As anyone on the crew and my wife can attest, the planning for the Rally and cruise started over a year before we shipped the boat. Purchasing equipment, lining up vacation time, and logistical details were being worked in the background all summer. The visible work started the first week of September, 3 weeks before the truck came to pick up the boat.

The steps break down to: remove and stow the sails and canvas, unstep and remove the rigging from the mast, haul the boat, pack all the gear, and load it onto a truck. Sounds pretty simple. How much time could it take?  Well, that seems to depend on how much time you have! It was easy for me to get to the boat yard everyday, and so I had work to do for most of three weeks. Some of this work was extra credit items like waxing the hull and painting the bottom. Some of it was extra, extra credit like putting 4 sets of LED lights on the mast, one set of two lights above each spreader, to light up the mast in glorious fashion when we are at anchor. Not sure how well this will look when we light it up, but I do know it took a great deal longer to pull the wires inside the mast and mount things than I expected.

One other project that took a fair amount of time, that was not planned on, was touching up some rust on the keel and doing some fiberglass work on the bottom of the rudder. Overall, things went smoothly, but I could have saved some time if I had a well defined check list and logical order for how to take things apart. I have that now,  and I even wrote it down!

Things started out messy, but in the end, the boat came together well and was looking good when the truck came. The loading process went fairly smoothly, although the steaming light was pinched loading the mast onto the truck. The damage was a broken bulb and some cracked plastic, but I was able to put it together again and it seems to work. I ordered a replacement just in case it has trouble. The light was suffering from UV exposure the last 9 years, so its time may have come. After a couple hours of work, the boat was locked and loaded, headed for Virginia.

There are always surprises, and our first one came the day the truck left. When they measured height at the Great Lakes Trucking yard, we were three inches over the height they had lined up for permits, so they had to remove the bow pulpit. This could have been handled by a slight repositioning of the boat on the trailer, but that requires a good deal of effort and a travel lift, so off came the bow pulpit.

While the boat is being shipped, we took care of a few items on the home front and paperwork details. One of them was filling out the Salty Dawg waiver. You can see from the Q&A section they are not trying real hard to sugar coat the trip to get more boats in the event... I found the waiver a good read so I included a link to it here.

I flew out Tuesday and the truck arrived around 1:30 Wednesday (9/28) at Cobb's Marina. Cobb's is tucked down a little side street and the leaves and branches on the boat testify to the narrow and low approach! The boat also has to go through the tunnel bridge under the Chesapeake bay, and it waits for an escort and rides through the tunnel using both lanes. The boat arrived without any damage and the packing worked well as nothing had shifted. One strike plate had broken off the aft head door, but this was as much due to a weak design as anything else. I am sure the truck ride is a little hard on things, and the boat comes off the truck dirtier than it goes on, but overall, it is a good way to cover the distance if sailing it out is not in the cards.

After getting the dingy on the davits and the engine on the dingy, the boat was launched and the re-assembly began. I worked on the mast the rest of the day and by 9PM had it ready to go. I also bumped into a fellow who said he started the first solo Mac race as a gambit to get a sail maker to build him a free sail. Funny small world. I dragged the engine start battery over to the mast to verify all the lights worked and then had a well earned beer.

Thursday morning I double checked everything and wiped down the spar. It would have been smarter if I had used soap or some heavy cleaner to get some of the road grime off, as I noticed it was not very clean when it was stepped. A project for next time.. The yard gets the boat into position and fires up the crane right as a nice downpour sets in. We wait the rains out and about a hour later the spar is stepped. This is a little harder for the poor guy with the roller furler drum as he has to push out to the end of the bow and get the clevis pin in with no bow Pulpit.  Overall, the job goes smoothly and I move the boat to the end pier where I will finish the work. The first job is re-running the mast wires into the cabin and reconnecting them. I also wire up the blue mast LED lights at this time using a spare wire in one of the cable runs. Once this is done, I run new wires inside the bow pulpit so if the pulpit is every pulled again, the wires can be left inside. Pulling the wires inside the pulpit is not easy when you are standing in the anchor locker, and the wires are so short you can only connect them with the pulpit installed. I figure since the pulpit has now been off twice, I should fix this issue. The pulpit goes on without too much drama, and the running lights both work, so that is good.
I also put the blocks back on at the base of the mast and ran the halyards back to the cockpit. The night gives me a chance to admire the mast LED lights in action.
The rains held off during the day, but we got some heavy rain at night, keeping things very humid. It is nice to have AC!

