Antigua? Not yet!

On October 24th, we left our cozy mooring off Jan & Neil’s place in Annapolis to head for Hampton, Va., where the 2022 Salty Dawg rally to the Caribbean would begin. Dave, one of our crew for the rally, joined us down the Chesapeake to get familiar with the boat. We leisurely motor-sailed south, stopping each night for R & R. One of our stops was at Tides Inn in Irvington, Va, a little out of our way but an excellent restaurant and chance to take a night off from cooking. 

We arrived in Hampton on Oct. 28th, started prepping for our voyage and enjoying the company of new & old friends. The Salty Dawgs sponsored a pig roast barbecue, weather briefings, a Coast Guard demonstration and other informational seminars, while we also enjoyed our Philadelphia sports team successes, watching the TV’s at the Bluewater Marina bar & restaurant.

Nov. 1st, the day we all expected to depart, came and went with no weather window in site. Boats started losing crew and eating their provisions while the Dawgs did their best to rally with a Cruisers Net, Happy Hour jams and yoga classes to keep spirits up!

We hung out with old friends (Mike & Mary on Dream Weaver and Carl & Val on Valiana) and enjoyed making new friends (Colin & Karen). We walked a lot, sampled a number of local restaurants & brew pubs; particularly liking Mango Mango, Bull Island Tavern and the Barking Dog. We visited Ft. Monroe (the largest fort in the U.S. apparently), witnessed a Cross Fit competition at Oozlefinch Brewery and listened to weather discussions every other day, while consuming the local ciders and hoping for the next weather window.

Finally, on Nov. 12th, it looked like we were going to have our opportunity! It was going to be a salty sail but crew started arriving back in town, re-provisioning was done, the boat was filled with water & fuel, I did last minute laundry and even started my sea-sickness meds. All we needed was for our crew to arrive! We had lost one, but Dave was still committed and although he’d gone home, he was on his way flying back. Most of the Salty Dawgs had left when Dave came down the dock, but with bad news! Unfortunately, his wife had a medical issue and (of course) he had to pick up his stuff and jump right back on a train north!!

This leaves us with no crew and no known weather window but perhaps the opportunity to make new friends! We’ve already found a few other Salty Dawgs with various reasons for not being able to go. We have a bead on some crew possibilities and we will start the preparation process all over again! Hopefully, the third time is the charm!!