Real Travel Adventures
International
NEW
Adventure Travels
Stories & Photos
Best Inter-Generational Days at Mystic Aquarium By Bonnie & Bill Neely
By Bonnie & Bill Neely
By Nancy S. Tardy
By Alvin Starkman
By Andrew Der
By Michele Hawkins
By Duncan Davies
By Bob Brown
By Antonio Graceffo
Click Below For Previous Articles:
__________
Enjoy our past features below:
INTERNATIONAL
MAGAZINE
Travel Adventures
from Real Travel
Adventures Ezine
Adventure Travel can often
take you all over the world,
but securing accommodation
wherever you travel can be
difficult, and costly. That's why
many adventurers who find
themselves traveling frequently
have decided to purchase a
timeshare resale.
The flexibility that these vacation
properties afford allows owners to
travel to thousands of locations on
a budget; and you can find
timeshares for sale all over the world.
SMALL SHIP RIVER CRUISES
 Online Specials Daily
Sign up for Senior Travel Club
Our friendly agents are here to help.
Call 1-800-578-1479
or 1-800-559-1141 email: information@usarivercruises.com
visit: www.usarivercruises.com
|
International
Travel Adventures
Stories & Photos
We average 20,000 hits a day.
On Home Page
In Travel News
Your FREE online travel magazine e-zine of exciting travel adventures, travel reviews, travel photos from all ages and lifestyles of real travel in US and the world. International travel adventure - travel adventure magazine - travel reviews - trip planner - road trip planner - travel news - Real Travel Adventures Ezine with Book Review and Travel Guides for good reads and good listens on your trips and international travel adventures.
Sharing Travel Adventures & Adventure Travel
Discover Great get-aways, budget stays, and luxury travel to Dream About .Choose from Hundreds of Travel Reviews and and book reviews Outdoor and Nature Photos
Get Your Travel Review Published here!
INTERNATIONAL
MAGAZINE
Going For a Little Boat Ride
1,547 miles in a flats boat in the North Atlantic
©2008 Bob Brown
Last year, late in April, my phone rang on a Wednesday night. It was my brother Ralph. He wanted me to go on a boat trip to some island, called Bermuda, off of North Carolina. I was not home, but my wife told him, absolutely not, no way!
In the morning I called him back. Ralph claimed his flats boat design could run in extremely shallow water and still handle fairly heavy seas, and he wanted to prove it. For eight months, Ralph had been planning this venture, and his first mate had bailed on him at the last minute. He had already spent more than $10,000 promoting the trip. Ralph had airfare, photographers, national press releases, hotels, and people in place to help out, etc. He was in a bind and really needed a ship-mate fast. He was scheduled to leave in a couple of days. I told him I had to work; there was no way I could afford to take off; besides, I was in the middle of a job and was leaving at 2:00 this afternoon on a camping trip in Georgia. Ralph pleaded, offering me more than a week’s salary. There went my major excuse, a paid adventure. I was in!
I had never seen the boat until he arrived in Georgia two days later, where he picked me up. It was a 21- foot flats boat called "Intruder," built by his company, Dream Boats. My camping friends, Vince and Chuck, thought we were nuts. Only an hour before, looking at a map in a camping store, we discovered exactly how far off shore Bermuda was, about the distance from the Florida Keys to Atlanta Georgia, close to 700 miles. Ralph planned to go even farther, back to New York Harbor, some 800 miles. I couldn’t believe he wanted to go on a 1,500 miles round trip in a boat with two foot sides, before being weighted down with what he said would be about 2,000 pounds of gasoline. I told Chuck and Vince, that as soon as we hit the Gulf Stream, Ralph would chicken out and we’d be back. If I had the money, I’d have bet a thousand dollars on it.
We left Atlantic Beach, NC on the morning of April 30, 2007 heading for Bermuda, 700 miles away, with about a foot of freeboard. The seas were relatively calm, two to three foot. After we lost sight of land, we saw a pod of dolphins and a big sail boat a couple of miles away. Later the swells grew to six feet, coming out of the Southwest. The seas had now turned to a heavy chop with a lot of white caps. All night long we traded off driving, hoping the waves would calm down, at least long enough to heat up some soup. Not so! Late the next afternoon we came real close to a whale, while I was napping. Ralph woke me up and we drove over to where it submerged. With both of us leaning over, looking for signs of it, Ralph started to wonder if it might of had a calf? If it decided to ram us, we were 300 miles from shore, all by our selves, fooling around with a whale, in a 21-foot flats boat. How crazy is that?
