Bodacious Dream Expedition #1 Baja Recap

Posted on April 11, 2013 by spoon

So much to catch you up on! So, Bodacious IV is safely secured back in her San Diego slip … her “racing” crew has recovered from a great run from Newport Beach down to Cabo San Lucas, and the “delivery” crew has dispersed back to their homes following the completion of our very first “Bodacious Dream Expedition” back up the Baja Coast to San Diego. And what great fun we all had!

Not being onboard for the NHYC Cabo race, I got to follow the race tracker as Bodacious IV got off to a slow start in light winds. But soon, the winds picked up and Bo IV began to work her way through her section up to second place in boat-for-boat competition. Her corrected finish was fourth. Great job guys! This proved a great test run for the upcoming Trans-Pac Race to Hawaii in July. Reports from the Bo IV crew are that the boat holds steadily fast when heading off the wind, which 75% of the Trans-Pac race is … so excitement is really building for that race.

Once Bo IV was docked in Cabo, the delivery crew took charge of the boat, setting her up and provisioning her for Bodacious Dream Expedition (BDX) #1 – the first in a series of learning and exploring adventures along the way to the even greater adventure of my sailing Bodacious Dream around the world later this year!

Did you get a chance to follow along with any of the Expedition on our BDX website or on our BDX Facebook page? Over the course of the week, we published 7+ daily updates with photos and videos sent right from the boat and posted to both sites. (All these materials (plus more to come soon) will remain available for viewing at your convenience at the above links.

Joining me onboard Bo IV for this trip were Captain Tim Eades, Jonathon Pond, Heather Pond and Dave Hardy. What an amazing group of folks they are! We set off on the morning of Saturday, March 30th to a fare-thee-well wave from a humpback whale … just as we pulled out of the Cabo harbor.

The Bo IV Crew, Tim, Jonathan & Heather w/ Dave Hardy on camera

The coast of the Baja is notorious for its incessant winds, referred to by sailors as the “Baja Bash.” Well, we proved no exception to that rule, quickly getting hit with 20 to 30 knots of wind right on our nose the whole way. We followed local directives to stay in 60 feet of water along the coast, which kept the winds and waves somewhat under control.

Day by day, we worked our way up the coast; laughing, telling stories, sharing our lives and watching the wonders of the Baja Peninsula unveil themselves to us as we rounded each corner of coastline. We saw a number of whale spouts, but none of the whales proved brave enough to come visit us up close. We did see a few dolphin stampedes, watched and recorded a feeding frenzy as the dolphins pushed bait fish to the surface where pelicans feasted in a rolling boil of water. We were visited by some fun-loving seals, and watched them play in the waves, body surfing alongside the boat like kids at a waterpark. All this amidst the magical cycle of sunsets, sunrises, fogs, and winds kept us all constantly engaged and inspired.

Our BDX map of the Baja

Prior to the voyage, our BDX onshore team and I had drafted up a cool map and a set of six “Explorer Study Guides” specific to the nature and wild life of the Baja Peninsula, as well as guides for sailing terms and math. Along the way then, I wrote daily updates (not always easy in 30 knot winds) and sent them along with photos and videos to our onshore team who promptly posted them to the BDX website, to Facebook and to our BDX YouTube Channel. We also responded to several questions that were sent to us, and gained hundreds of new followers over the course of the week.

Midway on the journey, we stopped in Turtle Bay to refill our fuel tanks and refresh, taking the afternoon off from the winds. Leaving again that evening, we worked our way along the inside of nearby Cedros Island before crossing the bay back towards the Baja mainland and continuing northwards.

The rugged Baja Coastline

The night before landing in San Diego, we watched as light rising from Tijuana and San Diego seeped into the night sky causing the slow disappearance of the many softer, more distant stars that simply aren’t bright enough to pierce the luminous glow that rises from our big cities. I have observed this phenomenon many times now, and often find this transition from the open ocean into more densely populated areas, something of a passage between two worlds – the ancient one and the modern one … the entirely natural one we were born into, and the world that has been entirely made and remade by us.

Knowing that we were on an expeditionary and documentary “mission” kept the crew busy scanning the horizons in search of interesting things to share with our online audience. For myself, the experience opened my eyes to just how unique and amazing such open-water exploration experiences can be, and how many things that I have perhaps taken for granted, might be newly framed and better communicated to people everywhere, who have not had the pleasure of a lifelong conversation with the great waters of the world and with their many breathtaking wonders. And then of course, there is the world ABOVE the sea too, which more than ever proved to be just as intriguing. Especially memorable was a solitary morning visit from a friendly seagull, which our ever-alert crewmate Heather managed to capture on video.

The boat was often abuzz with discussions of what else we might do to better help young people to connect more with this limitless world. It seems that we are just at the beginning of a great transformation in models of education, and that “real-world” experiences like ours, once connected to the global Internet can play a significant role in that transformation. “Follow your bliss” is what Joseph Campbell famously said. Having taken that advice long ago, I now see a different sort of joyful opportunity that exists in sharing my experience with curious youngsters wherever in the world they might be. How many kids are there out there who have never even once thought what it would be like to stand aboard a sailboat as it slices through the water? So many unimagined possibilities yet to explore.

