{"id":1383,"date":"2012-12-15T20:51:56","date_gmt":"2012-12-15T20:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2012-12-16T11:11:10","modified_gmt":"2012-12-16T11:11:10","slug":"home-for-the-holidays-and-pandora-on-her-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=1383","title":{"rendered":"Home for the holidays and Pandora on her own"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 11th, three months to the day and 1,500 NM south since our departure from Essex CT in September, we left\u00a0Pandora<\/em>\u00a0near Vero Beach Florida to return home for the holidays. \u00a0When we tied up Pandora to the dock I was complaining about the near 100% humidity, still hot air and no-seeums buzzing all around. \u00a0now, it’s Saturday and feeling plenty cold here in Essex, a far cry from the semi-steamy sub-tropical Florida that we left earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Funny how quickly I have become “soft” as we have followed the warmer weather south. \u00a0Me, I am happy to stay away from cold weather for ever. \u00a0Alas, this snow-bird, will have to settle for some snow, now and then so I’ll just have to make the best of it here in New England. I guess that I can tough it out as I have for the last 56 winters. \u00a0It will be great fun as the next few weeks will be a whirlwind of visits and parties with family and friends. \u00a0That should keep the blood from clotting completely.<\/p>\n

For those who visit this site with some frequency, you may notice that I am repeating some of the information that you might have seen recently. \u00a0That’s because the server that supports this site crashed earlier in the week resulting in the loss of some content, my last post, that I \u00a0had added since the last backup.<\/p>\n

The server is maintained by our son Christopher in his office in the department of physics at Columbia in Manhattan. \u00a0Oh well, so much for fail-safe redundant backup servers scattered around the globe. \u00a0Having said that, the up-time on Chris’s server “Cheeto” (not sure where that name came from), has served him well. \u00a0It seems that the hard drive crapped out in a cloud of acrid smoke and that was that.<\/p>\n

Oh well, down but not out as Christopher had what I guess is now “son of Cheeto” up and running on a new, probably filched, computer later the same day.<\/p>\n

Well, enough excuses. \u00a0Here’s some more information from the last post I made since leaving\u00a0Pandora\u00a0<\/em>earlier this week in Florida.<\/p>\n

As we headed south from Vero Beach, it was very clear that we were passing through some decidedly higher income zip-codes. \u00a0It seemed that each home was larger than the last, with some looking more like resorts than single family homes. \u00a0 These mansions (forget micro mansions here) clearly have the best views. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>No views of trailer parks and split levels to bother your view. \u00a0No way, no how. \u00a0 Their views? \u00a0Beautiful marshes to enjoy from their infinity pools. \u00a0“Buffy, can you fetch me another mohito? \u00a0No, I can’t get it myself as it would be just dreadful if I missed the\u00a0green flash<\/a>?”.\"\"<\/a>A nice side benefit of being facing west is the great sunsets, a real plus of being on the water. \u00a0This view is worth paying for.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It would seem that being energy efficient and resource stingy isn’t in high on the list of priorities for these owners. \u00a0 Imagine how much water it takes to keep these lawns looking “golf course green”. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Well, I would expect that it’s about the same amount as you’d need for a golf course. \u00a0How about picking up some carbon offsets? \u00a0Better yet, how about a baker’s dozen Prius to make them feel better? \u00a0Not happening. \u00a0Probably not a lot of sweating the point as they tool around in their hulking SUVs. \u00a0Better yet, make that a hybrid SUV. \u00a0That’s the ticket. \u00a0Much, much better to get 14 mpg. \u00a0Yes, that’s perfect.<\/p>\n

Funny, after years of feeling like the massive stucco homes in Bergen County, where we lived for some 20 years, looked just so nasty. \u00a0The whole stucco thing seems to work in Florida. \u00a0Perhaps it’s the warm weather lulling me into a\u00a0stupor\u00a0 \u00a0If so, it’s a trance that I can get used to. \u00a0 Stucco? \u00a0Bring it on. \u00a0Christmas lights on palms. \u00a0Yes! Yes! \u00a0A New England Christmas? \u00a0Ok, but after the new year I want to high tail it back to where the water isn’t hard unless you drop into off of a bridge at terminal velocity.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the ICW is so close to the ocean and gulf sream here that you can see the cloud banks that run up center of the stream. \u00a0It seems that when strong winds blow over the warm water of the gulf stream that the moisture that is evaporated causes massive thunderheads to grow. \u00a0You can clearly see them from along this part of the ICW. \u00a0Pretty impressive. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Pandora’s home for the next few weeks isn’t grand at all as I am a cheap Yank at heart. \u00a0 The yard, clearly a working facility, is fine place to park a boat but not a place that you’d want to visit for fun. \u00a0No pool and tennis courts here.\"\"<\/a>Lots of boats, however, of all descriptions. \u00a0 Loads of sailboats waiting for their owners to relaunch them and head off for adventure.\"\"<\/a>I found myself wondering if these boats were about to be launched for a winter of sailing south or if they had been hauled out at the end of the season. \u00a0I expect that it’s more like the prior given the nasty hurricanes that rip through this area off and on through the summer. \u00a0I did see plenty of boats held tight to the ground with long woven straps over their decks anchored to huge concrete blocks off of the bow and stern, a sure sign of insurance company influence.<\/p>\n

One more thing. \u00a0Remember when Brenda and I were in Charleston earlier this fall and spied the Volvo racer Maserati at the docks checking in with customs? \u00a0They had just arrived there from a trans Atlantic run in preparation for an attempt to break the record for the fastest run from New York to San Francisco. They are now in NYC waiting for the weather window to begin their potentially record run. \u00a0Not a bad neighborhood.\"\"<\/a>Not a lot in common between Pandora and Maserati I guess. \u00a0Oh well, I can at least take comfort in knowing that a SAGA 43 is more like a Volvo ocean racer than an Island Packet. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>This is an Island Packet. \u00a0Well, to me it looks different. \u00a0“Sure Bob, if it makes you happy. \u00a0Go ahead and cling to that”. \u00a0 It does have a plumb bow… \u00a0Come on, you HAVE to see the similarity. \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 11th, three months to the day and 1,500 NM south since our departure from Essex CT in September, we left\u00a0Pandora\u00a0near Vero Beach Florida to return home for the holidays. \u00a0When we tied up Pandora to the dock I was complaining about the near 100% humidity, still hot air and no-seeums buzzing all around. […]<\/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-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","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=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1397,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}