This was the third time I have crewed on passages for Bob, the first aboard his new love, Pandora. Before we get to the passage, let me describe her, by reference to his old one, which was a Saga 43, like ILENE.
                        Pandora              ILENE
Length                  47                      43
Beam                    14                      12
Draft                      66"                    58"
Mast Height          64                      63.5
Displacement         11.5 tons           10 tons
So Pandora is the big sister, with a lot more room inside, but not much heavier; due to both longer waterline length and lighter weight she is faster.

Many similarities: Both have the Solent rig for the two headsails, though Pandoras jibs foot is secured to a Hoyt boom, A nice feature is two amidships cleats so that each spring line has its own cleat. She has a solid glassed in hard dodger which is perhaps five feet long, so there is plenty of shelter under the dodger against waves and wind. Unfortunately, that dodger is less than 63" above the deck, resulting in some close encounters with my clumsy noggin. And Pandora has the larger more sophisticated and newer Raymarine instruments with four displays of the chart plotter: (1) at the helm, (2) on the starboard coach roof at the forward end of the cockpit, (3) at the nav station and (4) in the port side pullman berth so the captain can check up on things from his bed! And, like ILENE, she had a head forward of the pullman berth but aft of the chain locker. She has two large lazarettes on the bow, one for the fenders and dock lines and she also has a bow thruster that lowers down from inside the hull when needed and then pushes the bow from side to side. At each side of the cockpit, just aft of the dodger, are two powerful Anderson electric winches to tame the lines which are all led there, and further aft is another pair of winches.

for greater control while still self- tacking. Both boats have the greatest weight at the bottom of the keel, though Pandoras is a bulb rather than a shoe. Pandora has no toe rail and no bolts fastening the edge of the deck to the hull; rather these two major structural parts, both vacuum molded, are glassed together into one very solid piece with a small curve at the edge of the wide side decks. A very clean look.
She has a radar arch and at its port side, on fore and aft sliding tracks, is a davit block for lifting the outboard from the dink.
Friday, October 22
Bob picked me up from the Old Saybrook railroad station about 4 pm. The first thing we did was secure the 15 hp outboard to a pad on the aft rail and hoist up the Caribe fiberglass RIB dink by its nose, over the lifeline and laid it upside down, facing forward under the boom. We deflated it and tied it to itself to make it smaller in order to avoid chafing the lines and increase visibility around it a bit.

Then a delicious dinner at Bobs home cooked by Bob and Brenda, punctuated by the arrival of Gregg and his wife, son and future daughter in law, just in time for desert. After which, we all headed back to the boat so Greggs family could see it and I hit the rack early. I was assigned the quarterberth which is to starboard and has a separate entrance to the aft head. I think I got the best berth on the boat, roomy with no need for a lee cloth, as were rigged for the other berths, and the greatest privacy and shelter from potential cold drafts, while it also boasts three opening ports to catch a breeze in port, though it has two electric fans. Plenty of room for two.
Saturday October 23
In the morning we had to secure the nicely trussed dink to the boat so that potential big waves would not wash it away, rig the lifelines and preventers and deal with one small problem: no autopilot!! Bob did not panic but recalled that the workmen had opened the pod that contains its controls while working on something else. We reopened it, reinserted the plug and voila, the most reliable member of our crew, Auto, was back in action and we were underway at 7 am amidst the fall foliage on the Connecticut River.

Gregg had the helm until we transited Plum Gut and I  took over until we had rounded Montauk Point.