That afternoon and evening the waves kicked up to around 9 feet with 35 miles per hour winds. The seas were nothing but white wash. We were way past the half-way point. I couldn’t believe it. The Intruder handled them well. It was actually fun! We were steering for the steepest waves to catch.
The next day we arrived in Bermuda after having a couple of small problems coming ashore, due to my not letting Ralph reprogram the intermittent GPS, resulting in us not entering properly. An article was written about our trip, including a picture, in the Royal Gazette, warning us not to attempt a return trip to New York. The next day, as people found out about our trip, we were treated like royalty. People actually wanted our autographs!
We waited out Andria, the first tropical storm of 2007, and then headed for New York. We towed a stranded sailboat (broken motor)out past the reefs, so that she could finish her solo circum-navigational trip around the world. Our voyage back dealt with zero to six foot seas. We thought we had engine problems, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Blindly driving through a heavy rain storm during the last night brought an end to the heavy seas. Fog blurred sunlight and the sea became a sheet of glass where we observed over 40 of white-sided dolphins, many playing off our bow. We had a little difficulty arriving in New York Harbor; tickets are given to those who venture behind the Statue of Liberty, even though the signs had blown down months earlier.
We actually made it into Guinness Book of World Records ™ ; the World Record Academy, and I wrote a book, which includes many pictures, of our the trip: ‘Bermuda Suicide Challenge in a Flats Boat’. The book can be purchased at
A couple of months ago, my phone rang, it was my brother Ralph. He wanted to know if I wanted to go with him from Boston to Europe, some 4,200 miles in the same boat! I thought about it….. for about two seconds and then said, “I’m all over that! When are we going?”
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
 |
|
||
 |
 Online Specials Daily Sign up for Senior Travel Club
Our friendly agents are here to help.
Call 1-800-578-1479 or 1-800-559-1141 email: information@usarivercruises.com
visit: www.usarivercruises.com
|
Book & Audio Reviews For Your Travels
!--var bookmarkurl="http://www.realtraveladventures.com"var bookmarktitle="Real Travel Adventures"function addbookmark(){if (document.all)window.external.AddFavorite(bookmarkurl,bookmarktitle)}-->Add to Bookmarks
Subscribers:So that your free subscription is not mistaken for spam,
Please copy & paste our E-mail address into your address book: mail@realtraveladventures.com
It's that simple!
Real Travel Adventures International Magazine
Adventure Travels in your Free Ezine
If any links don't work
Thanks for visiting us!
Real Travel Adventures International Magazine
Real and Armchair Travelers: Enjoy best trip reviews, travel features, and excellent travel photos in RealTravelAdventures.com, your FREE on-line international magazine. Send your funny or outrageous travel experiences & photos and get published!
Visit or dream of fascintating places with Real Travel Adventures e-zine! This site offers travel humor, photos, stories, helpful guidebooks, and more. Visit for fun or to seek tips for your next travel adventure...and then share your own stories with us here at
realtraveladventures.com, your free online travel magazine, where you'll find great book reviews, international travel adventures magazine, airline tickets, real travel adventures, camping, RV travel, RV's, Cruises, restaurant reviews, RVing, FamilyTrips, traveling with kids and children, Nature and eco trips, ecology, international travel, Ski Trips, Spas, Spiritual Retreats, interviews with Special People, Travel Humor, Travel News, Unbelievable, WeddingTrips, restaurant reviews and advisor, traveling adventures, adventure travels, travel, virtual and armchair travel, Back Roads, off the beaten path, where to go Camping and enjoy RV trips, where to Dine and Sleep, fun Family Trips, our Favorite Finds, Arts and Crafts, cruises and cruise vacations, romantic trips, traveling tips, travel stories, audio book reviews for your travels, books reviews, good books for a trip, wedding trip planner, wedding Trips, Honeymoons, Unbelievable adventures, Travel News, humorous travel stories, spas and retreats, spiritual retreats, meditation retreats, ski trips, week-end trips Near You, nature's Best places, ecology trips, travel guide books, traveling with children, e-zines, FREE Ezines, Free travel magazines, magazine, free online magazines, internet magazines, free magazine subscriptions, web magazines, true stories, humorous articles, funny features, human interest features, nature photos, environment photographs, photos, adventurous stories, real true stories, true adventrues, camping gear, vacation, holidays, safaris, Caribbean vacations, cheap hotels, great places to go, nature hikes, nature photography, family vacations, family holidays, trip planner, great trips, scenic photos, holiday vacations, holidays, holiday stories, foreign destinations, International travel trips. And you can Get published here too! Send us your travel stories and pictures.
© 2008 Bonita Productions Inc.
If you wish to use our features or photos you must first contact us