It’s good to be back in Antigua but I will admit that as “past president” of Salty Dawg and here for what may be the last time for many years, is a bit sad. While I am excited about heading to Europe next spring, but I have come to really enjoy my time here in Antigua and it will be hard to leave in the Spring.
My crew Bob and I arrived here yesterday afternoon after completing a 400 mile run from Trinidad. We were delayed in our departure by nearly 5 days due to a lot of details that needed to be completed and that time being stuck in the marina was frustrating to us both. And, it was hot, much hotter than Antigua, oddly. I guess being that much farther south makes a big difference.
Amos, after doing all that work over the last few months aboard Pandora, saw us off and tossed our lines on that last morning.
As a result of the nearly 5 day delay, we were not able to stop as many places along the way.
However, I think that Bob enjoyed the run once we were finally underway.
As have mentioned in the past, the landscape in Trinidad is dramatic and as we headed out the scenery evoked Jurassic Park.
Sadly, we had to motorsail into the NE wind for the first day, probably putting more hours on the engine than I did all last season. Normally, I would have waited a day until the wind was favorable but we were just too pressed for time.
Once things settled down and tthe wind shifted back to the east, it was beautiful on the water. I think that I may send this photo to the Cloud Appreciation Society and see if they choose to publish it. I have had a number of photos chosen over the years. It’s a fun group that sends out a cloud photo every day, year round.
Due to being so late in our departure, we had to cover a lot more distance on that first hop than we had planned. The run from Trinidad, non-stop, was over 300 miles, the longest leg I have taken in the Caribbean in all the years that I have been sailing here. Our normal run is generally less than 75 miles.
Along the way we passed a number of islands. But much of that was done in the dark.
We made landfall in Les Saintes. I have written about this favorite spot many times. It is very picturesque. Check out this post that I did on our final visit last season.
After a day there, we did a short run to Deshais, a tiny village at the top of Guadeloupe. The sail was really nice in the lee of the island. The lighthouse at the southern tip, not far from Les Saintes.
As we made our way up the coast of Guadeloupe, we were approached, at speed, by a Guadeloupe coast guard boat. They roared up, came very close, within feet of us, waved and roared off. They smiled. I have no idea what they were looking for. “Oh, those guys, they look harmless. There have to be some bad guys out there somewhere. Let’s find them.”
In Deshais, we took a short hike up a stream to one of my favorite spots, a fresh water swimming hole. Bob and I both loved the experience.
The vegetation along the stream was very lush. I have always had a soft spot for tree ferns. This tiny one would look great on my back porch.
On our last evening in Deshais, we were treated to a classic Caribbean Sunset. A very nice way to finish up a cruise with Bob, even if it was a bit of an abbreviated forced march.
Pandora on her mooring in Deshais, as we returned from getting a few baguettes and croissants to tide us over on the run to Antigua, our final leg.
So, here I am alone on Pandora for a night as Bob has moved ashore to the Admiral’s Inn where his wife will join him for a week on the island. Friends of mine, Lynn and Mark, will join me for a few days until Kalunamoo arrives later this week.
The Salty Dawg fleet should begin arriving in a day or so, with dozens arriving each day. With about 80 boats headed this way it’s going to get busy in the Dockyard. Not yet so they wait.
I have seen a number of the folks that I know since arriving yesterday and the common refrain that I have heard is “let the season begin. The Dawgs are coming!”
I began this post a few days ago but it’s now Monday and we are about ready to head north to St Lucia, the first stop on our run to Antigua to meet the Salty Dawg rally fleet. There is little doubt that they will arrive first as most of the boats are hunkered down in Bermuda waiting for some nasty tropical stuff to clear out.
I have been back in Trinidad for over a week almost a week having arrived at Pandora in the very early hours last Saturday. The flights to Trinidad from JFK are not expensive but they leave around 7:00PM and don’t land until a bit after midnight. I’m thinking that they make a turn to the Caribbean to some of the more high paying “tourist” islands, where the passengers pay more and expect to be on the beach in the afternoon. Then he crew flies back back to JFK for another run, this time to Trinidad for the “locals”.
