive.  Their wood is a dark red like mahogany.  Beautiful. The walk was nice but being longer than expected and the fact that we had to bum a ride with some random Italian tourist and his family at the end didn’t go particularly well with Brenda.   Oops.  And, as our Son Rob would say,  “Nice work.  A CLM, career limiting move Dad”.

For much of the week the locals in Martinique have been celebrating Carnival and even in little St Anne, there was something going on each day.   In the evenings the music would blare and a small parade would make it’s way through town.   This truck had some impressive sound equipment aboard.  You could feel as well as hear the music a long way off.   After it passed, “oh, that’s a lot of speakers”.    No wonder it sounded like it was right in Pandora’s cockpit with us.  Many locals dressed up and marched, or danced along with the parade.  I particularly enjoyed this girl in her costume.   Store bought perhaps but fun never the less.   Cute kid. Well, that’s about all for now.   Tomorrow we pack up for our trip home to the states for two weeks.   Lots of details including someone to keep an eye on Pandora and to water her plants.   Plants you say?  Yes, plants.

We are excited to see the kids and our granddaughter Tori.    Will be fun.   Back to Pandora and south for more exploring after March 5th.

As always, details to come.

Seeing Little Vigilant today reminded me of the coming cold weather up north.  A taste of the coming weather when we head home, a taste of Maine here in Martinique.

Well, it’s another windy day here in St Anne, and only a few days till we catch a flight back to the US.  Interestingly, it’s not expensive to fly to CT or NY from Martinique as the discount airline, Norwegian Air flies here non-stop several days a week.  Brenda and I were able to get pretty inexpensive flights of about $250 each, round trip.  Not bad compared to some islands where it costs a lot more, takes two stops and sometimes two days to get home.

One thing for sure is that there isn’t any salt on the decks of boats here as it rains every day here, sometimes for a few brief moments and occasionally in great torrents.   And with the wind, it seems like just about every day somebody’s boat or dink breaks free and must be captured and re-anchored because of the strong winds.   That and the fact that there are about 350 boats anchored makes for a lot of action, wind or not.

Normally, squalls and rainstorms in the Caribbean come with an increase of 5-10kts of additional wind but with the wind already in the 20s, and a wind increase of sometimes 20+ kts, makes for some impressive moments with horizontal winds lashing Pandora.

However, wind or not, there is still plenty of sunshine here and that all comes with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s, very pleasant actually.

Now that we have been here for about two weeks due to the wind, it’s becoming somewhat difficult to keep myself occupied as witnessed by my more than regular posts.   Actually, to keep everyone from getting cabin fever from being pinned down with strong winds, today there will be a valentine’s pot luck on the beach.  Brenda’s made a terrific almond cake.  I expect that it will be a big hit.

The town center of St Anne is dominated by the Catholic church, the first thing you see when you arrive at the dock.  It’s a busy place with services or activities most every day.   It’s a beautiful building.   The church is famous for it’s pathway depicting the stations of the cross, set up on the hillside behind the church.   Each station depicts an event associated with the Crucifixion of Christ.  As you make your way up the hillside, you go through a series of switchbacks with a station at each turn. From the top is an impressive view of the harbor and mountains in the distance.  Pandora is out there too. The congregation of the church has gone to great effort to make everything just right with whitewashed walls lining the paths.  There are even floodlights and loud speakers lining the pathway, designed to manage thousands of pilgrims that make the journey on special occasions.

Down near the water is a beautiful cemetery with many family crypts.  Not a bad view.I guess that this post is a bit light on detail but I thought I’d share it anyway.

Oh yeah, Happy Valentines Day.  Pandora’s crew will enjoy some bubbly and sauteed duck breast for dinner aboard.

In a few days, back to the US and family.  Happily, a local cruiser will be keeping an eye on Pandora while she’s on a mooring in la Marin.   One less thing to worry about.

While many of my friends are freezing up in the northeast, we are still here in St Ann Martinique, unable to move, after nearly a week of quite strong winds.   It’s ironic that the sun is out, it’s beautiful with occasional brief showers and yet we can’t go anywhere.   And, there are hundreds of boats that feel about the same way.  Nobody is moving, waiting for a lull in the winds to head off to their next stop, either south or north.

