Southbound Norfolk to St Thomas, November 2010

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed Vinings Landing Marina in Norfolk Virginia bound for Crown Bay Marina, St Thomas USVI this afternoon, Friday November 5th, 2010. The crew members are: Captain Jack Morton (Florida), First Mate David Gifford (Pennsylvania), and student crew members Ingo Stubbe (Massachusetts), Wolfgang Linke (Pennsylvania), Fred Lipp (Ohio) and Erico Silva (Virginia). CELESTIAL will make the passage to St Thomas via a non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 1500 miles, and will take approximately 11 days, sailing both day and night.

Captain Tursi will be monitoring progress of the cruise and will be in contact with CELESTIAL's crew via a Skymate satellite system. We'll receive reports from the crew approximately every other day and Captain Tursi will supply the crew with detailed weather analysis.

More discussion on this soon, as well as weather updates, communication from the crew, and actual progress (see comments below), so please join us! To follow their actual progress on Google Earth, click here. For more information on The Maryland School, please visit our website.

Fourth Bermuda 2010 Training Cruise Departs

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed St Georges Harbor, Bermuda today June 30, 2010 at 8:00 AM after two preparation days. The crew members are: Captain Jochen Hoffmann (Virginia), First Mate Jerry Nigro (New York), and student crew members Tom Przybelski (Maryland), Paul Goswitz (Wisconsin), Michael Brown (Pennsylvania) and Michael Poole (Pennsylvania). CELESTIAL will make the passage to Mystic, Connecticut via a non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 650 miles, and will take approximately 6 days, sailing both day and night. At 8:00 AM this morning, Captain Hoffmann communicated with the school by phone and reported that the crew did an excellent job preparing for departure and that the boat and crew were both in great shape. They had cleared out of Bermuda and were on their way. The accompanying photo shows the Gulf Stream upon departure. More discussion on this soon, as well as weather updates, communication from the crew, and actual progress (SEE COMMENTS BELOW), so please join us! To follow their actual progress on Google Earth, click HERE.

Third Bermuda 2010 Training Cruise Departs

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed Vinings Landing today June 19, 2010 at 12:30 PM after two preparation days. The crew members are: Captain Tom Tursi (Pennsylvania), First Mate Jerry Nigro (New York), and student crew members Carol Wills (New York), Bodo Walters (Pennsylvania), Jocelyn Henderson (Washington DC) and Bernard Marchive (Washington DC). CELESTIAL will make the passage to Bermuda via a non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 650 miles, and will take approximately 6 days, sailing both day and night. We will discuss the route, weather and actual progress here on our blog as it happens, so please join us! To follow the discussion, see the comments to this blog post. To follow their actual progress on Google Earth, click HERE.

Second Bermuda 2010 Training Cruise Departs

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed St Georges Harbor, Bermuda today June 8, 2010 at 12:00 PM after two preparation days. The crew members are: Captain Harry Privette (Maryland), First Mate Lee Tucker (Virginia), and student crew members Bob DeGroof (Maryland), Randy Bablitz (Ontario, Canada), Alan Sweatman (Maryland) and Richard Hoyle (Maine). CELESTIAL will make the passage to Norfol, Virginia via a non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 650 miles, and will take approximately 6 days, sailing both day and night. We will discuss the route, weather and actual progress here on our blog as it happens, so please join us! To follow their actual progress on Google Earth, click HERE.

First Bermuda 2010 Training Cruise Departs

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 departed Vinings Landing Marina, Norfolk, VA today May 29, 2010 at 11:00 AM after two preparation days. The crew members are: Captain Harry Privette (Maryland), First Mate Lee Tucker (Virginia), and student crew members John Mitchell (California), Craig Newland (Missouri), Scott Duncan (Massachusetts) and Bill Zissimopoulos (Washington). CELESTIAL will make the passage to Bermuda via a planned non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 650 miles, and will take approximately 6 days, sailing both day and night. We will discuss the route, weather and actual progress here on our blog as it happens, so please join us! To follow their actual progress on Google Earth, click HERE.

Ocean Crew to Depart; St Thomas USVI - Norfolk, VA

CELESTIAL, our IP 440 will depart Crown Bay Marina, St Thomas USVI on May 7, 2010 after two days of preparation. The crew members are: Captain Jochen Hoffmann (Virginia), First Mate Mike McGovern (Delaware), and student crew members David Lovett (Tennessee), Brooks Hull (Michigan), Allan Peppelman (Pennsylvania) and Roque Reis (Brazil). 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 11-13 days, sailing both day and night. We will discuss the route, weather and actual progress here on our blog as it happens, so please join us!