A bit of background on Dilip Donde and his solo sail around the world.

Yet again, YouTube comes to the rescue with a bit of background on the sailor from Mumbai that is sailing around the world.  The video gives a good feel for the yacht, which looks like a good one to make such a voyage.   This is certainly a more powerful boat than the older design that Jessica Watson is aboard.

Dilip has been thrashing into unusual easterlies for the last few days, making for a very uncomfortable ride. It seems that the weather forecast will have a shift to more normal westerly winds soon. 

Where did a certain sailor from Maumbai spend his Christmas?

Today, when doing what I do most mornings, checking out a few blogs including Jessica Watson's, she mentioned that she had been corresponding with a member of the Indian Navy who is sailing around the world on the first fiberglass boat built entirely in India.  What's interesting, is that they have been communicating and are currently closer to each other than they are to any other person on the planet, or at least to anyone that they are aware of.  They are both so far from land that it's each others boats that they are closest to.  I checked out the other blog and it turns out that the skipper is Dilip Donde who is sailing around the world, with a number of stops, on a custom made 47' sailboat.   His blog is interesting and I have been reading some of his past posts.  He left last August from Maumbai India sailing south and then to the east making his first stop in Fremantle Australia.  After a week he headed back out and is now closing in on Cape Horn as is Jessica.

It must be wierd to be so far from everything and yet so close to someone that you have so much in common with.  Dilip's blog includes a daily posting of position so check his out and see how it compares to Jessica's

Jessica's location is east of him but I am not sure how far as her map doesn't have latitude and longitude lines on it.  Check her location here.  One way or the other, they are close.  I wonder if they will try to pass within sight of each other.  I expect that they will.

Dilip's boat is a lot faster than Jessica's so it won't be long until he reaches and passes her.

Where will you be for Christmas? How about Point Nemo?

For those who enjoy following blogs of sailing exploits, like me, today is somewhat notable as it was today that Jessica Watson, the young girl trying to circumnavigate the world in a small sailboat, reached the point in the ocean called "Point Nemo".  That point was named for Captain Nemo the fictional hero of Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", 1869".  It is the point in the ocean that is the farthest from land of any place on the planet.    This position was computed by drawing lines between three points, in this case islands.  These points are...

s48:52:31.748 w123:23:33.069
This point is exactly 2 688 220.580 meters (slightly more than 1 450 nautical miles) away from the following three coastline points:
s24:40:39.360, w124:47:25.872 Ducie Island (Pitcairn Island Group, South Pacific)
s27:12:29.304, w109:27:33.120 Motu Nui / Rapa Nui ("Easter Island", South Pacific)
s72:57:57.024, w126:22:30.793 Maher Island / Siple Island (Antarctica)

Jessica is probably less than two weeks from passing Cape Horn, what is likely to be the toughest part of her voyage.   Interestingly, she has been sailing in fog for some days now and I have to wonder what it's like being in reduced visibility of only a few hundred feet and yet being 1,450km from the nearest land.  Sounds a bit surrealistic to me.

When she was leaving port for a test sail months ago, she had an accident that made headlines when she collided with a huge ship. This video also has an interesting interview with a fellow long distance sailor who attempted such a voyage with disastrous results.


When Brenda and I were in Key West last week we saw an IMOCA 60,  a really terrific ocean racing boat.  This video is in French but does have some footage of Bel, the big red French boat that we saw sailing near the docks.  What an amazing boat, and so fast.   What a contrast from Jessica Watson's Ella's Pink Lady. 

Sailing in Key West, vicariously.

While we were in the Keys last week with our friends, we took a day trip down to Key West.  Grassy Key, where we were staying, is about half way between the bottom of Florida to Key West so the drive down to the end of the island chain and Key West was about two hours and a world away.  Unfortunately, much of the Keys Highway is just one long strip of small motels, dive shops and a mess of generally unattractive roadside real estate.  However, once you enter Key West the world changes and you enter an amazing world of blue water, eclectic lifestyles and wonderful 1800s architecture.

It was fun to stand and have our picture taken at the southern most point in the continental US. It's only 90 miles from here to Cuba.  Needless to say, the Navy has a major presence here as well.   They don't want Fidel to forget that we are here.

This is the southern most Christmas tree in the continental US.

This is, you guessed it, the southern most Menorah in the continental US.  Yes, there is considerable competition for the "southern most in the US" designation. 

There's loads of boat traffic all around the tip of Key West with dive boats, private sailboats and this amzaing IMOCA 60, a state of the art ocean race boat out for a day sail.  I think that they must have been taking out sponsors or paying clients as a chase boat went out to it and changed passengers.  I took this photo from the deck where we had lunch.

Just off of the city marina dock there were tremendous tuna and tarpon.  No kidding, the tarpon were five feet long and the tuna three to four.  It seems that these fish are fed at the docks as if they were ducks in a city park.  These fish were just amazing and the biggest that I have ever seen in the "wild".  That's if they can still be classified as wild given the fact that they get fish kibble tossed to them daily. 

The area is jammed with all sorts of amazing old homes.  Given the hurricanes that come through this area nearly every season, it's hard to imagine that they still are intact after 100 plus years. 

Another wonderful tree lined street scene with Brenda and Port walking and taking in the sights.

You have to wonder who lives here.  Clearly, there is a lot of money in Key West.

