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Saturday night was celebration time. The Bell’Avventuras took Corpus Christi by storm. After a quick cocktail with Steven the bartender at Landry’s, the restaurant on our dock (talk about being within drunk walking distance of your boat), we met friends Doug, Amanda, and Sarah at The Executive Surf club for food, beer, and some great live music. When the band was done, we hit the local "Trendy" club, where the scene was way too "trendy", and then went on to Cassidy’s Irish Pub. The band was pounding out Motown R&B and we were drinking pints as fast as Zena the warrior princess bartender could pour them. As a lubricant, vast quantities of alcohol always brings out the best in everyone. We were dancing and reminiscing about our sailing adventure and the good times we’d had in the Keys. Someone brought up Tony’s tattoo, which he’d gotten in Key West to commemorate his first big offshore passage. We haven’t seen it yet but the compass rose he’d gotten must look pretty cool on his calf. We closed down the bar and headed back towards the dock where Bell’Avventura was waiting for us in her new home. Given our state of coherence at the time, it was inevitable that something special would happen, something that would mark the end of this adventure, and be a harbinger of the adventures yet to come. Thanks for the inspiration Tony…

27,47.847N 097,23.419W

Making the most of the misty light air, we sailed pass the Port Aransas Sea buoy at 02:10 and then cranked up the iron jenny to motor through the Port Aransas jetty and into the Aransas Pass channel. At this time of day, we were just about the only boat moving on the glassy water. Making the turn to port at the start of the Corpus Christi channel, we picked up the range lights and headed towards the home stretch – crossing the Corpus Christi bay.
We were examined by a few curious dolphins, who were probably still up this early on Saturday morning from a raucous Friday night playing with the Port A ferry, which we passed on the way.
We motored clear of the channel and out into the bay, where we were met with the northerly wind shift that foreshadowed the coming front, forecast to arrive later this weekend. We set sail for a final reprise, a fitting finish for a sail of 898nm from Key West. Dropping sails just in front of the Corpus Christi City Marina, Bell’Avventura’s new home, we motored in and backed her into her slip at 06:40.
We’ve sailed a total of 2336nm since leaving Stamford, CT. With almost a year spent in planning and preparation, our adventure has taken a mere 3 weeks in execution. It’s hard to sum it all up, but let me put it this way:
Food for four for 3 weeks – $900
Whisker pole used for just 4 hours – $1000
Fishing tackle to catch fresh fish – $80
Diesel fuel – $200
Bar tab in the Dry Tortugas – $0
Bar tab(s) in Key West – $2000
Beach BBQ in the Marquesas with fresh caught Mahi Mahi – $0
Brunch at Pepe’s in Key West – $125
The experience of sailing your own boat from CT to TX via Key West for your 50th birthday – priceless.
Thanks to all the Bell’Avventuras who sailed and/or supported this voyage. See you on the next one.
Capt. Jay

27,11.660N 095,38.376W

The white lights turned out to be large ships, just out of sight below the horizon. The one we were heading toward turned out to be the ship Not Under Command, who was indeed showing the two red lights. We passed a few miles away, while they drifted helplessly downwind. Presumably they had all the help they needed as they didn’t hail us, or any of the other passing ships that night.

Having received an updated Gulf Stream current chart from our friend Steve Jones, I’m pleased to report that we’ve hit the last two eddies just right and are on our way over the top of the last eddie between us and Port Aransas, gaining a bit of fair current on the way.
Steve – we got your sms regarding XM weather and car rental options – thanks! We’ll handle the car rental when we get in. Steve deserves a big THANK YOU for all the help with weather analysis and other logistics while we are out on the water.

Having put up with some light air over the past couple of days, we’re happy to be blast reaching under #2 jib and single reefed main in 20-30 knots of SE wind. The seas are 5-10 feet, with the occasional bigger wave launching spray over the cockpit. It’s warm and sunny and we’re just enjoying the ride as we close in on Port A. We’ll be hitting the area of dense oil rigs tonight after dark, but as luck would have it, we’ve had another bit of serendipity on this trip. With all the navigation across the Gulf focused on playing the eddies and the weather, we really hadn’t spent any time picking the spot we’d hit the rigs. As it turns out, our rhumb line into Port A is smack down the middle of the fairway of clear passage charted just for this purpose. After sailing over 850nm, we’ve hit the one spot that is exactly where we’d want to be when sailing through rig country.

Speaking of mileage, we had a 144nm day yesterday and today’s mileage is 141nm.

