CARIBBEAN RALLY PREPARATIONS

By Mike Benjamin, SV Exodus, President SDSA

I just returned to my home in Brookline from our Salty Dawg Hampton Rally prep festivities and I am pleased to report that this year was a huge success (so far).  As of this writing, it is still ongoing due to departure delays.  This year we moved the Dawg House to the Hampton Yacht Club and the HYC staff, including Robert Sands and several HYC members, could not have been more welcoming and accommodating to our group.  Their facility on the second floor was a major upgrade for our Hampton events and when it wasn’t raining (and it was mostly raining) we briefly enjoyed an adjoining balcony.  From what I observed, our members were respectful and this year, to my knowledge, we didn’t steal any toilet paper!  We’ve really matured as an organization.  Maybe we will be invited back.  Actually, we already reserved for 2026.  

The folks at the City of Hampton Visitor’s Bureau, including Jay Richardson, Alexandria Bernard and Bruce Newton went out of their way to make our visit a success, supplying the Scuttle Bus to bring our members around to local vendors and provisioning stops, and staffing a welcome table in the Dawg House to highlight the City’s resources.  A big thank you to the City of Hampton for being such a gracious host. Another thanks to Alli Stora from the Hampton City Docks who did such a great job with our boats.

The rain did not spoil the fun as the days were filled with a combination of informative seminars and social events, including sessions on what to expect during a long passage, passage strategies, a session just for women and Hank George’s annual eye-opening discussion about heavy weather sailing, including his sobering photo of a boat surfing down 30’ waves, because nothing boosts confidence like visual evidence of your worst nightmare!  We enjoyed a great dinner at the HYC and numerous happy hours at the Bull Island Brewery where we were enthusiastically welcomed, likely due to the sheer volume of beer we consumed.  There were also plenty of giveaways with many items supplied by our sponsors Predict Wind and Evolution Sailmakers.  A big thank you to Kathy Kubic and Jo Ella Barnes who planned the events.

This year presents us with numerous weather challenges, including a hurricane, closely spaced fronts and a stubborn upper-level trough.  No surprises here, in fact it’s business as usual.  I think a straightforward passage is as rare as an actual green flash.  During the past few days our departure date has changed several times and now it looks like most of the Newport group will be sailing down the coast to join the Hampton group, the Hampton vessels will delay departure until November 4th and the Bahamas vessels will stage in the Beaufort area, hoping to set sail for Marsh Harbor next week.  As usual, Chris Parker was right there for us with several briefings for each group and supplemental emails.  As I write this, I am hopeful that all vessels will actually depart on this new schedule.

Bennet Kashdan reported that the Newport Boats enjoyed a fun dinner together at Benjamin’s, complete with trivia and prizes and a weather briefing at Speakeasy followed by much liquid encouragement.

I will be flying to Antigua to welcome the fleet then on to Trinidad to splash Exodus after a long boat-less summer, a period which, frankly, was far too relaxing.  I look forward to greeting our fleet, especially the first timers-rum punch in hand!

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