On Friday I put the boom on and then with the help of my neighbor (John), put the radar on the pole and raised the pole into place. I tried to put the pole facing backwards, but lucky for me, I noticed the mistake before I put the pole up (but not before I put the radar dome on... ), a little revision work and that was all set. Put up the Bimini arch and tensioned up the shrouds.  Had a nice lunch at a local boat yard bar/restaurant with John and watched no stop coverage of Hurricane Matthew which had grown to a Category 4 storm and may, or may not, impact this area in a week or so. John also told me that some hawk or falcon or some such bird was grabbing the masthead  wind vanes off sailboats, deciding they are not fish and dropping them. His was broken in this way. I decide not to put the masthead stuff on right then. The boat was coming together nicely!

On Saturday,  October 1, I have changed my mind and ask John to hoist me to the top where I install everything. I remembered to take my camera to get a few shots from the top.  I figure there are a lot of boats with working wands, so the birds don't get them all, and I have a spare wand from when I had to replace my masthead unit. I also don't want my radio antenna loose at the mast head and if I am putting on the radio antenna, might as well do the rest. We shall see if this decision works out.
After taking the dingy for a quiet ride to admire the millions of sea gulls, it was time to get the dingy engine on the stern and the dingy on the bow. This is always tricky alone, but no one was hurt, no visible damage, so I would say it went smoothly! I also cleaned off some of the heavy dirt on the hull from the straps to the stern cleats. The truck ran into some rain and the road dirt collects at the straps.
Overall, the boat is ready to move as I will not put on sails or canvas until we are closer to the start. With Hurricane Matthew a potential issue, this was an easy decision.  Maybe the week before when Cheryl and I come out. The potential hurricane issues make this a wise move as in 2012 I put things on and then had to rush out to take it all off as there was concern Hurricane Sandy would hit the Hampton area hard.
After the final day of assembly at Cobb's I was treated to a very nice sunset.

Sunday is moving day, and the weather is very nice. I get an early start and clear out around 9:30. The folks at Cobb's are really fair when it comes to pricing, $280 to take the boat and mast off the truck and launch the boat, $305 to step the mast (which used 4 guys plus a crane for about one hour), and just 2 days of dock age even though I was in the water Wednesday and left Sunday. $600 out the door, less than half what I think I will pay any other boat yard on this trip. The trip over was smooth, and the first thing I did was fill up with Diesel. Put 50 gallons in the port tank (so only had three gallons left and I was using that tank... oops..), and 20 in the starboard tank, plus filled 3 - 5 gallon jerry jugs, so added 85 gallons of fuel to the aft end of the boat. Now we are riding a little lower. I always dread the next step, which is getting into the narrow fairway and slips they like to put us. I paced it off, and there is only 60 feet max in the fairway, and this is reduced by the distance boats stick out (frequently up to 10 feet) and the space you need to leave when you turn. Strider is about 48 or so feet with the davits and anchor overhangs. It just does not allow for much room, and there is a tidal current to help you deal with the narrow slips. Add in the fact I never back in a slip so I have no practice (or maybe no skill...), and it is always fun. This time was no different and I caught the outboard on one of the posts as I tried to back in. Nothing hurt but my pride, and I did get it lined up on the second attempt. With the potential for a nasty brush with Hurricane Matthew and the fact that I was leaving the boat for a couple of weeks, so I could not keep an eye on things I asked if I could go to a bigger slip. They said fine, and now I am in a 65 foot slip with lots of room.  The boats around me are an Amel 64 and a Surprise 55. Not bad dock mates, although they make the boat looks small....