Quite a few wonderful historic hotels.  In fact Key West served as the Winter White House for Harry Truman.   At that time, the Navy had a massive presence and took very good care of the visiting president.  Today there is a section of the town called the Truman Annex, and it's very, very exclusive. 

Well, what would this be? It is a drug running boat captured by the Coast Guard off of Key West with 10 tons of cocaine.   It's over 60' long and was built in the Columbia jungle out of fiberglass.  It's very roughly constructed and obviously built for a single use.  It's designed to float almost submerged with just the deck showing a above the water's surface.  What a miserable trip that must have been.   Not as miserable as getting caught, I would think.

You have to wonder how many of these have been built as this was one that just happened to be caught.   Notice the massive prop, it's about four feet in diameter.  The grey pipe on the back deck is an exhaust for the engine. It's so large that I expect that it was quite quiet, but not quite quiet enough.  The air intakes stick up high so that the engine can run even though the decks are awash under the weight of the cargo.  You can see the line just under the deck that must have been the waterline when fully loaded. There's a small hatch midships that looks like a conning tower on a sub for the pilot to see out of while steering the boat.  Not surprisingly, no evidence of running lights.

Of course, what posting of a visit to the Keys is complete without a picture of a sunset?  Setting aside the no-seeums that come out each evening but held at bay (sort of) by bug spray, the view is just amazing.

Hopefully, the winter will be short and the end of March, and the launch of Pandora will be here soon.  The snowstorm that we had last evening makes me less optimistic as I am told that Annapolis is covered with two feet of snow.   Not encouraging at all.

A bit of summer in December. The Keys anyone?

About a month ago good friends from our yacht club, Port and Kathy invited Brenda and me to visit them in Grassy Key Florida, a long drive out into the Keys and about 40 miles short of Key West.  Port is a retired architech and high end home builder in CT.  About 20 years ago they purchased some land in the Keys and spend about 4 days a month here enjoying the great weather.  Well, here we are visiting a wonderful warm place, with 80 degree water and air temperature to match.  Not bad as we have had snow twice in NJ already.  Forgive this post as it has much of nothing to do with boating.  Well, perhaps it does as we are surrounded by water.

It is such a treat to be here and enjoy a really amazing place on the warm Gulf when it's so cold at home in New Jersey.

We came down late on Saturday night, landed in Ft Lauderdale and drove 2 1/2 hours south arriving at their home shortly after midnight.  Imagine our reaction as the lights came on revealing this magical place.  This is a view of the entrance area as viewed from the stairs leading up to our room.

A view of our room looking out on to the water.

A view of our room.  Below is an area storage and is left unoccupied in the event of high water during a storm.

The main house in the center with two story bungalows on both sides.  The building furthest to the right is for the caretaker.  For 10 hours of work a week the caretaker couple can live here rent free.  I understand that when Port runs an ad looking for help he gets over 100 responses and an amazing cross section of humanity, much of which is from the bottom 5%.  The current couple that watch over the place have been here for three years and beyond looking after the place don't seem to do much.  I can relate to that as the environment certainly would lull anyone into a stupor after a few weeks.  No such thing as a New York minute.  It's more about manana.

 

A view in the late afternoon of the main living room area.  It's on the ground floor and is surruounded on all sides by sliding glass doors.  This shot doesn't begin to do justice to the view.  In fact, you can only see a single home from here.  There are other homes on the street but Port designed it so that the view is totally private.  The compound sits on about two developed acres with nearly 20 more of undeveloped area that he has bought over the years to ensure that he will not have to worry about someone messing up his view. Across the water are mangroves so there will never be any development there either within view.  Not bad at all.  A number of years ago a hurricane swept the lower living area clean and removed all of the furniture and doors as water and wind ran through.   What a mess that must have been with 14 sets of double sliding doors smashed to bits.   Those doors make for an amazing view of mangroves to the south a clear view of the Gulf to the west and a beautiful view of Florida Keys woodlands to the east.   To the east is the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream.  Because the water is so warm there is a perpetual row of big cumulus clouds across the horizon marking the Stream.

All of the living areas are connected by wood walkways.  These connect you with the driveway, each building and down to the dock.   The water isn't that clear with about 10 ft visibility.  There are some fish but mostly snapper and barracuda. 

 

Hard to believe that it's December.  Imagine the sunset over the mangroves.

Because the water is so shallow, the dock goes out over 100 yards.  Yes, it's really that narrow.  Port calls it a "one drink dock", meaning that you can't walk on it if you have had more than one drink.  No kidding.   Their home is so secluded behind the trees that you can hardly see it.  It blends in to the environment very well.

Lot's of local color with loads of heron, egrets and of course, Pelicans.

Being so far south and west in the Keys puts us very close to the Gulf Stream with it's 85 degree waters bathing the region with warm air keeping it very warm, even in the winter.  Just a few hundred miles north in Miami it's not quite as tropical.

While not as appealing as the Bahammas for cruising, this area is very popular with long term liveaboards.  Some of the boats in the harbors don't look like they have moved much for a long time.    In the market it's immediately obvious who is on their boat full time and who is on a week's holiday.    Perhaps it's about personal hygiene, perhaps the fact that they don't wear shoes in the supermarket but it's certainly about all tattoos.

Today, Monday we hope to go on a dive boat out to the reef about 6 miles out east just on the edge of the Gulf Stream for some snorkeling.  The guide told me yesterday that visibility is 50 feet.  I understand that the Bahamas are twice that.  Hard to imagine.

