When the Salty Dawg Rally departed Hampton Virginia in early November, the majority of the fleet pointed their bows to the beautiful Caribbean island of Antigua, the “Sailing Capital of the Caribbean”, where, for the third year, the island rolled out the red carpet to celebrate our arrival.

As Port Officer in Antigua for the rally, my “job” was to organize a week of events to celebrate the arrival of the fleet.  Fortunately, everyone that I was working with on the island was thrilled to have us visit so lining up a full venue of events was pretty easy, actually.

Part of the appeal of having our group come to Antigua as we arrive several weeks before the season really gets going so our presence is really appreciated.  I was talking recently with Angie, who runs the Antigua Yacht Club restaurant, “The Clubhouse” in Falmouth and she told me that there was quite a buzz from other businesses in the area that were thrilled with how busy they were so early in the season, thanks to our rally.

We packed the docks at Nelson’s Dockyard, perhaps the most beautiful harbor in the Caribbean.  Before we arrived in mid November, the docks were pretty much empty. One of our first events, and one of our most popular with over 120 skippers and crew attending was an authentic Caribbean barbecue, compliments of Nelson’s Dockyard.  Ann-Marie Martin, the Director of the National Parks, and the Dockyard really went out of their way to make us feel welcome.  The event included a rum punch cocktails followed by a full dinner, complete with poured at the table during dinner.  The event was totally over the top.  They even had a DJ and a professional photographer, Ted, who’s photos of the event follow.  Thanks Ted!

Ann-Marie was welcoming to us, as always.  I have enjoyed working with her over the last few years and the enthusiasm that she showed for us is emblematic of the reception that the Dawgs have received in Antigua. The Chairman of the National Parks joined us and delivered a heartfelt welcome to us all.  It turned out to be a capacity crowd, double what I had estimated which caused a bit of last minute scrambling for Ann-Marie but her staff pulled it off in great style.

The evening got off to a great start with liberal amounts of rum punch all around,.No event is complete without awards and we recognized the crew of Hector, home port Germany.  They had a medical emergency while 0n passage and was visited by a USCG C130 Hercules, that dropped vital medications by parachute.  Their determination in completing the trip to Antigua was an inspiration to us all.  That orange canister was one of two that the USCG dropped to them.  All and all, a really wonderful evening. And that was just one of the week long calendar of events that the fleet enjoyed.

As in past years, we had our “Safe Arrival” dinner and cocktail parties at the Admiral’s Inn.  Inn owners, brother and sister, Paul and Astrid, went out of their way to make us feel at home.  Of course, who doesn’t want a rally flag? Poolside, the perfect spot to hold our dinner.The Inn is a spectacular venue in the heart of Nelson’s Dockyard, the only operating Georgian Dockyard in the world, once home to the British Navy during the age of sail.  Of course, we needed a “class photo”.  The Navy fought hard to retain control of English Harbor and nearby Falmouth Harbor, as the island is perfectly located as the eastern most in the Caribbean.  It is quite simply the perfect place to “cruise” to anywhere else in the Caribbean. For that reason, it remains an ideal spot to begin and end a season of cruising.

Max Fernandez, the Minister of Tourism, addressed us at a complimentary cocktail reception courtesy of The Antigua Yacht Cub.  AYC also hosted a special member/guest Thanksgiving feast to make us feel welcome.  Owner and artist Nancy Nicholson invited us to her gallery, Rhythm of Blue, for a free rum and reggae party to kick off the season. North Sails Antigua hosted what was probably the most original event, Hermit Crab Racing, to the delight of the Dawgs, complete with plenty of Carib beer and snacks.The week of events, many free, were capped off by a special toast from the Royal Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda.    As a card carrying member, I was thrilled to introduce the Dawgs to this wonderful tradition once again. Plans are well underway for the arrival of the fleet next November and it promises to be even better so stay tuned for more info.  Better yet, follow this link to the Salty Dawg site and sign up for the free newsletter so you will “in the loop” on what’s planned.

Yes indeed, Antigua just loves the Dawgs and the Dawgs love Antigua.

We’ll be back!

That’s it, today Brenda and I head home to CT and some holiday time with friends and family.  We can’t wait to see our grandchildren, in particular.  I’ll bet that we won’t recognize them after a month away.  Excited.

