{"id":7253,"date":"2017-05-26T10:06:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T15:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=7253"},"modified":"2017-05-26T10:06:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T15:06:13","slug":"to-divert-or-not-to-divert-waterspouts-in-pandoras-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=7253","title":{"rendered":"To divert or not to divert? Waterspouts in Pandora’s future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know. \u00a0I’ve been home for a few days now and haven’t put up a post. \u00a0Some of you who follow my blog (Yes, both of my loyal readers. \u00a0Mom, are you there?) have been calling and sending emails wondering “what happened Bob. \u00a0Are you home? \u00a0I see that Pandora is in Hampton? \u00a0What’s going on?”. \u00a0Yes, yes, I know. I’ve been bad but the grass was really long and needed cutting and I did have to visit Mom too.<\/p>\n

To set the record straight. \u00a0I arrived home in Hampton VA and tied up at the dock at the Blue Water Sailing Center at 05:00 on Tuesday. \u00a0I have to say that it was awesome, no make that AWESOME, when I shut of the engine and Pandora was totally silent. \u00a0No sound of wind or water rushing by the hull. \u00a0 We didn’t move an inch. \u00a0So quiet. \u00a0We made it! \u00a0After we celebrated with a “wee tot” of fine rum from Martinique, time for a nap. \u00a0Less than two hours later, up again to begin getting cleaned up for the arrival of Customs and to get Pandora ready to leave in her slip for a month.<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s been too long since my last post on Sunday, “penned” while we were bounding along hundreds of miles from shore. \u00a0As you know, our original plan was to head directly home but in my often twice daily discussions with Chris Parker, it became clear that if we were to continue on that\u00a0“getting there would NOT be half the fun”. \u00a0And, based on Wednesday’s,\u00a0summary forecast , we made the right call. \u00a0This is what he wrote about where we were heading, a few days out.<\/p>\n

“Cold FRONT trailing S from LO (moving NE thru the OhioValley) will pass the region thru early evening. Strong winds will remain from a S-SW direction even after passing. Squalls ahead of FRONT will be severe with potential for damaging winds, torrential rainfall, and waterspouts”<\/em><\/p>\n

WATERSPOUTS! \u00a0What the F%@#? \u00a0 Sailing in the ocean is tough enough on body and boat and to add really nasty weather with gale force winds to the mix was not great.<\/p>\n

Besides, remember the water in the fuel tank? \u00a0 Well, that was only the most recent\u00a0problem to report. \u00a0During our day spent crossing the Gulf Stream with 6-9′ “square” waves and opposing wind and current, the boom-vang hydraulics failed so I was no longer able to flatten the mainsail. \u00a0That mean that there was no way to sail close to the wind. \u00a0 \u00a0To have continued north and into really nasty weather, with that problem would have really complicated things. \u00a0 As far as the vang is concerned, it’s being fixed in Hampton by a rigger and the fuel tanks will also be cleaned. \u00a0 Remember the “water in the fuel thing”? Perhaps while the tanks are open the guy can figure out why my fuel gauges don’t work.<\/p>\n

So, we made it, to Hampton anyway, and I’ll be returning in late June to bring Pandora\u00a0the rest of the way home.<\/p>\n

I thought that it would be fun to share a few highlights of our\u00a0trip before I break.<\/p>\n

We departed from Nanny Cay marina, a really nice spot in Tortola with a great beach bar, of course. \"\"And a pool. \u00a0I forced myself, against my better judgement, to sit there for an afternoon. \u00a0Tough duty? Indeed!\"\"Once underway, the trip included just about every weather option you could expect on an ocean passage. \u00a0Days of motoring in nearly flat calm…\"\"And plenty of fast sailing with a fresh breeze on the beam. \u00a0For hours blasting along at 10kts sustained with bursts to 11kts with phosphorescent glowing waves breaking all around us on a moonless night.<\/p>\n

Fabulous sunsets.\"\"That changed by the minute as the sun winked out below the horizon. \u00a0\u00a0\"\"Pandora’s mascot Louis enjoyed standing watch as we made our way north. \u00a0 Recall that Louis joined us in St Martin<\/a> with the hope of “seeing the world, Pandora style”. \u00a0Someday Louis will go to live with our granddaughter Tori when she’s old enough to hear about his adventures with YaYa and Grandpy.\"\"Pandora’s crew, Cliff and Jim during a particularly tense part of the trip. \u00a0\"\"Jim “striking a pose” with his morning coffee \u00a0Amazingly, these guys were the FIRST ever to be aboard Pandora to choose decaf. \u00a0Imagine, three sailors, including me, who don’t want high test and all aboard Pandora? \u00a0There’s probably 4 or 5 more out there but I haven’t met them.
\n\"\"Plenty of time was spent at the helm on the chance that the autopilot would pull yet another “crazy Ivan” and head violently off on a new course which it did sometimes more than once an hour and sometimes not for days. \u00a0All this became routine when the plotter at the helm failed.<\/a>\u00a0 While the plotter is dead, it was still flickering, now and again, and seemingly sending confusing signals to the autopilot.
\n\"\"And, speaking of failed plotters. \u00a0I called Raymarine today, spoke with a tech guy, and received some really bad news that my plotter could not be fixed. \u00a0He said that the only option was to replace the other one as well as the radar. Such bad news and I don’t even want to think about what all that would cost.<\/p>\n