We’ve got just under 100nm to go and we’re should be arriving in Corpus Christi tomorrow afternoon or evening. It’s going to be interesting sailing through the rigs at night, but with the fairway on the chart to guide us, not especially challenging. Everyone is enjoying the ride so far but a few pints at the Executive Surf Club is starting to sound pretty good. We plan to be there tomorrow night…

Bridget and Jay are on another pleasant midnight to 04:00 watch. The wind is 20 knots true, off Bell’Avventura’s port quarter. We sailing along at 6-8 knots, heading straight for Port Aransas. Seas are 3-5 feet and it’s warm enough to go barefoot, though we’re wearing our foulies against the moist southern air.
The shooting stars are putting on quite a show tonight with their wide and long orange tails. We see 3 or 4 every hour.
There are several areas of white light on the horizon. As we’re still over 150nm offshore, it seems unlikely that these are city lights. Perhaps these are oil platforms, though the chart says these are still 128nm away. We’re steering towards one, so maybe we’ll find out what it is if we get there before daylight.
We have an AIS hit 12nm off our starboard bow. The info says she’s the Filippa, a cargo ship bound for Houston. What’s interesting about her is she’s listed as Not Under Command. Perhaps the crew has mutinied, but more likely she’s probably broken down. We’re going to pass within 3nm miles of her in the next 1-2 hours, it’ll be interesting to see if she’s displaying the proper 2 red lights that will confirm this status. Maybe she’ll radio us to ask for help…

26,04.769N 093,06.147W

Yesterday was dolphin day. In the morning, we had a pod of 10 or so dolphins come play on our bow wave. They only stuck around a few minutes and took off in a pack. But late in the afternoon, we had 10-15 come by and they stayed for over 15 minutes, giving us plenty of time to take pictures and video. Different from the first pod, they didn’t all leave at the same time. A couple would swim away every now and then and eventually, the last pair dove off into the deep. But it wasn’t over yet. One came back on it’s own, and played another few minutes before leaving for good. It was a magical moment in a day spent motoring without much wind to sail by.
We had Mahi sashimi for lunch and marinated Mahi steak for dinner. Everyone was up for a sundowner at sunset. The sky was completely clear on the horizon, making this a good day to watch for the green flash. As the sun sunk down into the water, there was discussion about whether or not the flash had happened. We’ll have to review the video to see.
We motored on into the night, waiting for the 10 knots of breeze promised in the forecast. Around 22:00 we managed to set sail and motor sailed till 01:00, when the breeze finally hit 10 knots and we could kill the motor.
Bridget and Jay had a pleasant midnight to 04:00 watch, sailing along in the warm SE breeze, just watching the occasional shooting stars. We sailed by our first oil rig of the trip, some 10nm off in the distance. According to the AIS information, it was listed as “Stena DrillMax”, resticted maneuverability. We assume it was a floating drill platform. It was light up like a Christmas tree, quite the sight in the otherwise dark and star lit horizon. Hopefully, all the obstacles coming up will be lit half as well.
We’re sailing through a northbound Gulf Stream current coming off the top of a warm eddie that’s south of us. We’re steering to stay south of the bottom of a cold eddie northwest of our position in order to avoid the counter current there. We should be passed that in about 10-15 hours and in position to correctly take advantage of the last two eddies between us and Port Aransas.
Jay and Bridget passed through the 2000th nautical mile sailed to date since they left Stamford, CT on 11/9. It’s been a great trip so far.
It’s Thanksgiving Day and we’re getting ready to have Mahi ceviche and grilled burgers and dogs for Thanksgiving. We also have some sliced deli turkey to go with the rest to make it officially Thanksgiving on Bell’Avventura. We wish everyone everywhere a day full of food, fun with friends and family, and the obligatory football game after over indulging in your Thanksgiving feast.
Capt. Jay

A special Thanksgiving wish and thank you to Val, Ryan, Lewie,Ivy and James for holding down the fort, taking care of the critters and keeping my business afloat.. I’d be lost without you! :> I miss you guys and look forward to seeing you all when I get home! I look forward to having you ALL over for another Belgian Waffle Brunch and Fooz Ball rematch! Love to all, Bridget

Stephan and Stephie, special Thanksgiving wishes to you and the family. Thanks for taking care of our kiddies while we’ve been away. Looking forward to sharing margaritas and sea stories on the deck with you when we get back.
Jay and Bridget

Happy turkey day to Rachel, Tommy, Jessie, Michael, Allie, Becca, Tanner, Bridget, Peter, Andrew and Nick. I miss you guys a whole bunch and I hope to see you soon. Have some turkey and play some games at home for Chris and I. Love to you. Aunt JJ

