>It’s 9:00 and we are about 5nm east of Watch Hill Passage (eastern Long Island Sound) and are on our way to Portland Maine. It’s hard to believe that we are finally under way after months of working on Pandora and planning for our summer aboard. My crew assembled in Mystic last evening, provisioned and had a nice dinner out prior to getting to bed. We arose early enough to watch the sun rise and at 7:00 headed out to Long Island Sound for the run to Portland Maine.
Pandora’s happy crew 5 miles south of Newport RI.
We have not been to Portland by boat yet so this will be a new experience for us. We will be hooking up with fellow SAGA owners Frank and Gail of Alcid who live in the area and are members of the club. It’s worth noting that they took Alcid to the Med some time ago and enjoyed sailing the waters from Gibraltar to Egypt for 7 seasons before having the boat shipped back to the states on a ship about a year ago.
Our landfall will be at the Portland Yacht Club, a few miles north of Portland proper. The cruising guide says that the club is the second oldest in the US, although I wouldn’t be surprised if other clubs claimed the same.
It’s a beautiful day out on Block Island Sound and while the winds are not sufficient for sailing (It’s always that that way when you are trying to make miles) It’s great to be out on the water.
A bit later on in the day, off of Newport RI, we spotted a magnificent yacht ICAP Leopard go by at an impressive pace. Out for a easy day of cruising, Leopard is a go fast world class racer that has participated in many events world wide. You too can charter Leopard for an afternoon of fun. Check out their website. If you really want to be wowed, take a look at some of their videos. And, if that’s not enough. They have a number of world records to boast about and they do on their website.
This was about as close as we got to Leopard.
How about this video of Leopard at speed on their record transatlantic?
I couldn’t resist putting in a video. How about this one of Lizard Light at the entrance of the English Channel.
Yes, putting this video in is a bit random but it is the finish line for races from NY Ambrose to England, a hotly contested route for as long as there have been boats crossing the Atlantic.
Well, back to our poky run to Maine. The plan is for us to catch the tide at the Cape Cod Canal at some point after it begins the flood so that we won’t be going against the current, which runs hard at nearly the speed of Pandora under power. That means that if we are with the current we will be making double digit speeds over the bottom as opposed to 2-3 knots if the tide and current are against us. As the canal is about 10 miles long that means that the trip will take about one hour with the help of the current or 3-4 hours if it’s against us.
If all goes well we should be pulling into the club mooring field at mid afternoon on Saturday.
Fisher’s Island marks the eastern end of Long Island Sound and while it is just a few miles from Stonington CT, it is part of New York State. Fishers, unlike Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket has been largely privately owned during it’s modern history so it’s development has been very carefully controlled by a small group of very powerful individuals. If you are lucky enough to visit the best way to get there is on a private boat. There is a ferry from New London but once you are on the island you are largely on private property. For our visit, we left Mystic and motored over the few miles as there wasn’t any wind. Our destination was West Harbor which is, incredibly enough, located at the western portion of the island on the north side. There are moorings for rent in the harbor just south of can #7 behind the reef. It’s well protected and very pretty. You can take your dink ashore at the yacht club and go for a walk. There’s a well stocked market about a half mile up the road if you turn right out of the yacht club lot. The club is host to a variety of boats from the most humble to this visitor while we were there to this massive yacht. Clearly, the folks on this island have the means to keep everything just so.
You can charter Gene Machine for your own cruise if you wish. She’s was built by Westport Yachts and is 130 feet long. I understand that there was a wedding the prior evening at the yacht club so perhaps the wedding party spent the night aboard. If you like the design there are 30 others similar to her so perhaps you can find one at a location around the world that suites your needs.
A nice shot of the clubhouse. It looks like the entire clubhouse and tent would fit aboard Gene Machine.
There isn’t much to do on the island except in the center of “town”, actually a town green and a few shops, is only a short walk from the harbor. Along the way is a wonderful cooperative garden that’s always a treat to visit.
The garden is very well tended and oviously gets a lot of care.
It’s impressive what money will allow when it’s not coupled with a stucco mansion as is sadly so often the case. As you would expect, there is also a very tasteful graveyard along the way.
It looks like there’s plenty of space still left so book your spot for your eternal resting spot.
In spite of our many visits to Fisher’s over the years we have never heard of or visited the Henry L. Ferguson Museum, a wonderfully organized collection of the history of the island. We were treated to a personal tour by the curator who spent nearly an hour with us showing us around. He was deservedly proud of his current exhibit that chronicles the early history of the island’s homes,in pictures, both then and now, from first settlement through the early 20s. There is also a nice newsletter that tells a lot about what’s going on at the museum and on the island. For such a modest museum, it’s obviously well endowed and the building itself is quite new. I understand that some involved in the layout of the museum are associated with major institutions on the scale of the Metropolitan in New York City and it shows.