With these expeditions, we are also looking to build more “professional” scientific, educational and media alliances … such as the one we have recently initiated with the Earthwatch Institute. If you have a moment, you might want to take a look on our website at our Explorer Guides and our Mentor Guide – and if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let us know. We are entertaining all kinds of new ideas for this newest bodacious initiative that we will begin to fold into our future plans for upcoming Bodacious Dream Expeditions.

Speaking of which … our NEXT expedition will be back aboard Bodacious Dream during the Atlantic Cup Race that begins May 11th, which starts in Charleston, SC, and where we will be racing to New York City and then around to Newport, Rhode Island. On this 2nd expedition, we’ll have the added excitement of the race to track plus many interesting elements of the Atlantic Ocean to explore – the currents of the Gulf Stream, the impact of weather and the history and geography of the cities on the constantly changing Atlantic coastline. As it is also a race … and a very competitive one at that, there will be a little more adrenaline in the mix this time. It will be interesting to see if we can keep all that excitement and interest contained … and uploaded to the web!

In closing then … for all of us on Bodacious IV, the racing crew and our stellar expeditionary crew as well as our onshore team and dear friends and spouses, we thank all of you Bodacious Dreamers for being there and for allowing us to share all of this with you. … Dream on …!

– Dave Rearick

In Cabo, the Expedition Readies!

Posted on March 29, 2013 by spoon

The Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race is almost done and Bodacious IV has done well. It’s been quite a struggle with the light winds; the first day saw them only make 100 miles progress. On a normal day, Bodacious IV can easily sail close to 200 miles! Right now in Cabo, it’s Thursday at 16:20 PST and from what we can tell, Bo IV is within 15 miles of the finish, and we expect her here within two hours.

The Bodacious Dream Expeditions crew and I are heading down to the finish line area now to watch and greet the guys. They have sailed a great course and race, and if things hold out, they will have finished as the second boat in their section, but we’ll have to wait until the ratings are calculated to find out their final corrected position. A great accomplishment for what is really only their second serious race with the boat! Congrats to all the guys … to the drivers … Jeff, Christer, Chris, Matt and Alan and to the trimmers … John, Phil, Jim and Tim!

:: The Upcoming Bodacious Dream Expedition!

With the relative slowness of the race, we probably won’t likely start our BoDream Expedition until Saturday the 30th. We’ve got some things we need to do onboard before we take off – such as stock provisions, fuel as well as clean and change the prop from a racing prop to a more efficiently powered prop for motoring purposes. And naturally, we want to give Bo IV’s Captain Tim Eades a chance to rest up a bit! So, once the dockside celebrations are over for Bodacious IV, the deliver crew and myself will hit the boat and start cleaning and preparing for the trip while the racing crew relaxes and refreshes.

Moving forward to the actual Expedition game plan, our Bodacious Dream Expeditions website is almost complete with information on the Baja Peninsula Expedition.

The Live Latest Updates page on the site is where ALL new posts will go first … and it will carry the chronological stream back to the start.

Our Bodacious Dream Expeditions Facebook page is also ready to keep you updated as well. For those of you who do Facebook, that will be an easy way to keep up with the daily updates. So, LIKE us over there … to receive those updates in your newsfeed.

:: Explorer Guides

Back on the BDX site, we’ve uploaded our six “Explorer Guides.” These are our youth-focused study guide worksheets, in a variety of subjects relative to the Baja and to sailing. They’re pretty cool … even if do say so myself! (Thanks to our great team!)

So, here’s one way you might get more involved. If you have any kids in your vicinity, we encourage you to be a “mentor” by sharing with them the unique and fun opportunities that the expedition offers, and working with them on some of the questions and problems the guides pose, AND by following us along as we make our way north. There’s also a printable map of our route to keep daily track of our progress. I’m betting there are even a few questions there that will give the adults a challenge too. (How do you calculate the difference between a knot and statute mile?)

:: A Little Expeditionary How-To

Here, by way of example, is how I would share the Expedition with my young friends Brett and Harry. (This how-to stuff can all be found on the BDX website at “Mentor Guide” page.)

• First off, I’d show them the website and help them read through the front information pages.

• Then, I’d go to the “Expedition Overview” section and print out the Baja Peninsula page. This is a few pages of information about the Baja Peninsula and should be quick and easy reading. At the end, is the Baja map to Baja Map to print out. I would put the map up on the refrigerator, so we could mark off and keep track of the progress each day … as the daily updates come in from Bodacious IV.

• Next, I’d go to the “Explorer Guides.” These subject-specific worksheets are designed to be printed out and used for fun exchanges with the kids. A bunch of the questions can simply be answered by referring back to the information contained on the Baja Peninsula page. In addition, you can have fun figuring out other problems posed about distances, speeds and how we navigate.

• Then each day, probably in the early afternoon, I’d check the site for the latest daily update on the Live Updates page. There will be photos from the boat, stories about our day and maybe a video or two about fun things we do or see along the way. You’ll be able to plot our course, figure out where we are and follow right along with our progress.

