{"id":5066,"date":"2015-11-08T11:22:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T11:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5066"},"modified":"2015-11-08T11:31:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T11:31:06","slug":"getting-to-know-her-getting-to-know-all-about-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5066","title":{"rendered":"Getting to know her, getting to know all about her\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, now I get it.\u00a0 The last few weeks preparing for the Salty Dawg Rally and finding my way, sometimes painfully, to Morehead City NC has really been a shake-down cruise, an opportunity to get to know Pandora on an intimate level and better understand her and her systems.<\/p>\n

On \u201cold Pandora\u201d, I had installed much of her equipment myself so I knew what to look for and exactly how to deal with most situations.\u00a0 With Pandora \u201cnew\u201d, It\u2019s more like a scavenger hunt, where every little experience is a mystery and sometimes I really have no clue even if I think I know what I am dealing with.\u00a0 \u201cexactly where is that electrical smell coming from?\u201d, \u201cdid the fridge compressor cut out because it is overheating or did it reach it\u2019s set point and exactly what temperature is that anyway?\u201d.<\/p>\n

An Aerodyne 47 is a very complicated boat, well at least compared to other boats that I have owned, and sometimes I don\u2019t even know if something is broken or not.\u00a0 I just have NO IDEA what I am looking for.\u00a0\u00a0 Do I furl up the sail cover or leave it in place when I reef.\u00a0 Furl it.\u00a0 Now I know, furl it.\u00a0 That was a painful lesson as I spent much of yesterday making minor repairs from when I reefed and didn\u2019t furl.\u00a0 It\u2019s a big cover but between me and Cathy, we were able to maneuver it around in the cabin and get everything in order.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"11-8-15b<\/a>It\u2019s all about attention to detail.\u00a0 Pretty good work for an amateur, I think.\"11-8-15b<\/a>Getting the sailcover off of the boom and back on was \u201cmagic\u201d as Jim, Ken and Cathy handled the whole process.\u00a0 I did the sewing.<\/p>\n

How about getting to know her jib?\u00a0 I patched the vinyl window and an area on the luff that had chafed on a rough part of the roller track where a rivet had broken, who knows how long ago.\u00a0 Not serious but I\u2019ll have it properly repaired next summer when she\u2019s laid up for a few months.\u00a0\"11-18-15b<\/a>I also received the watermaker pump head yesterday (Just how much does Saturday delivery have to cost?\u00a0 Really?) and installed it.\u00a0 I was getting concerned that I couldn\u2019t back-flush the unit as required without a properly functioning pump.\u00a0 All better now.<\/p>\n

It felt pretty good to have \u201cmost\u201d of the details worked out, both things that broke and those that just needed attending to that I didn\u2019t even know about.\u00a0 All and all, the chores took about three full days, or was it four? \u00a0And that included a lot of help from crew.\u00a0 \u00a0Happily, they have been very good natured about the \u201cchange of plans\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps it was the \u201cPandora made\u201d biscuits.\u00a0 No, it was probably the rum. Having cold beer on hand helped too. \u00a0Did I mention that the fridge is working again? \u00a0Actually, it always worked. \u00a0That was a hard lesson.<\/p>\n

Glad to have all of that behind me.\u00a0 Well, until things get \u201cinteresting\u201d again.\u00a0 And speaking of that, I am now looking for crew and expect to try to make my run to the BVI again a few days after Thanksgiving now that I know Pandora just a bit better.<\/p>\n

Chores or not, I did make time yesterday to watch what is billed as \u201cthe largest Veteran\u2019s Day Parade in all of North Carolina\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Not sure how that compares to other \u201clargest Veteran\u2019s Day Parades\u201d, but it boasted a LOT of very enthusiastic participants, throwing candy at spectators, and went on and on.\u00a0 The procession took nearly two hours to pass.\u00a0 With a number of big military bases nearby, there was some really impressive hardware.<\/p>\n

This one would be right at home in the desert.\"OLYMPUSHow many helicopters do you see in your local parade?\"OLYMPUS<\/a>And, who doesn\u2019t love the old Jeeps?\"OLYMPUS<\/a>I was trying to get my head around these little trucks and wondered how many beers it took when someone said, \u201chey guys, let\u2019s build little trucks and drive them in public a few times a year and no, I don\u2019t mean those embarrassing golf carts that look like a Corvette.\u00a0\u00a0 I am talking totally ridiculous.\u00a0 Can I Have another Bud?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHere you go, Elmer. I want a mini truck too!\u201d\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u201cNo wait, I have an even better idea\u2026\u00a0 How about a motorized land boat?\u00a0 And let\u2019s make ten of them that match and drive them in circles as we move down the street.\u201d\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u201cIt will be awesome. \u00a0I\u2019ll make a shrimp boat with wheels.\u201d\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u201cI can make my golf cart into a Jet fighter.\u00a0 It will look just like the one I flew in Nam.”\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u201cAnd we\u2019ll have my buddy Jake bring his hot air balloon basket so he can blast flames into the air.\u201d\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u201cI once saw the Blue Angles perform.\u00a0 I\u2019ll modify The Wife’s old Harley.\u00a0 I am sure she\u2019ll love it.\u201d\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u201cGuys, what about me?\u00a0 I want one too and I have always said that if I was going to drive a car that was REALLY tiny, it would be yellow.\u00a0 Yes, bright yellow with red pin-striping. and real green running boards.\u201d\"OLYMPUS<\/a>So, there you have it, from the sublime to the ridiculous and you will just have to decide which is the sublime and which is, well not so\u2026<\/p>\n

For better or worse, I now know more about Pandora than I did before I left CT.\u00a0 And, as my dad used to say, \u201cthat\u2019s more about penguins than you probably ever wanted to know\u201d, and this is only the beginning.<\/p>\n

How about another shakedown cruise in December?\u00a0 Then I\u2019ll really know her, all about her. \u00a0Well, except the things that I’ll learn later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, now I get it.\u00a0 The last few weeks preparing for the Salty Dawg Rally and finding my way, sometimes painfully, to Morehead City NC has really been a shake-down cruise, an opportunity to get to know Pandora on an intimate level and better understand her and her systems. On \u201cold Pandora\u201d, I had installed […]<\/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-5066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5066","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=5066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5084,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5066\/revisions\/5084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}