Who will be the youngest to sail around alone?

Jessica Watson, sailing around the world from Australia, has crossed the equator and back in the last few weeks and is now headed south on her way to The Horn, the southern most tip of South America.  You can follow her on Google Earth.  With more than 4,000 mile to go, she won't be there for about a month.  The good news is that she should round The Horn in the middle of summer, good timing as it's one of the nastiest places on earth to be on the water.   Jessica's blog is apparently the most popular one in Australia and has a very loyal following, regularly getting 200+ comments on each post.  Interestingly, she seems to have an avid following of women. Perhaps it's just all the "mothers" out there that are fretting about her and how she is doing.  At 16 years old there are many who feel there's plenty to worry about as she makes her trip around alone.

Another young woman, Abby Sunderland, hopes to set a record and be the youngest to do a circumnavigation alone under sail, will soon leave from Encinada Mexico.  Abby, the daughter of a shipwright,  also has an older brother Zac who briefly held the record as the youngest to sail around alone. Abby decided when she was13 years old that she wanted to break her brother's record.   No doubt, Abby was inspired by her older brother's voyage.  If she is successful, at least she can keep the record in the family.

Jessica is making her voyage in a 30 year old classic sailoat design and Abby Sunderland, on a refurbished Open 40 ocean race boat.   As an interesting side note, Abby's brother Zac was briefly the youngest to circumnavigate alone when he completed his voyage a few years ago at the age of 17.  His record was eclipsed just a few weeks later by someone from England who managed to finish shortly after Zac, and who was just a few months younger.

The part of this exercise that I find fascinating, setting aside the question of how young is too young, is that Jessica is making her attempt in a 30 year old design that is not capable of going much faster than 5-7 kts while Abby is going on a very modern design that is capable of speeds upwards of 25kts.   A key issue of all this will be if they are able to complete their voyage at all. I wonder if it may turn out to be the classic tortoise and the hare question.  Will Jessica's slow, easy going, older design ultimately outrun a much faster, but tougher to sail, Open 40?   A key consideration will be fatigue as the faster boats are very hard on crew, and keeping spirits up and not breaking gear -- or worse -- is a major consideration in this sort of voyage.


This is an interview with Abby in Portmouth RI when she was purchasing her Open 40, Wild Eyes.  It gives you an idea of what sort of boat it is.


And this is a tour of Jessica's boat, Ella's Pink Lady.  You can really see just how different these two boats are.

With regard to different designs, I can tell you that sailing our current boat Pandora, a modern SAGA 43, with a long waterline and fine entry is a very different experience than sailing our last boat, an older style design, Tartan  37' with long overhangs and a shorter waterline.  Pandora's motion is much less lively but does reqire more dilegence when it comes to reefing the sails to keep her sailing in her best trim.

Jessica's boat Ella's Pink Lady is a Sparkman & Stephens 34, a very seakindly design, more analogous to our T37, that's been proven over many years of ocean sailing.  On the other hand, Abby's Wild Eyes (the name certainly suggests a different temperament), is an extreme-purpose built boat designed to go as fast as possible.   Abby's boat, built to the Open 40 class design, is a boat built to break records, but certainly not designed for comfort.  It's all about getting there as fast as possible.  This link is an example of just what this class is all about.

Abby will be leaving soon from northern Mexico where she has moved the boat.  Her site isn't fully functional yet but her blog is up and running. 

This will be an interesting pair of voyages to follow in the coming months.

Oh, and one more thing...

This video of the BMW Oracle new racing yacht that's going to compete in the America's Cup soon.  Now, this is what real money will buy.  Is this what the America's Cup is all about?   Perhaps not, but it's fun to look at.

Another blog and a SAGA 43 posting

It's amazing how quickly a post shows up on Google when new content is put on the Web.  I did a search today and was surprised to see this blog post pop up after only having been put up on Tuesday of this week.   This blog, on adventure cruising, has lots of info on boat design, gear and "what works" in cruising boats.  I have not had time to check out the blog yet, having just discovered it, but it seems like a good one to get info on cruising distances in sailboats.   Their November 23rd post is about the SAGA 43, a boat just like mine.  They are complimentary of the design and generally had nice things to say about performance of the boat.  One thing that they mentioned, that I agree with, is that the early shoal draft keel was not good and made the boat too tender.   My boat, Pandora, hull #10, was indeed tender but after adding an additional 1,200lbs to her keel she is just fine.  The design isn't one that will stand up like some of the very wide boats being built now but the sea motion is much kinder to all on board when things get nasty.   Check out their blog Attainable Adventure Cruising-What's new.  They have a nice shot from head-on of a SAGA 43 that shows how narrow they are, which contributes to their speed.  Yes, they are right, this photo does make the boat look a bit narrower than she is but not by mutch. 

Note that this photo is credited to John Harries, one of two authors of the adventure blog.  John and Phyllis are big into high latitude sailing and have a really impressive website that's worth checking out.  John is also a professional photographer and his portfolio features his wonderful work.    Click on this to see John and Phyllis's bio.  Their site, to which their blog is attached is at www.morganscloud.com and is worth looking at.  It's more like a how-to book on the web of adventure cruising.  They also have an RSS feed that can keep you up on their latest musings. I plan on subscribing too. 

