The Salty Dawg Sailing Association DownEast Rally incorporated 32 boats departing from Hampton, Va., Annapolis, Md., and various New England ports that gathered initially in Newport, R. I., then over the following weeks there were coordinated gatherings in Massachusetts and Maine before eventually concluding in Penobscot Bay. Thereafter the boats were on their own to return to their home ports or wherever the wind took them. I was part of a 3 person crew on a 49’ Solent rigged sloop that left Solomon’s Island, Md., for Hampton, departed with the Hampton fleet for Newport, then on to Maine, and back to Solomon’s Island via the Cape Cod Canal, Block Island, the Race, Long Island Sound, Hell Gate, the East River, the New Jersey coast, Delaware Bay, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and down the Chesapeake Bay to the home port of Solomon’s Island.
7/3 Prepare boat for departure
7/4-5 Solomon’s Island to Hampton
7/6-8 Prepare boat for sea
7/9-11 Hampton to Harbor of Refuge off Pt. Judith, R. I.
7/12-13 At anchor, Newport
7/14 To Cuttyhunk, MA
7/15 To Mattapoisett, MA
7/16-17 Through Cape Cod Canal to Rockland, ME
7/18-20 At anchor, Rockland, ME
7/20 To Pulpit Harbor, ME
7/21 To Buck’s Harbor, ME
7/22 To Belfast, ME
7/24 To Northeast Harbor, ME
7/25 To Vinalhaven Harbor, ME
7/26-27 To Rockland, ME and 2 nights at anchor
7/28 To Boothbay Harbor, ME
7/29-31 To South Portland, ME
8/1 To York River Maine
8/2 To Gloucester, ME
8/3-4 To Salem, MA
8/5 To Situate, MA
8/6 Through Cape Cod Canal to Mattapoisett, MA
8/7 To Pt. Judith (Harbor of Refuge), R. I.
8/8 To Block Is., R. I.
8/9 To Montauk, NY
8/10 To Old Saybrook, CT
8/11 To Bridgeport, CT
8/12-13 To Stamford, CT
8/14 Through Hell Gate, down East River to Sandy Hook, NJ
8/15 To Atlantic City, NJ
8/16 To Cape May, NJ
8/17 Up Delaware Bay and through Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to Chesapeake City, MD
8/18-19 To Annapolis including 2 nights on mooring
8/20 To Solomon’s Island