Beyond that, the rest is pretty much up to you. Be curious, ask questions, do some addtional exploring on your own and strike up conversations!

My broader hope in all this, is to find new ways to share the wonders of the majestic ocean, the excitement of sailing as well as the pure fun of sharing new experiences with you. We would like nothing more to awaken dreams in the minds of youngsters, such that one day we may see them (and you as well) out on the ocean and exploring the wonders of the Earth on their own.

It certainly began that way for me. Such are the nature of big dreams!

So, send along any questions, ideas or suggestions you might have. Use the BDX Contact Us form, or the BDX Facebook page or … oceanexplorer@bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com is another good address.

We more than welcome your input! Thank you one and all!

Ok then, on to it! See you out there!

– Dave, Bodacious Dream, Bodacious IV & the Crew

BoDream News / Excitement Builds for Cabo & Beyond!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by spoon

Well, it’s getting exciting around here! The Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s Race to Cabo San Lucas is just a few days away. The Captain of Bodacious IV, Tim Eades and I brought Bodacious IV up from San Diego where she has been for the last month getting ready for the race. It was a 70-mile trip and we left at the crack of dawn in a thick marine layer of fog – motoring all the way up to Newport Harbor. The sun burned off much of the fog by afternoon, and though it was a motor trip, Tim and I had a chance to relax a bit and to reflect on the enormous amount of work accomplished in the last month.

With great help from many of the folks in the San Diego Area, we were able to take Bodacious IV from a “taken apart and shipped” state to fully-rigged and race-ready. The great folks at Driscoll’s Yard helped with the heavy work of installing the keel and rudder, stepping the mast and launching the boat. The gang from Rigworks handled much of the rigging and tuning, while Patrick and the guys at North Sails helped to make the sails just right for the boat. Then there was Russell at Seatech who helped us with the watermaker … in addition to the many other good folks in the area who played a part in bringing Bodacious IV back to strong racing form. Many thanks to everyone!

Bodacious IV in the foreground, Dorade second (winner of the 1938 Trans-Pac) and behind her is War Path … previously sailed as the famous Nitemare of Chicago and the Great Lakes. All are here preparing for the Cabo Race at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

Now onto the race itself! The race is an 800-mile race from Newport Harbor, California to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico – down along the coast of Baja, Mexico. This is one of those classic California races and the lineup of competitors is pretty significant. Follow the crew of Bodacious IV right here on the Newport Harbor Yacht Club Cabo ”Race Tracker.”

While I won’t be onboard for the race this time, I will be heading down to Cabo to help return the boat to San Diego, which will mark the beginning of our new adventure … Bodacious Dream Expeditions! … a series of fun, periodic voyages of discovery and learning as we move towards sailing Bodacious Dream around the world! Our plan right now, depending on conditions of course, is to leave Cabo on March 29th. In preparation for the expedition, we have launched a new Bodacious Dream Expeditions website and a BDX Facebook page as well to help us to share the 5-6 day experience with you and also to help bring fun facts and information to kids .. and people of all ages. If you have kids in your life who you think might find this of interest … we encourage you to follow our progress with them. Check out these new pages!

As if to genuinely welcome Bodacious IV and us back to the Pacific Ocean, Tim and I had a special treat on our trip up from San Diego, when we encountered two whales frolicking along the coast. What a beautiful sight to see them swimming along in such immense majesty and grace. During our expedition up from Cabo, we hope to have and share more of these magnificent experiences with you.

And finally … with spring knocking at the door back home in the Great Lakes, I’ll be back in the Midwest this weekend at Crowley’s Yachtapalooza, giving another talk on Saturday, March 23rd at 10:30 am. Yachtapalooza is a great event that takes place at their lakeside boat yard on the South Side of Chicago. They’ll have all sorts of displays and information or just hang with other sailors and catch up on a winter full of stories. Following my 30-minute talk, the Great Lakes Singlehanded Society will be introducing solo sailing to anyone who is interested. So, if you’re looking to get into some of this crazy solo sailing stuff, that would be a great place to start. Here’s the full Yachtapalooza Schedule of Events.

Hope to see some of you there. If you are, be sure to come say hi!

Dave & Bodacious Dream!

Changing w/ the Seasons – Big Plans for 2013!

Posted on March 11, 2013 by spoon

I’ve been back home here in the Midwest on the shore of Lake Michigan for about a week. Late winter here has been on the dismal side – cold grey days with rainy snow and an ice shelf a few hundred yards out into the water. But I know this lake, and I know it won’t be long before the season changes.

While Bodacious Dream rested in Charleston, South Carolina after her trip across the Atlantic, I spent a few weeks in San Diego, CA helping my friend, Captain Tim Eades prepare the striking 52’ Bodacious IV (a fellow ship to Bodacious Dream) – for a couple of big ocean races on the West Coast of the U.S. this summer. The first of these races will be the Newport Beach, California to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Race – an 800-mile race that begins March 23rd.