25,47.648N 090,30.738W

After the dual Mahi incident, we had good sailing through the afternoon and into the evening. In fact, it was so good, we put in the first mains’l reef around sunset. Bridget and Jay enjoyed a sundowner while Chris and Julie snoozed a bit before their watch.
We were sailing close hauled and Bell’Avventura was pretty lively. This cut off the option for grilling the Mahi so we settled for oven baked buns and minestrone soup. This was pretty tasty until Jay put his mug down for a second and Bam Bam the autopilot decided to have one of those wave moments – you know, the kind where anything loose gets launched? Jay ended up wearing half his minestrone.
Chris and Julie had come on deck to enjoy dinner as well. Not wanting to miss the fun, Julie had come up before donning her foul weather jacket and was in the process of putting it on when Bam Bam pounded the bottom. The resulting deluge of spray hit Julie full on as she sat just far enough outside the dodger in what we now call the wet zone. At least her minestrone didn’t get launched.
The wind started to lessen as we went through the northbound Gulf Stream current around midnight. The seas were large and lumpy do to the adverse current and wind direction. Once past, the seas settled down, but so did the wind. We were motoring again at 01:00.
After motoring the early hours of Wed 11/26, morning dawned bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. The wind finally filled in to the forecast 10 knots, and we set sail and shutdown the iron genny.
Bridget and Jay had a nice breakfast, lounging in the chairs they’d placed up on the foredeck. The cool breeze flowing through the slot between the genoa and main up in front of the mast was refreshing. The big activity of the morning was trying to get a picture of the man-o-wars that were sailing by now and again. This is akin to playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship. You don’t actually accomplish anything but you feel good about it.
We’ve reset the ship’s clock to central standard time. This was done now, sort of because it’s about time to do so, but mostly because Jay forgot to make the 10:00 log entry so he decided to change the clock as a cover up. Our blog posts will now be arriving roughly around 13:00 EST.
In the last 24 hours, we’ve made 163nm, quite a good run do to the Gulf Stream current push we’d gotten. As of now, the wind has collapsed so we’re motoring again, hoping it’ll fill in to 10 knots again. The forecast for today and tomorrow is no better than 10 knots, so this is going to be a slow part of the trip. The good news is Mahi sushi and grilled Mahi is on the lunch menu for sure. We’ve rigged the boom tent, given to Jay as a Bon Voyage present by fellow Stamford liveaboard Matt Burleigh, to shade the cockpit. While we enjoy lunch in the shade, we’ll be praying for more wind…

Capt. Jay and Bridget

From Chris & Julie:
Love to kiddos and all back at home. We miss you all and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

25,27.678’N 087,34.254’W

As the sunset last night, everyone was napping except Jay, who was on watch with a sundowner of special Puerto Rican rum, the kind you can’t get in the States. The rum was a Bon Voyage gift from Stamford dockmates Geoffrey and Elizabeth Wozney and this was the perfect place and time to sip it.
In the fading orange light, it was time to pull in the fishing line. Just as Jay reached for the line, the snubber went taught – our first strike of the day! Grabbing the hand line, Jay felt a major jerk and then nothing. The fish had gotten off the hook.
Reeling in the line, Jay found nothing on the end except the 45lb test swivel, ripped open and bent straight. The fish hadn’t got off after all, it had been big enough to mangle the swivel instead. Somewhere out there is a large fish with a green skirted squid hanging out of its mouth, another victim of Bell’Avventura’s amateur anglers. Tony – that was my squid, but we’re using your tackle today…
After blasting out of Key West with the front pushing us, we finally ran into the high pressure in filling into the Gulf, shutting down the good breeze. After sunset, the winds were 0-5 knots and variable. We resigned ourselves to motoring through the night, the upside being a complete recharge of our batteries.
Come sunrise, the wind slowly built and by 08:30 we had a 10 knot breeze and we were once again sailing upwind in calm seas. The sounds of the wind and water replaced the ever popular diesel noise, making breakfast peaceful.
We managed a 144Nm day, not bad considering we had to motor about 12 hours or so. That’s about it for now, see you on the next blog…what’s that? It’s Bridget calling “Fish on the Line!!!”. Hold the phone…
34 minutes goes by…
We all ran to the stern platform and there was a Mahi Mahi on the line. We decided to roll up the genoa to slow the boat. Julie commented “They usually strike in pairs.”
Sure enough, before we got the genoa in, we had a second Mahi on the other line. This time the Bell’Avventuras weren’t going to come up empty handed.
The boat slowed down, we pulled in the first fish and landed it. A quick picture was taken, then we pulled in the second fish and had both on deck, ready to fillet.
With instruction from Julie and Chris, Jay proceeded to do the dirty work, making these beautiful creatures into delectable dinner material. It’s hard to rationalize this taking of life for one’s own needs, but it’s clear that they’re part of the underwater food chain, and we’re just higher up that chain. Bridget stayed below, hopefully atoning for all of us carnivores for this act of semi-violence.
We’re back on course, on a fast close reach on our way to Corpus. The Gulf Stream has behaved as predicted and we motored through the southbound current during the night, and have had fair current of the south side or a warm eddie till now. We’re heading into a northbound flow on it’s west side now, which will elevator us up to top of another cold eddie, where we’ll gain more fair current for a while.
Tonight looks promising, with fresh Mahi, fair winds, a tot of rum, and good company.

