{"id":2695,"date":"2014-02-03T01:30:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T01:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2695"},"modified":"2014-02-03T01:35:45","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T01:35:45","slug":"casting-off-the-lines-and-on-our-way-monday-morning-we-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2695","title":{"rendered":"Casting off the lines and on our way. Monday morning we hope…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Sunday evening and the rest of the world is watching the Super Bowl. \u00a0 Me, I am writing a blog post. \u00a0Sorry, but I was brought up in a sports agnostic house. Whatever.<\/p>\n

Anyway. \u00a0It’s been three plus days since we arrived in Ft. Pierce and we have just about added all the provisions we can to Pandora so we are about ready to head out. \u00a0So, Monday morning, tomorrow, we will cast off the lines and begin to head south to Ft Lauderdale to stage ourselves for the run to the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

I am a bit uncertain about what will happen when I back Pandora out of the slip in the morning as I fear that the prop will be fouled with barnacles given the fact that she has sat in the marina for three months. \u00a0I am also wondering how the slime etc on the hull will be. \u00a0However, if we are really slow when we leave, I’ll just have to anchor, get out the hooka compressor and go for a swim to clean off the hull. I did call a diver this afternoon to see if perhaps he could come by to clean the hull today but I didn’t hear back. \u00a0I am not surprised with the “big game” happening this evening.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I’ll get lucky and he will call me early in the AM and stop by to scrub the hull. \u00a0If not, I’ll just have to do it myself. \u00a0 Here’s a shot of me with all my gear from last year, about ready to clean things up. \u00a0Pretty amusing look, if you ask me.\"\"<\/a>However, the water here in the marina isn’t nearly clean enough for me to risk a swim so if I have to do it myself, I’ll wait till we are out in more clear water. \u00a0It’s pretty easy to clean the hull as I just use a scotchbrite pad on a plastic handle. \u00a0It’s not that bad as long as the fouling isn’t too bad.<\/p>\n

Here in the marina the water is pretty murky but there is lots of wildlife. \u00a0This manatee swam right by Pandora twice today. \u00a0Well, that’s how many times I saw her\/him. \u00a0 Not too pretty looking. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Supposedly, early explorers mistook these guys for mermaids. \u00a0They must have been pretty lonely to have mistaken one of these “sea cows” for nautical beauties. \u00a0 This shot shows pretty clearly the whole deal. \u00a0They are about 8′ long. \u00a0This guy’s back was completely covered with algae too. \u00a0Not the spic and span skin of a dolphin and plenty sluggish swimmers. \u00a0No wonder they get struck by power boats so often. \u00a0Amazing creatures.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>And, these guys aren’t the only wildlife in the area. \u00a0There is a mangrove stand near the fuel dock that is the evening gathering place for hundreds of Ibis birds and a few pelicans. \u00a0In the dark the white birds look more like litter sprinkled on trees. \u00a0It’s amazing to watch them fly in from all over as the sun sets. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>And, this pelican was perched on a piling in the marina just outside of the bar area. \u00a0I wonder if he was looking for some fish and chips. \u00a0It’s funny, but to me pelicans look pissed off. \u00a0“hey bud…who you lookin at? \u00a0Yes, I’m talkin to you.”\"\"<\/a>Well, the plan is to head out early or, if we are lucky, to have the diver clean the bottom of Pandora to get off three months of slime before we head out. \u00a0I guess I’ll have to see if the diver calls me back first thing.<\/p>\n

One way or the other, we hope to be on our way Monday morning. \u00a0 Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Sunday evening and the rest of the world is watching the Super Bowl. \u00a0 Me, I am writing a blog post. \u00a0Sorry, but I was brought up in a sports agnostic house. Whatever. Anyway. \u00a0It’s been three plus days since we arrived in Ft. Pierce and we have just about added all the provisions […]<\/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-2695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695","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=2695"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2702,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695\/revisions\/2702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}