However, not to be deterred and as Brenda says, “Bob and the dog, ever hopeful”, I called my “friend” at one of the local marine electronics installers on the off chance that he might have an “old” plotter from a boat that he worked on that was still functional. \u00a0Remarkably, he told me that he’s pulling one off of a boat next week that’s probably never even been turned on. \u00a0That owner had replaced the plotter two years ago and never launched the boat. \u00a0Now, he’s doing a full electronics suite replacement and is tossing all of his “old” equipment. \u00a0Go ahead, toss one my way! \u00a0Perfect!\u00a0 I can get a “new” plotter for a fraction of the price. \u00a0 Come to think of it, I think I’ll purchase some of the other instruments to keep as spares. \u00a0Am I lucky or what? \u00a0A new “obsolete” plotter for a discounted price and I don’t even have to pay postage to get it.<\/p>\n

It’s remarkable just how isolated you are when sailing offshore. \u00a0We were hundreds of miles from “anything” and went for 4-5 days without seeing more than one or two ships and for several days, nothing at all. \u00a0 You are really on your own.<\/p>\n

We were visited by pods of dolphins (notoriously difficult to photograph) on a few occasions. \u00a0‘They departed as quickly as they appeared.\u00a0\"\"Of course, each morning we found flying fish on deck and in the cockpit. \u00a0 I used some of the larger ones as bait but we didn’t catch anything. \u00a0However, something caught the bait. \u00a0And once, the lure was taken too with the wire leader broken. \u00a0I wonder how “big the one that got away” was? \u00a0Perhaps I don’t want to know. \u00a0I have been cautioned never to use “really large” lures as there is a relationship between the size of the lure and the size of the fish. \u00a0In fishing, it seems, that indeed, “size matters”.<\/p>\n

Of course, If you’ve been following on “where in the world is Pandora<\/a>“, you’ve seen the course we took as we headed north. \u00a0For me, it’s\u00a0endlessly entertaining to see the actual track from\u00a0our 8 day voyage from Tortola to Hampton VA, a distance of about 1,200 miles. \u00a0 It’s a pretty straight shot and you can even see where we were set north-east by the strong current of the gulf stream, 100 miles wide running to the NE at about 4kts. \u00a0 That’s a lot of moving water.\u00a0\"\"So, there you have it, Pandora’s safe and sound and her crew, none the worse for wear. \u00a0I’ll be back aboard to finish the trip north in late June.<\/p>\n

When I head back south to rejoin Pandaor, I’ll be able to visit our new granddaughter Tori. \u00a0Tori was very excited, as you can see, when she learned of our pending visit and jumped up on her father’s shoulders. \u00a0Grandpy’s coming to visit. \u00a0Who’s Grandpy?\"\"So, there you have it. \u00a0That’s my report and I’m sticking to it. \u00a0Perhaps I’ll close with a sunset photo which is fitting as our arrival in Hampton signals, sort of, the end (sunset?) of our 2016\/2017 season afloat as I’ll be hauling Pandora for a few months of maintenance and repairs in July. \u00a0 Besides, I have another bathroom to remodel.\u00a0\"\"Yes, leaving Tortola when we did and diverting to Hampton were good calls as if we’d left later or kept heading north. \u00a0Who knows? \u00a0Waterspouts, gale force winds. \u00a0I don’t want to think about that.<\/p>\n

I guess that’s it for now. \u00a0Time to put down some more grass seed. \u00a0It just wouldn’t do to have bear spots on the lawn, would it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know. \u00a0I’ve been home for a few days now and haven’t put up a post. \u00a0Some of you who follow my blog (Yes, both of my loyal readers. \u00a0Mom, are you there?) have been calling and sending emails wondering “what happened Bob. \u00a0Are you home? \u00a0I see that Pandora is in Hampton? \u00a0What’s […]<\/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-7253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7253","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=7253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7270,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7253\/revisions\/7270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}