Pandora is on a mooring in English Harbor for the next month.  It’s a beautiful spot.  Very serene this morning with a view of the Dockyard.  It was unusually still and calm, compliments of the late season hurricane in the north Atlantic that has suppressed the trade winds.  They should kick in again in a few days. The Admiral’s Inn off our stern.  And some beautiful boats off of our bow.   Notice the Long Tail boat from Thailand, owned by Paul from the Inn.  Hold that thought as I was able to get a ride on the his really unique boat a few days ago.  Details to come on that outing. It’s been a crazy week with events every evening and sometimes during the day as well.  In addition, I’ve been really busy with meetings including a lunch with the Minister of Tourism that has taken an interest in the rally given the number of boats and crew that we have brought to the island.  He feels that cruisers are the highest value visitors to the island as they stay for a long time and spend money with a large variety of businesses, something that isn’t the case with cruise ship visitors or those who visit all-inclusive resorts.

Anyway, it’s an exciting time to be here and I am really looking forward to next steps when I return to the island at the end of December.  In the mean time, I have some homework to do to prepare our thoughts on how to partner more fully with the Government of Antigua.

After so many events here since the first boats arrived more than a week ago,  it’s hard to say which event was the “best”.   I loved them all but the one event that is particularly special to me is the Tot Club.  You know, the group that Toasts the Queen each evening, carrying on a long tradition in the British Navy?

So, it was fitting that our last “official” even was on Friday in the Dockyard, in spectacular venue, in one of the old historic buildings.   It was a beautiful space and wonderfully photographed by Brenda who preferred being a spectator to gulping an alarming amount of rum. The group gathered under the stars. Mike and particularly Ann, my sponsor when I joined the group two years ago, were there preparing the Tot.  Of course, there were readings from British Naval history.Introductions of our guests by me. Bottoms up.  Of course, the “tot” must be swallowed in a “single go”.  I’ll admit that it burns. One of our events was an evening BYOB on Shirley Heights, a historic lookout for the British Navy.  We went up to watch the sunset, normally spectacular.  However, a huge squall came through and brought very limited visibility an many wet Dawgs.  I just love this photo of some of the kids from the rally enjoying the view.  What a great group.  Brenda and I have noticed, over the years,  that “boat kids” are universally wonderful and seem to have social skills that are far above the norm.  Perhaps I’ll leave it at that for now as I have to pack to head home to see our own grandchillen.

All and all, a wonderful week and with so many “atta boys” about the events from skippers and crew from the rally.  With all that positive energy, I’m raring to go to plan for some spring events and next fall’s arrival of the 2020 rally to Antigua.

So, there you have it.  The arrival of the 2019 Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua.  It’s a wrap!

Well, it’s Wednesday and we are about half through the week of events to welcome the Salty Dawg Fleet to Antigua.  I’ll admit that I am a bit tuckered out with all the festivities but I will still put on my dancing shoes for the arrival dinner at Boom this evening and there are still three more days of fun on the horizon for our fleet.

While all of our events have been great fun, I have to admit that the Crab Races at Andrew Dove’s North Sails loft last night was a standout.

Crab Races, you say?

Yes and I for one, have never seen or heard of such a thing.  Crab Races?  Hmm…

So, here’s how it goes.

As you’d expect from any sport.  The rules, as described by our host, Andrew, were soberly reviewed for all. And, we learned that there would be a number of “heats” of increasing difficulty.

Of course, as with any serious sport, we had our cheerleaders, one of the Dawgs brought along a mascot to egg on the contestants. First, the contestants were placed in the center of the “course” under a dome to keep them from running off before the starting gun was sounded.  We just could not condone any unfair behavior. Off they went.  If it doesn’t look exciting, you just had to be there.  The spectators went WILD!As the races progressed, heat after heat, Andrew dreamt up schemes, each more diabolical than the last, adding obstacles to slow down the leader.
Then he really got mean and forced the contestants to race blindfolded.
Not to be deterred…More obstructions were added to the course but none discouraged our racers, blindfolds or not. Who won?  I have no idea but it was a ton of fun.

And, now a word from our sponsor…So there, dear reader, is how the Dawgs got crabs in Antigua.

Thanks Andrew.  You, and your crabs were awesome!

I can’t wait to see what sort of crazy ideas he comes up with next year.

It’s Tuesday morning and we are well into our arrival events with nearly all of the Dawgs accounted for.

We have been really busy with events every night including a very special kickoff cocktail and dinner party put on by the National Park’s Authority on Saturday evening.   It was a lovely evening, totally over the top.  I have photos coming from their “official” photographer.

