Salty Dawg Preparations

Sailing friends recommended the Caribbean 1500 for delivering a boat from the east coast to the British Virgin Islands. Instead we're participating in the 4-year old Salty Dawg Rally. I don't know about past years, but the organizers seem to have done their best to ensure participants are prepared to head to the the BVI from Hampton. We spent mornings in seminars, afternoons running errands and working on the boat and social events in the evenings, including rum of course. Every day more and more people poured into The Dawg House as the number of participating boats increased towards 70.  Mid-week the weather briefings started.  Chris Parker is our weather router--for the Rally and for Silhouette individually.

A number of US Coast Guard officers talked to us about preventative measures, emergency rescues, and medical emergencies at sea. We talked and even saw helicopter rescue. A Quantum rep went over sail trim, maintenance and most importantly sail repair. I learned lots about radio propagation, solar flux, and SSB communications, which I hope to apply during the delivery.  Though Silhouette has new rigging, I paid attention to how often to check the rigging, chain plates, ball bearings in the sheaves, putting toggles on the fore and back stays, looking for cracks in the sweg fittings, and to not "mustache" the cotter pins.  Most boats have satellite phones, SPOT and SSBs so coordinating all this and the electronics on board will make me smarter.

By week's end, we were fairly ready to go, but the weather churned up, delaying our Nov. 2 departure. Rather than leave on Monday with most of the boats, Bob, our professional captain, decided to delay until Tuesday, knowing from past experience the seas would take a while to calm down.  After more errands, more snacks for Kelly, stowing a scrubbed-down-to-its-skin by yours truly, dinghy and paddleboard on the front deck and a wonderfully fun farewell dinner at the marina restaurant, we are set to depart at 8:00 Eastern ocean time Tuesday.

BVI here we come:

Boat: Silhouette II, Canadian registered
Captain Bob Pierce, American
Owners: Kelly Brown and Linda Strachan, Canadians
Crew:  Keith (Canadian) and Vicki (American)

Dawgs:  none on our boat, but we have treats for Spinnaker when we get to Virgin Gorda!