saga 43 – Sail Pandora

It’s really hot. So, let’s go to Block Island

June 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Yikes, it’s hot. Really hot. Today it was in the 90s and really humid. Here’s an idea! I’ll head out to Block Island where it’s cooler. Yes, that’s what I will do and will do so with my good friend Craig is headed up to Mystic on Friday morning to meet me for three days aboard Pandora. While the weather is supposed to cool down a bit here in Essex, it looks like Block will be considerably cooler, in the mid 80s. I am counting on it.

Speaking of time aboard Pandora (I thought that you would never ask) Brenda and I had a nice couple of days aboard last weekend when we headed out to Watch Hill and Fisher’s Island for a short but nice cruise.

On Monday we lunched at the Ocean House, a great spot that I wrote about in my last post. What a pretty place. And yes, Muffy and all her pals were very much in evidence enjoying lunch prior to a rousing game of bridge. I do know that bridge is a very popular game but I haven’t a clue as to what it is all about. In any event, the bridge set at Ocean House looked pretty well healed and fresh into town from Boca, if you must know.

Speaking of proper togs, to stretch the point a bit further, one of my boys gave me this great ensign for Christmas last year. It’s nearly 6′ long. Don’t look too hard at my stainless flag staff. Besides, it’s the flag that’s worth noting. Don’t you just hate the wimpy flags that you see on some boats? Speaking of a properly fitted yacht. I spied this cruiser next to us in the anchorage at Watch Hill. They are out of Mystic. What great lines. Very nice in a world of top-heavy Tupperware cruisers.

We went for a walk along the water and out to the coast guard station. I can’t tell you how magnificent the homes with this view are. Hard to believe that most are only occupied for a few months, or less, a year. Yes, firmly ensconced in the .0001%.

And, just to prove that we were there, Brenda took a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me… Well, you get the idea. The light house is very picturesque. So nice in fact, that I have to include a close up just to be sure that it’s as nice as it looks from a distance. Yes, just as nice. After leaving Watch Hill we headed over the Fisher’s Island. Fisher’s is probably one of the most expensive place to live on the east coast. And that’s for a summer home. Catch a look at this pad. What is it that they say about people who live in glass houses? Also, how do they get the trees to grown square? Is that what they call a box wood? Hmm…

I’ll probably get in trouble for putting in this shot of my friend’s anchor windlass, lass. I had a pair of these once but they went off to college. Now this is dedication from our friend, who will remain nameless.

And this is the same windlass in high gear. Now, that’s teamwork. if she is the windlass does that make him a windlad?
Perhaps I had better change the subject right quick. How about this shot of Brenda looking just fetching in a great hat, if you are looking for a similar hat, click to view right here. I just love her in hats. And, what a fab wind blown look. Bummer about that “fear of hat hair” that keeps her from wearing them more often. You can see the selection at Cap Wholesalers here.

Pandora launched at last, free at last and a visit to Watch Hill

June 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Finally, after delays for reasons, some good and some not so good, Pandora finally hit the water (gently) last week in Norwalk CT. For reasons of economy, I have kept her in a yard that is a bit off the beaten path (RE: on the other side of the 95 bridge in Norwalk) for a number of years now. That doesn’t sound like a big deal except that the bridge has a vertical clearance of 61′ at high water while Pandora’s mast is 63′ plus gear, antennas and the like. Yes, not a big difference but that two plus feet makes a smashing lot of difference if we were to hit the bridge.

Well, the answer is to pass under the bridge at low tide. Duhh… With 7′ of tide in Western LI Sound, that’s not a biggie, it just takes a bit of planning. And, there are two other bridges that must open prior to even getting to the “short” bridge. HOWEVER, the day prior to the launch, the yard owner stopped by to tell me that there was work being done on the 95 highway bridge and that there was a scaffolding under the mid span, where I needed to pass under, that restricted the vertical height to 62′ at LOW TIDE. Not good.

After much back and forth, the 95-bridge-worker-men agreed that they would pull up the cables that were in the way at mid span to be sure that there would be enough vertical height for me to pass under. Well, that sounded reasonable, at the 11th hour, so it seemed that we were ready.

Before getting back to the bridge issue, let me digress to mention a bit about the unconventional crane that launched Pandora. It’s an 80 ton capacity behemoth, painted a lovely color of red. To me it seemed better suited to be the main character in a children’s book than the workhorse in a boat yard. And, I have to say that watching her be picked up gave me a pause. Yikes, it looked precarious.

