What about my NEXT summer vacation?`

TGIF, and as I sit here on the Amtrak Acela coming back from Washington I can't help but think about what my NEXT Summer vacation will be like. It seems to me that if I can plan ahead for work it's only natural that I will plan WAY, WAY AHEAD for something fun like a vacation. Which brings me to... NEXT SUMMER! And, thinking of what is to come certainly leads to great thoughts of our many trips to Maine.

This shot was taken in Damarascove Harbor off of Booth Bay a few years ago of my last boat, Elektra, a 1984 Tartan 37. The moment was captured just before an afternoon thunder storm and the light was really terrific. Brenda and I really enjoy sailing in Maine and we have been going there for a few weeks nearly every Summer for almost 10 years. And, we plan to do so again in the Summer of 2008.

However, 2008 will bring a totally new experience and my first true offshore sailing as skipper of my own boat in an ocean race. A number of years ago I helped deliver a Cambria 46 back from Bermuda but my sailing to date has been mostly intercoastal crusing with a yearly non-stop run to Maine most Summers.

I serve on the Afterguard of a sailing group, The Corinthians, and at this week's board meeting they announced that planning is underway for a new ocean race on the scale of the Halifax and Bermuda races. This race will be called the "Lobster Run" and will be held on alternate years beginning in July of 2008. This coming July it will be open to Corinthains and by invitation to others but in 2010, and in subsequent years, it will be open to all qualifying yachts. The plan is to run the race from the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club, out to a mark South East of Nantucket, hang a left to Booth Bay Harbor and the Booth Bay Harbor Yacht Club. The course will take the fleet well into the Atlantic South of Nantucket andk as we head North to Booth Bay, East of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Santuary. It is this ecologically rich area that is the home of one of the largest concentrations of whales on the East Coast of North America.

With over 300 miles of ocean sailing this race should certainly be an adventure and with good winds we should be able to complete the course in three days or perhaps a day or so more than that if things get messy. I certainly hope to see sunsets like this one that we viewed from Pandora this Summer.

I am very excited about doing this race and look forward to a Winter of preparation to get Pandora ready for such a voyage. There will be many modifications needed to get her ready including upgrades to make the boat safe in adverse conditions. For one, I will need to upgrade the lifelines that run like a safety net down each side of the boat to be sure that knowone falls overboard if the going gets rough.

We will also have to have storm sails including a small heavy weather storm jib as well as a storm tri-sail or really small mainsail that we can set if winds get really strong. A liferaft is also a must if the unthinkable happens. With several nights out perhaps we will see a sunset like this one that I took on one of our evenings aboard Pandora in Onset Harbor, just West of the Cape Cod Canal.

Upgrades needed for the race will also include a new mainsail and jib as well as a cruising spinnaker which I hope to purchase from a fellow SAGA 43 owner. If the winds are from the Southwest as is common in the Summer, a spinnaker will certainly help us keep going when the wind is from behind us. I'd hate to try and cover that much distance without the extra kick such a big sail can provide. This photo is of Camelot, a sistership owned by Keith and Rose Reynolds. As I write this they are on their way South for the Winter. I took this shot while we sailed together from Shelter Island to Block Island over the 4th of July weekend.

One way or the other, it will be great fun thinking about and planning for next Summer so now all I can say as the weather turns cooler each day, "at least we know that it will be better in May".

Why a SAGA 43?

As I mentioned previously, we decided that we needed a new boat when we were anchored in Gilkey Harbor, Isleboro Maine in August of 2006. We saw a nearly new Tartan 4100 and I decided to introduce ourselves to the couple on board. They invited us aboard for a cocktail and told us about their Summer plans, to cruise for about two to three months in Maine. At that moment, I realized that was what I wanted to to someday. What better way to look toward the future than to get our ideal cruising boat now. By early September we were working with Pat Clark of Boat Works in Rowayton CT. She proved to be very knowledgeable about many designs and their characteristics and recommended a number of boat designs for us to consider. However, having looked at a large number of designs over the year I was immediately taken by the SAGA configuration when she introduced it to me. Bob Perry, the designer, also was the father of the Valiant 42, considered by many as one of the finest cruising boats ever built. So, I was fairly confident that we had found a design that would fit the bill. I did a fair amount of research and read all that I could find on the Web. One review in particular caught my eye from a publication called 48 North. What I read there told me immediately that I had found the boat that I wanted.

The SAGA 43 was conceived as performance cruiser, just what I was looking for. I wanted a boat with good pedigree that was also fast and comfortable, with more creature comforts than we had with our Tartan 37.

We looked in Annapolis at what would eventually become our boat within a month, and now just one year ago at the Annapolis Show. We decided immediately that we wanted to purchase "Spirit" and put a bid on the next week. With delays on the seller 's side it wasn't until February of this year that we finally closed on the boat and got started on the upgrades we planned to do prior to launching.