It seems that their boat Morgan's Cloud is spending the winter at Billings Boat Works in Stonington Maine, a place that Brenda and I pass by each summer when we are in Maine.    It's indeed a small world. 

Where do you plan to go on your boat?

Yesterday I attended, as emcee, the 75th anniversary meeting of The Corinthians.  We met at the home club of our Master, Beach Point Yacht Club in Mamaroneck NY.

It's an old fashioned, magnificent club with a commanding view of Long Island Sound.  It was a beautiful sunny Fall day with lunch in the main dining room with a 270 degree view of the water.  I have been the shore activities chair for the group for years now and it's always a thrill for me to see that so many come, about 100, to enjoy an event that I helped plan.  To stand in front of a big group and see them all looking at me is just great fun.

At the meeting Brenda and I met a very interesting guy, Bob, who was a guest of the Master and is interested in joining the group.  In the course of conversation he mentioned that he and his wife had taken their 60+' boat to the Med and spent four seasons sailing there before sailing back over to the US.  I asked him what part of the Med he had enjoyed most and, without hesitation, he said Turkey. It's interesting that the other couple near Annapolis in November that we met said the same thing.  Bob mentioned that on their first visit they had chartered a local style of boat called the Gulet.  This local wooden boat type seems to be the same sort of business in Turkey as the Maine Schooners have that take out groups of people on a large wooden boat for coastal cruising.  However, this style of boat is clearly a lot different than what you see in Maine, and based on what I have seen on the Web there are a lot more of them than schooners in Maine.  You can join one of the Gulets with others as part of a somewhat random group or just charter one on your own with some friends.  Sounds like fun. 

With both couples that Brenda and I have met, what was planned as a one season visit to the Med turned out to be many years as they loved it so much.   Like the couple that we met on Alcid, a SAGA 43 that had done the same trip and kept their boat there for 7 seasons, Bob and his wife couldn't get enough of the Med and Turkey in particular.

I guess that's just one more place that I have to sail to.  Brenda gave me a cruising guide to the Mediterranean for Christmas last year which has given me a lot to think about.

Speaking of sailing far and wide, Jessica Watson, the young girl sailing around the world from Australia crossed the equator this week and will be soon turning south again to head for Cape Horn.  This photo montage was posted by her family on YouTube this week and is worth looking at and very touching even if it makes you wonder how such a young girl will do when she is in the Southern Ocean.    Her blog is fun to follow as she makes her way around.  Her website has a Google Earth tracker to keep tabs on where she is.




This is a very different view of sailing but the Southern Ocean is the same body of water regardless of what sort of boat you are on. Here's a video from the Volvo Ocean Race last year.   Of course, they picked the worst to show how it can get but Cape Horn doesn't have the reputation that it has for nothing.     This video shows just how fast the Open 60s go.  Very fast and certainly would pull away from Pandora without much sweat.  I don't know how I would do under such conditions.  I do know for sure that Brenda wouldn't like it at all.

Well, signing off for now as yard work awaits.  Lot's to think about however as we plan our sailing for the coming season.

You can't pull the mast in a gale?

This weekend I moved Pandora from her slip to the yard in Back Creek Annapolis where she will spend the winter.  The big project is to paint the mast.  On Thursday evening I headed from New York ,where I had meetings for the day, to head south.  It was raining steadily when I got to the boat around 10pm all I could think about was getting the boat over to Port Annapolis Marina the next morning.  The bad news is that there was a gale forecast for all day Friday.  At 8:30 on Friday morning a friend helped me back out of the slip and I headed out into the bay.  It was indeed "blowing a gale" with steady winds of 30kts.   Not a nice day at all.

I headed into Back Creek, called the marina and learned that they wanted me to put my lines and fenders on the starboard side to tie up at the dock.  That's a simple request but I was on board alone and with the wind blowing like stink it took me about 4 passes going by the marina while I scrambled up on deck to put out each of the lines and fenders.   By this time there were 4 guys waiting on the lift dock to catch me as I came in.  With 20+ kts on the port beam I lined up to make the shot into the dock area and headed in.   I expected to be set hard to starboard as I came up to the dock with the wind blowing so hard so I lined Pandora up about 10' off of the dock, put the boat in reverse to stop the boat and get her lined up where I wanted to meet the dock.  With my heart pumping a bit harder than usual I headed in, and held my breath.

Amazingly, the maneuver worked and I stopped just where I was supposed to, Pandora quickly drifted to starboard toward the dock and into the welcoming hands of the marina guys.   The wind pinned Pandora hard against the dock and it took everyone pushing against the wind to hold her off while I rigged fenders to keep the boat from hitting the pilings.  It was now 10am and I was securely tied up.  What to do next?  Unfortunately I had not pulled off the sails when I had left the boat a few weeks ago and now that I was being pinned to the dock by 20+kt winds there was no getting them off now.   With that realization, I came to grips with the fact that Pandora wasn't leaving the water today.  Bummer to that.

Besides, with winds of that strength, there was no way that the rigger was going to attempt to pull out the mast, perhaps damaging something in the process.  Actually, that turned out to be for the best as I couldn't have gotten the radar mount off of the back stay, loosened all of the stays and shrouds, removed the boom and all of the many things that had to be done in advance of pulling the mast in the rain and wind anyway.

Given the considerable cost of pulling the mast and getting it painted, I plan on addressing some rigging issues at the same time.  I am interested in setting up the boat so that she can handle conditions with wind of 30+ kts, conditions that are too strong for her now even when she is double reefed with the jib out.  Going to windward under such conditions are too much like work so something needed to be done.

