How easy it is to make friends on the water, and yet, some folks evidently need help. For years we’ve been successful at avoiding the many organized rallies and races that have sprung up all over the world. Crowds of boats pay big bucks to cling together on the same itinerary, trying not to collide while crisscrossing each other’s paths en route and clogging the best anchorages and marinas at their destinations. Their money goes to the organizers of skipper meetings, weather briefings, parties and t-shirts. We took part in the Marion to Bermuda Race over twenty years ago when Halekai was first launched. We found it to be a big waste of money and vowed: never again.

Just the day before we passed through Norfolk Harbor, not one but two rallies with a total of 111 boats left together for the Caribbean. AND twenty boats departed the same day on the first annual ICW Snowbird Rally! Each boat paid $750 for the privilege of being led down the well-buoyed path, stopping to party along the way. Luckily the internet allows us to keep track of them on their website. They chose the Dismal Swamp route from Norfolk so we didn’t encounter them on our first stretch south along the Virginia Cut.