{"id":6257,"date":"2016-10-28T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6257"},"modified":"2016-10-29T19:28:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T19:28:24","slug":"let-the-migration-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6257","title":{"rendered":"Let the migration begin!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Friday afternoon and Pandora is all snug in her slip here in Hampton VA at the run up to the Salty Dawg Rally that will depart from here for points south, primarily the British Virgin Islands on or after November 1st<\/sup>.
\nAt last count, there are some 85 boats participating in the rally with nearly a week of seminars and social events leading up to the \u201cbig event\u201d.
\nI arrived here in Hampton on Thursday after a two day 350 nm run from Essex CT with my good friend\/crew Jim.\u00a0 Jim has the distinction of having crewed with me for more miles, some 4,000 miles, than just about anyone else in spite of having sailed with crew for over 30 years.\u00a0 Of course, Brenda has more miles with me but that\u2019s another story and one that you\u2019ve likely heard, ad\/nauseam, if you have read more than a few posts.<\/p>\n

So, here I am in Hampton enjoying time with others who love to sail and am having a great time.<\/p>\n

The run here from Essex was, shall we say \u201csporty\u201d, with Pandora plowing along on a close reach (wind forward of the beam) in 25kts with gusts over 30, conditions that are anything but fun.\u00a0 The good news is that we were romping along at 9+kts for much of the first 24 hours and ultimately made the full run in a little less than 48 hours.\u00a0 That\u2019s very good time indeed.<\/p>\n

Good run or not, I was exhausted when we left as Pandora had \u201csplashed\u201d only day before so I only had a single day to get her prepped, sails back on and ready to go.\u00a0 Way too fast for me.\u00a0 \u00a0She looks positively \u201cginormous\u201d on the hard next to our little VW wagon.\u00a0\"10-28-16b-003\"While I know Pandora pretty well by now, having put perhaps 5,000 miles on her in my first year, there are still needling problems that I have not been able to correct so far.\u00a0\u00a0 In particular, some pesky leaks that have been hard to track down. \u00a0Perhaps the worst are with the long lexan ports on the main cabin that tend to leak when it gets cold and they shrink more than the surrounding fiberglass. \u00a0 I am hoping to get them replaced in Beaufort NC where Pandora will sit for a few months prior to running to the BVI in January.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I won\u2019t bore you with more discussion with \u201cdrips\u201d but salt water and cushions don\u2019t mix.\u00a0 Frustrating to say the least.<\/p>\n

While Pandora is fast and can outrun most any other boat of her size and plenty that are larger, that speed and long waterline comes with a negative as she is also a very wet boat and as she plows through the seas, there is plenty of water flying everywhere and deck is constantly wet with a river running down the deck and off the stern.\u00a0 It\u2019s an impressive sight from under the hard dodger. \u00a0Fortunately, the cockpit is roomy and secure.\u00a0\"10-28-16a-018\"In case you have missed it somehow, Pandora has an impressive and nicely designed hard dodger to keep us out of the weather.\u00a0 This is a shot of her at the dock today here in Hampton.\u00a0 I think that she looks like she means business.\"10-28-16a-017\"Today I presented a talk about our trip to Cuba at the Hampton Yacht Club to a group of nearly 60 \u201cSalty Dawgs\u201d and was thrilled with how well received what I had to say was.\u00a0 They asked lots of good questions and laughed at all my jokes. Well, there was one joke that didn\u2019t get much of a rise out of them.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll live.<\/p>\n

Our story of Cuba is one that I never tire of giving and to present to such a nice group of sailors that will very likely go there themselves was particularly rewarding.<\/p>\n

Just for fun, this is a link to an article<\/a> that I wrote in the current issue of Blue Water Sailing about our trip.\u00a0 I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed writing it.\u00a0 Actually, writing it was a blast and I doubt that you will rank it quite that high.\u00a0 If so, great.\u00a0 Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n

Well, Pandora made it here safely with a minimum of fuss and I am eager to enjoy the next few days of fun and then off to Beaufort NC.\u00a0 BTW, that\u2019s pronounced \u201cBeaufort\u201d as opposed to \u201cBeeufort\u201d, pronounced as it\u2019s spelled, in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

I should note that it was plenty chilly when we left Deep River on Tuesday morning with frost on the deck when we arrived to shove off.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t say that I like cold even a little and the first 24 hours of our trip was particularly unpleasant.\u00a0 Happily, I have a diesel heater aboard so at least we were warm down below.<\/p>\n

By the second day of our run the temperatures had moderated a bit so it wasn\u2019t quite as cold on deck.\u00a0 It was also a lot calmer with winds that all but went away for a bit so things calmed down a bit and I could catch up on my sleep.<\/p>\n

As we passed the Chesapeake Bay bridge on our way toward Hampton and Norfolk we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and you know how much I love sunrises.\u00a0 Beautiful view from the stern.\u00a0\"10-28-16a-010\"And, in case you are inclined to forget that the biggest employer in these parts is none other than \u201cUncle Sam\u201d, one of the advanced \u201cstealth\u201d cruisers passed us on her way into Norfolk.\u00a0 Stealthy or not, she showed up just fine on radar.\u00a0 Stealth?\u00a0 Hmm\u2026 \u00a0Perhaps someone forgot to flip the \u2018stealth switch\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Never the less, I was impressed.\"10-28-16a-012\"Ok, enough for now.\u00a0 I had better sign off for now as there is a session to go to now.\u00a0 Besides, it\u2019s happy hour after that and that\u2019s not something I want to miss.<\/p>\n

Fun time am I am so excited about my own \u201cmigration\u201d south for the winter.\u00a0 Me and the birds, on our way.<\/p>\n

So far, so good. Stay tuned for more\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Friday afternoon and Pandora is all snug in her slip here in Hampton VA at the run up to the Salty Dawg Rally that will depart from here for points south, primarily the British Virgin Islands on or after November 1st. At last count, there are some 85 boats participating in the rally with […]<\/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-6257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257","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=6257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6265,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257\/revisions\/6265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}