The rigger suggested that I install an inner forestay, or in this case an inner, inner forestay since Pandora already has two fixed forestays, one for the jib and the outer and most forward one for the genoa.   The plan will be to put a third fitting on the mast to handle a shorter stay that will connect to a fitting on the deck about two or three feet behind the inner fixed stay.  By using the jib sheet on the storm jib attached to the inner stay I will be able to hank on a very small jib and sheet it in using the jib track, a really nice and simple option.  When the stay isn't being used I will clip it to a small pad eye on the deck to the side of the mast.  I am also going to put a foam luff into the jib which will make it possible to roll that sail up a bit without compromising the sail's shape.   When you roll up a sail on a furler, it's necessarily to add bulk the fabric in the middle portion of the leading edge or luff of the sail or luff so that it doesn't bag and holds it's shape when partially rolled up.

I will also have a third reef put into the main so that sail can also be made even smaller when the wind is over 30kts or so.  Between the genoa, jib, storm jib and three reefs I should be able to handle most wind conditions up to 40kts or so and even more if needed.  I don't particularly want to be out in such conditions but it's nice to know that I will be able to prepare the boat properly in the event that I find myself in a situation where the conditions require substantially reduced sail. 

Friday, because of the wind and rain, was sort of a bust.  In spite of that I was able to get the engine oil changed and winterized as well as spray it with an oil to keep it from rusting over the winter.


The next morning, Saturday my friend Denise showed up to help me pull off the sails at 8:30am.  The wind had dropped to less than 10kts, which was good, but it was still raining lightly.   With a deadline of needing to get everything in order prior to leaving town I decided to pull the sails off anyway, wet or not, stuff them in their bags and take them off to the sail maker.   When the jib and genoa came off I was stunned to see that algae had grown all over them from all the rain this summer. In spite of using the boat a lot the roller furler had allowed the sails to stay wet and become a bit of a swamp.  The genoa is made of a mylar layer covered on both sides with a dacron fabric so it's not very porous and needs to be treated on alternate years to avoid mildew.   It's clearly time for another treatment.  Fortunately, the sailmaker can send them out to be laundered and get them treated again which should solve the algae problem. 

After Denise left mid morning, my friend Ken showed up to help me prepare the mast for removeal. We loosened all of the stays holding up the mast, removed the boom and secured everything to be sure that taking out the mast would be as quick as possible.  The cost of getting the mast out and back in can really add up so it's important to do whatever you can to be sure that the boat is ready to go before the "big guns" show up ready to run up a big tab.

After getting the rig ready I turned my attention to winterizing the water system.  With two heads, a cockpit shower and lots of hoses running around inside the boat it's critical that antifreeze be put in the system and circulated fully so nothing will freeze and break when it gets cold.  I have always had a tough time getting the fluid to cirulate efficiently in the system and came up with the idea of putting in a fitting between the water tanks and the pressure pump.  By turning off the tank valves I can pull in antifreeze from a convenient funnel and minimize the wasted fluid.  I actually don't know if I thought this up myself or if someone told me but it works very well. See these two photos of the fitting I installed. 

This shows the "T" fitting between the valves to the water tanks and the pressure pump. It is a very simple solution.

By using a funnel and hose to the fitting I can feed in the "pink stuff" easily with little waste.

It's critical to take photos to be sure that the myriad lines end up back in the same place when Pandora is put back together again.  Fingers crossed!!!

After everything is done the boat really looks like a mess and it's hard to believe that she will ever look like a proper little ship any time soon.

Pandora looking quite nasty but ready to haul. 

In a few weeks I will head back down to Annapolis to get the cover back on so that she is protected from the weather.  Still lots to do and so few months until March when she goes back in.

Everyone's headed south but me!

It's killing me to be preparing to pull Pandora next weekend as hardly a week goes by that I don't hear from one of my friends that's headed south for the winter.   For now I can live vicariously through them for now and make my plans to head there "when I grow up" and work on getting Pandora ready to make the trip. 

As I think about all of this it keeps me sane by reading other blogs such as Jessica Watson's as she attempts to sail around the world from Australia and become the youngest person to make that journey.  While I am rooting for her I am also wondering if she will make it given the dangers of the Southern Ocean given the trials ahead of her and the inescapable fact that she is just so young. If you haven't checked out her blog do so, as she has been posting each day, sometimes with photos.  It's quite interesting to read the comments on her blog each day as clearly she is developing a large following.  Most days show over 300 comments to her most recent musings. 

Fortunately, someone is reviewing, and approving or not, the comments to keep the wackos from saying something inappropriate.  I hope that things continue to go well for her.

This photo taken of Jessica prior to her departure certainly show just how young she is.  She looks to me more like someone who would be more in her element at the mall with her friends than 2,000 miles from home headed past Figi.  Time will tell.

I guess it's back to Pandora and thinking about the future.  There remains lots for me to do so that Pandora is ready for headed south.  I have to raise the waterline to respond to the 1,200lb increase in keel weight that I added when I purchased her as well as to address the constant addition of weight that goes along with getting a boat ready for extended cruising.  As I noted in a recent post, I will be getting the mast painted this winter to address some peeling problems and intend to chronicle that exercise in some future postings.

