Cindy's posts:

Ft. Lauderdale, Jan. 14 - 20

Finally, Ft. Lauderdale!  We started bringing Avventura down the east coast in short trips starting in the fall of 2015, she has now traversed almost the entire intracoastal waterway.  We didn't  get to spend enough time at the many nice stops along the way but we made it to our destination - from here we launch to the Caribbean!

Our first night in the marina our delightful neighbors, Marty and Hernan, adopted us.  We had several meals with them throughout the week and they were not only immensely gracious and entertaining, but they had much excellent advice for us from their 10 years of living aboard their beautiful sail boat, Oceanaire.

Hernan and Marty

 They introduced us to another fun crusing couple, Vicki and Mike, who joined our party a couple of nights.  The last night we were there they posted a "for sale" sign on our boat while we were out and had someone call my phone to inquire..  Then they invited us to to sign their guest book which turned out to be anatomically correct coloring books!

Between fun nights with our new friends we got a lot of work done on the boat and made many provisioning trips.  Unfortunately didn't get to see much of Ft. Lauderdale, we were across the street from the beautiful, well maintained beach but didn't have a day to lay on it.  I did sit there for half an hour one day and put my toes in the sand, a little teaser for our next destination :)

Skipper Dan and our excellent crew mate John Keller arrived on Friday night.  Tomorrow we sail for the islands!.

Into the Ocean Jan. 21 - 30, 2017

We made the 3 pm bridge opening out of Lauderdale and were almost immediately rockin' and rollin' in the gulf stream.  Our dodger was not secure on one side so we got several salt water showers.  The next 24 hours we 3 felt pretty puny while Skipper Dan was not phased.  We ate snacks from the snack basket for dinner (I knew I couldn't stay down below to cook) and were very glad to arrive in the Berry Islands The next morning where we dropped anchor to wait out some high winds. We spent 36 hours there, I cooked the tuna  Skipper Dan had caught with his hand line while he and the boys worked on fine tuning the boat and making repairs, including the dodger!  Dan really knew our boat and left it in much better condition than he found it, we were very fortunate to have hired him.  That night we watched the movie "Idiocracy" and all agreed that it was scarily prescient.

Tuesday morning we set off for the long passage to St. Thomas. The wind and seas were improving and we were getting our sea legs so everyone was more comfortable. The next several days we sailed some and motored some, I cooked, we all read our books, Skipper listened to his pod casts,  I knitted. We saw occasional flying fish, one or two birds, mostly just sparkling sea.  The star field at night was spectacular, Venus was as bright as the moon and we could see many constellations clearly.  A type of plankton floating on the surface would become phosphorescent at night when disturbed by our prop and wake.

The last 2 days were pretty rocky and rolly again but we weathered it better.  It's just hard to sleep when the boat is heeling and you have to keep a death grip on the side rail to keep from sliding off!  We were supposed to have lee cloths for this trip which create a sort of sling to hold you in bed but our canvas guy did not complete them in time.  We won't make another passage without them!

Finally made land fall at St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, on Monday morning after 1040 miles and 9 days at sea.   It had rained some that last night and the sky was gray but it was very exciting to see that island through the clouds!  By the time we arrived the sun was out and it was our first beautiful day in paradise.  Looking forward to many more!

Our layover in the Bahamas

Skipper Dan caught a tuna

Our fearless leader

Land ho!

Beard boys after 9 days at sea

Rob's post:

Oh so glad to end our long trip down the Intracoastal Waterway, where the water is too shallow for Avventura and the bridge clearances on our mast can be measured in inches.  The last two days into Lauderdale entailed 21 drawbridges, nearly all of which you must wait for specific opening times.

As Cindy detailed, our offshore adventure got off to a rocky start with a miserable night crossing of the Gulf Stream into the Bahamas.  The middle part of our journey was literally wonderful, as in full of wonders.  Here are just a few:

• With little moonlight, our night watches were spectacular.  Venus lit up the sky like the moon.  Orion became an old friend, with his belt, dagger scabbard and "power stance" limbs very clearly seen.  The Milky Way spread out in all its glory, giving shape to the constellations in a way we never see on land. Aldeberan, Sirius, Cappella, Polaris, Canopis and other stars cemented in my memory.  The Southern Cross peeking up over the horizon.
• Watching Skipper Dan catch, land and filet two magnificent tuna, all caught on a simple hand line.  We also caught and released a baby blue marlin, only 18-20 pounds.
• We were visited by several pods of small porpoises far out in the Atlantic.  These fellows were only about 3 feet long, and maybe 60-80 pounds.  They were in groups of 5-6 and would race over to us, playing in our bow wake.  They seemed to be quite excited to see us, jumping and spinnning.  Clearly they would look up at us as we were looking at them, sometimes only 6-10 feet away.  After 7- 10 minutes of this, they would get bored and disappear.
• I was struck by how little traffic we saw out in the Atlantic once we got thru the Bahamas.  Just a few freighters far off in over 800 miles of ocean sailing.  It's really empty out there.
• The mindset in the middle of a passage is genuinely trippy.  The boat rocks, you look at the ocean for hours on end and you think about your life, family and the BIG QUESTIONS.  In a way you surrender to the fact that you are a long way from land and we will get there when we get there, all at 6- 7 miles per hour.  A 160 mile day is very good.
• Avventura is strong, certainly stronger than us, and is a capable passage-maker.  The systems generally worked well, despite some scares that the fridge and freezer were on the edge of failure.
• My wife is one tough sailor.  Cindy handled the lack of privacy, limited showers and other discomforts of the passage and cooked magnificent meals for us in her rocking little galley every day.  She baked bread, roasted chicken and made pot roast and mashed potatoes.  Never has a crew on a sailboat passage been so well fed.
• Sleep on a rocking boat is often hard, so passage-making involves a good measure of sleep deprivation.  Lots of catnaps punctuated by very odd dreams.
• There is an indescribable joy in making landfall at the end of a passage, particular one like this where the last few days were uncomfortable.

Kudos to Skipper Dan Voloppi, who has over 200,000 ocean miles behind him.  His weather routing, boat management and sail trim decisions were invaluable.  We had complete faith in Dan and he got us here safely.

Special thanks to my old friend John Keller, an excellent sailor and crew member.  Despite some leaks onto his bunk, he was always in good spirits, cheerful and excellent company.  His 4th set of hands made the passage much easier and allowed for a watch schedule that provided better sleep for everyone.  Thanks John for being the best crew member we could have ever hoped for!  I'd go anywhere with you.

We have now put something over 2200 miles on Avventura over the past 16 months.  We are still learning this boat, but we can no longer claim to be complete novices and I think that I can handle this boat for the short hops down the Caribbean that are ahead of us.  The long hard passage is behind and now the extended vacation can begin!