You know, when you’ve been sailing for a while, and especially after sailing a boat like Bodacious Dream across the world’s oceans, you learn that sailing isn’t about forcing the environment to adapt to your boat, but rather about staying responsive – about trimming your sails and adjusting your helm to the changing forces of the environment around you. Not much different on land. The change of the date for the Global Ocean Race, that I was entered in this fall, to the fall of 2014 has allowed us to adjust our plans and use this year to take Bodacious Dream in a unexpectedly fantastic direction!

Here’s how this year of living bodaciously is shaping up.

We’ll start the summer racing Bodacious Dream once again in the Atlantic Cup Race on May 11th, that runs from Charleston, SC to New York City and then to Newport, RI. It was such a great event last year, and this year, with even stronger competition, it promises to be even more fun! Our media coverage on this race will be a big step up from last year!

After the finish of The Atlantic Cup, we’ll stay in Newport to begin preparing Bodacious Dream for a trip around the planet! Yes, that’s right … Bodacious Dream and I are going to sail around the world! I will follow the same course that the famous races take, but … without the race, I’ll be doing it in a less formal way. This will allow us to create a dream itinerary, but also to take advantage of all sorts of unexpected opportunities that might arise.

We’ll be outfitting Bodacious Dream with a state of the art satellite communications system, which will allow us to upload photos and videos right from the water! This will enable us to share with the world the full bodacious experience online – both on Facebook and on the web through our Bodacious Dream website, as well as on a new website we are currently building … called Bodacious Dream Expeditions!

From the beginning, one of the cornerstones of Bodacious Dream has been to share that Dream with the wider world … and now, working with our partners at the Earthwatch Institute, we will be able to explore, highlight and capture what we see as we go on our global expeditions, at the same time we allow you a “window” through which to join us, and to share in the discovery of the many oceanic wonders we’ll encounter along the way.

The racing format, as exciting as it is, limits our ability to do much more then concentrate on sailing quickly from one harbor to the next. This new expedition format will give us the chance to follow the winds of our curiosity as we explore the sea around us, and then to share that story with you – wherever in the world either of us might be at that moment.

Our first expedition is coming up very soon here – at the end of March! While Bodacious Dream remains docked in Charleston, we will take the opportunity to run our first Bodacious Dream Expedition aboard Bodacious Dream’s fellow ship, Bodacious IV, as we sail her back to San Diego, California, after she completes in the race to Cabo San Lucas.

Onboard with me will be a crew of 4 talented and seaworthy friends. We’ll be armed with a couple of video cameras and a full satellite communications system that we’ll use to upload media reports via videos and photos as we move up this gorgeous stretch of Pacific Ocean coast line, teeming with all sorts of marine life. This setting will provide us a great opportunity to experiment with making our “expedition” as rich and full of fun and insights as we can.

A big part of the Bodacious Dream has always been to reach out to young people and to foster new and more experiential ways of learning. Along with these Expeditions, we are developing an engaging set of explorer study guides intended for kids of all ages (and adults too!) – to play with and learn more about the marvels to be found along the coastline and ocean waters of the beautiful Baja Peninsula.

We’re working right now putting the finishing touches on those materials and the Bodacious Dream Expeditions website, and we hope to have it ready before the end of this week. In the meantime, come visit (and “Like” us) at our brand new Bodacious Dream Expeditions Facebook Page. We hope that once you – our adult friends – see what we’re doing, that you’ll want to share this bodacious opportunity with the spirited youngsters around you. After all, happy and involved young kids are the future of any better world we might imagine, and guiding them to an understanding of the amazing wonders of the natural world, we feel, is a responsibility that we all share.

Bodacious Dream and I look forward to having you onboard with us. So, please send along any questions or thoughts you might have. This new expeditionary direction is far more collaborative than competitive racing might allow for – so we encourage you to jump into the boat with us, right here at the start and help us shape what comes next. If you are a parent or adult friend, a teacher, or sailor, a lover of adventure – or if you know others who share a similar spirit … pass this on and let’s open the idea to the larger world. We all know that’s where the big fun awaits.

Thank you so much.

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

Boats to be Sailed, Stories to be Told!

Posted on February 16, 2013 by spoon

I know it’s been a few weeks since we’ve sent an update. I’ve been busy and wrapped up in several things at once. To start, I’m down in Southern California helping to put together a boat (No, not Bodacious Dream) for some upcoming races on the West Coast this summer. In addition to that, I’ve also taken some road trips and had some speaking engagements, which have been great fun. In fact, I’ve got another speaking engagement coming up next weekend on Saturday, February 23rd back in the Midwest at the Michigan City Yacht Club. (More on that below)

I’ve been here in San Diego helping to prepare a beautiful “Santa Cruz 52” called Bodacious IV. (Yup, she’s a sister ship to our Bodacious Dream.) She’s here to compete in the Newport to Cabo San Lucas race at the end of March, and then come July, in the Trans-Pac Race which runs from Long Beach, CA to Honolulu, HI.

