{"id":11388,"date":"2020-09-25T09:52:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T14:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11388"},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:09:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T15:09:59","slug":"things-may-change-but-the-sun-still-rises-and-sets-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11388","title":{"rendered":"Things may change but the sun still rises and sets every day…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s only been a week since I was last in Block Island when I was here with my friend Craig.\u00a0 Yesterday, after waiting a few days in Wickford for the strong north winds to settle, Brenda and I made a run here, our second stop on the “twilight cruise”, our last for this season.\u00a0 Sure, we may still make a short evening run or two on the CT River, perhaps to see the swallows gathering before their run south, but it won’t be long until Pandora is out and on the hard for the winter.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I hosted a Zoom meeting as part of the Salty Dawg Webinar series, with the Director of National Parks in Antigua, Ann-Marie Martin.\u00a0 She was joined by Paul Deeth, owner of the Admiral’s Inn, also in the Dockyard.<\/p>\n

They spoke to captains making the trip there this fall as well as others considering Antigua as a destination in the future.\u00a0 There were questions about how the island is handling the virus and what cruisers could expect as the season unfolds.<\/p>\n

While there is much uncertainty, one thing for sure is that being in Antigua, with the warm weather and the opportunity to continue to live life outdoors, will be a lot safer than life here in the Northeast US where everyone is bracing for a resurgence of the virus.\u00a0 To that point, we are expecting that a record number of boats in the rally will head to Antigua.\u00a0 I find that very rewarding given all the work that goes into preparing for the fleet’s arrival.\u00a0 \u00a0This will be the first year that I won’t be there to welcome them.\u00a0 Next year…<\/p>\n

Here in the US, as winter approaches, experts are reminding us that what is coming won’t be a “second wave” as there was never a reduction, with infections near an all time high so we are still in the clutches of the first wave.\u00a0 \u00a0Scary stuff.<\/p>\n

Brenda read this morning that doctors are seeing many more patients than normal complaining of hair loss and their best explanation is stress, perhaps associated with the pandemic.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ve often heard dog owners speak of their stressed dog as “blowing a coat” to explain why their upset dog was loosing much more hair than usual.<\/p>\n

Perfect.\u00a0 One more thing to worry about, as if having a president who is suggesting he won’t leave the Whitehouse, even if he looses the election, isn’t enough.\u00a0 Now we can look forward to being part of a nation of “coat blowers”,\u00a0 going bald on top of everything else.<\/p>\n

So, here we are, me and Brenda, back in Block Island, a place we have been visiting for nearly 40 years.\u00a0 Much has changed since our first visit, so long ago, in our very first boat, a 20′ Cape Cod catboat, Tao.<\/p>\n

We were reminded of those times yesterday when this little Marshall catboat, 18′, arrived and pick up a mooring nearby.\u00a0 I could not resist the temptation to stop and say Hi.\u00a0 Brenda could not resist taking a picture.\u00a0 \"\"Hard to believe that Pandora’s dink is half the length of our first boat.<\/p>\n

Also near by, a lovely yawl, I think an Invicta, sister ship to our own Artemis, one of 11 built in the 60s.\u00a0 \u00a0Her lines are beautiful.\u00a0 Alas, not such a fast boat.\u00a0 \"\"When Craig and I sailed from Block Island to Newport last week, we had a wonderful downwind sail and after days of strong north winds in Wickford, wouldn’t you know that Brenda and I had to motor directly into a south wind?\u00a0 Such is life.<\/p>\n

Brenda and I arrived in Wickford, where I had left Pandora for a few days, to head home to visit.\u00a0 \u00a0You know, the lawn does need to be cut.\u00a0 When we returned to Pandora it was really chilly for the first few days and very windy.\u00a0 Good thing our diesel heater was working as it kept the outside low 40s temperatures at a bay.\u00a0 Down below we were warm and comfortable.<\/p>\n

Wickford is a place we have enjoyed visiting for as many years as we have been boating although I don’t think we took Tao there.\u00a0 I do recall at least one departure from Newport aboard Tao that, like yesterday, had us motoring directly into the wind, trying to get out of Narraganset Bay and around Point Judith on our way home from a vacation.\u00a0 For sure, yesterday’s trip was a lot more pleasant.\u00a0 Brenda still remembers that trip, and not in a good way.\u00a0 She does have a very long memory.<\/p>\n