Then Bob set the waypoint as the buoy off Cape May. During our days together I learned that Gregg is a great guy. He has long experience with cat boats and currently has a Nonesuch 33, which he aptly calls a modern cat boat, based on its large sail set on a mast that is forward. He keeps her at a club in Stratford on the Housatonic River. I have never sailed on that river but plan to remedy that deficiency this summer. Gregg also races extensively and wins a lot, on other peoples boats, mostly a Saber 35 in the summer and dinghys during the winter frostbite series. Gregg is also the Director of Bridgeports municipal zoo where he has worked for near four decades and has a great eye for seeing and identifying wildlife, at sea and on land.
We used the main and small jib which provided plenty of power on our port tack broad reach out in the Atlantic with the winds from the northeast. We had one encounter with a Russian freighter which overtook us on our port side and crossed in front of us. It appeared that he would pass less than half a mile from us but Bob called him and he agreed to alter course about five degrees to port and thus passed 2.5 miles away. We enjoyed big ocean rollers, perhaps eight feet high but 100 feet apart that we glided over gently, the most lovely ocean sensation. We were averaging better than eight knots and peaking at more than ten.
Today was our coldest day, and the coldest part was during the day. I kept putting on more layers and ended up with pajamas under my jeans and four heavy long sleeve shirt, all under heavy duty foulie tops and bottoms, two pairs of heavy socks in my sea boots, two pairs of gloves, a watch hat and a scarf. But the chill did not get bad at night.

Bob fed us well on this trip. Today it was toasted muffins with our coffee, Grilled cheese sandwiches and in anticipation of the cold, two large bowls of tortilla soup which included all of the meat of a rotisserie chicken.

Sunday October 24
Not many photos at sea so we take sunrises and sets when we can. I requested and was granted my favorite off watch time: 8 p.m. to midnight, when I usually lose steam. But while I slept the Captains orders were wisely amended. We did not need two watch standers at all times during darkness because we were harnessed and tethered to a jack line in the cockpit, mostly under the dodger except when we periodically scanned the horizon and it was not stormy. As a result of this change, I enjoyed the unexpected and unusual luxury of more than seven consecutive hours off at night, taking the watch again from 3:30 a.m. until about eight.

With just the two of us aboard ILENE, we relieve each other more often.  Bob called the weather guru, Chris Parker, via SSB and we learned that the potential stop in Cape May for a day due to  potential bad weather would not be needed. While the wind would eventually come to our bow, it would not be strong and we could just power through it. So we changed the waypoint from off the Cape May harbor entrance to a buoy off Cape Charles, the northern end of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and altered course a few degrees to port.  Checking we saw that the dotted line took us very clse to shallow water off shore so we altered course a few more degrees to port to create a buffer. The GPS computed our arrival at about 11 a.m. and I figured another four hours to get from there to the dock in Hampton.
During the afternoon I did what I like to do on friends boats and put about 20 whippings in the ends of Pandoras lines. The wind got lighter and came around to the port beam. We put up the genoa for a while and later used a motor assist, turning it off when the winds looked like they would let us sail. Some hours we made only six knots and that seemed slow on Pandora but many boats cant go that fast at any wind speed. And we did not get the opportunity to see how Pandora does when heeled because this was a no-heeling trip.
Todays menu: gourmet honey-drizzled boat-baked drop biscuits with the coffee, tuna salad for lunch and a pasta with onions, sausages and cheese for dinner, all with chocolate chip cookies, snack bars and fruit. Like I said, no one went hungry. Bob is both cook and captain, and if the crew is not vigilant he washes the dishes too.
Monday October 25
When I came on about midnight, we were motoring and close hauled under main alone. A peaceful watch until the end when I almost damaged Pandora and made a big bang that got Bob out in a hurry. The wind had come further around so that it was now directly on our nose. So I winched in the mainsail to lie directly fore and aft to serve as a stabilizer. But I did not realize that the preventer was still attached and the bang was the giving way of the short piece of Spectra line that held its block to the base of a stanchion. Bob was correctly concerned that the block snapped back and hit and damaged the boat but he conducted a close inspection by flashlight, followed by another in daylight, which showed that no damage had been done. Whew! I like to improve my friends boats, e.g., the whipping, not damage them. I would not have guessed that the preventer, which is used to avoid the accidental jibe on a broad reach, would be engaged when we were sailing close hauled.
At the mouth of the Chesapeake there was a lot of shipping. I learned something about the Bay: there is no inside channel for deep draft merchant shipping heading south through the Bay from lets say Baltimore to Norfolk. What they have to do is follow the channel SE out of the Bay over the northern tunnel of the Bay Bridge Tunnel, and then go back in heading west in the channel over the southern tunnel. We sailed across this while one of the big guys swung clockwise past our stern. Skies were grey today as compared to the sunshine of the prior days. Here is the portion of the bridge between the two tunnels.