Earlier that evening we also were treated to a Dawg Jam session on the docks.  It was a nice way to kick off a very memorable evening. I mentioned in my last post that one of our boats, Cayuga, had lost the use of their engine when their engine water pump went bad and with the light winds that slowed down the entire fleet, they found themselves drifting slowly southward at a painfully slow pace for way longer than they wanted to.  Finally, they were within a reasonable distance of Antigua and Paul, who operates the Admiral’s Inn with his sister Astrid, offered to run the new water pump out, along with some antifreeze.

I had been texting the skipper for several days and then, with them finally only about 30 miles out, off we went, powering 30kts into seas, bouncing from wavetop to wavetop as we closed the distance.  Finally, we spotted them on the horizon and closed in.  Oh boy, did they look happy to see us.   After they confirmed that the pump was in fact the right one for their engine, we sped of for shore and left them to put on the new pump.  On our way back to English Harbor Paul gave us a bit of a tour of the island.  How about this yacht?  Anna, owned by a Russian, who else?  She is rumored to have cost $250,000,000.  Yikes!  It’s amazing what you can get for a 1/4 billion these days.  Anna is over 300′ long.  Huge.  Her owner is Dmitry Evgenevitch Rybolovlev.  Yes, that sounds about right.  I doubt that you will see Anna in US waters any time soon.   Want to learn a bit about this guy?  Click here for all the details.  He purchased a home in FL for $95,000,000 from none other than Donald Trump.  That totally fits…

Nice garage for his toys. And, I expect that this isn’t his only chopper. Along the way we passed Eric Clapton’s home, perched high on a ridge.  The good news is that Eric doesn’t use the place much and it’s for rent.   Check out some pix here to see if it’s up to your standards. Back to English Harbor and the fleet on the dock.   There’s Pandofra in the middle. Perhaps easier to see close up.   Looking good in her new colors. Ok, back to our parts delivery to Cayuga.

Later that afternoon Cayuga arrived and tied up in Nelson’s Dockyard looking really happy to be near dry land again after about two weeks on the high seas.  Not surprisingly, they were thrilled to accept a few cold beers from me. It was very gratifying to be there when they arrived knowing that there were many behind the scenes of the Rally that kept track of them and did everything possible to help them make their way safely to Antigua.

When I began organizing arrival events for the rally a few years ago, I realized that with most boats sailing so many miles to Antigua, their arrivals would be spread out over many days and to have an “arrival” dinner, a single event meant that some boats would be in port days or a week before some of the slower boats  arrived.  Somehow I didn’t think that it was fair to have the faster boats wait days and days for a single event.  And, at the same time, I didn’t want the slower boats to miss all the fun.

As a result, we decided to put on a full week of events to be sure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy at least some of the arrival festivities.

One of my favorite events is the “Arrival Cocktail Party” at the Admiral’s Inn, located right in the dockyard.  It’s a beautiful place and authentic in every way, as part of the original dockyard that served the British Navy during the age of sail.  Of course, we always need a “class picture”, right?   This was our biggest group yet and what a fun event.   As most of the crew had already left to head back home, this group is nearly all skippers and family, still a large group by any measure. The first year that we decided to send the fleet to Antigua, following the devastation in the Virgin Islands, the destination for the rally for so many years, I only had a few weeks to organize events here in Antigua.  And, it was Astrid and her brother Paul, who run the Inn, that really stepped up to help me pull together a proper welcome to the fleet and now, several years later, they are still helping skippers and crew settle in after a long voyage.

We took a moment to recognize them for all their support.  Of course, I also wanted to thank Paul publicly for taking the lead in getting the parts out to Cayuga.  Another tradition for the Dawgs is to present the “tail of the Dawg” award for the last boat to arrive prior to the welcome cocktail party, this year to the skipper and crew of Aleta, a bottle of wine donated by the local grocery Covent Gardens. A few days ago we were also hosted at the Antigua Yacht Club, another group that has been really supportive of the Rally.  As in past years, we were lucky to have the Minister Hernandez, the head of tourism on the island, address the group and he described how important the cruising community is to Antigua.

His goal, 200 boats.  I’ll have to get cracking as while we doubled that number from last year to 40 this year, we still have long way to go to reach his goal.   A success by any measure but also short of my 100 boat goal.  I presented a rally flag to the Minister with the help of the Commodore of the Yacht Club, Franklyn Braithwait, also very supportive of our efforts. So, that’s about it for now and we are only half way through our week of events with “crab racing” on tap this evening at the North Sails loft.  I’ll admit that I did check on the field of competitors when I visited the loft yesterday to see which might be the winning crab.  Hmm… 

My careful evaluation of the would-be competitors was inconclusive as they all appeared to be sleeping deeply, perhaps to save their strength for the competition.