This interactive map rotates to show archaeological sites and other areas of interest on the island.
There are some dioramas that are of very high quality, and certainly of a caliber than you would not normally expect in a museum of this scale.
There is also an very nice model of the Race Rock Light, which is located on the south western point of the island. This light itself has a fascinating history given the technical difficulties in building it. $3,000 was appropriated by Congress to begin construction of the light back in 1838 but it was not completed until 1878 at a total cost of nearly $280,000. The piece of water that it marks is particularly dangerous and is the site of countless wrecks. While it’s possible, I doubt that the lighthouse ever had a $100,000 toilet seat in it. However, with Congress holding the purse strings, who knows.
If you are interested in the history of this light, a long and complex one for sure, check this out.
The island, along with an early history of raising livestock, including cattle, sheep and even poultry in large numbers, is currently known for it’s terrific oysters. This is a shot of cages used to hold growing oysters for commercial sale. We wouldn’t want our oysters laying on the dirty, muddy bottom would we? Never!
Speaking of meals, what blog post isn’t better if it’s ended with a shot of a meal aboard. Here’s Brenda with a wonderful omelet ready to dive in. Visit Fishers’s, you won’t be disappointed.
Is it me or is the horizon tilted? Perhaps it’s the earth listing to port. Something else to worry about. Well, at least there are fresh flowers on the table. I guess that means that everything will work out in the end. Hmm…
>As I write this blog I am sitting aboard Pandora on a mooring in Mystic CT. It was truly a “saga” getting Pandora into the water and up here this year. It is very unusual for me to have not launched by Memorial Day weekend but this year was quite different. Actually, in 40 years of sailing this is the very first year when my boat wasn’t launched. However, it was for good reason. Sadly, Brenda’s father died about a week prior to the long weekend so we headed of to VA to help her mother and take care of many issues. It was a number of very tough weeks but things are getting back to normal and well, here I am, a few weeks later and Pandora is in Mystic and the summer of sailing is under way.
My good friend Roger, who’s SAGA, Ilene, is in Granada, yes the one near South America, now for the summer, agreed to help me bring Pandora up to Mystic last Friday. As the yard where I have been keeping her over the winter is on the other side of the RT95 highway bridge, with only 61′ of clearance at high water, I have to bring her under the bridge at low tide. By doing so, there is adequate clearance for her 63′, plus instruments, mast height.
Although I have brought Pandora under that bridge a number of times, my heart was firmly in my throat as I watch the mast pass within what seemed like inches. No, I was actually convinced that we were going to hit. Alas, we didn’t hit but it sure looked like we were very close. My heart was pounding. I’d hate to think of the sort of damage that dragging the mast head under a bridge would do to the gear at the top of the mast. My approach is always to make the approach to the bridge at the slowest possible speed of one knot or less. However, I doubt that would make any difference at all given the fact that 25,000 pounds of Pandora, even at one knot, would easily scrape off all of the gear at the top of the mast.
Getting under the bridge wasn’t the only obstruction that I had to get past, as there was also the railroad bridge and the downtown Norwalk Water Street bridge. The railroad bridge opens as needed but you have to call several hours early as they don’t keep an operator on site and it takes 6-8 guys to throw the necessary switches to get the bridge to swing. This shot shows a bunch of guys getting ready to open it. It’s hard to imagine what it costs to have that entire crew head out to open it up for any boat that wishes to pass.
I have been sailing the Norwalk waters for over 40 years and I never tire of seeing the oyster boats plying their trade. This old oyster dragger is a classic and judging by the mound of oysters on deck, business is good. It’s possible that these are empty shells that will be spread on the beds for the baby oysters, or spat, to cling to. Oystering has been a part of Norwalk history for generations. You can purchase oysters from the local producer Norm Bloom and Sons, at their website. They are terrific and I have seen them on menus in many top seafood restaurants.
If you are interested in reading about the history of the oyster business in the New York area, I strongly recommend Mark Kurlansky’s The Big Oyster, a book that is as much about the early history of Manhattan as it is about oysters. Trust me, this is a really good book as this review from the New York Times attests.
As is so often the case, we headed toward Mystic with the tide against us and not enough wind to sail. Why is it that the wind always blows from dead ahead. I guess that’s God’s way or reminding you that you have to work for a living and have a schedule. My retired friends always remind me that they just wait a day or so and get great winds. Hmm… As the day progressed, the wind backed around to the East, as forecast, right on the nose, and increased to nearly 20kts. Our destination for that night, Duck Island Roads, harbor of refuge, ended up being just that as it was really rough as the seas built and it got choppy. After the tide turned in our favor after nearly 7 hours, remember we left at dead low, the wind was against the current which is always nasty.
