{"id":4854,"date":"2015-09-06T14:50:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T14:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4854"},"modified":"2015-09-06T14:50:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T14:50:39","slug":"pandora-visits-new-mexico-if-briefly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4854","title":{"rendered":"Pandora visits New Mexico, if briefly…"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, as I headed from Wickford RI toward the CT River, where Pandora will be hauled for the next few weeks prior to beginning my run south to the Caribbean for the winter, I was passing New London and heard something on the radio about a sub passing a tug in The Race. \u00a0Before I knew it, I saw this approaching me from port. \u00a0 Or, was I approaching him? \u00a0Hmm… \u00a0In case you are wondering, he did show up on AIS, cruising at 9kts. \u00a0 However, no info about size etc. \u00a0 I guess the Navy doesn’t want their “silent service” guys to show up on everyone’s chart plotter. \u00a0 It just wouldn’t do for a multi billion dollar sub to be spotted on a $400 AIS receiver, would it?\"\"<\/a>Anyway, I turned to port and luffed to let him pass. \u00a0 I surely didn’t want to head in front of him, pint size sailing boat right-of-way or not, and besides, the guys on the support boats looked plenty serious as they approached. \u00a0They weren’t smiling or waving HI as they passed, flack jackets, machine guns and all.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I couldn’t believe how close they came to me, or was it me to them? \u00a0 I would guess about 100 yards. \u00a0I am used to 1,000′ exclusion zone for military ships. \u00a0 To get a shot of the whole boat I had to zoom my lens all the way out. \u00a0She was REALLY close. \"\"<\/a>Just how close? \u00a0This close…\"\"<\/a>I was wondering why a sub would sport a yellow “Q” or quarantine flag and when I posted some photos on Face Book I learned about that and more. \u00a0I got an amazing number of responses and someone noted that it was the state flag of New Mexico and that the sub, only the second warship in the history of the US Navy to be named so, was the USS New Mexico. \u00a0Someone else sent a link to the New London Day, with an announcement of the boat’s arrival. \u00a0Here’s a story and pictures of her arrival<\/a> to an enthusiastic crowd. \u00a0She was just back from a tour of the North Atlantic covering 36,000 miles. \u00a0One of her “port” stops, about a year ago, on a previous tour, was at the North Pole. \u00a0They surfaced through the ice near where the Nautilus, the first atomic sub did so years ago.<\/p>\n

This is a short video of her surfacing in March of 2014 at the North Pole. \u00a0 The weather that day was a lot different than it was when she steamed by me on Friday off of her home port, New London. \u00a0 With the North West Passage more open to shipping each year, compliments of global warming, I guess that the USA wanted to make it clear that we plan to be active in the Arctic. \u00a0\u00a0