In the last two weeks, after her arrival here by shipment from the Midwest, we’ve put on the keel, installed the rudder, put together the rig and stepped the mast, put all sorts of pieces and parts back in place, launched the boat and we’re sail testing it this weekend with the captain, electronics and navigation gurus!

Here’s what it looks like to set up and step (what we call installing) the rig (mast)!

The process looks easy, at least when you’re working with the talented people from Driscoll’s and Rigworks!

The work is almost complete here, and I’ll be heading for home the middle of this week, and preparing for what I know will be a great time … a storytelling session at the Michigan City Yacht Club in Michigan City, IN! This is my home yacht club and home sailing waters, and I much appreciate their asking me to entertain them on a mid-February night with stories, photos, videos and tall tales of my last year. From building Bodacious Dream to shipping her to Ft. Lauderdale, The Atlantic Cup Race, The Quebec-St. Malo Race, Normandy Channel, Mondial Class 40 World Championships and then the solo Trans-Atlantic return trip – I guess I can fill up the time pretty well. If you’re in the area, and looking for some salty diversion next Saturday night, come join us! (Here’s a link to the flyer on the Michigan City Yacht Club website for more information.)

Soon after that, I’ll be heading back to Charleston, SC to resume work on Bodacious Dream to get her ready for the upcoming season of racing and sailing which will start off with The Atlantic Cup Race on May 11, 2013. This promises to be another great event put together by Manuka Sports Management, and we are expecting some very intense competition this year. Two of our competitors from last year, Toothface and Ahmas will have new generation boats that will keep us on our toes for sure!

We’ve got more exciting news planned for the coming few months, and we’ll be letting you know about all that very soon. So please keep a lookout for our updates here, on our mailing list (signup form above) and over on our Bodacious Dream Facebook Page.

Thanks again, and our very best to all of you!

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

BoDream News/ The Solo Crossing in Photos & Videos

Posted on January 30, 2013 by spoon

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

BoDream News/ Home Again!

Posted on January 14, 2013 by spoon

At 4:00 am on Saturday morning, wrapped in a very dense fog, I tied up in Charleston Harbor, and so completed what has been for me a lifelong dream – a dream that began on December 7th, when Bodacious Dream and I departed Cascais, Portugal. Usually, there would have been a lot of shipping traffic present in Charleston, but I suppose because of the fog and the hour, it was eerily quiet when I stepped onto the dock.

The two days prior to that however, had been more challenging than I anticipated, with some very intense seas.

I arrived in West Palm Beach on Wednesday for a quick pit-stop, where I washed off the salt, took a nap, did some refueling and got a real American cheeseburger and fries with a friend. Thursday morning, I began the 365-mile last leg of the trip to Charleston, and quickly ran into difficulties with twisty and unpredictable Gulf Stream currents that at the start gave us a solid knocking about.

The Gulf Stream, as you may know, is like a river in the coastal ocean that runs northbound at 3 knots. I got to “jib reaching” along at a pretty good pace with its help … but the wave pattern was also temperamental, to say the least … so the 3-knot boost was in this case, something of a mixed blessing.

When you have a strong current like the Gulf Stream (the darkest red in the photo,) if the winds blow “with” the current, the seas are pretty steady. If however, the winds blow “against” the current, then the waves can get very steep and choppy … with the friction of the wind against the current making for very chaotic motion. I spent a good part of Thursday day and night with the wind mostly against the current, with one wave coming across another one that is going at a right angle to it … which yanks the boat into a corkscrew-like motion. Let me tell you, even a few hours of this can be pretty rough on the stomach!

For the rest of the time, the sailing was pretty fast, until the end, when the winds slowed and the waters grew glassy still (it reminded me of Lake Michigan sailing,) and I had to kick over the motor for the final approach to Charleston.

So, after tucking Bodacious into her Charleston berth, and saying my farewells, I left yesterday on a flight back to the Midwest. Now that I’m back home again in Indiana, I wanted to take a moment to express my deep gratitude to all of you for your ongoing interest and support of our adventurous dream.

We chose Charleston for the late winter and early spring so that we might make some modifications to Bodacious, and add some new equipment that will make her better suited for the longer races we have planned. One thing we’re looking to do is to upgrade our satellite communications, which will allow us to send photos (and videos!) directly from the boat – so that we can really spice up these updates!

Back now on a real Internet connection, I am starting to upload photos and videos, the best of which I think you’ll enjoy. I recall one video I took sailing down a mid-ocean highway of shimmering moonlight. All along the way, I kept wishing I could show you what I was seeing. Sharing such memories and experiences is always a special part of the experience for me.

We have other aspects of the Bodacious Dream “Project” that we’ll be advancing as well in the coming months, including initiating some collaborations with our friends at the Earthwatch Institute who are engaged in some very exciting ocean science programs.

And don’t forget, the first race of the summer begins on May 11th, right in Charleston – The Class 40 Atlantic Cup Race! (Charleston to NYC to Newport.) We’re looking forward to an exciting race and to defending our second place overall finish of last year. Check out this new video trailer for the 2013 Atlantic Cup Race. (I’m the first guy you “see” talking in it, alongside my BD crewmate, Matt Scharl. BoDream (#118) is identifiable in the action by the name “Fish” on the mainsail.)