All and all, we have been having a great time and I for one, am so pleased to see that the gang is all here.  Well, mostly all here as there are still a few boats making their way, perhaps arriving today.

I can’t wait to welcome them to Antigua.

 

Well, we did it, we made it to Antigua, only a little bit worse for wear.

We arrived in Falmouth Harbor Thursday morning at 04:00 only to discover that my anchor windlass would not deploy so we picked up a mooring.  Fortunately, the problem was minor, a tripped circuit breaker so after throwing the switch it worked again.   After a swim, a beer and a bit of celebratory rum as the sun came up, we moved over to the dockyard, Pandora’s home for the next week.

So, 1,750 miles and 11 days later we arrived, a long way from Hampton.  This is us, in Hampton the evening before our departure, raring to go, me, Cliff and George, both veterans of past runs aboard Pandora.   Note the jackets.  It was chilly.  Cold didn’t last long aboard Pandora and after day one of the trip it was positively hot and sticky. The 11 day run was several days longer than anticipated and the miles a lot farther as well.  As the crow flies, the run to Antigua is about 1,450 miles, we ended up sailing over 1,750 miles due to the adverse Equatorial Current that runs north along most of the area we sailed through.  And, in addition, we spent a lot of time sailing east without actually getting closer to our destination, waiting for the southerly winds to shift to the east.   It was a real world example of “you can’t get there from here”, in the extreme.   But we eventually did get there…

Things ended out working well but early forecasts suggested that we might run out of fuel before we made it to Antigua due to light and adverse winds.  We spent a lot of time trying to calculate fuel consumption, how much we actually had on board and when it would run out.  The only way that I can know for certain how much “usable” fuel we have aboard is to run on a tank until the engine dies when it’s all gone and note how much it takes to fill it up again.    I have a pretty good feel for this but haven’t systematically run the fuel out as I did this time.

We ended up running two of our three tanks completely out and there were many anxious hours spent wondering what would happen when we were down to the final tank.  However, in the end  we had better wind than anticipated and arrived in Antigua with fuel to spare.  While some estimates suggested that we’d be running the engine as much as 150 hours we only ran it about 110 hours which I was comfortable as on my last run south I ran for 130 hours and still had fuel left which suggests that we actually had a cushion of at least 2o hours.

We had moments of frustration, like when the main halyard parted and the sail came crashing down on the deck, but there were moments of serene beauty like the stunning sunrises every morning. I found that I could watch the receding wake as our vane steered along tirelessly.George spent hours listening to music, sometimes loosing himself in the moment during night watches and singing WAY LOUDER than he realized.  Love those cool shades?  Totally hip?  You be the judge.Cliff just enjoying the view a few days after he recovered from early-on mal de mer.  With Pandora in cruising mode, it was pretty much a wreck down below, at least it seemed that way to me, the anal skipper with all the cushions covered with canvas sheets.   These covers really proved their worth as we discovered leaks we didn’t know we had.  Isn’t that always the way?While we had our share of squalls, we had many many hours of wonderful sailing, ably assisted by our newest crew member, our windvane steering unit, Lisa.  I understand that most crews so attached to their vanes that they give them names, unlike electronic pilots that often end up with names that are not altogether complimentary.  After years of sudden changes in course, Pandora’s electric pilot is “Crazy Ivan”.

So, what to name our new pilot?  The leading contender, suggested by George is “Lisa” as in Lisa Simpson, of “The Simpsons”.  The idea behind this, George’s idea, seconded by Brenda, is that Lisa is widely regarded as the smartest member of the Simpson family, or should I say “crew”.  I’ll admit that I am not totally on board with this so I won’t be having Lisa tattoo’ed on my arm quite yet.

So, here we are and after only two days in port, the hardships of passage are becoming a distant memory with Pandora safely tied up here in Nelson’s Dockyard along with many others in the fleet, all proudly flying their Dawg Colors.Is there any spot on earth prettier than this to tie up your yacht?And, while Pandora was the first to actually tie up in what was an empty dockyard, prior to our arrival.  She’s clearly not alone any more.  It is tremendously gratifying to me personally to have so many of the boats tie up here in the Dockyard with the rest of the fleet after so many months of planning.And…the parties have begun, the week of events that we have planned for the fleet.   There’s a lot on tap including, and you won’t believe this one, an evening of Crab Racing.  Yes, Crab Racing!  Stay tuned for news about that one.

Meanwhile, some boats are still working their way south, way short on fuel, working through their on-board gremlins, waiting for favorable winds or dealing with critical breakdowns.  For an area that normally has too much wind, we are not seeing that now with nearly flat calm conditions expected for the next few days.