In the morning, after a good rest, we continued east with a full ebbing tide, which pushed us along nicely. Unfortunately, the winds were still very strong and again we slammed into waves and wind. However, we did make good progress in spite of the constant slamming that we and the boat endured.
Finally, into Mystic and calm waters. Pandora is now safe and sound on her mooring where she will be for the next few weeks until we head to Maine.
Now, for something completely different. I have been struck for some time now with the dramatic changes that have taken place in yacht design over the years. Pandora, designed by the noted marine architect Bob Perry, draws inspiration from a class of boats designed to go fast offshore. These designs, including the Open 30 class, are designed to surf at high speeds. While they lack the creature comforts of Pandora, they are impressive racing machines, never the less. A few hundred yards from Pandora’s mooring is Dragon, a terrific example of the class. Actually, Dragon won line honors (first to finish) in the 2010 Lobster Run, a 350 mile run from Stonington CT to Booth Bay Maine. Note that I won second place on Pandora in the cruising class in 2008. Dragon is a very high tech boat, for sure.
This video shows another boat in her class at speed. These boats really move.
I guess that I would put graphics on my boat like this if she were such a rocket ship.
Everything about Dragon is high tech. Look at this cockpit layout.
There is no doubt that yacht design has evolved tremendously over the years. Here’s another racing boat in the same marina from early in the 1900s. Yes, it’s a lot different.
And, check out the cockpit layout, a bit different. Yes?
There was a time when I would have chosen the classic but I have to admit, that I love those creature comforts aboard Pandora. Did I say that I have a microwave?
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer will bring along with my rewarmed and microwaved coffee.
>As I sit here, it’s only a short time till Pandora is back in the water and, based on a post on the Yahoo, SAGA list serve, I thought it would be interesting to revisit the question of why we purchased a SAGA 43 several years ago. One of my first posts, back in 2007 addressed that very issue and I have listed our original assumptions below as well as the post from 2007 to see how these thoughts have stood up over the years.
When I initially called a boat broker about upgrading from our Tartan 37, my wife Brenda and I had a few key characteristics that our new boat absolutely had to have. Here they are.
The design had to have a good pedigree, fairly fast and one that would perform well in a seaway.
It had to have a good, comfortable main stateroom with a berth that wasn’t “pointy”.
A shower that was fully enclosed and easy to dry off after a late afternoon or evening shower.
Two heads would be nice so Brenda had a place one to her own when we were in port or had guests on board.
I wanted a boat that didn’t have even one little piece of exterior wood that I’d have to varnish. I’d had plenty of that over the years with previous boats, including my Tartan 37 with her 90′ of teak toerail.
An inverter that can handle a hairdryer like a champ.
And, above all, the boat had to get where we needed to go in good style.
This is what I wrote in my post back in 2007 about why a SAGA 43. I wrote…
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 41and I decided to introduce ourselves to the owners. 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 43was 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 in a bid 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”.
So, how is it going as I sit here in May of 2011? I put that question to Brenda (who doesn’t mince words about sailing and is very clear that she is happy in her role aboard Pandora as “the honored guest”) and here’s what she had to say.
“It’s not the Ritz Carlton, and there’s no room service but it’s way better than camping”. Well, she did say that but also went on to say the following.
“It’s the most comfortable boat that we have ever had, (note that we began sailing together nearly 40 years ago and had a succession of boats beginning with a 20′ catboat and just prior to Pandora, a Tartan 37 ) sailing is a lot less tiring and we arrive with energy left for shore leave”. The boat is still somewhat tender and even though we are healing the motion is easy and I am not holding on for dear life. And, this is a major difference compared to our other boats, including our Tartan 37 where I was always exhausted after a long day on the water. “
I should note that since getting Pandora we have spent progressively more time aboard with a total of 6 weeks last summer and plans to top that by a few weeks this year. This time aboard will include two months in Maine, a trip that we have made for over 15 summers.
So, is Pandora right for me, an avid sailor, and Brenda, a somewhat reluctant but nearly always willing “honored guest”? It would seem that it is.
For us, after 40 years of sailing together, Pandora is about the perfect boat and I can’t imagine another boat that would fit the bill better for us.
And, as a friend of mine once said, “that’s my report and I’m sticking to it”.
Oh, I almost forgot, I hate to do a post without a photo so I guess that I will have to sign off with a shot of Pandora secure on a mooring in Muscongus Bay Maine back in 2008.
>It’s Sunday morning and it’s pouring cats and dogs. It’s a good thing that I was able to put in a full day working on Pandora yesterday as it’s coming down to the home stretch and there is still a good amount to finish to be sure that she’s ready to go back in the water for the Summer. When I think about the amount of time that I put into Pandora over this winter it’s quite amazing.