24,58.839N 084,54.776W

It’s 01:15 and Jay and Bridget are on watch, over 200 miles from the nearest land. We’re motoring through a no wind area, the water is calm, the stars bright, and there’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned on this voyage so far.
Spend a few days in a car or a boat, and most of us get in tune with the sounds and physical touch and feel that go with the environment. Sailing for days in various conditions on Bell’Avventura, we’ve heard all kinds of sounds – sailing sounds, engine sounds, water sounds. There were those we expected and those we didn’t. The ones we didn’t posed a question that needed answering: was it a new, but OK sound? Or is it the sound of something going wrong that needed to be fixed?
Likewise, a boat has a certain feel. You get used to her motion through the waves and the feel of the helm when driving. When something out of the ordinary happens, you feel the difference and you wonder – is this a problem or not?
Looking back over the first leg of this trip, we had a few noises and feelings to resolve. What follows are a sampling of these.
In a previous post, we described picking up a crab pot. The tip off was the change in performance of the boat – she felt slower and didn’t seem to be holding course as well as she should. The instruments confirmed this and we knew we had a problem to solve. The fix was a bit of luck when we fired up the motor after backing down and the buoys got chewed up and off where ever they’d been stuck.
When we were just about turning into the Key West marina basin, the wheel developed a sticky, stiff feel. Everyone began trying the wheel, moving it back and forth and proclaiming “yeah, that’s harder to turn than before” and “it wasn’t like that the last time I drove”. Diving into each stern lazaratte, Jay checked the steering quadrant and cables for obstructions and came up empty handed.
Getting a bit concerned, as we didn’t want to go maneuvering about in a crowded marina with a potential steering issue, the search for an explanation continued. Robert stepped into the cockpit and headed down to look for other issues. Just then, the wheel froze. This is the Captain’s nightmare unfolding in real time. You’re in entering a crowded marina and you can’t steer the boat.
Jay had the wheel at the time. Heart in mouth, wheel frozen solid in his hands, brain working in hyper-speed. All the steering gear had been checked to no avail. What else could it be? What had just changed? Robert had just left the cockpit – could that be a clue?
Feeling a bit like driving a run-away train into a crowded depot, Jay knows a good Captain never let’s the crew know when he’s believes the ship is going down – that way they don’t panic and get in your way when they’re about to go under.
Casting a casual, but frantic glance around the cockpit where Robert had stepped, Jay hoped for a miracle. And there it was, a fender was lodged under the wheel. We’d put them on the cockpit sole in preparation for rigging them on Bell’Avventura’s side once we knew which side they needed to go on. One had gotten under the wheel, making it feel sticky, and Robert’s heel had pushed it firmly in place when he’d stepped out of the cockpit, freezing the wheel.
Calmly kicking the fender out from under the wheel, Jay announced “problem solved” and made a perfect landing at the fuel dock.
When we were pounding up wind, a number of creaks and groans became apparent in Bell’Avventura’s interior. There was some concern about this as it wasn’t clear whether the sounds were a symptom of some serious rig-related problem, or something more benign. We certainly didn’t want the mast falling down in the middle of the Gulf Stream, 200 miles from anywhere.
Robert, a Beneteau dealer, began some diagnosis. Putting his ear to the bulkheads like a doctor listening to patient’s chest, he carefully began his diagnosis.
“See, when a boat is pounding through the waves for a couple of days, it’s not unusual for the interior to make these sounds”.
This statement was followed by a bit of explanation of the manufacturing process regarding the bonding of the interior to the hull.
Robert proceeded to remove the trim panels around the top of the compression post, as the examination continued.
“Note that this particular noise goes away when the panels are loosened up a bit. Probably just the wood swelling a little after being in the humid cabin for this long”.
Jay, Bell’Avventura’s owner, took this in with a sign of relief. The cabin was indeed warm and humid after being closed up for a couple of days. It sure was nice having a dealer on board who really knew these boats inside and out. Luckily, these sounds were OK, nothing to worry about.
Tony, himself a boat owner, had been watching and listening to this exchange. His input didn’t require surgical precision.
“That sounds like dealer-speak to me.”
With that, “Talk like a Dealer” day became a theme for the remainder of the trip. Similar to “Talk like a Pirate” Day, when everyone puts “Aargh” and “Matey” at the end of every sentence, “Talk like a Dealer” day has everyone providing a simple explanation for all potential boat problems. We laughed about this for days. If this doesn’t sound that funny as you read it, try it again after you’ve been offshore for a week.
Robert, who thought the joke was just as funny as the rest of us, was, however, spot on as he usually is. There was nothing serious about the sounds we’d heard. He is, in my opinion, the best dealer Beneteau has and there’s no better shipmate one could hope to have on board.
Likewise, Tony and Bridget provided the remaining ingredients to make for a perfect offshore passage.

