{"id":4445,"date":"2015-04-30T13:55:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T13:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4445"},"modified":"2015-04-30T13:55:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T13:55:26","slug":"nearly-ours-pandora-and-a-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4445","title":{"rendered":"Nearly ours\u2026 Pandora and a new era."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and today we should see the final paperwork in order to transfer ownership of soon-to-be Pandora to us.\u00a0 It seems like much longer than the week it\u2019s been since we first arrived here in Ft Pierce on the 21st to become familiar with Ariel and have her surveyed, the Aerodyne 47 that we have purchased.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been since mid December since we first learned that the boat was seriously for sale and that Miles and Loreen were going to move on from the boat that they had lived aboard for the last seven years.<\/p>\n

Ariel, as she has been known until now, was built about the same time that we took delivery of Pandora, our SAGA 43 and she was only about a year old when we first saw her in Great Salt Pond Block Island.\u00a0 She\u2019s a very unique boat and I was attracted to her design as a standout from most of the \u201cClorox\u201d bottle boats that are so common these days. \u00a0 I would have never imagined that we would one day own her, or should I say “she would own us”.<\/p>\n

Well, now we are owners of an even larger \u201cmoney pit\u201d and I expect that dollars will flow as fast as she sails, which is pretty fast indeed.<\/p>\n

I have been living aboard here in Ft Pierce since Brenda left on the 23rd<\/sup>, about a week ago and have been slowly acclimating myself to the many complex systems aboard.\u00a0 One particular issue that came up in the survey was that the muffler was leaking.\u00a0 I agreed to take the boat and make the repair myself although it was anything but clear as to how I was going to get the old one out and replaced.<\/p>\n

At first I had hoped that I would be able to do a temporary patch to the rusted area and save a more permanent repair for when she is hauled in Ct after I get home.\u00a0 However, what was a slow but steady drip became a gusher as I used a wire brush on the suspect area.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what the muffler, about 2\u2019 long looked like when it was FINALLY removed from the boat. \u00a0Such is the life of “stainless” steel. It was in a very inaccessible spot and required some surgery and a good amount of cabinetry removal to coax it out. \u00a0 As hard as it was, I was expecting that it would be much worse. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>I am very glad that I am a “handy guy” as to pay someone for the whole job would have cost at least one “boat dollar” perhaps more.<\/p>\n

As you get closer you can see the hole, a nasty gash about 2.5\u201d wide.\u00a0 Imagine what sort of mess this would have created, had it given way when we were at sea.\u00a0 It would have been a bad day indeed.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Finding this leak that wasn’t clear at all unless you were really looking for problems, shows the value of a good surveyor.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the new muffler, made of fiberglass.\u00a0 Note the sleek delivery vehicle.\u00a0 I have made many runs to local stores with this great set of wheels.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s such fun to ride around on this with temperatures in the low 90s. \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Happily, it\u2019s now all set and things are back in order and it went back in a lot easier than the old one came out. \u00a0As near as I can tell, and I sure hope I can tell well,\u00a0\u00a0that\u2019s about the worst of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I have mentioned, a big draw for us in wanting this boat, is the hard dodger to keep us comfortable and out of the weather when things get nasty.\u00a0 How about the night lighting?\u00a0 \u201cBeam me up Scotty\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 I love it.\"\"<\/a>Yesterday as I was doing some errands I happened on a farmer\u2019s market at the Ft Pierce waterfront park. There weren\u2019t a lot of farmers in evidence but there was one vendor selling carnivorous plants that he grows from seed.\u00a0 I understand that, as they sit in 3\u201d pots, they are about 4 years old.\u00a0 That\u2019s a long time to grow something that you sell for $10. \u00a0 I hope that he has a day job too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This one is the well-known Venus Fly Trap.\u00a0 Really neat. \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>How about the veining on this pitcher plant?\u00a0\u00a0 Love it.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/span>For over 20 years we had a greenhouse at our home tried our hand at growing various pitcher plants.\u00a0 However, they were the tropical variety and not these delicate more temperate varieties that require pure rain water to thrive.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, with all of the paperwork scheduled to be sewn up today I will move Pandora over to another yard tomorrow for a few days to have davits put on to hoist the dink as well as to serve as a platform for more solar panels. \u00a0It’s our plan to put enough solar on board to make her as self sufficient at anchor as our last boat was. \u00a0The new logo will also be put on and the name, Ariel, will be taken off.<\/p>\n

Crew arrives on Sunday and it is my hope that a good weather window will open up by mid week so that we can get going on our run north to CT.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since I posted a sunset shot as it\u2019s hard to get one in a marina.\u00a0 However, I was struck by how dramatic the clouds were last evening as a backdrop to all the masts in the marina. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Well, it\u2019s certainly the beginning of a new era for us.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope that it\u2019s smooth sailing. \u00a0actually, Brenda’s counting on the “smooth sailing” part. \u00a0Wish us luck.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and today we should see the final paperwork in order to transfer ownership of soon-to-be Pandora to us.\u00a0 It seems like much longer than the week it\u2019s been since we first arrived here in Ft Pierce on the 21st to become familiar with Ariel and have her surveyed, the Aerodyne 47 that […]<\/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-4445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4445","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=4445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4453,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4445\/revisions\/4453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}