Yes, I know, it’s a problem everywhere but given the chaos here in the US and the relative safety of the Caribbean, with so few cases, it’s likely to be safer there than here.\u00a0 However, if we were to get sick in the islands, as remote a possibility as that may be, good luck with that as there are very limited medical facilities in the Caribbean.\u00a0 I also fear that if we were to head south, come spring, I would, once again, be unable to get crew to head down and help me return Pandora to New England.<\/p>\n
Given the terrible track record that we have had here in the US in keeping the pandemic under control, I expect that air travel will remain anxiety producing in the spring, vaccine or not.\u00a0 \u00a0It is Labor Day weekend as I write this, and to date nearly 190,000 people have died of the virus in the US alone and with some 1,000 more dying every day, medical experts are predicting we may reach 400,000 deaths by the end of the year, with deaths accelerating as those in colder climates move indoors.<\/p>\n
I would not be surprised if Antigua and the other islands that have been much more effective in keeping the virus under control, decided to restrict travel from the US, making it tough to get anyone into the islands to help bring boats home come spring.<\/p>\n
And that brings me to the second reason and certainly the biggest.<\/p>\n
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- Brenda hated the trip from St Lucia to Florida<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Of all the passages that I have made over the years, the run from Great Inagua Bahamas to Florida, the second half of our run to the US VIs, was the most unpleasant yet.\u00a0 \u00a0And that’s saying a lot when compared to a four day run in the teeth of a gale that I experienced several years ago.<\/p>\n
No, it wasn’t quite as rough as that trip but with sustained 30kts on the beam and waves breaking over the boat regularly, Brenda was terrified and\u00a0 miserable.\u00a0 And I was forced to stay awake for a lot longer than I was safely able, so it was a pretty tough trip for us both.<\/p>\n
She hasn’t really gotten over that run and it has proven to be pretty difficult to coax her back aboard.\u00a0 The good news is that while she hasn’t spent more than a few hours aboard since returning to the US, we are planning an early fall run, south of the Cape, in the next few weeks.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see how cruising in New England is during a pandemic, even after the summer crowds are gone.<\/p>\n
It’s going to be very tough for me to give up a winter afloat and endure a New England winter, but at least I’ll be home with enough time to tackle some of the larger jobs that I have been meaning to address aboard Pandora and at home.<\/p>\n
I won’t go into a lot of detail about what’s on the agenda except to say that I plan to repaint the interior\/underside of the hard dodger.\u00a0 For some reason, the paint<\/a> has pealed and is looking scruffy.\u00a0 The decks also need some love where the paint has worn through from traffic on deck.\u00a0 Fortunately, the cabin top is fine as that would be much more difficult to address with all the fittings I’d need to work around.\u00a0 The side decks are mercifully free of hardware so preparing them for painting will be fairly easy. Luckily, we got professionals’ help for all these processes (see more aboutSurepaint<\/a>). Well, easy when you consider that there is nearly 100′ running feet of side deck that is about 2.5′ wide.<\/p>\n
While I have no experience working with Alexseal,<\/a> the paint that her hull was done with, the local company rep is a good guy and I expect he will be very open to guiding me through the project.<\/p>\n
And that brings me to the biggest and most intimidating job I need to tackle, fixing a number of scratches and dings in the hull.\u00a0 There are three areas in particular that need addressing.\u00a0 The dings in the aft port quarter made by the couple aboard a small catamaran that rammed us in St Lucia.\u00a0 I wrote about that experience in this post.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0And, there is always a “first” scratch that happen to “christen” my shiny new paint job, and this one, my fault, happened when a squall came up last fall in Hampton.\u00a0 As the gusty winds shifted during the squall, one of the fenders fell off of a piling that put a deep scratch in my shiny boat.\u00a0 The first scratch in a new paint job is always the most painful.<\/p>\n
But the biggest painting task is will be to address a large number of scratches on the port bow that came about when I dropped the anchor in the middle of a fierce squall in Ft Pierce on the ICW.\u00a0 Those scratches, while fairly light, run all along the port bow and will require painting a section of at least a 3’x6′ area.\u00a0 I am not confident that I will be able to blend such a large area properly so I guess I’ll have to see how that goes and then decide if I am going to hire the work out to fix my (perhaps) botched job.\u00a0 \u00a0Time will tell on that front.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7288.jpg\")
Pretty impressive glow in the east.\u00a0 ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7282a.jpg\")
Montauk light showing the way.\u00a0 ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7289a.jpg\")
As we headed down the Delaware river we were passed by many ships.\u00a0 It’s hard to get a real feel for how big these ships really are. ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7277.jpg\")
Well, at least until you see how big these “tiny trucks” are, secured on deck. ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7275.jpg\")
And, the final view, one of my favorite lighthouses.\u00a0 Saybrook Point light at the mouth of the CT River, freshly painted.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7295.jpg\")
So, home we are, me and Pandora.\u00a0 And me, pining for the warm tropical winter that will not be.\u00a0 I’ll admit that I am quite anxious about what life will be like here in the US when the weather turns cold.\u00a0 Gone will be the outdoor dining options and combined with a desire to be with family for the holidays, I fear that many will let their guard down and infections will skyrocket.\u00a0 Medical experts are also sounding the alarm, in particular, about what will happen this Labor Day weekend when party-goers throw caution to the wind and gather together for one last fling of summer.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_7296.jpg\")
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