The Salty Dawg Rally

After work on Friday November 1, Susan and I jumped in the car and drove back to Hampton VA where I had left Pratique for the last few days.  It was time to meet my crew and finalize provisioning for the 1,350 nmi passage to the Virgin Islands. 



My crew:  Mike Deihl, Jim Cole and Bruce Kapteyn

The three crew--Jim, Bruce and Mike--would be flying in throughout the day.  (Thanks to Hank Schmitt of Offshore Passage Opportunities for running a great crew match-making service!)  Simultaneously we would need to keep tabs on weather windows and decide our time and date of departure.  The Salty Dawg Rally, which this year enrolled over 100 boats, has no "official" start day, although Monday November 4 was targeted.  The rally organizers, Bill and Linda Knowles, have seen their rally grow exponentially over the last few seasons.  They have done an admirable job not only just keeping up with the demand, but also providing key resources, at no cost, to the registered boats.  However, responsibility for all decisions, including the status of the boat, the provisioning, the routes and timing of the passage, ultimately falls entirely on the individual captains. 

Tom, Skip, Wally and Geoffrey on Wynot, before departure

This year two other Outbounds, Wynot and Georgia, would be participating in the rally.  Wynot is a new Outbound 46 owned by Geoffrey Lewis.  She would be captained by Outbound's Skip Pond and two other experienced bluewater sailors would round out their crew.  So while the "Bad News Bears" on Pratique were finalizing provisions and settling on sleeping spaces, yours truly was in close consultation with Skip and Wally on deciding a departure strategy.

Aft cabin, converted to two sea berths for the passage

The majority of the SDR participants decided to delay departure by a few days, which at the time seemed to be a sound strategy because of weather and Gulf Stream factors.  However for the larger and faster boats, an early Saturday or Sunday departure was in play.  When Skip decided that Wynot was leaving on Sunday morning, I decided that Pratique would, too.

Off we go!

Sunday morning was windy and clear, and both boats left within an hour of each other.  By the time we approached the  Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, Wynot was still in visual range.  Even though there was no guarantee that being in proximity to the sister ship was a recipe for success, it was reassuring for me.

Here is what we faced:  Sub-gale winds with occasional gale strength gusts from the NW on day one, from the N on day two and from the NE on day three.  All good, since we are headed Southeast to South.  But out 100 miles or so the formidable north flowing Gulf Stream separated us from the rhumb line southeast to Virgin Gorda.  How would we fare there?



Sunset on day one.  The Gulf Stream ahead of us.

In the stream, with wind and seas off the port quarter. "Hey this isn't bad at all!!!"




After 24 hours at sea, several things became clear:  I had a very competent and fun crew.  I had a great boat.  The Gulf Stream was not horrible, we had sailed 200 miles on day one, and we were still right there with Wynot!  All was good!!





Decisions, decisions:  Put another reef in?? . . . .



. . . . Slow down to let the tanker pass, giving Wynot the opportunity to pass us??



As predicted, we were ahead of the cold fronts and in really good shape.  The foul weather gear did start to come off in favor of shorts and t-shirts.  We were making 200 nmi/day.  The fishing lines went in the water, and we are rewarded:

Ceviche for lunch . . . .

. . . and fresh, broiled fillets for dinner.  Shirts and a shave, optional.

While on the subject of food, special thanks go to Susan for advanced meal and snack planning and preparation.  We had some great meals, including what she had pre-cooked and froze, what specialty meats we bought from Avon's local Meat House store, and what we caught along the way.  Also, shout outs go to Bruce (aka "Felix") and Mike (aka "Oscar").  Before long it became clear that they would share the primary galley responsibility: 

Oscar:  "More salt."   Felix: "More pepper."

Oscar:  "10 minutes for boiled eggs."  Felix: "No, 8 minutes."

Oscar:  "This goes great with rice."  Felix:  "Pasta." 

Despite the Odd Couple routine, they both kept us all eating like royalty!  Here's a small sampling of what else they whipped up for us:

Great breakfasts

Marinated Steaks from the Avon Meat House

By day four, it was pretty clear the tough stuff was all behind us.  In fact, weather routher and guru Chris Parker and the GRIBs that I downloaded myself were predicting 36 hours of light to no wind, with the last day or two calling for the east trade winds to gradually fill in. 


So that meant one thing--Photo Ops:



Pratique, from Wynot

Wynot, from Pratique

 

Hey, who took that one??

 







 

"Are we there yet??"

 

 

Next up:  We make landfall!