Avanti made it to Bermuda!

[2tocruise]

Greetings from Bermuda. Andrew and I have been enjoying the sun in St. George's Bermuda for about a week. This trip has been on our minds and in our plans for years now and we are excited to have finally made it a reality. We posted an entry and a video of our sail on our blog http://sailavanti.blogspot.com.

Even though we have both been to Bermuda by sailboat before we had never done it on a 28footer or with such a small crew(just the 2 of us). I have a new found respect for those who do it on similar or smaller boats and those who singlehand. Cuddos to you (Steve on Raven for example, we missed you by a few weeks)!

Needless to say, our Cape Dory proved more than up to the task and gave us no issues or worries on the way over.

Wish us luck on our return trip to the States!

~Kelly

[Steve Laume]

Way to go guys!!! It seems the smaller Cape Dorys are very well represented in Bermuda this year. Nice modifications to Avanti. I don't think I would have wanted to have done the trip without a dodger though. Raven was wet enough with a dodger and everything closed up. I mostly went on deck with Topsiders, nylon shorts and a foul weather jacket. The water is so warm that the bibs just seemed like more stuff to get wet.

And you still like each other!

Dark and stormies now come pre mixed in a can. Four for $12.00 at the liquor store by just passed the bus stop and police station. I bought some as much for the can as the drinks.

You guys seem to have eaten much better than I did even with losing meals in the oven. I had a bunch of frozen stuff for the way down but anything I ate was prepared in one pot on top of the stove. On the way home, canned soup with lots of saltines, was my go to meal. I also had precooked rice and indian food packets that were just dumped in boiling water until warm. I also discovered the buffet at the market just up from the square. Lots of really great food to chose from. Breakfast in the morning and then good stuff all day. I didn't try the curried goat but the wahoo was excellent. The cassava bread at breakfast was a real treat too. I also found out that the local Bermuda bananas were the little ones in the box on the floor. I ate em for snacks and got a bunch of them for the trip home.

The guy on the little sight seeing pontoon boat loves CD-28s so I an sure he will pass by to say hello.

If you can get out to the Castle Island area in your dink or even take the big boat over there it is a pretty amazing area. A little more exposed than your present anchorage but it would be worth the trip if you have the time. You can go out the cut and around or down ferry reach and cross over Castle Bay by the end of the airport.

Hope you are not getting bored with the perfect weather every day. It is in the mid 90s here just so you can deal with it.

I don't know what you have for offshore weather info but they post it every day on the customs bulletin board along with the gulf stream info. When I was getting ready to leave the customs guy printed it out for me so I had a long range forecast on the boat.

Enjoy yourselves as I am sure you will. Although Liz and I both thought it best that she didn't sail on Raven it certainly would have been nice if she had been there to share the Bermuda experience. Next time she will fly down to meet me.

Have a great time and once again I congratulate you for pointing the bow well away from land and making the trip that you will always remember as one of your greater accomplishments in life, Steve.

[barfwinkle]

I raise a glass to Avanti and Crew!

Well done and a beautiful 28 indeed!

Fair Winds

[MFC]

Congratulations! What a great trip. The couple of sentences you posted here doesn't reflect the weather you saw (and handled well). Did the two of you make the interior modifications, or was that the work of a prior owner? Are you now full-time live-aboards? If so, where are you going to point her next? Can't wait to hear more. Safe travels.

Matt

[Joe Myerson]

Congratulations to Avanti and her crew!
BTW, the operator of an aviation service based across the bay from St. George's is a native of Rhode Island--and the former owner of a CD28. He gave George V. and his crew a free ride to the supermarket to stock up before our departure. Lots of wonderful folks in Bermuda, as I'm sure you've already discovered.

Way to go!

--Joe

[Russell]

I love your interior modifications, very smart changes for a CD28 doing serious cruising. I imagine your galley is far more usable now space wise (though motion wise it may be a bit worse). Did you give up cockpit locker space to make the berths long enough?

I did watch your video, well done (other then too much ginger beer in your d&s ratio ). Have a good trip back!

[jbenagh]

Congratulations! Thanks for the logbook entries. They were very informative.
Jeff

[Sea Hunt Video]

Terrific video, great sound tracks, excellent website I'm in sick bay these days and was able to watch the video 3 full times, finding something unique and interesting during each viewing.

That must have been a wonderful blue water experience. It is these types of adventures in sailing that make me wish I had taken up sailing years ago when I first had the opportunity. These days, I will consider myself blessed if I someday am able to make a few trips to the Florida Keys.

Thanks very much for sharing.

[seaview]

Congratulations! Nice voyage on a 28'. I have done three Newport-Bermuda trips (on larger boats) and there is nothing like turning that corner into St. George's followed shortly by a D&S.

Safe return,
Peter

[bobdugan]

My seven year old wants to "sail to the land of the coconuts"... he thinks Bermuda would be just fine but he wanted to know how "MSD" the water gets (Maximum Sonar Depth which shows up when we're in water deeper than 200 feet)?

I watched the video and have questions about:
- your dingy... how did you feel with it up there? Does it obscure your view?
- your solar... how many watts did the system you draped across the dingy generate? Did you take it down during the stormy part of your voyage?

Safe Return,

Bob

[2tocruise]

Thanks to everyone who has wished us well on our voyage, and has checked out our videos! We've noticed that several questions have been raised regarding both our interior and deck layouts, and our plans are to work on a response to those shortly.

To answer the most pressing question: to Bob's youngster: Most of the trip was beyond "MSD" as you call it (our depth display just has dashed lines); but based on our chart the deepest water we sailed over was 17,880ft deep! We were well within sight of Bermuda before we had a reading again.

[Frank Vernet]

Bravo Zulu Andrew & Kelly on this achievement. And kudos on the videos. They are fun, informative, well edited, with good looking actors...all with great production values. Could've used a bit more character development though

Looking forward to reading your answers to the questions asked by fellow CD'ers.