As we move forward, we’ll be keeping you informed of all these developments through emails, but also on Facebook where we happily gained many new fans over the past month. That Bodacious Dream Facebook Page link, as always, is here.

And thank you again for your tremendous show of support this past season. It has made the trip SO much more rewarding knowing that you were there, following our progress and rooting us on.

I’ll be returning to Charleston before too long, so if you happen to be down there – come look us up. There’s always a chance you can reach out and touch BoDream’s bowsprit and gain yourself some of her Bodacious Luck!

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

BoDream News/ Edge, Excitement and Fanfare!

Posted on January 9, 2013 by spoon

4:00 AM – Dark of night still and it’s kee-razy out here! I just came flying into the western entrance to the Providence Passage – the route that slices the Northern Bahamas and Southern Bahamas. With the A5 (the small spinnaker) up and the wind building … 18 … 20 … 23 … 25 … we’re flying along doing 15 knots and under control with Otto (the auto-pilot) driving, but with me getting a bit edgy. For boats, 8 to 10 knots is considered pretty fast. For most boats that is. For a boat like Bodacious Dream, 8 to 10 might be like doing 75-80 in your car … not so wild … but up it to 12 and then 15 and the whole experience amps up big-time. You feel the immense force of wind and water power as it lifts the boat right out of the water and up on a plane. Your body can’t help but get tense, as the ocean begins to throw waves at the boat, which spray back towards the cockpit … like a firehose in your face.

Check out the video here – shot during sea trials down in New Zealand (for a BIT of the feel) …

So, I’m in this altered state – and then 3 ships show up almost at the same time. I’m sure their radar and AIS (Automated Identification System) were wondering what the hell is going on here … this boat is flying past us and can’t hold a steady course. Around that point, with the wind shifting 10 degrees back and forth, I finally called “Chicken!” – and decided I’d best roll up the A5.

I’m not sure where the upper limits are with these chutes yet, and whether the limit is the boat or me, but they are buggers to roll at 20 knots. But, I made the argument to myself, “Hey, you’re tired, it’s blowing 25, you’re sailing at 15 knots, there’s 3 ships after you, two more on the radar and three light blips on the horizon … and you don’t know if you can get this thing rolled up? Good time, I’d say to give it a try! And if you can’t, well, we can figure out how to bail out of here, because hitting a freighter is NOT on the bucket list!”

Well, I got it rolled up all fine, and commenced sailing under the mainsail alone at 9-10 knots – until I got past those freighters.

65 miles to West Palm. Right now, I’m seeing 8 freighters around me. I’ve figured out that this is a staging area, and they’re all just sitting here … moving a couple of knots in one direction or another … so even more important NOT to hit one. My friend Alan would never let me live that down … “You hit a freighter that wasn’t moving!?”

So … half a can of coke and two cookies to get me through the next few miles and into clearer water. Really … how much fun can one guy have?!

A DAY LATER – As I write this, I’m mid-way through the Providence Passage that separates the Northern and Southern Bahamas. This is a highly trafficked area, as commercial ships and private vessels travel through it to open ocean and down to where I came from or across the Atlantic. After the excitement of last night, the day passed fairly uneventfully except for a couple of cruise liners passing. At night and close to port, they generally aren’t moving much as the distance between ports of call for them is short, and so what they typically do is to leave the port around sunset and arrive in the morning, which means finding a calm place to basically “float” for the night.

I was sailing through and keeping a pretty good pace, and the ship in front of me seemed to be doing about the same speed. For a few hours, I wasn’t catching up, so I stopped worrying about him. Then things changed, and I began gaining on him quickly. I knew what that meant. They were a cruise ship that had stopped for the night.

As I got closer, I could see the colored lights and soon enough my AIS (Automated Identification System) showed their symbol, and identified the ship as the gigantic “Disney Dream.”

Within a half hour or so, I was sailing past them when all of a sudden, the sky lit up with fireworks!! The explosives shooting up from the upper decks of the Disney Dream only lasted five minutes or so, but I thought … “How thoughtful of them to recognize my passing, and to give me such a grand salute for sailing across the Atlantic alone!”

Laughing inside, I picked up the radio mic and called over to the Disney Dream and thanked them for such a great salute, and how nice it was of them to do that in honor of my long voyage. A few moments later, they replied…“You’re welcome Captain! Glad you enjoyed it!”

So there you have it … as ships … or dreamers … pass in the night … always a touch of respect! I’ll have to send the captain a note and a Bodacious Dream hat!

DAWN – Down to the last few hours of fast sailing here. Crossing from the Bahamas to the Florida coast and then up to West Palm Beach and the Rybovich Marina. I’m right in the Gulf Stream now, which is like a river in the coastal ocean that runs northbound at 3 knots. Because of the wind angle, I have to sail slightly west towards the coast of Florida before I can gybe towards West Palm Beach. If I were to gybe now, at about 20 miles out of Ft. Lauderdale, the current would push me past West Palm Beach. Imagine walking across a treadmill “sideways” … you go forward and sideways at the same time.