I also have to replace a punky head holding tank that was constructed out of some too-thin aluminum with a longer lasting plastic one.  The list goes on and on. 

With my mid-March launch date so early in the season, I will have to hustle in getting everything done in time.

As I consider where we might head this coming summer, I find myself thinking a lot about the Bay of Fundy and the St. John River.    It's quite a bit farther east than we have ever headed during our cruises to Maine so far but sounds like a great place to visit.

These photos of the falls are a bit tough to see but the top one seems to be taken at low tide so the waterfall can be seen just above the bridge.  At high tide you can cross over just at slack high tide when the current isn't moving much and the "cliff" is covered with water.  It sounds a bit hairy to me. 

This is what the water below the bridge and falls looks like at high tide.  Note the rock just showing in the water at the right of the bridge.

This is a shot of the same place at low tide.  Look at that water racing by.  Clearly, this isn't a place to go when the tide is running, in or out.

I'd be ok heading in to make the jump over the falls at high tide if the water looked like this.  It doesn't look too daunting.  Right?

I have heard from a number off friends who have made the trip that it's quite an amazing place to visit by boat.  With tidal ranges growing ever greater as you head east from Penobscot Bay, where we have sailed each summer for the last decade, they become really daunting as the ranges approach 40' and more, the highest in the world, with currents to match.  In Penobscot Bay the range is large, more than 10' but still managable for anchoring.  Personally, I don't like to anchor in more than 25' of water at high tide.   With 5/1 scope (that's 5' of chain for each foot of water depth at high tide) on the anchor line that's nearly 150' of chain and most of what I have on my big bruce anchor, the one that I use most of the time.  It's hard to imagine what it would be like to cope with such tides.   I am told that you really don't anchor in those areas but pick up moorings instead. 

Once you get farther east than Bar Harbor you are headed into an area "down east" that's quite wild and not a place where it's easy to get services for yachts.  It's mostly populated by fisherman and is considered a place for the more experienced to venture.

There are so many places to go and think about.  Back to reality now as it's getting on late morning Saturday and I have to help Brenda get the gardens ready for winter and rake some leaves.

Thanks for checking in.  Leave a comment so I can see what you think of my ramblings. 

Getting ready for winter projects and summer 2010.

Now that the season is over for sailing for those of us that are unfortunate enough not to be able to head south for the colder months, it's time to begin getting serious about working on winter projects.  As Pandora will be splashed again in mid March,the earliest that I have ever had my boat in the water, there really isn't time to waste in order to be sure that I am ready to go when the time comes on Monday, March 22nd. I have already lined up a spot for Pandora in March, right back where she is now waiting to be hauled.   These photos are from the Annapolis slip where Pandora has spent the last month and will spend March through the end of May next spring.

It's quite different when you head south of the New England waters that I am used to sailing in as private slips are not just for the wealthy, but quite abundant and attached to nearly every waterfront home.   On top of that, it seems that almost everyone on the water has at least one extra slip.  In this case, the owner that I rent from has 14 in his back yard.  And, he doesn't even have a boat of his own.

What a great view from the boat on our last evening prior to heading home last week.

How would you like to have this view from your back deck?

Or, how about this one? Not bad at all.

I head back to Annapolis in two weeks to move Pandora over to Port Annapolis Marina where her mast will be pulled so I can strip all the hardware off to prepare the mast to be painted.  It's peeling badly so what a difference it will make to how the boat looks. It will also be good to have the rig inspected as the boat is 10 years old now and I don't know how long it's been since the mast was last pulled and really gone over carefully.

I also plan on replacing the aft holding tank as the one that's there now is not in good shape at all.

I should also note that I am following a new blog by young circumnavigator Jessica Watson. She left from her home in New Zealand with the goal of being the youngest person to sail around the world unassisted and non stop.  She has a nice site and a fun blog.  Check her out at www.jessicawatson.com.au.  Her trip has created a good amount of contravercy as she is so young.  It seems that she is planning to put up a blog entry each day and they are fun to read.  Amazingly, within a few hours there are 300 comments on each new post, quite a large number.  I am jealous.

I should also note that our plans for sailing next summer are beginning to shape up.  Following our visit to the Chesapeake through May we will move Pandora to Mystic for June, on to Wickford again for the month of July and on to Maine and perhaps even a visit to the St. John River in the Bay of Fundy in Canada in August.    Lot's to think about and all the planning and boat projects will hopefully make the winter go quickly.

It's the last sail of the season. No, really, I mean it!

Brenda, what about one more weekend on Pandora in Annapolis next weekend?   That's what I asked Brenda on the phone last week when I was on business in Atlanta.   Fortunately, she said yes.  Was it a desire to go sailing one more time or an agreement based on the fear that I would slit my wrists if I was away from the boat for too long?  I guess I will never know.  However, one not-so-subtle motivation for her might have been my suggestion that we visit Chesapeake City and the weaving store that I had spied on our visit there a few weeks ago when I was delivering Pandora from Norwalk to her winter home near Annapolis.  Whatever the motivation was, off we went on Saturday morning in the rain to visit Annapolis one more time.  The weather forecast called for rain, and lots of it on Saturday.  Yes, the weather man was right, actually perfectly correct for once. 

