Bermuda 2009; Training Cruise #1 Departs

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed Taylors Landing Marina, Norfolk VA before dusk last evening May 27, 2009 after two days of preparation. Aboard CELESTIAL are: Captain Jochen Hoffmann (Arlington, VA), First Mate Jim Bortnem (Hawley, MN), and student crewmembers Jim Wallace (Miramar Beach, FL), Richard Zell (Milford, CT), Allan Zell (Easton, CT) and Mike Mika (Katy, TX). CELESTIAL will make the passage to Bermuda via a planned non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 670 miles, and will take approximately 6 days, sailing both day and night. Please read the COMMENTS to this post where we will follow their ocean cruise with reports from the crew, discussions on weather and reports on actual progress.

This is the first of four back to back ocean passages, between the east coast of the United States and Bermuda. A second student crew will board CELESTIAL in Bermuda for the return trip to Norfolk. Student Jim Wallace from this first cruise will stay aboard for the round trip! It may interest those aspiring ocean sailors to read Jim's post to our blog following his 2007 101 class with The Maryland School, prior to which he had only dreamed of sailing. Since then, Jim has earned his certifications through ASA 107, and has done a significant amount of independent sailing. It gives us great satisfaction to know Jim is living his dream!

Ocean crew departs St Thomas bound for Norfolk Virginia

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed Crown Bay Marina, St Thomas USVI today, May 6, 2009 after two days of preparation. The crewmembers are: Captain David Appleton (New Hope, PA), First Mate Bruce Kachline (Franklin, LA), and student crewmembers Dan Stephenson (Minot, ND), John Peterson (Louisville, KY), Andrei Gasheyev (Philadelphia, PA) and Calvin Stewart (Novi, MI). CELESTIAL will make the passage to Norfolk via a planned non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 1500 miles, and will take approximately 11-13 days, sailing both day and night. Please read the COMMENTS to this post where we will follow their ocean cruise with reports from the crew, discussions on weather and reports on actual progress. Today, Wednesday May 6th, we received this verbal message from Captain Appleton:

"This is David...it's 1648 hours... almost 10 minutes before 5:00 PM. We left Crown Bay Marina at 3:30. We're currently leaving the Virgin Islands at 5:00... we're out of the Caribbean and entering the open Atlantic Ocean. Everybody is just fine so far! We're off a little bit early but we wanted to take advantage of some fairly favorable winds, although the conditions are going to be sloppy. We expect to have winds 16-25 knots, gusting to 40 in squalls. We'll be in 5-10 foot seas. The wind will be out of the E/SE so it will be on our quarter and ought to give us a pretty good boost for the next couple of days, and then things are supposed to lighten up as we get further north. We'll put in a report by Skymate in a couple of days when we can get at it. Right now we're pretty busy with a lot of stuff! We'll talk to you later!"