I arrived at the airport, JFK, more than three hours ahead of the flight, dropping off my rental car and taking the tram to the terminal. I had three bags, one at exactly 50lbs, a mixture of clothing and lots of small boat items. A second smaller bag with my computer, camera and a third, a box that was very sturdy, which it had to be because it contained a 50lb transformer that was to be installed aboard Pandora so she can hook up to European 220v in the Med next year vs the 110v that she is set up for. This is an expensive and sophisticated piece of kit as it also has to change the phase of the power from European 50Hz to US 60Hz. Making the change in voltage is easy but the change in Hz is the hard part and critical to electric motors. The AC compressors can handle both but other motors aboard may not so it’s not worth the risk.
Anyway, I arrived at the airport with the voltage converter nicely packaged in a sturdy box and learned that Jet Blue does not accept boxes for international flights, only luggage. That meant that I had to find a duffle bag to pack it into. Ugg…
I went to a luggage store in the terminal but the largest duffle was a simple backpack which was way too small. After that I spoke to someone at the “oversize luggage” drop she was able to identify and “abandoned” duffle that was almost big enough. I took it and then “borrowed” a roll of tape from another baggage check and proceeded to rip up the box and find a way to pad the unit and stuff it into the bag. It didn’t even come close to fitting in the duffle so I taped it shut as best I could and wrapped the unit in tape every which way. I also had some sturdy ratchet straps that I used to secure the whole thing and provide a handle.
I held my breath and took it to the luggage check. After a few moments they took pity on me (it was the same guy that lent me the tape and surely saw me spending a half hour wrapping it up) and accepted it. The package weighed in at 55lbs, five over the limit. Surprisingly, he did not nick me for the extra $100 that an overweight bag requires. So, now all I could do is wait and see if it came through in one piece. It did.
The flight was packed and I’d say that perhaps half the flight was folks returning home and the rest visiting relatives. Not a lot of beach goers.
After making my way to Pandora at nearly 3:00AM on Saturday, I was exhausted and didn’t get much done for the rest of the day. While the flight arrived around midnight, the customs arrival process is very tedious and had to go through both immigration and customs and then was pulled aside to be questioned about all the “boat parts” that I had brought along. Anything assigned to a visiting yacht, or “yacht in transit” is considered duty free but they had to be certain that all my paperwork was in order.
And to add insult to injury, the driver then had to take me to visit the coastal customs office before heading to Pandora. This made for a fourth stop. The office appeared to be closed but the driver insisted that I ring the bell. About 5-10 minutes later a customs officer, looking a little sleepy, came to the door, took my papers, disappeared for about 15 minutes and then returned.
After the paperwork was done he wanted to open up the packages and look at what I had arrived with. I had declared that I had “stuff” for the boat. After a few minutes of cutting the layers of tape from the transformer he lifted a corner of the package and peeked in only to say “ok, go ahead” and that was that. I guess he wanted to go back to bed.
As I mentioned when I was last here in May, It’s hot, in the mid 90s at noon and very humid. With the AC aboard, it gives me a place to retreat to when I need to rest. Many of the workers try to stay out of the direct sun in the middle of the day and then work on deck early and late in the day. The amount of water that I have been drinking every day is stunning.
On Tuesday I had to turn off the AC for the entire day as they were applying two coats of epoxy barrier and a third of epoxy primer followed by two coats of antifouling bottom paint. That process took all day and I wasn’t able to turn on the AC again until after 5:00 PM. Down below it reached 100 degrees.
The reason the AC had to be turned off was because the entire boat sweats when the humidity is high and the boat, with AC cranking, is a bit cooler than the outside temperature, just like a cold drink does on a hot day. If that were to happen, the epoxy barrier coat on the bottom would not adhere properly and the entire job would be ruined.
Well, that’s all done now and after two coats of barrier epoxy, one epoxy primer and two coats of antifouling, she looks great and ready to launch.
Not so fast, the list of items remaining were dozens, most small but a few large.
I won’t go into too many details except to say that when Amos told me a few weeks ago that Pandora was 98% done, what I did not anticipate was that when I arrived there was just how painful that last two percent was going to be.
My crew, Bob, arrived on Thursday in the wee hours and since then we have been struggling to get everything put back together. This isn’t to say that Amos’s work isn’t anything but wonderful. However, after any job that takes months, there a many, many tiny details that really don’t happen until the very last minute.
