{"id":9026,"date":"2018-07-29T07:07:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T12:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=9026"},"modified":"2018-08-23T07:05:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T12:05:32","slug":"why-you-should-do-the-salty-dawg-rally-to-antigua-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=9026","title":{"rendered":"Why you should do the Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua this fall."},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s only a few months until the Salty Dawg Sailing Association<\/a>\u00a0fall rally to the Caribbean\u00a0arrives in Antigua and, as port captain for Antigua, I have been busy putting together a terrific mix of arrival events.\u00a0 \u00a0The Antigua Yacht Club<\/a>, local business, national park service and government have been very supportive and has made my job a lot easier as I work to put things in place to make it worthwhile for you to make the run south with us.<\/p>\n

The plan, upon arrival, is for the fleet to tie up in Nelson’s Dockyard<\/a> for at least the week of festivities and we anticipate a very special rate as low as $.50 US\/ft per day.\u00a0 We plan to kick off our events on November 13th or when the bulk of the fleet has arrived safely.\u00a0 \u00a0The Dockyard is the only working Georgian dockyard in the world, once the center of the British Navy in the Caribbean.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/span>What a beautiful place to make landfall after a long ocean voyage with the Dawgs.\u00a0\"\"It’s a feast for the eyes wherever you turn, including ruins of a British Navy sail loft and the current home of the aptly named Pillars restaurant<\/a>, part of the beautiful and so historic,\u00a0Admiral’s Inn.<\/a> \"\"We will again have our welcome cocktail party at Pillars.\u00a0 Rally participants at last season’s reception. \"\"Our arrival dinner will be held at Boom<\/a>, poolside, overlooking the dockyard.\u00a0 And, it’s quite a spot.\u00a0\"\"Imagine yourself with an icy rum punch with all of your Dawg friends in this setting.\u00a0 \"\"Oh yeah…\u00a0 Want some shore time after a long voyage south or perhaps a spot for your crew and family to hang out for a few days.\u00a0 There are very special “Dawg Rates” at the Admiral’s Inn<\/a>, starting at about $150\/night US.\u00a0 \u00a0Join the rally, contact them and identify yourself as a Rally participant to get these rates.<\/p>\n

And, don’t forget that all of this is right in the dockyard, where you’ll be snugly tied up.\u00a0\u00a0This is a shot of the Oyster round the world rally when they stopped in Antigua.\u00a0<\/span>\"\"The harbor is a feast for the eyes with spectacular yachts from all over the world.\"\" The Antigua Yacht Club<\/a> will be our host and they are there to help you.\u00a0 Each boat will receive a skippers bag upon arrival with valuable discounts from many local business as well as information on what to do during your time in Antigua.<\/p>\n

Just stop and see Nesie, who will help you with anything she can to make your visit to Antigua a great time.\u00a0\"\"The clubhouse is located in Falmouth Harbor, a five minute walk from English Harbor.\u00a0 \u00a0Club members plan on throwing a welcome party for us, a special member guest event.\u00a0 \u00a0They will even provide in some free food and drink to make us feel welcome.\u00a0\"\"Last year we were greeted by the Minister of tourism as well as the club commodore.\u00a0 \"\"The event was very well attended by the Dawgs who had a great time.\u00a0\"\"There will even be a special AYC member\/guest Thanksgiving feast if you choose to be on-island for the holiday.\u00a0 \u00a0Angie, who runs the clubhouse restaurant, plans a wonderful event with all the turkey and fixings at a very reasonable price.\u00a0 There will even be a band for dancing.\u00a0 \u00a0This might have been the most popular event last fall.\u00a0 I even got a peck on the cheek when I presented Angie with a rally flag.\u00a0 That flag, is now flying proudly in the clubhouse.\u00a0\"\"Here’s one of the staff, they love the Dawgs, sporting one of our “Ts”.\u00a0 \"\"But wait, there’s more, a total of ten special Dawg events, planned just for you.\u00a0 \u00a0 I highlighted these events in another post so click here to learn all the details<\/a>.\u00a0 And let me tell you, there are lots of details.\u00a0 There will be a free open house, complete with wine, beer and snacks at the North Sails loft in English Harbor.\u00a0 Other events include a local art gallery who’s throwing a “season opener” party to welcome us to the island.\u00a0 There will even be a reggae band on hand as well as free rum drinks and dancing.<\/p>\n

The Royal British Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda<\/a>, (and yes, this proves that there is a club for just about anything you can imagine), will host a very special event in our honor at the beautiful\u00a0Copper and Lumber<\/a> in the Dockyard.<\/p>\n

The Tot Club was founded in the 90s by a small group devoted to preserving the naval history of Antigua,\u00a0 including Mike, a colorful keeper of British Navy history on the island.\u00a0 \u00a0\"\"Want to know what happened in British naval history on February 21st, 1885?\u00a0 Mike surely knows the answer.\u00a0 Join the group, and it’s not as easy as it seems, but if you do, you too can get one of the official “Tot club” shirts.\u00a0 I became a member this spring and wrote about the experience, that included a lot of rum tots in some remarkable places including a 150′ schooner, in this post.<\/a><\/p>\n

An evening with the Tot club was one of our most popular arrival events.\u00a0 Each day at 18:00, year round, the Tot Club meets to celebrate British Navy history, toast the end of the working day and the Queen, of course.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s a wonderful way to honor the history and tradition of the British Navy in a wonderful setting.\u00a0 You really won’t want to miss this.\u00a0\"\"Some say that the “real Caribbean” begins in Antigua and Falmouth Harbor Antigua is a great spot to begin your winter season and journey south toward Grenada.<\/p>\n

There’s lots more in store for you if you make the jump to Antigua with the Salty Dawg Rally in November.\u00a0 Departures are planned from Hampton VA and Essex CT.\u00a0 It’s a wonderful group and you will surely make great friends along the way.<\/p>\n

One more thing.\u00a0 This post is only the tip of the iceberg as there are ten, count em, ten days of arrival events planned that you won’t want to miss.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more?\u00a0 Visit the “official Dawg<\/a>” site and apply today.\u00a0 \u00a0And, if that’s not enough, the rally is very inexpensive.\u00a0 \u00a0In addition, there are days if pre-departure activities including blue water seminars, dinners and weather routing by Chris Parker of Marine Weather Center<\/a>, for the entire trip south.<\/p>\n

If you take the trip to Antigua, this view could be yours, rum punch in hand as the sun sets below the western horizon.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"Antigua is wonderfully situated so that wherever you decide to go later in the season, south to Grenada or Trinidad or north to the Virgins to begin your run north in the spring, it’s always an easy reach.<\/p>\n

Join us, you’ll be glad you did.\u00a0 Click here to sign up now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s only a few months until the Salty Dawg Sailing Association\u00a0fall rally to the Caribbean\u00a0arrives in Antigua and, as port captain for Antigua, I have been busy putting together a terrific mix of arrival events.\u00a0 \u00a0The Antigua Yacht Club, local business, national park service and government have been very supportive and has made my job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9026"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9121,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions\/9121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}