24,58.839N 084,54.776W

I apologize for the two brief previous posts. Between prepping the boat for the next leg, and having a ton of fun the rest of the time, there just wasn’t time to write up a comprehensive blog. I also wanted to post the pictures while still on broadband connection to Key West so I had to hurry to type up the entries and mail them in while underway. They came to you from on the water just south of Woman Key on our way out from Key West.
We left Key West a day earlier than planned as the front that came through on Saturday night provided an excellent weather window for our departure. We’re riding downwind in 15-20knots of NE to E winds, which will last through today. The winds will get lighter over the next couple of days so we may be motoring a bit in the near future.
Chris and Julie have settled in nicely, and everyone is relaxing and getting into the groove of our offshore routine. The fishing line is set and we’re waiting for our first catch. I’m not sure what we’re going to do without Tony to carve up the catch though.
The moon no longer guides our way at night, instead we have brilliant stars and the Milky Way as companions now. The occasional falling star makes for interesting viewing while on watch. All that beauty comes with a bit of trepidation as we’ll have to keep a sharp lookout later in the week as we approach oil rig territory closer to shore.
We’re playing the Gulf Stream eddies just as we did on the first leg. Inside the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Stream has a number of interesting eddies that make route planning something of a jig saw puzzle. We’ve spent this first day riding the north edge of a cold eddie, gaining some fair current. We’ll be hitting the east edge of a large south bound current that we’ll need to punch through before hitting the south edge of a warm eddie and picking up fair current there for quite a while. All this assumes that the current analysis we’re using is reasonably correct. So far it appears to be on target. We’ll know when we hit the south bound current as our track should bend south at that point.
Traffic has been very light. Just before sunset, we were taking in a single reef in the main’sl, when a fishing boat came up our stern. They trailed us for about 5 minutes, running about 1/4 mile directly behind us, with all the guys on deck just looking at us. This was a bit disconcerting, so Jay pulled out the sat phone in case we needed to let someone know if anything suspicious happened. Jay got on the VHF to call them but at that point they left and didn’t return. Maybe taking in a reef made them think we might have been in trouble and they were just standing by to lend a hand if needed. No worries.
Things are going smoothly and maybe we’ll all get a chance to crack a book on this leg. We’re off to a good start, logging 183nm in our first 24 hours.

24,33.795N 081,48.075W

We sailed into Key West on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The crew got busy cleaning Bell’Avventura in preparation for the arrival of the long-awaited wives and friends. Jay’s fraternity brother Kurt Bosshardt flew his Cessna 172 down from the mainland and met Jay and the crew at the Half-Shell Raw bar that evening for what would be the kick-off to a special birthday weekend for Jay – his 50th.
Saturday, Kurt took everyone up for an ariel tour of Key West, before flying off to a Ratdog concert in Ft. Lauderdale with fellow Pi-man Jack Miller. Everyone was thrilled with the plane rides and the day just got better and better after that.
A few chores done and provisioning complete, the party got started at Schooner Warf. Without giving away too many details, the party went long into the night, and we all survived it with smiles.
Sunday came way too fast, and after an excellent brunch at Pepe’s, good byes were said all around and Bell’Avventura, with new crew Chris and Julie taking Robert and Tony’s place on board, headed west for Texas.
Tony, good luck with that tattoo…