Gulfstreaming it!

Right now, I’m sailing at 15 knots of boat speed with the small A5 chute up. It’s rather exciting, but once I gybe, this will be the clearest indication of the difference between boat speed and speed over the ground. At that time, I’ll be sailing with the current, so 15 knots of boat speed plus the 3 knots of current and my speed over the ground (not through the water, that’s still 15) will be 18 knots! Some fun!

@(+26.1700 -79.3700)
Wind speed: 22 knots
Wind Direction: 105 degrees/ south of east
Boat Speed: 11-15
Excitement Level: 12.5
Edginess: 15
Boredom: 0
Cookies: All Gone

As always, many thanks for hanging in with me this whole time. We’re back in home waters now!

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

BoDream News/ Closing the Loop – A Year on the Water

Posted on January 7, 2013 by spoon

It’s another quiet and starry night at sea. While it may be beautifully serene, it is quieter than I’d like it to be. The wind has dropped down below 10 knots, and I’ve had to start the engine and motor sail in order to stay on a pace that keeps me content. You can lose days and even weeks at sea waiting for the wind, which is just fine by sailors, so long as they haven’t made plans and have commitments on land that cannot wait indefinitely.While in a bit of a trance staring into the deep darkness of the moonless night, I cannot help but reflect on what an amazing year this has been, and how it’s coming to a close … like a countdown clock, with each tenth of a mile clicking off on the GPS.

It was just a year ago that I had returned to New Zealand to continue sea trials of Bodacious Dream, after her successful launch in December 2012. Through January, we sailed her around Wellington Harbor; testing electronics, sails, equipment and other various functions, so that any problems could be addressed there. We even entered a local race of 140 miles from Wellington to Nelson on the South Island. That course had us sailing through the famous Cook Strait that separates the North and South Islands. Cook Strait is famous for its crazy winds – and it did not disappoint – delivering a fat 50-knot blow in the dark of night as we were returning to harbor. As we had hoped, BoDream easily withstood that test.

As January 2012 came to a close, we prepared Bodacious Dream for the trip to her home North Atlantic Ocean waters. With great flair and fun, we floated her over to a Dockwise yacht transport ship where she was secured along with other boats making the trip across the Pacific Ocean to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. She fit in nicely under the watchful eye of the 130-foot long Endeavor, one of the grand dames of sailing yachts! These unique Dockwise ships (pictured here) flood themselves and then float the boats into the center of the ship. Once divers secure each of them in place with blocking and cables, the water is pumped out and the boats all sit high and dry, secured and ready for the long distance crossing.It was March when Bodacious Dream arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, where with the help of close friends Tom McDermott, Laurie Sampson and Tim McKenna, we sailed her the short 40 miles to West Palm Beach where we took a slip at the Rybovich Marina, where I commenced preparations for our summer of racing and travel.The Rybovich Marina is like a southern home to us, and our starting point for what has been a most remarkable season of sailing and racing encircling the Atlantic Ocean. As I write this, I am about 400 miles from the Rybovich Marina, where I will be closing the loop to our year on the water. Sailors have a special fondness for the notion of closing loops. On this watery round planet, circumnavigations are what it’s all about … whether we are talking small lakes, bigger lakes, islands, oceans or even the great globe itself.In May of last year, I sailed Bodacious Dream up to Charleston, South Carolina to compete in the Atlantic Cup Race with my fellow sailor Matt Scharl. Matt and I did the two offshore legs, taking a third in the first leg from Charleston to New York City, and a first in the second leg from New York City to Newport, RI, which put us well above our own expectations, and I think everyone else’s too! Solid racing in Newport with a team of local friends and sailors enabled us to finish second overall for the Atlantic Cup Race!

In late June, my good friend Kevin Finnegan joined me for the 1200-mile trip from Newport, up to Nova Scotia and back down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City. Matt joined me there, along with Mark Zaransky and Emma Creighton. The four of us made up Bodacious Dream’s crew in the Transat Quebec – St. Malo Race – that took us from Quebec City back out the St. Lawrence River and across the North Atlantic, finishing in St. Malo, France! There were many great memories from that time – the pearlescent luster of Beluga whales, a windless night surrounded by playful whales sounding and breathing and the six days of endless jib reaching at near 20-knot speeds. We finished respectably – in the middle of the fleet – not bad considering our relative lack of experience with both our boat and Class 40 racing.

From St. Malo, I sailed on to Cherbourg with my French friend, Pierre. I stayed there a couple of weeks before moving on to Caen, on the Normandy Coast, for the start of the Normandy Channel Race. In my spare time, I had a chance to explore the French countryside and witness some of the World War II history that is such a significant part of this region’s heritage.

The Normandy Channel Race proved a rather frustrating experience, as Matt and I were unable to stay competitive due to issues with our jib in the lighter than expected airs of the race. With that holding us back, we retired early from the race after having sailed across the English Channel, around the Isle of Wight, along the southern coast of the UK and out to Lands’ End – one of the great historical markers in the sailing world. Once on our own, we sailed down the western coast of France, past the famous Jument Lighthouse (pictured here in this well-known photo,) and made our way to Lorient, the center of short-handed and large trimaran sailing in France. Matt and I were like wide-eyed kids in a candy store pulling into Lorient in the wee hours of the morning, to tie up alongside these majestic sailing yachts.