Pandora is gleaming.
When I left in the spring I cleaned up the dink and with it covered all summer, all set to go. On launch day, yesterday, they used a forklift to gently lower her into the water.
Even her prop looks good with new zincs and antifouling. I did that myself to keep the process moving.
The cabin paint, newly set glass in the dodger and canvas look great. Most of the canvas glazing was replaced as it gets nasty in only a few years of tropical sun. The sail cover also received a lot of TLC.
Forward, the repaired decks are “all better now”. Quite an understatement given the amount of time it took to replace over 40′ of deck with all new material.
I worked with a local welder, Mitchel, to build a custom boom break to better control the jib boom which has a tendency to slam around a lot in certain conditions. I designed this after years of thinking and asked Mitchel to bring it to life.
First he took some heavy stainless wire to make a template of the shape of the boom.
He then went to his shop to work up a rough template and check-fit it to the boom. Even in the initial stages it fit remarkably well.
Much of the hardware was removed from the boat in preparation for painting and while much of it was reinstalled when I arrived, a good deal was left to be done. Sadly, many of the fasteners were jumbled in a mix in a box full of dust and other stuff. One problem was that the “car” that holds the aft end of the jib fell off the track when it was being removed and lost all of it’s ball bearings. Many of them were swept up from the deck but I had to bring in a rigger to “load” them back in place. This is a very exacting process and requires a small piece of track, identical to the track on the boom. After the car is fully filled with ball bearings, the loader is lined up with the track and the car is carefully slid over and onto the big part. Gary was very exacting.
However, the process was slowed down by the fact that he did not have a proper sized loader. In true island style, he fashioned one from a piece of teak. That was a remarkable bit of engineering in wood.
I also had difficulty hoisting the jib and fortunately there was a local sailmaker who fixed it overnight. Good luck getting someone to do that in the US on a weekend. Now all the sails are in place and reefing lines set. That was big job in the heat, taking hours. That was only one of dozens of other tasks that had to get done.
Earlier in this post I talked about the voltage converter that I will need when Pandora is in the Med and getting this installed has proven to be quite a nail biter. Here we are, on the eve of launch, scheduled for Monday morning, and the electrician is still finalizing things.
On Saturday night they were here until 11:00pm. Krendol, the electrician, was late arriving that day because his wife, pregnant with their third, had an apt with her Ob/Gyn so I can’t complain that he showed up later than expected.
In spite of all the work over the last week, Bob and I did find some time to have a bit of fun Most evenings cruisers gather on the dock to watch the sun go down. It’s a nice way to end the day.
Thursday was a national holiday here in Trinidad with everyone celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. There are many that live here that have roots in India, perhaps the largest concentration outside of India proper and they make a big deal out of Hindu holidays.
The manager of Powerboats Marina put on a wonderful celebration and invited all the cruisers to come to dinner. It was a very nice evening. I particularly enjoyed the lighting of the candles, lined up carefully on a split bamboo pole, splayed out in all directions, with the ends of each section staked into the ground. At sunset, dozens of candles were lit.
It was magical. I understand that there are entire villages on the island were every yard has candles on display. There was a tour organized for many cruisers to go around and view the displays.
Bob and I enjoyed an outing early on Saturday morning to a huge outdoor farmer’s market. There was every imaginable type of fruit and vegetables along with, beef, goat, chicken and lots of types of fish.
Row after row of vegetables and spices.
How about fresh shark?
Or perhaps land crabs for dinner? These puppies are about the size of a grapefruit, all tied up like a string of garlic. They were alive and wiggling. Brenda would have loved it. Not…
So, Sunday, on the eve of launch, there are still a few items that need finishing. The electrician still had more to do and his work continued until we were actually on the way to the water and motoring over to the slip.
The reconditioned life raft finally arrived on Monday and I will admit that I was not expecting that it would actually show up on time. We also got the propane which had been delayed from Saturday to Monday.
So, after months of being “under the knife” Pandora was nearly ready to go.
After an arduous clearing out process with Customs and Immigration, made a bit easier with the help of trusty Amos, Pandora was finally picked up by the travel lift and off to the water we went.
