Connecticut to Texas or Bust!

This One's for Tony

BellAvventura — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:45:00 +0100

Saturday night was celebration time. The Bell’Avventuras took Corpus Christi by storm. After a quick cocktail with Steven the bartender a...

Early Morning at Corpus Christi

BellAvventura — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:03:49 +0100

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 cranke...

The Answer Is...

BellAvventura — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:17:44 +0100

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 head...

Not Under Command

BellAvventura — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:49:35 +0100

Bridget and Jay are on another pleasant midnight to 04:00 watch. The wind is 20 knots true, off Bell’Avventura’s port quarter....

Thankful for Dolphins and Miles

BellAvventura — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:48:13 +0100

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. ...

Less Wind, More Motor

BellAvventura — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:10:17 +0100

25,47.648N 090,30.738W

After the dual Mahi incident, we had good sailing through the afternoon and into the evening. In fact, i...

The Big One that Got Away, and Those That Didn't

BellAvventura — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:44:19 +0100

25,27.678’N 087,34.254’W

As the sunset last night, everyone was napping except Jay, who was on watch with a ...

The Frozen Wheel and Talk like a Dealer Day

BellAvventura — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:48:40 +0100

24,58.839N 084,54.776W

It’s 01:15 and Jay and Bridget are on watch, over 200 miles from the nearest land. We̵...

Good start crossing the Gulf of Mexico

BellAvventura — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:59:16 +0100

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 to...

Milestone Birthday in Key West

BellAvventura — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:28:14 +0100

24,33.795N 081,48.075W

We sailed into Key West on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The crew got busy cleaning Bell’Avven...

Beach Party in the Marquesas

BellAvventura — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:19:42 +0100

After leaving the Dry Tortugas on 11/20/08, we headed for the Marquesas keys. On the way, we hooked two mackerals, one at each line. The small on...

A Dolphin Welcome

BellAvventura — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:57:04 +0100

24,37.578N 082,52.278W

After leaving Key West, we continued out of the Hawk channel and back into the ocean. In fact, we were le...

Key West Fly By

BellAvventura — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:36:59 +0100

24,31.848N 081,48.947W

Cruising down the Hawk Channel, we hadn’t seen a single other vessel all night. Closing on in ...

Electric Calamari

BellAvventura — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:20:08 +0100

Undaunted, we started calling friends to see what suggestions could be had for anchorages and destinations in the Keys. An hour or so later, the d...

Caught without a plan

BellAvventura — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:17:37 +0100

Today started out great. We’d sailed down the coast of Florida all night and managed to hit the Miami cruise ship rush hour at daybreak....

We pass 1000 nautical miles

BellAvventura — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:06:16 +0100

It’s evening here on Bell’Avventura, and we’ve just finished the day’s allowance of sun down drinks. The c...

Sashimi and Chocolate Cake

BellAvventura — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:20:08 +0100

29,17.254N 080,25.773W

The cold front arrived on schedule at 17:00, rolling up behind us in a well-defined roll cloud that spann...

Arrival on the Florida coast

BellAvventura — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:12:01 +0100

29,58.219N 080,27.880W

It’s been an interesting few days offshore, and last night’s wet and wild ride put th...

The Feminine Perspective

BellAvventura — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:50:01 +0100

Bridget here, blogging as requested with the feminine perspective… hmm. where to start??? OK. how’s about day uno? Day uno was ...

Of Fish and Warships

BellAvventura — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:41:01 +0100

A fish story. By Tony

It was this big. Seriously. A gorgeous ten-pound dolphin fish (mahi-

mahi) on the...

Sunny and Warm

BellAvventura — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:35:14 +0100

30,28.897N 078,41.792W

After all the adventures of the last couple of days, I think we forgot to mention that it’s got...

Day 4: Getting the best of the Gulf Stream

BellAvventura — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:20:23 +0100

31,35.255N 076,11.151W

We spent a lot of yesterday looking at the weather and examining our options for playing the Gulf Stream ...

Pole Wrassling - guess who lost?

BellAvventura — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:49:33 +0100

Tony and Jay were on a roll during the 20:00-00:00 watch. Just about a full moon, nice 15-20 knot winds, right on the tail. We’d set the...

SMS from 881641425449@msg.iridium.com

BellAvventura — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:55:19 +0100

GREATSAILINGCONT...

First 24 hour day

BellAvventura — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:45:21 +0100

We’ve been sailing like we stole it since our last posting. Winds have been 20-30knots, right off the starboard quarter, making for fast...

Bon Voyage Dinner

BellAvventura — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 06:31:00 +0100

The day started early, with many final preparations needing to be done. The weather was cooperative though overcast through the morning, allowing v...

Off to a great start

BellAvventura — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:56:20 +0100

40,15.895 073,49.936W

We’re currently off the NJ coast, about 7.5NM east of Elberon, Blackberry Bay, NJ, about 12 hours...

Day 2: Bombs and Poles

BellAvventura — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:56:20 +0100

35,29.591N 075,07.504W

11/10, 21:40 we heard 4 explosions, and could see large light flashes towards shore. We were sailing thr...

Getting Ready

BellAvventura — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:09:00 +0200

Boat preparations have been underway since February. Bell’Avventura has had many upgrades and we’re about done gettin...