{"id":3955,"date":"2015-01-11T22:39:06","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T22:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=3955"},"modified":"2015-01-11T22:56:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T22:56:49","slug":"pandora-shes-floating-again-on-our-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=3955","title":{"rendered":"Pandora\u2026 She\u2019s floating, again! On our way\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Sunday afternoon and it\u2019s been a grey day here in St Mary\u2019s GA.\u00a0 Earlier today I headed to Jacksonville to drop our rental car at the airport after some 2,250 miles of driving in the almost two week since leaving our \u201cland home\u201d in CT a few days after Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a whirlwind with visits to survey the boat we hope to purchase in Miami and a frantic few days of provisioning to get Pandora in the water.\u00a0 How is it that groceries and \u201cstuff\u201d cost so much?\u00a0 We had planned to launch her today but the weather report gave us a start with rain in the forecast for today and Monday.\u00a0 Fortunately, Rocky at St Mary\u2019s Boat Services<\/a>, was very accommodating and didn\u2019t seem at all concerned when we changed the launch date for the third time in so many days.<\/p>\n

The yard where Pandora has been since early October is much like other yards, with some really nice boats as well as some that look like they haven\u2019t seen the water in years.\u00a0 Unlike northern yards, most of the boats in this yard are stored for the summer and then launched in the fall and winter.\u00a0 In fact, most of them are from northern states and it seems that there were a good number from Canada.<\/p>\n

In addition to being very accommodating, the yard provides something that I have never seen in a yard and that\u2019s really fine boarding stairs which I understand are made right in the yard. The design is quite nice, compliments of Rocky\u2019s creative bent.\u00a0 In fact, they would fit right in as boarding stairs at a small airport. These staircases are made of galvanized steel with wooden treads and there\u2019s even a grate on the bottom tread to knock off the sand from your shoes.\u00a0 They even put a door mat at the bottom.\u00a0 Very nice.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How\u2019s this for a \u201creal\u201d boarding ladder?\"\"<\/a>And, if you want to enjoy the view and have a beer at the end of a long day of boat chores, there’s even a sitting area, complete with palm trees. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>For the trip south last fall, I had put the dink on deck as I don\u2019t carry it in the davits when we are offshore so had to find a way to get it onto the ground and back up into the davits, with the engine no less.\u00a0 However Jeff, the do-it-all guy at the marina came to my rescue with his forklift.\u00a0 What a great idea.\u00a0 \u00a0We put the dink on the lift and he picked it up a few feet so that I could install the engine and then lifted it up to deck level so I could attach it to the davits.\u00a0 Voila, wasn\u2019t that easy?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>I can\u2019t recommend St Mary\u2019s Boat Services enough as they are reasonably priced, flexible on launching etc. and have a very attentive staff.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t drive too fast with your car in the boatyard as you\u2019ll get Jeff\u2019s wrath because he doesn\u2019t want you to run over his little dog that is always on the move around the yard.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Pandora was on the hard I had the hull buffed and waxed. \u00a0They did a great job. \u00a0How about this shine? \"\"<\/a>\u00a0Oh yeah, and Terri, the boatyard office manager, will even take you to the Jacksonville airport if you need to drop a car or get picked up from a flight.<\/span><\/p>\n

On top of all that, there\u2019s a great view of the marsh to boot. \u00a0Even Pandora got a good view as she was right near the water.\"\"<\/a>Last night we had a nice simple meal aboard for our first night on Pandora.\u00a0 It was pretty windy so I can\u2019t say that we slept very well. It always takes a few nights to get used to the noises of being aboard but I am sure that we will settle in in a few days.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>We went for a nice walk in St Mary\u2019s and then had lunch. \u00a0Doesn\u2019t Brenda look great?\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a>There are some very pretty homes in town and the live oaks are beautiful.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>It\u2019s a bit odd to see camellias in bloom and other flowers budding out in mid January. \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>You know you are in the south when you see sights like this shrimp boat aside palm trees.\"\"<\/a><\/span>After lunch, we headed down the river, with the tide, the 8+ miles to Fernandina Beach where we hope to do some exploring on Monday.\u00a0 After that we\u2019ll make the 50+ mile run down to St Augustine, one of our favorite cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, it\u2019s Brenda\u2019s birthday on the 15th<\/sup> (mark your calendar boys and girls) so it\u2019s important that we be in a good location to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Rain or not, and it\u2019s pretty unpleasant outside, it\u2019s nice to be back in the water and heading south.\u00a0\u00a0 With temperatures in the 70s forecast for later this week, we are ready to put the winter behind us, once and for all.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to warm and sunny.\u00a0 I think that I have said that before but it\u2019s worth repeating.\u00a0 Warm?\u00a0 Yes, warm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Sunday afternoon and it\u2019s been a grey day here in St Mary\u2019s GA.\u00a0 Earlier today I headed to Jacksonville to drop our rental car at the airport after some 2,250 miles of driving in the almost two week since leaving our \u201cland home\u201d in CT a few days after Christmas. It\u2019s been a whirlwind […]<\/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-3955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955","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=3955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3967,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions\/3967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}