We were tied to the dock at 1:30 pm (elapsed time 55.5 hours for the 350 mile course) and celebrated our safe arrival, Bob to the left.

Gregg and I gave Pandoras exterior a soap and water scrubbing while Bob cleaned the interior. Then we showered, accepted a ride from a friend of Bob to the airport to pick up our car, and dined together at a local place and turned in for the night.

Sunday October 26

We rose, packed, breakfasted, thanked and said good by to Bob, had our picture taken and got underway at 8:45 am. Gregg and I took turns and drove across the Bay Bridge Tunnel whose fare has not risen in many years: still $13. The highways of the Delmarva peninsula have improved a lot in the last few decades, however. I had planned to get off at Fort Washington Avenue and 178th street to take the A train home but realized that there was a better drop off point at the Pelham station of the number 6 train. Gregg took over from there and was able to deliver the car to the New Haven airport before the 6:30 deadline.
Bob wrote a blog on a daily basis during out voyage (Google: sailpandora) and has since taken off from Hampton to Tortola, BVIs with another crew.Godspeed! I will read his blog after I post this one. I suspect he will have different observations about our trip together.
This was my last sail of 2015 though work continues on winterization and improvements, so stay tuned.  All told, on ILENE and other boats I sailed or lived aboard on 190 days of the 360 this calendar year. Im satisfied.
I got home in time to take the subway up to 34th Street for a panel discussion about the history on New Yorks waterways, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I had suggested this program to all Harlemites but was rather glad that none showed up. While I enjoyed it (it was moderated by Russell Shorto, whose book about Dutch New Amsterdam my book group had read) it was rather limited to the Dutch period and would not have satisfied the 21st Century sailor.

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Last time I sailed Bobs Pandora, another of the Saga 43s, was in 2011, from Norwalk CT to Mystic CT. (See "Local Peripateticms", posted July 3, 2011). That was our boatless summer while ILENE was on the hard in Grenada. This time, it was the start of Bobs trip south where we may meet up with them in Florida, and so the trip was a rehearsal for our making the same passage, early in October, aboard ILENE.

For this trip we were joined by Jim, who has more ocean experience than both of us, and is a very personable guy. Bobs idea was that his wife Brenda, should join him part way to Florida. This put Lene of the same mind: Why cant we do that too? Luckily, Jim has agreed to accompany me for this first leg of ILENEs cruise, next month, so Lene and the kitties will drive down and join me in Annapolis. Jim recently sold his Saber 38 foot and thinks he wants to buy a Saga; wanted to find out how these boats feel in the ocean. He got half of that experience on Pandora -- the motion she has when the wind is aft the beam. Yes, with excellent weather forecasting by Chris Parker, and a willingness to change our departure date twice, we had a perfect weather window, with following winds and seas except for light winds the last seven hours, the second short leg, from the anchorage in Chesapeake City, MD to Annapolis, where Pandora now rests in Jims slip. ILENE was also offered the use that "free" slip upon our arrival except that the condo has a very strictly enforced rule against pets, including guests pets and including cats. So we have made reservations at Bert Jabins Marina, across Back Bay from Jims place. This is where ILENE was when we bought her, back in November 2005. If we get so lucky with a weather window on ILENEs passage as we were this time, I will simply turn the boat around for a few minutes, so Jim can get the feel of a Saga beating to windward.