What brought it into perspective for me yesterday, I worked from 7:45 till 5:00 yesterday (with a bit of time out to have lunch with my Mom and Dad) was when a guy working on the boat next to me, a Cal 23, remarked about my work “so, trying to get it all done in single day?”. He was referring to the fact that he had seen me working on the boat all day, sanding and painting the bottom and cleaning the topsides and assumed that I was rushing to get all the prep work needed to launch done in a single day. I had never laid eyes on this guy before so I expect that it was his first day down to see his boat this Spring. The look on his face was priceless when my reply was “actually, I have been working on the boat nearly every weekend since the second week of January”. That’s actually painfully true with very few exceptions. I can recall a few weekends when I had to wade through 3′ drifts to get to the boat and climb aboard. In the interest of full disclosure, I rarely worked aboard more than one day each weekend.
The number of projects that I did over the winter, painstakingly detailed in previous posts, is my most ambitious to date.
Here’s the list., not counting the little projects.
Holding tanks: Ripped up the floor so I could measure for, build and install two gelcoat lined fiberglass holding tanks, These babies are so nice I can’ believe what we are going to be putting into them.
Radar arch: While I didn’t make the arch, just installing it was a tall order. It’s great and will make a big difference in our enjoyment of the boat. Hey, now I can climb right into the dink even if it’s hanging from the davits. Not sure why I would do such a thing but it’s nice to know that I could if I wanted to. I also fished the wires for the GPS antenna, aft running light and moved radar from the backstay to it’s new home on the arch.
Freezer: Now, I can have ice cream on board, actually, make that GREEN ice cream. No, not the kind from a Dr. Seuss book, Sam I am, but the kind powered by my solar array. We sailors are all about being green and off the grid, right? I separated a section of the fridge and made a freezer compartment with a dedicated cold plate and new compressor.
Spice rack: Behind the fridge in the galley I constructed a new spice rack. I went to great pains to match the design so that it blended with the other details in the galley.
Salon and cockpit cushions. I ordered new cabin cushions for the main salon and cockpit. That wasn’t too hard as I just had to write a check. Brenda picked the fabric and she choose well.
Curtains in the salon: Actually, they are pleated shades and really give the boat a more tailored look.
AIS/VHF radio combo with a remote cockpit mike: I installed the system but had some help from my electronics guy wiring it up and making sure that it will work as advertised.
Raised waterline: With all this new “stuff” aboard, in addition to the 1,200lb keel shoe that I had installed when I took delivery of Pandora, I needed to raise the waterline by two inches. This entailed sanding the boot top, putting on three coats of Awlgrip primer and then sanding all of it again.
And, all of that in addition to the usual washing, cleaning, bottom painting etc. You know, the normal sort of getting-ready-to-go-in-the-water sorts of things that happen after a long cold winter.
Speaking of cold winters. Thank goodness that I put in an Espar heater a few years ago. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to reply with such enthusiasm about my work on Pandora from January on. I do enjoy working on the boat but have to say that it was nice to just write a check and have those cushions show up magically. Alas, I may be busy but I always seem to have more time than money. Hmm…
Back to yesterday (Did I mention that I had lunch with my Mother?) Yea, I thought so. Well, I did get a lot done and Pandora is looking great.
One of my favorite parts of getting a boat ready to launch is painting the bottom. So, you are asking yourself “is he nuts?”. Actually, it’s not so much the painting but the sense of accomplishment that I feel when I take off the masking tape, stand back and take a look at Pandora, so near to being launch ready.
Doesn’t she have a great bottom? The last step in finishing the new waterline will be the installation of a 1″ white vinyl boot top, which will separate the bottom paint from the blue section. I am a bit skeptical of this approach but he yard assures me that it will stick well. We will see as if it doesn’t, it will be there problem to replace it next Winter. Anyway, it will look great.
And the shine on that hull? Not to shabby either.
Actually, that photo was taken before I sanded where I had primed the, now raised by two inches, waterline.
Down below is looking pretty snazzy too with the new cushions. I am particularly happy with the ottoman which I made out of 3/8″cherry marine plywood and oak reinforcements in the corners. The canvas shop put a cover on it. Now I have a place to store bulky items and a place to put up my feet.
And it fits nice and snug between the port settee and the table when it’s not in use. Here’s what it looked like when it was “in the raw”.
Think of us over the Memorial Day weekend as we head out of Norwalk and off to Mattituck, on the North Fork of Long Island, one of our favorite places to visit to begin our much anticipated Summer aboard Pandora. And, no I will be sure not to forget the ice cream. Let’s hope that the sun shines plenty this summer to power all of the equipment that I have installed over the years.
