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After her gruelling and eventful maiden voyage of over 8000 miles Aventura was left in the care of the New England Boatworks in Portsmouth, R.I., to give her a thorough service before being exhibited at the Annapolis boat show. With everything done on time, my crew joined me last Saturday ready for the passage to Annapolis. Unfortunately a forecast of strong westerly winds forced us to abandon the plan of sailing the shorter inshore route via New York City, and so I missed the opportunity to follow in the wake of the first Aventura who had sailed that very same route 37 years previously.
Aventura’s crew: Dave Skolnick and Ryan Helling
The 400 miles offshore route didn’t prove any easier or comfortable as we were bedevilled by the same relentless SW winds that had been a constant feature ever since we left Nuuk, in Greenland. With my experienced crew of Ryan Helling, the US agent for Garcia Yachting, who had also sailed with me from St John’s, Newfoundland, and Dave Skolnick a friend from Annapolis and professional delivery skipper, we made remarkably good time. While passing some 60 miles off New York, a beautiful hoopoe landed in the cockpit, her head twitching nervously at our sight. Obviously blown offshore by the strong wind, she looked exhausted, but after resting undisturbed all night in a sheltered corner, at dawn I saw her take off and fly towards land.
Hoopoe
48 hours after departure we arrived off Delaware Bay and were fortunate in catching a favourable 2 knot tidal current to the entrance of the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, a convenient shortcut to Chesapeake Bay. We needed to push hard as today is the last day before the opening of the Annapolis boat show and Aventura needed to be tidied up and make presentable for the many visitors expected to visit her between October 9 and 13. I shall be on board during all that time and will be pleased to welcome any of you reading those lines to drop by and see Aventura. You can find us at Dock D.
To make the best of my presence at Annapolis, where I have been holding seminars on and off for the last twenty years, I shall also make two presentations on high latitude sailing at the Maryland Inn this Friday and Saturday evenings. Details at:
http://cornellsailing.com/book-places-evening-jimmy-cornell/
I shall post a report after this, the largest boat show in the US, next Tuesday.
Editor’s note: Jimmy’s photo of the resting bird was posted on the Birding Aboard facebook group, where we post all our seabird observations as part of our Science program and get expert help on identification. Turns out it is in fact a ‘yellow shafted flicker’. If you would like to get involved yourself and contribute to our Seabird Science program, you can find out more here: http://cornellsailing.com/ocean/science/sea-bird-logging/
