The Fall 2024 Fall Salty Dawg Caribbean and Bashamas Rally saw 104 boats depart on or about November 1 from Newport, Rhode Island and Hampton, Virginia. The fleet was divided between crews heading to the Bahamas and those aiming for Antigua.
This year, most of the Caribbean-bound boats opted to stop in Bermuda for a couple of days to break up the long ocean passage, take on fuel and supplies and enjoy this beautiful island. One of the benefits for transient boats is the ability to buy duty-free diesel directly from a fuel truck and thus avoid the famously expensive fuel available at the St. George’s fuel dock.
The Bahama fleet ran into the adverse weather as they were making the turn around Cape Hatteras and most of the boats ended up sailing into Beaufort, North Carolina, to wait for a new weather window.
As is always the case, weather and routing guru Chris Parker at Marine Weather Center provided daily weather updates for the entire fleet so almost all of the boats were able to use favorable weather windows to avoid heavy winds and big seas.
The Antigua fleet departed Bermuda in favorable conditions and ran through the usual weather systems as they sailed south, first in the westerlies, then in the calms of the convergence zone and then the somewhat boisterous easterlies in the trade winds. For most of the boats, this last segment proved bumpy and challenging and all were pleased to make landfall.
The Bahama fleet had to wait several days for a weather window to open but when it did, the hop south to the Abacos went smoothly.
It has become traditional for both fleets to enjoy days and evenings of partying and revelry at the end, either in Marsh Harbour, Abacos, of in Falmouth and English Harbour, Antigua. Rally director Bob Osborn, who is also the outgoing President of the SDSA, greeted the Antigua feet aboard his 47-foot sloop Pandora after sailing north from Trinidad where the boat had spent the summer.
For two weeks after the Antigua fleet arrived, local Antiguans and marine businesses hosted party after party and the Admiral’s Inn the Antigua Yacht Club became social focal points for the crowd.
In the end both Bahama and Antigua fleets made safe passages south with only handful experiencing breakages or the need to divert for repairs.
The Rally provides full 24/7 shore support and emergency response, all run by volunteers under the guidance of Tom Metcalf. For the first time this year, the fleet also had 24/7 emergency medical support via phone and email from the doctors at George Washington Emergency Medical Center.
The SDSA’s new president Mike Benjamin, who sailed with the Antigua fleet aboard his new Hylas 47 Exodus, wrote a great report on the whole event that is posted on the SDSA website and will go out with the association’s monthly newsletter Dawg Tales. Read more here.