On Monday Oct 3, I drained and by passed the hot water heater and put some bleach through the water system to clean out some odor in the water lines to the aft head and aft shower. They don't get used much and after 9 years of no treatment, they seem to have picked up something that makes the water smell. This would be easy to do every spring, so I will add it to the spring work list.
I was worried that some big boat would not be able to get a slip because we were in a 70 foot slip, and offered to move to a smaller slip (there were many open 55 foot slips). They said I was fine and saw no issues with me leaving before the hurricane. Just tie the boat up well. So we will spend the next 30 days tied far from each side in a happy spot to ride out a storm. The Hurricane track seems to be headed right for Hampton, which is not a great feeling.

Tuesday was spent tweaking the lines and adding 4 new 3/4 inch mooring lines to the set up. Many of my dock lines were fairly old and UV damage can significantly weaken the dock lines, so I replaced the oldest lines with new, stronger ones and put these lines at key points on the boat (like the bow posts and stern tie offs). I  was preparing the boat for a direct hit from Matthew. People seemed pretty concerned Monday and Tuesday, with many boats being hauled out and many others coming to the marina we are at for “protection”.  The storm track as recently as Tuesday night seemed to show a potential direct hit to Norfolk. By the end of the day, Strider is tied up almost comically secure in that I have 16 lines out, tied in as many redundant ways as a nervous engineer could think of!
The Dingy is strapped down, and I think we are ready. The storm is still headed for us as of Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning, the storm track had suddenly been shifted away from Hampton and as I boarded my flight home, the track forecast was now calling for the storm to hook out to sea well south of Hampton and miss the marina. We shall see, but I decided it was worth a selfie to celebrate before I flew home.

The worst of the weather came through on Saturday and Saturday night. Hampton was hit hard as this report from John (who helped me out at Cobb's and has a cat moored there) states:
We made it ok overall.  No power for 36 hours and a lot of tree damage but we were spared the flooding that so many around here experienced.  It seems the only boat damage was to the dinghy. It was flat when I got to the boat.

A lot of neighborhoods are still without power and many of the streets are still underwater. It's great business for towing companies, roofers and anyone with a chainsaw or a sump pump.

John

The folks on the boat tied on the other side of our dock left for a hotel during the storm, but were kind enough to send me photos of Strider taken Sunday the 9th. The boat did fine, and even my carpet scrap managed to stay on the dock so folks can wipe their feet when they visit!

The boat was on its own from 10/5 to 10/18 when I came back out to check on things.

I got back to the boat on Oct 18 and things looked fine. Just a little mold in the fridge as I had the boat shut up pretty air tight so the rain and humidity was the big issue. I got the Genoa put on, singled up on the mooring lines and cleaned things some.

Wednesday Oct 19 continued to put things together. Put up the Bimini, fired up the SSB and ran the antenna (which I had wrapped around the backstay in preparation for the storm). Flew back on Thursday.

On Oct 26th, Cheryl and I came out started the final prep work. After a huge pile of groceries were acquired, Cheryl started cooking dinners she would freeze and we enjoyed the  whole trip down. Spend the three days Cheryl was here filling jerry jugs, double checking engine fluids, tightening belts, and rigging, and attending Salty Dawg Seminars. We met a few of the other Dawgs, including two from Lake Michigan, which was fun. Both of these had sold everything and moved aboard a boat to do long term cruising. On Oct 29th, took Cheryl to the airport for her 8am flight home.

Oct 30th and 31 were spent getting the last of the supplies and the remaining groceries (2 carts worth as Walmart). The weather seemed to change daily going from a predicted windless trip to needing to leave Tuesday to avoid a low.

The fleet is gathered and weather windows are a constant topic of conversation.

In the end, we decided to leave as soon as we could on the Nov 1st, and moved up Mark's flight to early the mooring of the 1st, so we could leave when Bill and Tom arrived around 6pm on the 1st. I did some last minute repair work as I discovered the macerator which drains the aft head overboard was not working. I had a spare, so I swapped it out, still did not work. I decided the issue was electrical and maybe also a blocked vent, but there was no time left (or enthusiasm) to chase this further. We would pump overboard on the trip down anyway, so I will fix this in the Islands....

We are ready and it is time to go!

Here is a link with the details of the crossing to the BVI from Hampton VA.