{"id":6269,"date":"2016-11-02T13:14:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T13:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6269"},"modified":"2016-11-02T13:14:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T13:14:39","slug":"here-come-the-calvary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6269","title":{"rendered":"Here come the Calvary!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I begin writing this the sun is just peaking over the eastern horizon.\u00a0 The water is glass calm as we make our way down toward Ocracoke island and then on to Beaufort where I will leave Pandora until mid January.<\/p>\n

The sunrise was beautiful this morning from the earliest light when we picked up the anchor.\"11-2-16a-122\"A perfect reflection of the trees on shore. \u00a0Brenda, this would make for a lovely tapestry. \u00a0Get on it! \u00a0Please?\"11-2-16a-119\"A little while later, a full sunrise reflected on the still water.\u00a0 What a great way to begin the day.\"11-2-16b-005\"On this trip we are taking a different route, one that my crew Jim enjoys. \u00a0We will head further east toward the coast, a route that I have not taken before.\u00a0 Instead of going through the Dismal Swamp Canal, we took the \u201cVirginia Cut\u201d that has a single lock.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge lock that carries commercial traffic and there were quite a few boats there when we arrived.\"11-2-16a-115\"Jim has done this route a number of times, most recently just a few weeks ago.\u00a0 He keeps his boat in the lower Chesapeake and enjoys heading in a loop down to Ocracoke and then returning via the Dismal swamp canal further to the west.<\/p>\n

After leaving Hampton shortly after dawn yesterday we headed down past the naval base. \u00a0A cruiser was picking up a mooring out in the river. \u00a0Just how many sailors does it take? \u00a0A lot, it seems. \u00a0Aboard Pandora. \u00a0It only takes two, one in a pinch.\u00a0\"11-2-16a-091\"Hey look… \u00a0His and hers aircraft carriers. \u00a0If the election doesn’t sort itself out next week, there’s one for Hillary and one for Donald. \u00a0 Now, that would be fun.\u00a0\"11-2-16a-093\"And speaking of NYC, which I wasn’t, Highlander, Malcomb Forbes’s old yacht was in dry dock in Portsmouth. \u00a0I saw here there last fall too. \u00a0She’s looking a bit worse for wear. \u00a0Too bad. \"11-2-16a-101\"In any event, we are making our way down the ICW and tonight we will take a slip in Ocracoke, go out to dinner and then make our way to Beaufort by Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, even though this area feels very remote, we have been passed by a half dozen boats in the last few minutes, all large powerboats heading south as a group.\u00a0\u00a0 They will get there a lot sooner than us but their \u201cburn rate\u201d is probably 30x greater than us.\u00a0 Unlike their \u201ccousins\u201d on the CT River, almost everyone slows way down so that they don\u2019t rock us with their wake.\u00a0 What a welcome contrast.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s because they know they might run into us sometime in the future.\u00a0 At home, they couldn\u2019t care less as they blast along leaving a 4\u2019 wake to toss us around.\u00a0 Very unfortunate.<\/p>\n

Speaking of \u201ccarbon footprint\u201d, on the last day of the programs in preparation for the Salty Dawg Rally to the BVI, we were treated to a live USCG “rescue” right off of the marina docks.\u00a0 It was just amazing to see the chopper hovering a few hundred feet from us. \u00a0\"11-2-16a-021\"Before the chopper arrived a small cutter was on scene to be sure that nobody strayed into the \u201churricane zone\u201d while the chopper was hovering overhead.\"11-2-16a-010\"Our \u201cMC\u201d for the discussion that proceeded the \u201crescue\u201d we had two \u201cCoasties\u201d who shared a lot of terrific information on how to do our best to avoid a ride in a chopper in the future.\u00a0\u00a0 Very nice guy but he did look serious. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019d like a show of hands if you have an EPIRB on board.\u00a0 Another if it\u2019s registered with your current information.\u201d Everyone\u2019s hand went up.\u00a0 Then he smiled.\"11-2-16a-007\"Our rescue chopper is the only one in the USCG that is painted yellow instead of sporting the normal diagonal orange stripe.\u00a0 We were told that it was a \u201ccentennial edition\u201d marking the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of the USCG.\u00a0 Think of it as sort of \u201cEddie Bauer\u201d USCG chopper edition without the soft denim settees. \u00a0Well, perhaps not exactly like that because they have to be able to hose everything down after all the salt what they kick up.\u00a0 \u201cHey you, scuba man, yeah I\u2019m talking to you! Rinse off before you sit there. This is s a special edition craft you are dripping on.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Do I have to go? It’s really windy out there.” \u00a0It was windy with about 20kts from the north and the salt spray kicked up by the massive down-wash from the spinning rotors coated all of the boats in the marina with a fine mist of salt.\"11-2-16a-034\"Then they lowered him to the water. \u00a0For a second “rescue” he jumped. \"11-2-16a-071\"All and all, it was a fascinating experience with everyone feeling better prepared and more certain than ever that they wanted to do whatever they could to avoid having one of these guys swim up to their boat and greeting them with \u201cGood morning.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be your rescue swimmer today.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s comforting to know that the USCG has my back and that if I ever have to \u201cpop my EPIRB\u201d and call for help, that the \u201cCalvary\u201d will be on their way soon enough.\u00a0 Oh yeah, if you want a chopper ride, don\u2019t go more than about 250 miles from shore as that\u2019s their limit.\u00a0 Of course, they have boats to but they are WAY SLOWER.<\/p>\n

So, with no need for rescue on the horizon, here we are motoring along in flat calm on a beautiful morning.\u00a0\u00a0 What a way to go. \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s beautiful day indeed.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, you know the thing about \u201ccruising is boat repair in exotic places?\u201d.\u00a0 Yesterday was fun as my head macerator pump croaked and spilled raw sewerage into the bilge.\u00a0 That was fun. \u00a0Sorry, no photos but be assured that there was plenty of cleanup with bleach after I was done, Brenda.<\/p>\n

Happily, I carry a spare, now installed, so all\u2019s well.\u00a0 Such is the fun of boating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I begin writing this the sun is just peaking over the eastern horizon.\u00a0 The water is glass calm as we make our way down toward Ocracoke island and then on to Beaufort where I will leave Pandora until mid January. The sunrise was beautiful this morning from the earliest light when we picked up […]<\/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-6269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269","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=6269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6284,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions\/6284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}