Back in those days, when the weather cooled in the Fall, our only solution to stay warm was to invert a clay flowerpot over our tiny kerosene burner.\u00a0 \u00a0These days time aboard, complete with central heating, is a bit more civilized.<\/p>\n

One thing that has changed a lot over the years is the size of the yachts in Newport.\u00a0 They are huge.\u00a0 \u00a0How about this monster speedster?\u00a0 \"\"I expect that he burns more fuel in an hour than we burn in a whole year.\u00a0 And I mean more even if you combine all that we use in our cars, boat and at home.\u00a0 With a burn rate, of as much as 1,000 gallons per hour when she’s speeding along at 30+ kts, a lot more.\u00a0 Talk about a carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

A powerboat owner once quipped to me, in response to a question by me about how much fuel he burned in an hour,\u00a0 “8 gallons an hour but I can afford it”.\u00a0 Ok, but some might suggest that isn’t really the point.<\/p>\n

Some might suggest that burning that amount of fuel is wasteful.\u00a0 However, if I could afford it, I’d probably find a way to rationalize it and have a big beautiful yacht myself.\u00a0 Perhaps something like this.\u00a0 \"\"Or, if I couldn’t stand the idea of a power boat, something like this beauty.\u00a0 \"\"Call me a carbon footprint hypocrite but I do love beautiful yachts and if I had the coin…<\/p>\n

It’s always interesting to see some of the same yachts, year after year.\u00a0 This is Spartan, the last remaining of the NY 50s class, built in Bristol RI by the famous builder Herreshoff, one of several built for members of the NY Yacht Club, launched in the spring of 1913.\u00a0 Her current owner spent millions having her restored during a project that began in 1981 and took 8 years.\u00a0 It appears that she is, once again, having major work done.\u00a0 \"\"Here’s Spartan under sail.\u00a0 I first saw her when she was on display at the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic a number of years ago.\u00a0 For some reason, I can’t find that photo?\u00a0\u00a0 \"\" Pretty remarkable and at more than 70′ long, she is primarily a day sailor and a big one at that.\u00a0 However, by today’s standards, a small yacht.<\/p>\n

As Craig and I made our way from Newport to Wickford, we were passed by the Oliver Hazard Perry, a reproduction tall ship berthed at Fort Adams in Newport.\u00a0 She was conducting man overboard drills.\u00a0 \u00a0When the breeze picked up and she put out all her sails, Pandora still passed her easily.\u00a0 The Perry isn’t great in light air, it seems. \"\"She is quite a contrast to Pandora but an even greater contrast in designs was when Enterprise, one of the 12 meter yachts built to compete for the America’s Cup.\u00a0 She is still sailed out of Newport as one of a number of 12s that have been kept in sailing trim.\u00a0 \"\"She passed us like we were standing still. \"\"What a contrast to see her and the Perry in the same frame.\u00a0 Escapees from such different times.\"\"And speaking of yacht racing,\u00a0 Brenda and I got a kick out of this boat load of guys heading out with their RC boats for an evening of racing.\u00a0 Love the dual engine pontoon boat.\u00a0 Actually, the motor on the left is on a “chase boat”, I guess to retrieve errant yachts.\u00a0 \u00a0 They seemed to be having a very nice time, no doubt helped along with cans of beer. \"\"I was struck by this Buddha, guarding Wickford harbor, a sort of silent guardian of the people of Wickford.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ll go with that.\u00a0 In these days of pandemic and the polarization of our country, we need all the help we can get.\u00a0 \"\"Unfortunately, during a particularly high tide, while were there, the water was right up to his chin, yet another metaphor for what many of us are feeling these days as we all work hard to keep our heads above high water.<\/p>\n

At least we can take solace in the fact that the sun continues to rise and fall every day, always predictable.\u00a0 \u00a0 Our neighbor, the catboat, nicely framed by yet another beautiful sunset.\u00a0 \"\"Yes, the sun will come up again but I fear that there are going to be a number of nasty gales along the way.<\/p>\n

Batten down the hatches…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s only been a week since I was last in Block Island when I was here with my friend Craig.\u00a0 Yesterday, after waiting a few days in Wickford for the strong north winds to settle, Brenda and I made a run here, our second stop on the “twilight cruise”, our last for this season.\u00a0 Sure, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11408,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions\/11408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}