Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua, November 2019

The Salty Dawg Rally was awesome!  The week before the departure date was filled with seminars; services such as propane bottle fills and US Customs agents at the Dawg House to sign departure papers; and social activities.  There was a life raft demonstration in the Bluewater Yachting Center pool and a helicopter man overboard rescue simulation in Hampton Bay.  We were very impressed with the Salty Dawg organization and the volunteers, learned a lot and made new friends.  As our crew arrived, they all helped with the final preparations.  It was nice to have Betsy & Sherry in Hampton to help with the provisioning.  During the passage, it was fun monitoring everyone’s progress and talking on the radio a few times with boats that were near enough for the VHF radio.  The arrival parties in Antigua were also very nice.

After a crew dinner at Surf Rider on Saturday, November 2, we (Polly & Bryan, Jude, Big Bob, Bob, Chris, Mike and Russ) were off the dock at 7:22 pm.  Betsy and Sherry were there to see us off.  We were all so excited!  The weather was cool and it was dark by the time we left the dock, so we all bundled up and put on our life jacket/harnesses.  We were anchored in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua at 1:45 am on 11/14/19 for a  total time of 11 days, 4 hours and 23 minutes.  The distance traveled was 1802 nautical miles with a maximum speed of 13.1 knots and average of 6.7 knots.  We motored for a total of 81 hours and the maximum wind speed we observed was 48 knots.  Fortunately, that was only briefly during a squall on the second to last night. 

Number of fish caught - 3 on the hook but only 2 landed

Jude had done some research on fishing off a sailboat and brought fishing gear aboard.  On Monday, 11/4/19 (Day 2), we were past the Gulf Stream as indicated by 77 degree water temperature and less rough seas.  We put out a fishing line and not more than two hours later, caught a nice Mahi-mahi.  Mike gaffed it, pulled it aboard and filleted it.  A couple days later, we caught a second Mahi.  A few days after that, we had another large Mahi on the hook that was probably taken by a larger fish that took our line.  Bummer.

Number of birthdays celebrated - 1, #59 for Mike

Day 3, Tuesday, 11/5/19, gave us much warmer weather with a nice breeze (18 - 20 knots apparent) and less confused seas as compared to the day in the Gulf Stream.  Everyone had their “sea legs” and we were going 7 - 8 knots with a jib and two reefs in the main.  It was Mike’s birthday!  We celebrated that evening with the Mahi caught the day before for dinner and birthday cake for dessert, white cake with chocolate frosting.  We called Sue on the Iridium Go to give her an update and let her wish Mike a Happy Birthday.  It was so fun!  By the end of the first 3 days, we had gone about 600 nm.

Number of lightning storms in one night - 5 or 6 or maybe 7?

During the middle 4 days, we had mostly light winds out of the south and we motor-sailed or just motored much of the time.  There was a large front coming down from the northwest which appeared to be sucking the wind out of the south.  We tried a couple different tactics but at times it was frustrating because we were expecting to be in the tradewinds by this point, with a strong, steady, easterly breeze.  After dark on the sixth night, we saw quite a spectacular lightning show behind us.  As the night wore on, we continuously monitored the radar and dodged the multiple lightning storms around, sometimes heading almost north just to avoid them.  Fortunately, the lightning was never too close and we only had brief periods of strong winds and only a little rain.

Number of pirates encountered - 1

One night, while Bryan and I were sleeping and Bob was the watch captain, he woke us up.  "Bryan, I just want you to check this out.  There's a boat showing up on AIS that is fast approaching us from behind", he said.  It turned out that it was Fujin, a Bieker design racing catamaran.  We had a mooring near them in Northeast Harbor, Maine back in August.  We met Fritz, the captain and he recognized Joli from when she was new in the mid-1970's in Seattle, WA.  Bryan called him on the radio and found out they were headed to Sint Maarten.  It may be a big, blue ocean but what a surprise to run into someone we knew!

Number of nights sailing with a full or nearly full moon - 3

The last three days and nights were awesome with great close-reaching.  We finally had a nice, steady easterly breeze and a full moon that gave us great visibility at night.  Joli was lovin' it and everyone really enjoyed those last three days but we were all happy to finish.  It was longer than we expected and we ran out of fresh water, coffee and fresh food (didn't have to break into the canned goods) on the last day.  We anchored in Falmouth Harbor as it is easier to navigate in the dark compared to English Harbor.  After some celebratory beverages (RUM!!), we hit the sack for a couple hours of sleep.  After assembling the Monster Mantus anchor which we had taken off the bow for the passage, we headed over to English Harbor and were Med-moored at Nelson's Dockyard Marina by noon.  

All in all, it was a successful passage!  We (especially Big Bob and Bob) were so happy to see Beth and Betsy arrive in Antigua Thursday afternoon.  For the next couple days, we enjoyed the Salty Dawg parties, Nelson's Dockyard Marina, Falmouth and English Harbor.  Such good times with great friends!