But wait, the projects were not done as I still had the electrician on board finishing up the installation of the 220v to 110v unit. He was working away as they moved the boat and ended up staying aboard in the slip, finishing up, until well after dark.
Amos also stuck around to help install the boom break, which looks beautiful. Here he is working on the final install with some help from Bob. Note Amos in an “official” Pandora crew shirt. I had one made up for each of his crew, 9 in all. I hope that Amos can get a “group shot” and send it to me.
After years of imaging how I would design a proper boom break for the jib, here it is. Ta Da! I hope that it performs as well as I imagine. Mitchel, who clearly takes great pride in his work. If “beauty is as beauty does” than this should prove to be a great piece of equipment.
So, here we are, afloat again, and we will be heading out early this morning but not until I finish up on this post. Pandora all snug in her slip, AC working happily.
Off to St Lucia, a run that should take about a day and a half and we expect to arrive there around mid day Wednesday.
So far, so good.
Oh yeah, you can follow our progress on “where in the world is Pandora” above.
When I first contracted to have Amos of Perfect Finish in Trinidad do the work on Pandora, now more than a year ago, we agreed that he would keep me posted every step of the way.
Having Pandora more than 2,000 miles away and wondering if the work was progressing was a big concern.
Well, when we set up the “deal” last July, Amos agreed to keep me informed as things progressed and he has been true to his word. Since mid May he has done many video tours with me and sent countless photos, surely over 100 to document every detail of the work
A few days ago I asked him to supply me with current photos of the hardware being re-installed and today these photos showed up.
I continue to be amazed with how shiny things are. Everything on deck was a uniform blah for years. Not now. And, putting the tempered glass back in place. Love those nifty sucker things.
Inside and out, fully masked to keep glue from making a mess. The last time I had them re-bedded the guy didn’t mask well and over time the residual glue turned black. This looks much better. Details, details 🙂
They pulled off all of the deck hardware before painting. It will be nice to be certain that there won’t be any leaks under old bedding.
For years this block of clutches leaked water into the workshop down below. I tried to remove them a few years ago and couldn’t get them off. Done!
The number of tiny fittings that had to be removed and replaced was, well, a LOT like this row of teeny tiny canvas fasteners.
It always bugged me that the Hoyt boom for the jib was all scratched up and pitted from thousands of miles of use. Hardware re-attached and all shiny now. Well, at least for a while until it is scratched again.
When I get back I will be working with Mitchel, the welder, to make up a break to secure the boom when I am off the wind. In the past there was a tendency for the boom to jibe violently in a seaway so running wing and wing didn’t go well. Details to come but I think he has a good feel for what I am looking for. I hope that my idea works. Stay tuned. Me too…
The one major issue that wasn’t included in the overall job agreement was yet another damp area in the after portion of the cockpit. We had talked about this problem before leaving the boat in May but we didn’t know the extent of the damage until it was opened up. The core was wet due to a change made by the prior owner that were not properly waterproofed. The small leak soaked the area aft of the binnacle. It’s now been fully restored. The non-skid vinyl decking material will be reapplied this week and it will look as good as new.
The binnacle will also be repainted as there was much corrosion.
So many details like the transition from the aft deck to the transom. That stainless strip was very discolored. Not now.
So, here I sit putting yet another post up about Pandora’s refit and it’s hard to believe that I will be back aboard her in ten days.
All I can say is that She’s almost done and it looks like Amos and his crew have come through.
Yup, I’m excited. Now I am wondering if the engine will start as nobody has been focused on that. Great…something more to worry about.
It’s hard to believe that I head to Trinidad in about two weeks, October 25th to be exact, to prepare Pandora for the run north to Antigua and the arrival of the Salty Dawg rally fleet.
Soon many will be following the track of the fleet as they depart from Hampton, VA and Newport RI with most heading to Antigua, where I will be joining them. The link doesn’t look like much now but it will be updated as we get closer to departure.
It seems like just yesterday, May actually, that I arrived in Trinidad with Pandora, a place that I had never visited, to leave Pandora for a major refit. To commit to such a big job, over 2,000 miles from home was quite a leap of faith for me. I was full of questions. Could I be confident that work was being done at all? Would It be done properly? How would I know what was going on from so far away?