At this point it looks like the wind will begin to slacken in a few days but by that time it will be too close to our departure this weekend to make leave St Ann.  In addition, I am still messing around trying to find someone to keep an eye on Pandora while we leave her on a mooring for the two weeks we will be away.

I have someone to talk to later today who has offered to watch her here in St Ann, but that means leaving her on anchor for the duration and I am not sure of what I think of that option.  The difficulty of trying to figure the do with her for a short two week stretch, has made me leery of what will be involved in leaving her for many months down in Grenada or Trinidad.  I am not sure that I have the energy to do that so perhaps it’s best to just bite the bullet and bring her home to CT in the spring.  Besides, I enjoy working on the boat and I’d surely go into withdraw if I had to be away from Pandora from May to the end of the year.  Besides, perhaps I can sneak away for a few short cruises over the summer.   Fingers crossed.

The good news is that my crew for May, George and Bob seem flexible on my ultimate destination, which is good.

So, back to it’s windy and we can’t leave?   What’s a cruiser to do?

In the world of cruisers, where it takes a whole morning to check email, shop for groceries or do laundry, there seems to be plenty to do to keep busy in spite of the fact that we can’t go anywhere.

As I wrote recently, the local cruiser’s community gathers at least once a week for a pot luck and they just announced a second event for this week, on Wednesday.  We participated in last Friday’s event and it was fun to visit with others for a few hours.   There was a communal grill for us to grill our meat and everyone brought some sort of side dish to share.

There was a really good turnout. One couple even provided some music to set the mood.   Their choice of instruments really set the mood and was a good example of the diversity of the cruising community.Cruisers helping cruisers is the norm just about everywhere and St Ann is no different.   Cruisers are always quick to lend tools of do whatever they can to “pay it forward” and help others.

As I mentioned in my last post, James on Sophie lent me a heat gun, which was invaluable for installing the mast head light.   One way that everyone stays in touch about helping out, sharing ideas and hooking up with others is on the local morning VHF radio net held three days a week.   Brenda and I know that it can be tough to get parts or mail letters back to the US so on today’s net I offered to take any mail to post when we get home.   I also know how tough it can be to get obscure parts in the islands and offered to bring small packages back when we return in early March.  So far, I have been contacted by three cruisers who are looking for help, which is good.  I expect that others will contact us in the next few days.  I am happy to help as others have helped me in the past.

So, back to what’s going on and how a “pinned down cruiser” keeps busy.  As luck would have it, this week is Carnival here in Martinique and St Ann and the locals were sure not to be left out.   There was a very enthusiastic band playing local music.  They even set up a large tent and chairs for the audience to enjoy the music and stay out of the tropical sun.   Elsewhere in Martinique there are parades and a lot more going on but St Ann is trying hard to make it fun.

Later today, if I even finish this posts as getting good Internet isn’t so easy here, I am going to check out renting a car for tomorrow so we can tour the island with another couple who cruised here from Maine.

Perhaps I’ll close of a photo of Pandora sailing along the leeward side of Dominica last week by our friends on Raven. If only every day here could be like that day.    For now, one thing is for sure, that being pinned down in paradise is surely better than being “brr” up north, that’s for sure.

So, what’s a cruiser to do?   I guess I’ll just have to go for a swim this afternoon to wash out the shampoo.   Besides, I do have to stay clean.  Right?  And, I just have to stay busy.

You know the phrase “cruising is nothing more than boat repair in exotic places”?   Well, to torture that phrase a bit, yesterday it was like “cruising aboard Pandora is taking boat repair to new heights”.

On my run south from CT in November the mast top tri-color stopped working, along with other miscellaneous items aboard Pandora.    As the say, “it’s always something” so I purchased a new Signal Mate masthead unit  over the holidays.  It’s a pretty elegant unit sold as water tight.   Ha!   Water tight?  When I took the old unit down it had enough water in it to actually slosh around.   Not good.