Whew!!! So far, so good.

In the water and without a scratch. Oh yea, I should mention that at low tide, this area is just a mud flat so she had to go in at the tippy top of high tide.

Anyway, Pandora ended up in the water without incident and on Friday morning, to coincide with dead low we were off. Oh yea, we almost weren’t off as Pandora was hard aground in the mud. It wasn’t until after much back and forth along with enthusiastic pushing from three yard guys that we were able to power off. Never a dull moment. So off to the bridge we went.

As we approached the bridge we could see that some of the cables were not pulled up fully so my helper/crew gesticulated wildly for me to head more to the left where the cables seemed a bit higher. Indeed, it was VERY, VERY CLOSE as the VHF antenna, the highest part of gear on the top of the mast, plinked from cable to cable as we passed under the bridge ever-soo-slooowly. My heart was just pounding, as I had visions of all my gear being sheared off of the top of the mast, but we made it. After that fun was over we passed through two more bridges, a Metro North train bridge that required an appointment with dispatch and eight guys to open it. I have to believe that moving through that bridge cost over $1,000 in labor. Amazing! After those two bridges calling the Norwalk bridge tender to get the third bridge to open was a piece of cake. No issues there. Finally, out in the harbor and on our way.

There’s no doubt that we will have plenty of practice with bridges as we head down the ICW this fall. More to come on that. Perhaps I should drop a tape from the top of the mast to confirm exactly how tall the rig is. Yea, a good idea.

Our run from Norwalk took us up to Mystic where Pandora will be for about a month prior to moving her to Wickford RI and on to Maine. The weekend also included a wonderful rendezvous with fellow Corinthians at the Watch Hill Yacht Club. What a great way to start the season aboard Pandora. And, yes, we even were able to sail for a few hours. It was a picture perfect day out on LI Sound.

After a night in Mystic aboard we headed to Watch Hill and our rendezvous at the Watch Hill Yacht Club. The yacht club has a great view of the harbor to the west. Here’s the entrance. The entire clubhouse is out on pilings, above the water. Access to this wonderful place is just another reason that being a member of The Corinthians is a good idea.

On Sunday morning, I stopped at the Ocean House, a wonderful resort up on the hill overlooking the ocean and harbor, for coffee and a leisurely read of the NY Times. How decadent.

What a grand entrance. The Ocean House was designed to look very much like the grand structure that it replaced. A wonderful piece of work. Brenda and I will be visiting for lunch in a few weeks. Dinner would be terrific, I am sure, but it’s a bit out of our price range. We can also afford to indulge in a cup of coffee on the veranda.

Can you imagine a more serene spot to have coffee while listening to the surf? Not me.

Oh Muffy, you must join us for a round of croquet out on the lawn. Some of the locals, you know, Muffy and her pals, have money to spend and the taste to do it with style. How about this beauty?

Watch Hill is surely one of our favorite places and will be on the list again in a week or so. Life is good.

Sights, if not sounds, in Nassau

May 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment

I had a great day yesterday wandering around Nassau from our marina to tourist area where the cruise ships dock as well as an area where the locals hang out to play checkers and dominoes. Nassau is an area of great contrast from the run down to the glitzy. First, this is a much better shot of The Abby. What a nice boat. Very powerful machine.

As I walked the two or so miles into town I passed Potters Cove where locals have put up shacks to serve food and sell conch. The area, locals and their wares are very colorful.

The small shacks are lined up cheek to jowl accompanied by the din of small generators humming away to keep the lights on. Quite a sight and plenty aromatic.

They aren’t too concerned about putting fenders out to keep their boats from bumping into each other.
A favorite pastime is dominoes which is more of a contact sport given the way that they slap the tiles down. They are very enthusiastic.
Conch are everywhere, stacked up on counters waiting to be carved up into dinner.

Some vendors clean up the empty ones and they are very nice. I need to get one of these to take home. They are bigger than they look, with some measuring a foot across.

Some of the “items” for sale are not quite as appetizing though, like these land crabs. Imagine that they are nearly a foot across. They would be a great prop for an Indiana Jones movie. Imagine yourself in a cave, in the dark, claws clicking away… You get the picture.