Given the scope of the work, I realized that there was no way that I could afford to have it done in the US where labor rates are so high so I had to take her to Trinidad as the only realistic option. With the recommendation of a number of friends, I settled on a vendor last summer and agreed to the scope of work and costs even before I headed to Trinidad. Happily, there have been no major surprises and the job has progressed according to plan.
Amos, of Perfect Finish, who is overseeing the work, has been keeping me informed every step of the way, sending over 100 photos as the job progressed and has also been giving me near weekly video tours of the work on WhatsApp. In spite of the distance, I actually feel better about the communication than I have felt on jobs done in the US over the years.
Amos has a crew of nine that work on his jobs with him and I understand that this season he was fully booked with three major jobs and lots of little projects when he began work on Pandora. These are three of his crew plus Amos on the left. Four of his crew worked on Pandora nearly every day from mid May to August with every detail chronicled in photos and videos sent to me. I detailed much of the work in excruciating detail in past posts if you are curious.
The bulk of the work is now complete and they are now putting things back together again.
The four tempered glass windows in the hard dodger going back in.
Now that things are nearly completed, my only regret is that I did not leave Pandora there in past years as that would have saved a lot of wear and tear on me and the boat as I slogged thousands of miles north and south, time and time again.
As I get ready to head back to Trinidad, I am also reflecting on my soon-to-change role as president of The Salty Dawg Sailing Association (SDSA). My time has been nearly fully consumed by my role of president, as well as, Rally Director and Port Officer for Antigua.
And, busy I have been…
We have a huge number of boats in the rally this year with over 110 heading south in early November. And more than 25 of those needed a lot of extra handholding for the last few months as they aren’t all that experienced. In those cases, I spent hours on the phone with skippers answering questions and helping them navigate all of the details needed to prepare for what would be, for most, their longest run to date.
I advised them, along with support of others in Salty Dawg, on changes to make to their boats, how to evaluate crew, and in a number of cases, required them to do one or more “qualifying passages” so that they would get more overnight experience before they headed offshore with the rally.
And, timing offshore is always an issue and to “practice” during the mild summer months is a good way to prepare for the more challenging weather of late fall.
As the Bahamas is only about half of the 1,500 mile distance to Antigua, I nudged some to head there until they had more experience to make the longer run to Antigua. This advice was generally willingly accepted, perhaps because I often added that “I did not want their first run to be their last…”
Getting a boat set up for a long run, equipment upgrades and arranging for qualified crew, is no simple task and Salty Dawg prides ourselves in helping skippers find their way.
It is very rewarding to have skippers so appreciative of the advice and nearly all that I talked to were very willing to do whatever is needed to prepare for a safe voyage.
later this week I will head to Annapolis for the Sailboat show and the SDSA annual dinner. This event is always popular and will surely have more than 200 attending.
It will be fun to see old friends and to meet many of the skippers that I have spoken to over the last few months as they prepared for their big offshore run.
Going to the Annapolis dinner will be bittersweet for me as I will be giving up my position of President, a major change given how much of my time has been consumed by this position for the last three years.
My successor, fellow board member Mike of SV Exodus, a great guy, will take over as president for at least the next two years and while I will miss being in that role, I am looking forward to having a bit more time on my hands. One thing that has really suffered has been my attention to this blog.
However, I will still have my hooks into SDSA, or them into me as is were, because I will be continuing on as Rally Director, a position that I have had for the last five years. I am very pleased as that is the part of my work with SDSA that I have enjoyed the most. To spend time with so many who are working to fulfill what is for many a lifelong dream has been one of the most rewarding things that I have ever been involved with.
I will also continue as Port Officer for Antigua, which is good as I don’t feel like I have completed my work there.
Happily, we will have the largest number of boats making landfall in Antigua this season. I’m not certain of the exact number as there are always last minute destination changes and in addition to the boats from the US, other boats will be heading north from Grenada and Trinidad. One way or the other, this year we will have a record number, likely in the mid 90s.
My current focus is on getting Pandora to Antigua but that’s actually just the beginning as by the end of the season I will be heading to the Azores from Bermuda.
This short piece only two minutes, gives a feel for the beauty of the Azores.
