I returned last week from a quick road trip back to Charleston, to attend to some details with Bodacious Dream’s winter stay. Traveling back through the wintery Midwest was a little voyage in itself. Along the way, I had a few speaking engagements as well, which were great fun … more on those later. After that, I returned to catching up on months of undone chores, and reconnecting with friends and family. Leaving things as best I could, I boarded a plane yesterday in Chicago, and today I’m settling in … as best I can, to the warm Southern California sunshine.

I came here to San Diego to help the captain of Bodacious IV, crewmate Tim Eades, put the boat together, after it was shipped from Chicago to San Diego. Bo “IV” will be participating in two races on the West Coast this summer. The first will be from Los Angeles down to Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico, and the second will be the Trans-Pac, from SoCal to Hawaii. For those of you that followed the last Trans-Pac, we hope to finish it this year!

I won’t be sailing in the Cabo race, but will be helping to bring the boat back up to San Diego, where we will use the opportunity to try out some new and better video and satellite gear and also to initiate some educational adventures for kids. I’m really looking forward to this trip. I took the same route a few years back, and we saw all sorts of incredible wildlife and interesting sea conditions.

As most of you know, BoDream and I landed in Charleston back on January 12th, after a little more than a month-long solo-crossing from Cascais, Portugal. In the time since then, I’ve downloaded a bunch of photos and a few videos from the trip, and I wanted to share some of those with you, in case you cared to see some of what I saw along the way.

Though, I’ve included a handful of photos here, there is also a complete set of direct links below, so you can see everything there is to see at this point – with more still to come!

After nights moving around with only a few lights to keep me from stepping off into the watery deep, the arrival of the sun each morning was always a source of joy.

This is what you might call … functional fashion for my times; a cap, a fleece, a headlamp and a personal floatation device.

On a long voyage, especially a solo one, you spend a lot of time watching waves, getting to know their little idiosyncrasies, and trying to second-guess whatever it is you think they might be telling you about what’s coming just over the horizon.

Next is one of the videos from the trip – this one shot just north of the Turks and Caicos Islands, a few days past New Year’s and after leaving Antigua.

There’s another video which along with this one, I’ve uploaded to our Bodacious Dream YouTube Channel, and also posted on our Bodacious Dream Facebook page.

It truly is  a magical world out there on the open water, full of wonder and no small share of danger. These photos were taken while things were mostly calm and I had time to gaze upon how amazing things were. What I have no photos of are the times I was being tossed around like a sock puppet or getting my face and body pummeled by relentless jets of seawater. But that’s the way it should be. Heck, I wouldn’t want to put a dent in anyone’s idyllic reveries of life on the water – not even my own! And the fact is that no matter HOW beautiful you (or I) might imagine the ocean to be, the truth is that it’s even more beautiful than that.

So, if you want to check out the complete set of photos and videos, here are the links …

:: PHOTOS :: 
FACEBOOK – Atlantic Crossing Photo Album (Part One)
FACEBOOK – Atlantic Crossing Photo Album (Part Two)

These are “public” albums, so you should be able to see these albums, even if you have not joined Facebook.

If you prefer though, all the photos have also been put into a set on the photo site, Flickr.

FLICKR – BoDream Atlantic Crossing (Complete Set) 
(If you view in slideshow mode, click “show info” to see the captions.)

:: VIDEOS ::  
And once again, here are all of our 7 Videos …

YOUTUBE – Bodacious Dream YouTube Channel.

While you’re there, check out the new preview video trailer for the 2013 Atlantic Cup Race, where during the top montage, you’ll hear Matt Scharl’s voice, after which, I’m the first talking head you’ll see.

And that’s it for now. We’ll be back before long with news of some exciting plans for 2013 … but until them, thank you as always for your stellar support, and onward into a healthy and peaceful new year.

– Dave and Bodacious Dream