{"id":4519,"date":"2015-05-12T21:38:58","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T21:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4519"},"modified":"2015-05-12T21:39:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T21:39:30","slug":"49-hours-and-a-390-mile-shake-down-for-the-new-pandora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4519","title":{"rendered":"49 hours and a 390 mile, shake down for the “new” Pandora."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Tuesday afternoon and we are motor-sailing past Oriental NC on our way north to Norfolk VA where we plan on jumping outside again for the final run to the CT River and home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We decided to continue on the inside instead of waiting in Beaufort as it will allow us to avoid running around Cape Hatteras and also puts us further north instead of sitting for half a week on the HOPE that the wind will shift to a favorable direction as forecast. \u00a0And, as the wind will be from the north for the next few days, before turning back to the SW , it’s quite possible that we’d hit nasty conditions off of Cape Hatteras, favorable winds or not, and all that after waiting for a half week to find out if we’d made a good decision or not.<\/p>\n

So, we just decided to keep moving and get ourselves another 100 miles north while we can and hope that the wind shifts as planned.\u00a0 One way or the other, we want to keep moving and perhaps be back in CT a day or more sooner than might have been the case if we waited for the wind to shift in Beaufort. \u00a0 I guess I have made my “wordy” point on that by now. \u00a0Hope so.<\/p>\n

I guess we won\u2019t know if it\u2019s the right decision for a few more days so we’ll see.<\/p>\n

Anyway, when we left on Sunday morning from St Augustine on our 400 mile “shake down cruise” to Beaufort, we did so on a boat that I had never even had the sails up on, even once. \u00a0 I worked out fine but I was nervous, I’ll admit.<\/p>\n

We were greeted by a nice sunrise in St Augustine which seemed like a good omen. \u00a0I decided to ignore the sailor’s adage of “red sky in the morning, sailors take warning”. \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Also, to head out over 100 miles from land, right off of the bat, on a boat that I had never sailed, not even once… \u00a0The green line is our actual course, which followed the Gulf Stream, for maximum favorable current. \u00a0 The black line is the point to point run. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>I’ll admit that it made me a bit nervous to head that farm from land with a boat I did not know. \u00a0What does that say about my crew? \u00a0Hmm… \u00a0I did have\u00a0<\/span>more than a week living aboard. \u00a0Not convinced we were ready? \u00a0Me neither. But, it all worked out. \u00a0We practiced putting a reef in the main before we needed to if that’s any consolation. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Good thing we practiced as we had PLENTY of wind in the Gulf Stream and put in and shook out both reef one and two multiple times. \u00a0 I probably could have had up more sail but I was in the mood to be conservative. \u00a0Besides, we made the run half a day faster than I expected, cautious or not. \u00a0Fast boat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In consultation with Chris Parker, the weather router, we opted to head further offshore and catch the Gulf Stream even though it added perhaps 20 to 30 miles to our trip as we felt that getting the 2-4 knot lift from the current in the stream would ultimately make for a faster run.\u00a0 However, in exchange for that, we “enjoyed” a pretty bumpy trip along the way.\u00a0 On the bright side, my meal prep was not as complex as my two crew members lost their appetite. \u00a0Worked for me.<\/p>\n

However that wasn’t until the second night when the wind piped up to around 25kts so we were able to make a nice meal out of the tuna we caught on day one.\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s Jim with the catch of the day.\"\"<\/a>Overall, the run was very good even though it was quite hot and stuffy aboard with everything buttoned up against the spray that we were kicking up in the rough conditions.\u00a0 Nothing major broke but it\u2019s clear to me that this is a very powerful boat with lots of moving parts and it\u2019s going to take a while to get used to her and all her gear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, in the calm waters of the Neuse River near Oriental, we tried out the code “0”, a huge sail that\u2019s more like a spinnaker than a genoa. \u00a0It’s on it\u2019s own roller furling system so it’s “easy” to deploy and retrieve. \u00a0 We were sailing down wind on a broad reach with wind that built to 15kts apparent.\u00a0 This doesn’t sound like all that much wind but keep in mind that the boat was going over 9kts, down wind.<\/p>\n

That means you have to add the speed of the wind we felt to the speed of the boat which meant that we ended up with wind behind us that was approaching 25kts.\u00a0 The sheets that control the sail are quite small in diameter and sing like a guitar string when pulled tight. \u00a0Let me tell you, they were singing. \u00a0What a sail. \u00a0 Quick, take it down…\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I was plenty nervous about how much the wind was gusting.\u00a0\u00a0 But before I doused it, I took a picture of our speed, over the ground, of over 9kts.\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>And, there was no current so that was our actual speed, according to the GPS. \u00a0The water driven log needs some calibration so the GPS was more accurate.\u00a0 That\u2019s screaming.\u00a0 What a powerful sail and boat. Enough excitement for one day though.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, our plan is to make the run from Beaufort NC to Norfolk by Friday so we can jump out as the wind fills in from the SW north of Cape Hatteras.\u00a0 Tonight we\u2019ll pick a spot on the ICW to anchor and head out first thing tomorrow for Elizabeth City, one of my favorite stops on the ICW.<\/p>\n

I am looking forward to a good night\u2019s sleep and a shower.<\/p>\n

So, all and all, a \u201cshakedown\u201d cruise of nearly 400 miles turned out fine.\u00a0 No major issues (that I’ll admit to in writing) except one little one with a head pump that seems to be leaking.\u00a0 As my friend Christopher says \u201cThe more complex a boat is the more that can break.\u201d\u00a0 If that\u2019s true, than I am going to be doing a lot of fixin.<\/p>\n

I guess we\u2019ll see about that. \u00a0 So far, so good…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Tuesday afternoon and we are motor-sailing past Oriental NC on our way north to Norfolk VA where we plan on jumping outside again for the final run to the CT River and home.\u00a0 We decided to continue on the inside instead of waiting in Beaufort as it will allow us to avoid running 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-4519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519","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=4519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4526,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions\/4526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}