When I look back to 2012 when Brenda and I first headed down the ICW, I never imagined that I’d be planning a trans-Atlantic run. Here we are, full of hope when we visited the Fayerweather Yacht Club in Bridgeport, where we kept our very first boat, TAO, a 20′ Cape Cod catboat.
And, as we headed down the East River in NYC, we had absolutely no idea where all of this would lead. At that time we had “old Pandora” our SAGA 43 that carried us to the Bahamas for several seasons until we upgraded to “new Pandora” in 2015.
My dad would certainly find this whole thing interesting as I still remember him saying to me, a few years before he passed away, and that was over 10 years ago, “Bob, wouldn’t it be great to take Pandora through the Straits of Gibraltar?” Indeed, Dad, that’s the plan.
After more than 25,000 blue water miles, a dozen winters afloat, time cruising the US East coast, Bahamas and much of the eastern Caribbean, I guess there is still a long way to go.
Perhaps I’ll close with a short video by the travel writer Rick Steves, about visiting the place that I dreamed about with Dad.
As I write this I am less than a month from giving up my position as president of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association at our annual rendezvous at the Annapolis Sailboat Show.
My role as president was not quite typical as it was a position that I did not seek. As they say “if called upon I will serve” and I was… There was a bit of a vacuum in succession when my predecessor Hank decided to step down and no takers in the wings. In spite of my best efforts, I was unable to convince anyone on the board to step up so it was me…
It has been a big job for the last three years and I can still remember the first board meeting when I became “official” and how totally out of my depth I felt in front of the others. Over the last three years they have given me the opportunity to shape the position in a way I wanted, taking on jobs that I really enjoyed and letting others take the parts that I was not suited for. And, it’s been a great experience that I will miss.
One of the nice things about a volunteer position is that you can choose to shape it in a way that suits, and I did. I chose to focus a good deal of my energy on the core activity of Salty Dawg, rallies, and that meant continuing my role as rally director. Historically, that position was stand alone from the office of president but I was able to readjust who did what and continued to work with our executive director Tatja to vet boats that applied to participate in our rallies. While there isn’t much to do to manage the more experienced skippers, I have focused a lot of my effort on those skippers that don’t have a lot of experience. As I often say, “I want to be sure that your first big run isn’t your last” and to be sure that they have plans in place for boat and crew that, hopefully, will keep them safe.
When I say “last” I am generally talking about the differences between a miserable run and one that is fun. Is the crew experienced? You fairly sure that they aren’t going to get sick? We often have boats that must stop in Bermuda to drop off a crew member that just can’t recover from seasickness.
Our boys, now men, have often reminded me not to engage in what they call CLMs. As in don’t subject Mom to “Career Limiting Moves”. Meaning that I should avoid making her miserable…
This year, more than ever before, we have a lot of skippers for whom this run will be their longest to date, more than 25 out of more than 100 boats. And, in a few cases, they have never been out of the Chesapeake Bay, much less sailed 1,500 miles to Antigua. This calls for additional preparation for the boat, crew and skipper. In these cases, we offered “provisional” approval to participate. This meant that we were recommending that they think about certain issues such as having experienced crew on board and sometimes professional captains as well as a plan to complete a “qualifying voyage” of several overnights offshore in the time leading up to departure.
For those who have not been out of sheltered waters, they “don’t know what they don’t know”.
The ocean can be a lot of things. From dead calm. Sort of like The Chesapeake or Long Island Sound.
And the wonder of seeing a whale like this Sperm Whale that we encountered off of Dominica last winter.
Or, well not so calm.
In a few cases, I received pushback but mostly my recommendations were met with appreciation as they understood that being properly prepared was important. Those that put up a fuss generally fade away and decide not to participate in the rally.
And, as I have done so many webinars and talks over the years, my contact information is posted in many places so hardly a week goes by that I don’t get a call or two from someone asking questions about blue water prep or Salty Dawg.
While I will be stepping down as president, I will retain the role of rally director as it gives me regular contact with those wishing to make the transition from coastal sailing to ocean voyaging. It is rewarding to spend time working with those that are getting ready for their first big voyage and to hear their enthusiasm and offering what help in some way is something that I really enjoy.
