Aventura’s Logs

Logs from Aventura, Jimmy Cornell’s fourth yacht, which attempted the Northwest Passage twice, succeeding in 2015. 

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Aventura Announcement

On 31 March, while sailing en route to Tahiti, an unexpected matter requiring my presence back home forced me to make a drastic change to my long term plans. So I have decided to …

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Transiting the Panama Canal in record time

Aventura completed the Panama Canal transit on Sunday afternoon and we are now on our way to Tahiti. We have about 4800 miles ahead of us, which I plan to sail nonstop as we need …

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We are sailing!

We are sailing

After several days of calms and very light winds, something that I had never experienced in the Caribbean Sea before, the wind finally came up… as did our Parasailor spinnaker. Dave …

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Memories, memories

We passed through the Windward Passage on Friday night and entered the Caribbean Sea. By Saturday morning, the wind had gone light and we decided to hoist the spinnaker to make some speed towards Panama, …

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Friday excitement

This is the first Friday on Aventura’s first long passage in 2015. All morning I was wondering what was going to break because on many occasions whenever something broke on the boat, it was almost …

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Aventura's Crew Ready For Next Adventure

We left Fort Lauderdale Monday afternoon bound for Panama, with about 1100 miles still to go. After transiting the canal, we plan to sail nonstop to Tahiti, about 4500 miles. In Tahiti we shall join …

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A Winter Passage to Florida

Having spent two months in Annapolis, Maryland, the week before Christmas Aventura left southbound for Key West, in South Florida. We had a good sail down Chesapeake Bay with good winds on a cold, but …

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Exploration 45 Wins Cruising World's 2015 Boat of the Year

Cruising World Magazine have just announced that the Garcia Exploration 45, of which Jimmy Cornell’s Aventura was the prototype, has won the 2015 Boat of the Year competition for Best Full-Size …

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Aventura at the Annapolis boat show

An estimated 300 people visited Aventura on the opening day of this, the largest and most popular boat show in the United States. As many as one third of the visitors came …

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Passage to Annapolis

39 07.2 N 76 19.89 W

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 …

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Meet Jimmy Cornell and his new Aventura at the Annapolis Boat Show

In preparation for his forthcoming circumnavigation with the Blue Planet Odyssey round the world rally, Jimmy Cornell completed this summer a grueling test of his new 45 foot Aventura, …

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US Landfall

We made landfall Saturday morning at 0900 local time as we passed Race Point at the entrance into Cape Cod Bay. Since leaving St John’s less than one week ago we had covered …

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St John’s Landfall

Aventura makes landfall at St John’s

However much sailors love being at sea, landfall after a long passage is always sweet. When Jimmy woke me early in the morning of Friday 5th September, I …

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Blue Planet Odyssey mission in NW Passage continues successfully

An update on progress and some thoughts from Michael Thurston on Drina.

Michael Thurston and Jimmy Cornell aboard Drina

After being beset in ice at Port Leopold due to a wind contrary to the …

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Northwest Passage Gate Opens

location 57′ 10N, 51′ 43W

Today, 31 August, is exactly 3 months since Aventura left London bound for Arctic Canada and the Northwest Passage. Since then we have covered over 6000 miles and are now …

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Update on Northwest Passage

We just had news that on Friday the first sail boats managed to go through Bellot Strait westbound. The boats were Arctic Tern, Novara and Gjoa. Having overcome that major obstacle, they are now …

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Change of plan

location: 60′ 39N, 51’03W

Iceberg in front of Nuuk

With Doina’s exception, all Aventura’s remaining crew disembarked in Nuuk, and flew home. We had just finished preparing Aventura for the long passage …

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Northwest Passage Report

Michael Thurston on Drina reports from Port Leopold:

The ice situation is almost unchanged.

No yacht has gone through Bellot Strait as yet. We on Drina are still at Port Leopold, have not made our …

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Northwest Passage still blocked by ice

Based on a report received from Michael Thurston on Drina.

One week since Aventura gave up the attempt to transit the NW Passage, the ice situation remains uncertain. We are now anchored at Port …

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Passing Baffin Island

Yesterday we finally escaped the grip of Lancaster Sound and reached the open sea. We are now sailing past Baffin Island with icebergs dotted about around us, but easy to …

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The Blue Planet Odyssey continued presence in the Northwest Passage

Michael Thurston (left) and Jimmy Cornell aboard Drina in Dundas Harbour, Devon Island

Despite the decisions by the captains of both Suilven and Aventura to turn back east and not attempt the Northwest …

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Beechey Island

Located at the western end of Lancaster Sound, Beechey Island is the site where the ill-fated expedition led by Sir John Franklin, spent their first Arctic winter in 1845-46. Two well-equipped ships, Terror and …

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A turning point

Cuming Inlet is a deep fjord that penetrates some 11 miles into the heart of Devon Island. Its steep sides, rising to several hundreds of meters, are a silent reminder of the passage of …

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Arctic Bay

The Inuit name for Arctic Bay, Ikpiarjuk, ‘the pocket’, describes this bay best, a deep indent protected on three sides by tall hills. Arctic Bay is located off Admiralty Inlet, on the northern tip of …

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VIDEO: Aventura trapped by ice in Arctic Bay

14 hours beset by ice

Trapped by ice from Sail the Odyssey on Vimeo.

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