I tried hard to imagine what sort of recipe these would go into. Cook’s Illustrated, help!!!For dinner we had grouper and picked it up at a road side stand where local fisherman displayed their wares. For an extra $5 they will clean if for you. It was a bit unsettling to watch how aggressively they went at the fish with a machete. Scales flying everywhere accompanied by a constant dialogue from his buddies dissecting his skills. I was impressed.

A bit further down where the cruise ships dock, the environment is much different with high end fashion the norm. No dried fish here.

Well, that was yesterday and now it’s Thursday morning and raining steadily. I am told that this is not normal weather at all according to Bob, the owner of The Abbey. In the 8 seasons that they have spent here they have had more rain this winter than the total of their last seven years visiting the Bahamas.

With regards to our departure, we had expected to leave here on Friday or Saturday but now its looking more like Sunday. as there is a low and unsettled weather that just won’t budge. For the short term, I just hope that the rain stops so we can do a bit more exploring later today.

Where’s Pandora? Perhaps better to say where’s Bob?

May 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment

For some months I have been looking for a service that will allow me to provide real time location information here on where Pandora is at any given point. This will be particularly valuable when Brenda and I head south in the fall so that family and friends can follow us as we make our way south for the winter. Of course, the natural question that some to mind is “why would we want to follow your trip?”. Well, that’s simple, because you can…

There are a number of services available that will track progress and I settled on a unit called SPOT. This is a nifty device that’s just a few inches long and sends a signal to low orbiting satellites to keep tabs on where the unit is at any given time. With an update every 10 minutes when it’s turned on, it’s an amazingly simple way to keep in touch. This is an amazingly affordable service and you can click here to learn more about this remarkable device. Even more interesting is this overview of how the unit works. As simple as the device looks, it’s part of a system that looks REALLY COMPLICATED and EXPENSIVE.

This video gives a good overview of the tracking function. What an awesome gadget!!!

“Spot” will be aboard Pandora most of the time but for now it will be with me as I head this coming week for Nassau Bahamas to help my friend Bob bring back his South African Islander 56′, The Abby, to Norwalk CT. At least, that’s where I think we are going. Not sure as the boat spends a lot of time in Newport. Well, I guess that will learn more when I head there on Tuesday. I know Bob from my years as a member of the Norwalk Yacht Club and also as member of The Corinthians.

There will be a total of four of us on this trip and we expect to leave on the 18th or 19th of May and will arrive at some point late the following week. As I understand it, we will head out into the Gulf Stream and ride it north. This will allow us to make the trip as quickly as possible given the fact that the “stream” moves north at several knots which will give us a boost in speed as we head up the coast.

Anyway, back to the issue of tracking our progress. With SPOT aboard, there will be a real time record of our progress as we head north. I won’t turn the unit on until we leave the harbor except briefly when I get to Nassau to post an initial position on my SPOT page. You will have to pan out on the map to get a better feel for where we are as the link defaults to a close up view.

It should be fun and I hope that you will enjoy “ride” with me.

More to come.

The wild life aboard Pandora and a Mother’s day greeting.

May 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Even though Pandora is still on the hard in Norwalk CT, she’s still a hopping place for some. In this case, the feathered kind. When I went forward the other day to check out the anchor windlass I was surprised by a Ground Dove that had built her nest under the cover. I was loath to interfere but had to attend to the anchor so unfortunately, disturbed her. It was amazing just how brave she was and only flew away when I carefully prodded her with my outstretched finger on her back. However, I did have to give her a poke as I really needed to lower the anchor to the ground for some work I was doing. Most important is that the windless makes quite a racket, something that would surely have sent her “over the edge”. I wanted her to fly away but not forever.She did make a run for it and I quickly snapped a photo of the egg while she was away. I came back a few days later and she was still there but this time I kept a respectful distance.

With Mother’s day less than a week away I certainly don’t’ want to be accused of being tough on mothers. Besides, my own mom might get the wrong idea about me.

Pandora has proven to be a great home for me and Brenda and it seems fitting to have another family living aboard while she is on the hard.

Let’s hope that the chicks fly the coop by early June when Pandora gets launched. So, how fast to doves grow? For their sake, they had better be quick about it.

While life goes on aboard Pandora, I am headed to Freeport Bahamas this coming Tuesday to help a friend bring his boat back to CT. It should be a great trip and I am sure that some fun posts will come from the journey.

More to come and soon I hope.