I had also had heard from a couple from Toronto who were considering the purchase of a SAGA 43 that they wanted to meet us in Annapolis on Saturday to see the boat and spend some time on board to compare notes on the design.  They had narrowed their search down to two boat types, a SAGA and Caliber 40 a more traditional moderate cruiser.  That is to say, one boat that is not too fast with lots of storage and the SAGA which will get them there much faster and in style if perhaps with a bit less stuff on board.  I know that deciding what to buy can be struggle in any major purchase but to me there isn't any comparison.  I still love having a boat that will pass about anything that comes our way in normal cruising circumstances.  Besides, with our speed we can be sure and get to port before the stores close.  No, I won't be winning any club races but for all out drag racing from point A to B, the SAGA beats (almost) all.  It will be interesting to hear what they decide. 

After getting settled aboard in the pouring rain on Saturday we were happy to return to shore and have dinner with some great friends and fellow Corinthians who live in the neighborhood where Pandora is berthed this fall.  Dick and Valerie treated us and two other couples to a wonderful evening at their home.  Terrific food and company.  Dick and Valierie have taken their sailboat Spring Moon, a Pacific Seacraft Crealock 37, all over including a number of trips to Bermuda as well as extensive cruising in the Easter Caribbean. Interestingly, Dick's boat is the actual one featured in, I think, the book by  Mate, "The World's Best Sailboats".  If not that book, it was another.  In any event, the boat has really sweet lines.

It was great spending time with fellow cruisers and made an evening in the rain much more fun.

Sunday bright and sunny.  What a difference a day makes!  That certainly applied this weekend as when we awoke on Sunday morning to head out the skies were clear and there was a nice NW breeze.    Dick and Valerie had suggested the prior evening that we might want to head down the bay about 10 miles to Galesville MD for the night so off we went. 

Galesville was once a fairly important stop for steamboats that moved from town to town along the Chesapeake Bay prior to the building of reliable roads and the widespread use of automobiles.  Now Galesville is a quiet town with loads and loads of sailboats.  I am still still struck by how few boats sit out on  moorings here as opposed to in the areas where we normally sail in New England.  Up there marinas are common too but many more boats are on moorings.  In MD there are so many creeks and bays that waterfront property isn't quite so precious and there are marinas everywhere.  However, in Galesville there are some moorings, somewhat of a rarity.

Our run on Sunday took us out into the bay, past a few large ships anchored south of the Annapolis Bridge and an unusual site, a US Navy Sub.  Now that's not something that you see every day. 

Of course, there was a very attentive Navy Hard Bottom Inflatable (HBI) buzzing everyone that became too inquisitive. 

Bummer about that as I wanted to get some better photos.  The HBI, blue light flashing on deck, following our every move as I snapped away, made me feel like a spy. 

In all of my years of boating this is only the 3rd time that I have seen a sub in "real life" and the only time that I was able to get close enough to get a good shot.  Perhaps I should say "photograph" as opposed to "shot".  Don't want the brass getting anxious.  You know how intimidating Pandora can be when she is bearing down on you at speed. 

As we dodged the commercial traffic Brenda was just thrilled when I passed the bow of this ship.  Yes, she was anchored and yes we really were this close.  I could see some big scratches in the bottom paint on the bow.  I wonder what they hit?  

There was also a car carrier ship anchored nearby.  It's hard to see how this type doesn't just roll over in the slightest breeze.  Talk about windage.

Don't think it looks that big?  How about seeing something like this loom out of the fog some night?  The scale suggests how much fun that would be.

Further down the bay we passed one of the last screw pile lights left on the bay .  The Thomas Point Light is quite a sight.  In order to get this close to get a shot I anxiously watched my depth sounder as it showed less than 5 feet under the keel.  Had I misjudged the depth I would have been able to take photos of the light as the sun set. Not my first choice.

If it's worth having one Photo of Thomas Point Light, it's worth having a second, from the other side.

 Now this is a nice sunset photo from Sunday evening aboard Pandora.  Better from this vantagepoint than aground off of Thomas Point Light. 

That's it for now.  Our last sail of the season (really, I mean it).  In a few weeks Pandora comes out of the water for some winter work and back in the water mid March.  

I plan on putting up posts of the projects as I tackle them and am sure that the progress willl be as scintillating to all of you as it will be to me.

Where (was) Pandora this summer?

I prefer to do a post when I have some current information to share about what we have done in the last week or so.  However, as the season for us is drawing to a close I thought that it would be fun to look back at some of the places that we went this summer and note a few highlights.

This season's sailing took Pandora farther than we have sailed in any one season.   I don't know how far we actually sailed as I did not log the daily distances but we covered a lot of ground, or should I say water. It's unfortunate that I didn't keep track and I plan to keep track in the future.  We began our season just prior to Memorial Day in Norwalk where we had Pandora for less than one week at the Norwalk Yacht Club.  In fact, it's the first year in nearly 15 years as members of the club that we didn't take even a single day sail in "local" waters.  I decided a few years ago that I had had enough of sailing in Western Long Island Sound so we have been moving her around a lot to take advantage of having her in a variety of places.  The logistics are daunting but it makes for a lot of variety and there is just so much else to see.

Now that I have a boat that can really cover a good amount of ground in a day, the miles just don't seem nearly as long as they used to.  With her long waterline of 41.5' on a 43' hull, we can easily make 7+kts for hours on end, even against a nasty chop.  This makes 70km days a reasonable option.