We upgraded the electronics to include a Raymarine E series radar plotter, new canvas and some additional weight in the keel. We knew that many of the earlier SAGAs were quite tender, a combination of their narrow beam and a bit under weight in the keel in the shoal draft verson. We ordered a 1,200lb "shoe" from Mars Metals in Ontario and had it installed. It went on perfectly and I looked like it was part of the original keel from the very beginning. Having that extra 1,200 lbs proved to be just the trick as Keith Reynolds (the patron saint of SAGAs) predicted. Now she is plenty stiff and able to carry sail as needed. Yes, she does heel over a bit but no more than our T37 did. With these modifications we were off and running as of mid April and ready for our summer "trials".

The Annapolis Boat Show

Well, I spent the whole day at the Annapolis Boat Show yesterday and took a look at all sorts of things that I will need to do to get Pandora ready for offshore cruising. Here is a list of systems and items that I will need to settle on in order to be sure that Pandora will be ready to go. My friend Chris Blossom did a nearly a year in the Bahamas with his family some time ago and he has been advising me on what do to. Chris is a well known marine artist.

As of now my list includes the following:

New suit of sails, including a new main, jib, Genoa, storm tri-sail and modifications to my storm jib. That's the biggest single expense but arguably the most important.

Water maker. I'll probably go with the Spectra Cape Horn Xtreme as it is very efficient (about 1amp hour per gallon of pure water). The unit isn't heavily automated and requires regular maintenance but it seems to me that simpler is better, if you can call a reverse osmosis unit simple. Probably not. It's the single most expensive item on my list but getting showers and having a resonable amount of water is a must.

Solar panels. We will need lots of power to run all of our systems so I plan on covering the Bimini with enough panels to get about 125ah per day into the batteries. This should be nearly enough to keep the systems going. Plus I can supplement any shortfall with my Honda 2kw gas portable generator.

SSB radio to talk long distances. We will be too far away to use the VHF radio which only has 15miles of coverage at best and forget phone service in the Bahama out islands.

Hookah dive unit. I purchased a 110volt unit that I can run off of the 2000w inverter or directly from the Honda generator. A hookah is a dive hose attached directly to a compressor that will allow me to clean the bottom of the boat without having to surface to breathe. Believe me, it's really hard to scrub the bottom of a 43' boat while coming up for air every 1.5 minutes. I end up gasping for air and resting more time than I am cleaning.

LED light upgrades. This technology is terrific as it allows me to replace all the old incandescent or halogen (there's loads of them) bulbs with new lights that use about 1/10th of the power that the others. This main cabin on Pandora probably has more than 20 lights. However, the bad news is that they are quite expensive with the best ones that don't cast a cold harsh light costing $15 to $20 per light. Some, like the running lights can be $40 to $50 each. Yikes!

This is just a partial list of things that will need to be done and the list of little items, like minor system modifications is really, really long.

Preparing to fit out Pandora

Tomorrow I will head to the Annapolis Sailboat show to begin the process of fitting out Pandora as we prepare for heading out to spend much more time aboard once we "grow up".

It was last year in Annapolis when we visited the same show that Brenda, my wife and sailing companion of 30+ years, settled on Pandora, as our "ideal" boat. We were looking for a solid design with "pedigree" that could take us in comfort and safety to where ever we decide to go in the future. Our boat for the last 9 years, a 1984 Tartan 37 "Elektra" served us well. But, now we felt that we were ready to make the jump and trade up to a true live-aboard.

We decided while we were on vacation in Maine in August of 2006 that we wanted a new boat that was more substantial and with more comfort. Brenda, in particular, had a few specific requirements in our new boat. First, the boat had to have a bunk that wasn't "pointy". She had had enough of the V berth thing and wanted more foot room when she was in bed. She also was very big on having a head with a real shower with a door and separate from the rest of the head. Enough of soaking the whole place when she showered. Being able to use a hair dryer was a must and a microwave wouldn't be a bad thing either. Above all, she wanted a boat that wouldn't leave her feeling beat up after a day on the water. So many sailboat designs are great for an afternoon sail but not so great when the going gets rough.

For me, I wanted a boat that satisfied Brenda but that was also fast and powerful in a seaway. So often I had experienced situations where the seas kicked up, with the wind against the tide, only to find that we were bashing to windward (Yes, the wind's always from where we want to go) and making less than 5 knots through the water. That's extremely frustrating when you are trying to make distance.

We were fortunate to find someone who was very knowledgeable to help in our search. Our broker Pat Clark really understood what we were looking for and suggested a number of designs for us to look at. I had never heard of SAGA but after reading up on the design was instantly smitten.

In any event, we headed to Annapolis, saw our first SAGA 43 and knew right away that we had, indeed found our boat.