We were in Annapolis for almost two weeks. We arrived a few days before the boat show started. We attended an all day seminar one day and a Salty Dawgs Rendevous dinner the next evening. Here we got an opportunity to meet many other members and a few of the other cruisers who were doing the trip to Antigua this year.
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| Salty Dawgs present over 10k to the BVI relief fund |
We spent three days at the boat show where Al had an opportunity to speak with experts and get answers to his many technical questions on products and rigging for the boat. On Saturday we met up with our crew John Hagg who will be joining us for the off shore passage in November. On Sunday, Walter came down for a visit and we met up with John and his wife Chyrel for lunch and post show drinks.
We ordered several items of safety gear for the offshore passage including a life raft, EPIRB, tracker and Sat phone. Al also installed a new battery bank and ordered a new inverter. After the show Al got to work on the storm sail halyard and hardware installation. He also ordered a tri-reacher pole to help out when downwind sailing.
We headed out to Hampton where we could pick up the items we ordered and started making more preparations for the trip to Antigua. We installed the new inverter, installed the tri-reacher spinnaker pole on deck then tried a mast storage system that didn't work so after several phone calls and emails we found a working solution.
We received our life raft and have it stored on deck. We experienced some technical issues with the Garmin InReach satellite tracker but believe that is working now. We had issues setting up the SAT phone but got that working yesterday. After much research we found out we needed a Canadian version of EPIRB it arrived this week and is installed near the ditch bag. We also learned we would need to apply for a radio call sign but the online forms from Industry Canada were not working so after several back and forth emails we have completed the required documents. We also had to order a new hot water tank as ours sprang a leak.
I have made several trips to the grocery store and the boat is now stocked with enough food for a couple of months at least. Al has been working on boat projects and I prepared meals for the freezer.
Al also arranged to have a sailmaker repair the spinnaker as it was a big job that required more space to lay out than we have onboard.
The 74 boats taking part in this rally started arriving in Hampton last week. There we attended a week of workshops, briefings, dinners, a Halloween party and arranged transportation to stores for last minute provisioning all arranged by the volunteers from the SaltyDawg organization.
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| One of many Salty Dawgs seminars |
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| Halloween dinner |
John arrived yesterday and has been busy helping with preparations. We are all anxious to get moving on but the winds are going to be so light that Al is looking at the options and trying to come up with a plan that will conserve our fuel and give us favourable weather for crossing the gulf stream. After thinking it through we decided to leave today at ebb tide. We will have to motor because there is no wind but we should be across the Gulf Stream by Saturday morning. After that we hope to find a bit of wind to take us south to Antigua.