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!"
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At 0140 this morning (Thursday May 7), Skymate reported CELESTIALs position as Latitude 18° 52.228" N, Longitude 65° 21.898" W.
To view this position, follow this link to my google map. You may have to zoom out to see the location.
Rita,
It would be neat to see the track (if possible)for Celestial, along with their position each day.
Bob D
s/v Ruach
Richmond, VA
I hope Dan is doing well. Interesting developments at this end. Have fun! Be safe!
DW
Bob D... we'll be following them by Skymate the whole way and will post position reports here, so stay tuned.
At 1342 this afternoon (Thursday May 7), Skymate reported CELESTIALs position as Latitude 19° 59.517" N, Longitude 66° 2.073" W.
To view this position, follow this link to my google map.
Please feel free to comment!
Thanks so much for posting they're position.. We're praying for them on this end.. I only wish I was on board with them.. I'm sure they are having a ball bout right now.. Go Dad!!
;o) Cal Jr..
Received from Captain David Appleton via Skymate at 12:25 AM EST Friday May 8th:
HI!
Left early. Exited VIslands 1600 Wed. Caught good 18 to 28 easterlies and made 166nm 1st 24 hours.
Crew OK, but 4 cases of Mal d m... varying degrees. All recovering and have been able to stand watch but not much more.
Not using main eng. at all so far. Gen and batt charger working well, needing to run 3x daily for 2 -3 hrs.
Wx outlook good... some genniker winds this weekend.
Will update again by Sun.
DRA
05/08/2009
04:23:36 GMT
21° 31.91' N
66° 37.84' W
To view position as of 04:23:36 GMT Friday May 8, 2009 (that was about 12:25 AM EST) follow this link
To view position as of 01:50 GMT Saturday May 9, 2009 follow this link.
Best of luck from a crew member from Celestial's trip south last fall. Sounds like sailing has been great so far.
I have been monitoring the Maritime Mobile Net on 20 meters some - anyone know if they are checking in there and if so what is their sched?
Tom Kopcik
Happy Mother's Day! Good progress reported by Skymate. See the link.
Received from Captain David Appleton via Skymate Sunday, May 10, 2009 4:25 PM EST:
HI,
All aboard well. Special sail, no eng. til 12n tday. Winds SEtrly @ 10 to 26 for 92hrs. Set Gnikr this am, sailed until wind died. Start eng. Expect to meet frnt tmrow and resume sail.
WX exlent. mostly clear and good celestial conditions. Crew enjoying experience.
No problems @ 27.21 x 68.28!
DRA
On Tuesday May 12 2009 at 2:03 AM GMT, Skymate reported CELESTIALs position as Latitude 18° 52.228" N, Longitude 65° 21.898" W.
To view this position, follow this link.
Received from Captain David Appleton via Skymate at 4:52 PM EST Wednesday May 13, 2009:
Hi,
All is well on CEL @ 32.55 x 72.47. Went through soup last night after fine spinnaker run, then broke into front. Motored a bit, then wind filled from NE and have sailed @ 6 to 8.5 kts on 345 M.
Systems working ok, but genset went inop. set reset and turned itself off after 10 minutes. Suspect troubled by heel and seas. ??? do not need. will investigate further in calmer seas.
Crew tired but happy. Rested today. ETA Little Creek late Sat. Will update then.
DRA This position put CELESTIAL at about 150 nm from entrance to the Gulf Stream and 300 nm from Norfolk at 4:00 PM Wednesday. Making excellent progress.
To view position as of 14:07 GMT Thursday May 14, 2009 (about noon EST) follow this link.
Note from Captain Tom Tursi here at the school to CELESTIAL Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 7:39 PM. Skymate charges by the character, thus the brevity!
Big High persists your track at least to Sunday. Lows develop well N and E of you; no problem. No TS activity... T
At 10:00 AM EST Friday May 15th, 2009, we received this voice message by Captain David Appleton:
Hello, David Appleton here. It is Friday morning 10:00. We're out of the Gulf Stream...we're working our way up the North Carolina coast...we're off Bodie Island light and we're navigating into Norfolk. We should get there early tomorrow morning. We'll call later today...
To view position as of 14:11 GMT, follow this linkCELESTIAL and crew have had favorable winds for the trip and are arriving well ahead of schedule. ETA in Norfolk is early Saturday morning.
CELESTIAL and crew arrived at 3:00 AM EST Saturday morning, May 16th. Captain Appleton reports the student crew performed very well, and that he would "sail with them anywhere!"
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