Often success is a matter of good timing and a lot of luck and that has certainly been the case for me. Hank, my predecessor, did a masterful job of bringing SDSA through the worst of the pandemic, guiding us through the wrenching process of deciding to require vaccination to participate. That process cost us two board members, one who was vehemently opposed to the requirement and the other who was exhausted by the back and forth for months that lead up to the controversial decision to require all participants to show proof of vaccination.
While the pandemic was devastating to so many lives, both in the US and around the world, an argument could be made that Covid 19 “made” Salty Dawg the vibrant organization that it is today.
I still remember when Brenda and I were aboard Pandora in Rodney Bay, St Lucia when the whole world suddenly came to a screeching halt, with businesses closed down and everyone tried to figure out what was going to happen next. I wrote a post at that time about how I thought that things would unfold. I was so wrong. When everything shut down, we were at a marina in St Lucia and I wrote about our dilemma in this post. I had no idea how badly it would go.
The world came to a screeching halt, even in “paradise”. Facemask? None available so we made do with a bilge diaper and ribbon. Lots of making due…
Stories were shared on Facebook and as everyone was “locked down”, some wondered what was so bad about being “locked down in paradise”. We, and other cruisers didn’t see it quite that way as somehow being stuck aboard a boat about the same size as a large bathroom, potentially for months, didn’t seem all that appealing.
Additionally, we had no intention of staying in the Caribbean over the summer and yet getting crew for the run home was impossible.
As all of that soaked in, I spoke with Frank and we agreed that perhaps the best option was to expand our spring rally into what we ended up calling the “homeward bound flotilla”. In past years we had always offered a rally home to the US and generally had about a dozen or so boats participating.
However, with everyone struggling to find a way home, suddenly our “flotilla” became a lifeline and ended up helping nearly 200 boats make their way back to the US.
In order to make the decision to join us easy, so we could help as many cruisers as possible, we decided to make the rally free and to give boats the opportunity to make a donation to SDSA, a decision that proved to be a good one as most everyone was very generous.
Board members and volunteers really stepped up and worked with officials in the Bahamas, a country that had closed their boarders and locked down everyone, to accept our rally boats who needed to rest on the long run north with very limited crew. In many cases, like me and Brenda, often with partners that had never taken a long voyage with little options to stop along the way.
Sadly, that was the case for me and Brenda who has never been an “offshore sort of girl” for the more than 40 years that we have sailed together. After months of trying in vain to find crew to fly to meet us, we finally gave up and did the run with just the two of us.
I won’t go into any more detail on all of this except to say that the work that Salty Dawg did to help so many put the organization “on the map” with our story written about in just about every boating magazine in the months that followed.
All of this is to say that Salty Dawg went from a fringe group to a name that is now very well known in the cruising community.
And, after all that, and sort of against my will, I became president of SDSA a position that in many ways now feels like “what I was born to do”. It’s been a lot of fun.
I retired in 2012, a goal to retire “early” that I had first hatched when I was in my early 20s and on our first boating vacation, a goal that came true, by hard work and a LOT of luck. Brenda has been very supportive as sailing has never been her passion but she is a good sport nearly 50 years later.
When I retired I vowed to spend time on what really mattered to me and that has turned out to be Salty Dawg and it’s been great fun.
Oh yeah, we are heading to our 50th high school reunion and we are told that we are the only ” high school sweethearts” that are still together. Knowing me as I do, it seems like a miracle. Lucky me…
So, under the “what’s next” category, I would never have imagined as we are now preparing for me to take Pandora trans-Atlantic as part of the Salty Dawg rally to the Azores next June.
However, there are lots of issues that need to be sorted out with Pandora to prepare for that run including how to deal with European power 220v 50 cycles verses our 110 60 cycles. It turns out that the 220/110 is easy. The Cycle issue, not so much. Details to come on that front.
And, something as simple as propane US fittings verse butane European fittings. Ugg…
And I don’t even want to think about the constantly changing rules for Starlink. Thanks Elon…
All and all, it’s going to be quite a ride as we prepare for Pandora’s next most excellent adventure. The first thing will be to get Pandora back in the water after her BIG refit. But that’s another story to be told.
With so much going on, perhaps it’s best to think soothing thoughts. How about a rum punch on the beach?