While I didn’t feel lucky at certain points on the trip, Pandora actually had it easy compared to the trials of some who ran into all sorts of mayhem.  In hindsight, Pandora and her crew made it here with a minimum of fuss.

Some had real issues to contend with.  This story, scary in the extreme, shows what can happen when you are far from land.  Aboard one boat was a crew member who had a liver transplant years ago and accidentally lost his vital medication, only a few days into their voyage.  This harrowing story, fortunately with a happy ending, was described to me by Hank, Salty Dawg president.

Hank wrote: (with a tiny bit of editing by me, I’ll admit)

“One boat, just arriving now, had a serious issue offshore.  A member of the crew accidentally dropped his supply of anti-rejection pills down the head (boat lurched, lid left up and the pills flew out of the vial, of course, landing right in the head.  The pills were gone that had to be taken on schedule for life after a liver transplant in 2013.  Without his medication he would only survive for a few days, not enough time to get to Antigua.  After lots of phone calls at our end to an immunologist (my brother) and the crewman’s doctors in NY, we learned that Prednisone would work fine as alternative to his prescribed medication to suppress immune system and get him to Antigua.  In checking around the fleet, we found two boats 90 miles away that had Prednisone aboard.  And then a miracle, the skipper found they had a supply in their first aid kit.  Disaster averted!

Several days later, when contacted by United States Coast Guard about how things were going, the crewman said he preferred to have his regular medications.  The USCG said no problem, and would send a supply out to him.  So last Sunday the USCG did an airdrop from C-130 flying 3-1/2 hours out of Elizabeth City NC.   

The crew of the yacht were able to recover the medical pods that included the lifesaving drugs to keep his body from rejecting a transplanted liver.  The USCG C-130, after hours of flight arrived on the scene, flew overhead, tossed the package to them and flew back home.”

What an amazing and gratifying story of Dawgs helping other Dawgs along with an amazing feat by our own USCG.

Another boat was struck by lightening a few days into the trip and lost all of their electronics.  They diverted to Bermuda where the captain and crew are now working hard to finish the installation so that they can get underway.  They are doing the installation themselves as the local dealers in Bermuda are too busy to help.

How about a fouled prop in mid ocean?  While a crew member on that yacht was swimming to remove a piece of line that had tangled with their prop they were visited by a curious whale, just checking them out.

Another boat made the mistake of putting their dink in davits hanging out over the stern and when it got rough the dink broke loose and was swinging wildly.  While the skipper tried to subdue the bucking dink, his foot was badly hurt.  Ultimately, the dink was cut away and lost.

But wait, there’s more.  SV Cayuga, is still out there s-l-o-w-l-y sailing toward Antigua as they lost their engine water pump and, as a result, the use of their engine early into the trip.  Since then they have been a prisoner to really light winds for days as they slowly sail and drift along.  This trip has seen it’s share of really light winds and very tough timing indeed for them.

Their best guess is that they will be somewhere near Antigua on Sunday so I have arranged to have Paul, co-owner of the Admiral’s Inn, run out with his boat to tow them in.  The parts, currently on the other side of the island, will be sent here to the Dockyard so that repairs can be made.    So, for now, it’s up to the crew of Cayuga to make their way to Antigua.  Here’s to a speedy passage, if that’s not too much to ask.

Another boat lost all of their newly installed electronics and had to rely on their GPS transponder to figure out where they were and text information to others to keep them informed on progress.  Happily, they approached English Harbor during daylight hours on Thursday and had an easy run into the Dockyard.

Yes, Pandora had it easy and now we are here in Antigua enjoying the fun.  And, speaking of fun, the parties have begun and last evening a local art gallery, Rhythm and Blue, owned by artist Nancy Nicholson, had her season opener party, timed to allow the Dawgs to be a part of the fun.  With what seemed like an endless stream, or river, of rum punch and appetizers along with a terrific reggae band, the event was really a lot of fun. A great turnout.
And, the Dawgs were well represented.
This evening Ann-Marie Martin, the Commissioner of Parks, is throwing a free party for the Dawgs including food and drink, their way of saying thanks for us coming to Antigua.

And, there’s more, something each day to look forward to for those who joined in on this year’s Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua.

So there you have it, while it was Antigua or bust for Pandora, it seems we have a lot to be thankful for as we ended up being only a little bit busted and we had a much easier time than some.

However, everything is working out, late or not for all the Dawgs heading our way and there will still be parties in store for them when they arrive.