Anyway, I was lucky to have the problem crop up before I headed home from Antigua as a few days ago the integrated anchor light in the unit failed as well and as we nearly always anchor out, having a functioning mast top anchor light is critical.

I have been meaning to swap out the old unit for the last month but have continually put it off because of rough anchorages or heavy winds.  However, once the anchor light went I had to deal with it.

The problem is that the winds have been really piping up lately and the idea of being at the top of a 65′ mast in heavy winds, trying to deal with tiny screws, butt connectors and heat shrink tubing, all at the top of a mast, exposed to winds, left me a little, well, not happy.  And, add to that, the fact that I don’t like heights.

Additionally,  I had no idea of how I was going to use a torch to shrink wrap the connection after I finished the job in all that wind.

Have you ever watched a space walk and marveled at how slowly and deliberately the astronauts do their jobs, planning, practicing and planning again to be sure that they have the right tools, steps and process worked out?

No, working on Pandora’s mast top isn’t a spacewalk but it isn’t a “walk in the park” either.  By the time you get up to the top of the mast you don’t want to have to head back down because of a missing screwdriver.  And, to drop a wrench from that height would surely mean a lost tool or worse, a broken hatch.

So, every tool had to be attached to my bosun’s chair by a rope lanyard and placed in the proper pocket to allow me to do the job without tangling the various lines attached to each tool.

Brenda has pulled me up the mast many times over the years and I completely trust her.  We had worked out the process in great detail as there was no way that I could hear her response to any of my questions.

Here I am all (snug?) at the top of Pandora’s mast.  Note the extension cord for the heat gun bowing out in the wind.  The steps…

1. prepare new masthead unit
2. pre-attach butt connectors and position shrink wrap tube
3. arrange 100′ of extension cord to power heat shrinker
4. head up the mast
5. collect self and stop shaking from the force of the wind
6. Tip head back to get brim of hat out of face due to strong wind
7. try not to look down!
8. strip wires on mast cable
9. Caulk out of pocket and remove cap
10. apply caulk under new unit
11. cap back on caulk tube and back in pocket
12. try to fasten with two screws (of course, the didn’t quite line up)  try that with a screw driver attached to a lanyard where the line wraps around and around as screw is driven
13.  try to line up second screw
14. again
15. and again
16. look at hands now covered with white caulk
17. wipe caulk off on shirt
18. tighten screws, finally
19. “dry test” connections
20. Brenda turns on mast unit (it worked!)
21. Brenda turns off unit.  Thumbs up from Brenda to confirm power off
22. Crimp connector positioned (almost dropped crimper as knot came untied)
23. re-tie crimper with one free hand and teeth.  Whew!
24. crimp all three butt connectors
25. slip shrink tube over connectors
26. Brenda turns on inverter to power heat gun
27. use electric heat gun to shrink covering on wire
28. Brenda turns off inverter so I won’t set the bosun’s chair in fire by accident
29.  Brenda begins to lower me to deck.
30. I wave “stop, stop!”  lanyards holding tools are now tangled in backstay and threaten to pull all tools out of the pockets on bosun’s chair.
31. Ok, all set.  Brenda lowers me to deck.
32. I kiss deck…

Too much detail you say?  Imagine doing this in a vacuum and with no gravity?   Don’t I look comfy up there?Finally, after about 45 minutes.   Done!  Now, wasn’t that easy?

Imagine doing that in deep space in zero gravity.   It was plenty hard with so many deliberate steps but it was surely easier for me than the folks on the space station.

Anyway, cruising is surely all about fixing boats in exotic places and after yesterday I’ll surely do what I can to be sure that I do the “fixin” when the wind is calm.  Well, at least when I can.

Just to be clear, it’s not always hard.   Here’s me and Brenda enjoying the Superbowl last weekend.   And, I don’t even like football.

Speaking of fun times, we’ll be heading home to the US for a two week visit in about a week.   Can’t wait to see our family and our granddaughter Tori.  She’s getting big.  One more thing…

Tori is “expecting” to be the sister of twins in August.   (note the wording on her shirt)  Good luck to her parents Rob and Kandice.   Can you say “where’s my nanny?”