We left the dock at about 4 pm on Thursday. I had the helm down the Connecticut River into Long Island Sound passing old favorites that we did not visit this summer: Hamberg Cove, Essex and North Cove of Old Saybrook. We headed  a bit to port to pass through The Race and around Montauk Point, making the rounding at about 11:30 pm. My nighttime off-watch preference was honored -- from 8 to midnight, when I am at my most tired condition. So I awoke after we had rounded and had reefed the main. From Montauk to the buoy off Cape May, NJ, which we rounded at about 11:30 the next night, it was 198 nautical miles. The furthest we got off shore was a point about 35 miles south of Long Island, the same distance east of the Jersey shore and about 45 miles SE of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
 
The scariest part for me was as we were rounding Cape May:  I had just risen from my good sleep and my lack of familiarity with Bobs newer chartplotter, with many more functions, meant I really did not know where we were. Bob stayed with me until we got up to the clearly marked shipping channel up Delaware Bay and I hugged it, just outside its north side, all the way up the Bay, giving the big freighters coming the other way the entire width of the channel.

Thursday night it was quite cold but no so bad that a long sleeve shirt, fleece and foul weather gear were insufficient to be comfortable.  The second night was not so cold.  We all wore life vests with harnesses and were tethered to the boats strongpoints whenever in the cockpit. Bob figured that we averaged 7.1 knots which is quite impressive. Much of this time, during daylight hours, the winds were strong and we furled the small jib and ran under only the reefed main, at speeds of up to eight knots.
The wind built up the seas, which raced and overtook us from behind. The bigger ones were over my head standing in the cockpit, until they caught us and lifted us up out of their way while whooshing under us. A couple of them entered the cockpit from the rear, over the swim platform, which is only about 16 inches above the water, putting a few gallons on deck, which drained out immediately over the same open stern that admitted them. When my sneakers got wet during the first such wave, I switched to a dry pair of socks and my sea boots so it was no problem.

Here is  sunrise over the west coast of New Jersey, Saturday morning as we were sailing up Delaware Bay with the tide.

Bobs boat is meticulous and fully equipped. He is a self confessed obsessive perfectionist when it comes to his boat and it shows. When we stopped to refuel, Pandora got a washing. The dew was mopped up the next morning. Here is Pandoras new Rocna anchor, rolling on new rollers attached to the shiny new apparatus. It hangs lower but further aft than ILENEs starboard bow anchor.

Jim with a bit of the rum punch.

It held very well in the mud of Chesapeake City.  We stayed there from about noon on Saturday until our 07:00 departure on Sunday morning. We toured the tiny quaint old town, partook of some free food and wine at a wine and food festival, ate ice cream, tried to visit the museum (but it is closed on weekends), took naps, enjoyed some rum punch and had dinner ashore.

Bob with same.

One always learns from sailing with others on their boats. I also learned and have downloaded to our I-pad, a much better weather app called "Pocket GRIB".





We were very well fed throughout, (Thanks Bob!) including delicious boat baked dropped biscuits and honey with our morning coffee.

The only thing that could have been better for me was visibility.  Bob likes to keep the dodger front closed, and connected to the bimini with side flaps down when sailing. Despite excellent new clear plastic, this impeded visibility due to my older eyes. It required me to poke my head out the sides to check for approaching vessels. Also with the RIB inflatable dinghy inverted, mounted under the boom, partially deflated and lashed down securely there, while safety was improved (no chance for one of those big waves to fill the dinghy with a ton of water hanging off the back of the boat), forward visibility was further impeded.
The captain/owners decision is always right, but my personal voyage would have been even more enjoyable with better visibility.

I know that Ilene will want one of these customized non skid floor mats. It is not a rectangle but wider at the foot than at the top, to match the area covered. The only potential problem with this is that the cats will like it too -- as a scratching pad! Now back to myriad activities to get ILENE ready for her cruise.

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