After putting Pandora back in the water we headed east to Mystic where we used a friend's mooring (you can read about the fun finding the missing mooring chain in my May 31st posting) for the month of June.  On and off the boat for a number of long weekends plus a week over Memorial Day weekend had us visiting the eastern end of Long Island Sound and Block Island.

 A farm on the North Fork of Long Island.  Below show Shinn Vineyards, a great spot on the North Fork and a reasonable walk from Mattituck Harbor.

 

Our visit to the North Fork of Long Island included a visit to Shinn Vineyards, the only biodynamic winery on LI and perhaps in the US.  You can really see the difference in the look of the vineyard when no herbicides are used.  It's so much more lush and natural looking.  They have really nice weekly e-mail that's worth subscribing to.






For the month of July we sailed in and out of Wickford prior to heading up to New Bedford and on to Maine for August.  Our favorate place to visit in Wickford is Pleasant Street Warf, run by old friends.  What a great spot.  It looks like it did 50 years ago.

Pandora docked at Pleasant Street Wharf in Wickford.

A highlight of the summer was a weekend spent on board with my two sons Rob and Chris as well as my father when we made a run from Wickford to New Bedford, with a stop in Cuttyhunk.  My dad who just turned 80 is in terrific shape (I will be thrilled if I have his energy at 80) and we had a ball.  It was the first time in all my years of sailing when the 4 of us were on the boat together.

I just love this shot of us at the top of the hill on Cuttyhunk.

We also were treated to an amazing sight as the fog descended on the harbor about one hour before sunset.   It's hard to believe that these two shots were taken on the same day.   As they often say about weather on the water, "if you don't like the weather, wait an hour".  And that certainly suggests that being prepared for anything is key when you are on a boat.

 

We have sailed Maine every summer  for over 10 years now and while we didn't cover as much distance in Maine as we normally do we had a really great time.  We lucked out with terrific weather in spite of the record rainfall that this summer brought to New England.

Have you ever wondered how they cut the grass on remote island summer homes?  Here's a shot of a boat docked in Rockland fueling up the John Deer for a visit to cut some lawns.  I wonder how they get them out of the boat when they get there?  I should have asked.

How often do you see a moon rise like this one in Rockland harbor?  Not a bad looking boat either. 

Our visit to Boothbay harbor was fun and this shot of a NY30 is a good example of the wonderful wood boats that you see all over Maine.  There's a thriving boat building and restoration business going on in Maine these days. Note the tall ship being worked on at the shipyard in the background.

Two weeks in August in Maine followed by nearly two weeks in early September found us heading down the coast with another stop in Wickford and back to Norwalk.  A hurricane went through in late August and in it's wake we had a week and a half of winds from the North and West which made for unusually fair winds when Brenda and I ran from Rockland all the way back to Norwalk.

A favorite place we visited this summer was Allen Island off of Muscongus bay just a bit east of Boothbay Harbor, the summer home of Andrew and Betse Wyeth.  Unfortunately, Andrew died earlier this year but we were pleased to see Betse still using the island.  In fact, she arrived when we were on one of their moorings.  She waved to Brenda, a thrill for her indeed.  The Wyeth's homes on the island show what can be done when you have good taste and style along with the money to indulge your vision.  There are many homes on the island and the scene does look just like one of his paintings.

Quite a variety of architecture on Wyeth's islands and it all holds together wonderfully. 

This is one of the Wyeth launches and is named after the famous explorer, Weymouth's ship the Archangel.

This view also includes a cross commemorating the landing of Archangel, way back in the 1600s by Charles Weymouth who, on behalf of King George, explored the coast of Maine.  When he anchored just north of Allen Island he captured several native Indians and took them back to England where they were presented to the king. Check out this link to learn more. There are sheep all over the island and they keep the trees from overtaking the landscape.  It's one of the most idyllic spots along the coast.

After we left Allen Island we wound our way through islands in Muscongus Bay. This shot off of the chart plotter really gives a good feel for how rocky the coast of Maine is.  Not a place that I would want to traverse without good charts and a GPS.  

What trip with Brenda would be complete without a visit to see some sheep, or in this case goats.

Quick...Maine or Afghanistan?  Hmm...

This one in particular boasted a great haircut.  Perhaps a bit of an "Elvis" doo.  He did have personality and was quite inquisitive. 

One of the farms that we visited was run by a older women who was a fountain of information on some historic and rare livestock breeds that she and her husband keep on their farm .  It's the passion of folks like this that make for rich experiences along the way.   Brenda and I really enjoyed talking to her.

I can't sign off without including one of Brenda's recent tapestries with a nautical theme.  For a girl that says she isn't crazy about things (or experiences) nautical, she is drawn to scenes of the water.  She did this piece recently for a show commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's "discovery" and trip up the Hudson River.  She's not crazy about the piece but I think it's great.  Perhaps it belongs on Pandora.  Now, there's a thought.  

Now Pandora is in Annapolis where she will spend the winter.  I have a few projects planned including painting the mast and raising the waterline.  The mast will be done professionally with a heavy dose of do it yourself by your's truly and the waterline needs to be raised by me as well.  I have been meaning to raise the waterline for a few years as the additional 1,200 lbs of lead that was added to the keel when I purchased the boat plus all the additional cruising gear that's now on board have us down below the painted waterline.  Not good. 

It's going to be a busy winter with more than a few weekends in Annapolis to get all of this done.  Hopefully the winter will go quickly and soon we will be doing some early spring cruising in the Chesapeake Bay.