{"id":8053,"date":"2018-01-02T13:53:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T18:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=8053"},"modified":"2018-01-03T09:35:05","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T14:35:05","slug":"once-in-a-blue-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=8053","title":{"rendered":"Once in a blue moon…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we are in Nelson’s Dockyard, 2017 has come and gone and 2018 is only two days old.\u00a0 As luck would have it, last night was a blue moon.<\/a>\u00a0 I just love to watch the moon rise at night and an extra bright and big blue moon, even better.\u00a0 \u00a0What a sight as Brenda and I perched up on the bow with a glass of wine.\u00a0\"\"Of course, as it’s only now the 2nd of January, we were in this lovely spot for New Year’s Eve.\u00a0 New Year’s Eve in the Dockyard lived up to it’s reputation and to see fireworks burst aloft at exactly midnight was a wonderful sight, certainly unique in our experience.\u00a0 \u00a0Not a bad view from Pandora’s bow.\u00a0\"\"Really spectacular.\"\"Take your pick.\u00a0 Loved these too. \"\"And, of course, the grand finale.\u00a0 \"\"Sure, we have seen fireworks from aboard our boats in the past but never in the “dead of winter” sitting on the bow, cooled by a balmy midnight breeze. If you haven’t experienced it, I heartily recommend that you do.\u00a0 It’s safe to say that some things are just better with a gentle tropical breeze wafting over you.<\/p>\n

And, my New Year’s resolution is to…. Well, Brenda knows but let’s just say that it’s important that I am true to that plan and leave it at that.\u00a0 \u00a0Wish me luck.<\/p>\n

While it does not qualify as a “resolution” I also decided to join the Ocean Cruising Club<\/a> and after being encouraged to apply for membership by a number of cruisers over the years, Bill from Toodle-oo, who was tied up next to me in the Dockyard, offered to be my sponsor the other day.\u00a0 Well, it seemed like the right time and after my friend Mel, also an OCC member, said the same thing when we visited him and Jane the night before flying back to Antigua, I decided that I just had to do it.\u00a0 To\u00a0be considered for membership in OCC you must complete a 1,000 voyage without stopping, which I have done, a number of times.<\/p>\n

Well, the time was right, Bill offered and I joined.\u00a0 \u00a0As an added bonus, the club has an awesome burgee and Bill just happened to have a supply aboard.\u00a0 \"\"I was approved today and voila, near instant gratification after years of delay.\u00a0 Thanks Bill and of course my old friend Mel for “priming the pump”.\u00a0\"\"Speaking of awesome.\u00a0 Bolero, circa 1949<\/a>, arguably one of the most famous ocean racers ever launched, is tied up just a few boats away in the dockyard.\u00a0 \"\"She was designed by Sparkman and Stephens and has an impressive racing pedigree as a successful ocean racer.\u00a0 \u00a0She’s in magnificent condition having gone though a major refit in Maine in 2009 at Rockport Marine.<\/p>\n

Also nearby along with Elenora<\/a> a modern reproduction of a classic 1910 Herreshoff yacht Westward, exact in every important detail.\u00a0 She is a regular here and quite a sight.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"Tomorrow we will pick up our anchor, hopefully without a diver to untangle from all the “classic” items on the bottom of the harbor.\u00a0 Remember that this place has been popular for hundreds of years and a lot of junk has accumulated during that time.<\/p>\n

We plan to head over to Jolly Harbor, Antigua to meet up with Bill and Maureen of Kalunamoo and hopefully, in a few days we will head out to explore a few of the nearby smaller islands of Nevis and Montserrat.\u00a0 Montserrat is one of the few islands in the Caribbean with an active volcano<\/a>.\u00a0 Many of the\u00a0 smaller islands here don’t have protected harbors so their anchorages can be rolly when there’s a north swell running.\u00a0 Hopefully, it will be calm enough too visit on this trip.<\/p>\n

Tied up in a beautiful classic dockyard, fireworks on New Year’s Eve, viewed from Pandora’s bow and a Blue Moon.\u00a0 \u00a0 Surely, all experiences that are truly only enjoyed, well, “once in a blue moon”.<\/p>\n

Editor note:\u00a0 \u00a0Brenda immediately caught on that the “blue moon” is the second full moon in the month and that will happen at the end of January.\u00a0 \u00a0Oops.\u00a0 The moon we saw was actually a “super moon”.\u00a0 Neat but I don’t have the energy to redo the post.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 Better to spend time sailing or thinking of my next post, I guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we are in Nelson’s Dockyard, 2017 has come and gone and 2018 is only two days old.\u00a0 As luck would have it, last night was a blue moon.\u00a0 I just love to watch the moon rise at night and an extra bright and big blue moon, even better.\u00a0 \u00a0What a sight as Brenda and […]<\/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-8053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053","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=8053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8066,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053\/revisions\/8066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}