From Lorient, I sailed on to La Rochelle and met up with a crew of friends from New Zealand to compete in the Mondial World Championships. For four days we raced hard all day long. We had our good races and won one of them from start to finish, but we had some not-so-good ones too. In the end, we finished a respectable 9th in the world. Naturally, we’d have loved to have finished in the top three, but the sailing was exceptional and many new friendships were made. After all, how unimaginably lucky were we in the first place; nine months out of the boatyard and finishing in the top ten of a World Championship Race?

With our racing schedule concluded, it was time for Bodacious Dream and I to head for home waters on the other side of the Atlantic. I had just finished preparing her for the long trip, when we were forced to change our plans because of Hurricane Sandy. So instead, we set sail for the wonderful port of Cascais, Portugal where Bodacious Dream waited for me to return from a jaunt back home for Thanksgiving.

On December 7th, just about a month ago, we departed from Cascais heading for North America. Our only stop was a brief one on the island of Madeira for more fuel and provisions. At that point, we could see from weather and wind forecasts, that this was going to be a longer than anticipated trip across the Atlantic.

22 days later, we slipped into the island harbor of Antigua at 2 AM in the morning. Finally coming to rest under a bright and full Caribbean moon seemed an appropriate and fitting finish to the big leg of our trip.

Dave & BoDream in Antigua (Thank you Kevin Johnson!)

I’m now more than half way through the last leg of the trip, on my way back to where we started this journey. There remains less than 400 miles to go before I cross my tracks and “close the loop.” With the end of the voyage almost in sight, it feels very much like time to thank the many wonderful people who have been such an important part of this whole journey. Rather than name you all individually, I am simply going to salute and thank you all collectively for your part in all of this – whether you sailed, helped out or just followed along with our story. Whatever role you played, I deeply appreciate your support.

Once we close the loop, Bodacious Dream’s navigation system will show a bit more than 14,600 miles of sailing, since she was launched a year ago. In sailor’s years, that’s around about FIVE seasons of sailing – all completed in TEN months!

So now … just a little more wind and we’ll be heading back to Charleston for the next phase of the Bodacious Dream! After all, come May, we’ve got to return to defend our success in the Atlantic Cup Race!

Rollin’ along towards home, and wishing you all the best!

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

BD Atlantic Crossing / What Really Happens #2 (Nighttime)

Posted on January 6, 2013 by spoon

I am sitting in the boat’s cockpit on a dark clear night with the moon not up yet. I watch a vessel slowly passing on my port side, a couple of miles away. We’re going in the same direction on this Saturday night, and I begin to wonder about them. Are they a freighter, a private yacht or perhaps something more exotic … maybe a research vessel? There is little indication on the AIS (Automatic Identification System) – so, it’s up to me to imagine … which soon leads me to wondering what you are all doing on this Saturday night … this the “Twelfth Night” of Christmas.

Over the years, I’ve had the fun of attending a few memorable Twelfth Night dinner parties, and even hosting a few myself. I’ve always regarded the date as the end of the holiday season, and a time to take down the lights and dismantle the decorated tree. I guess this year, I will have to leave it to someone else to pull the plug for me, as I am alone again tonight with the ocean.

Life onboard turns into something of a routine when the weather is as steady as it is, especially so when the course is a direct line for 500 miles. It always takes a day or two to settle in, and to slow yourself to the pace of the boat, but once that’s done, you find yourself addressing many of the same tasks you did the day before and at about the same time. Tonight for instance, at about 5:00 pm, with the sun sinking and the heat dissipating, I grabbed my book and my nightly treats of cheese, apple and crackers and I read a few quick pages. The particular book I’m reading now is about building the “Maltese Falcon,” one of the largest private sailing yachts in the world. Routinely, about this time, I mark the time of day and make an entry in the ship’s log. The sun set a bit earlier today than yesterday, indicating I’m moving north at a fair clip. I notice too it’s a bit cooler tonight as well and I’m sure, within a day or so, I’ll be wearing a jacket at night and maybe even digging out my stocking cap. Presently, I’m close to 500 miles north of Antigua where I had marked the New Year.

I always wait until it’s sufficiently dark out before I allow myself to think about my evening meal. Tonight, about 8:30 I scrounged through the freeze-dried selection, and pulled out a Mexican chicken and rice selection. For some reason, that choice proved inedible to my taste, and so I reluctantly chose another, sweet and sour pork. I’m almost out of propane to heat up water, so I have to convince myself I’m hungry enough to tap the little that remains. Oftentimes, you’re not really hungry, but you know you need to fuel the body. Still, forcing yourself to consume such a meager meal while recalling fabulous Twelfth Night feasts of the past, takes a bit of mental persuasion!

I generally follow dinner with a walk around the boat to look over the fittings – then a review of the latest navigation reports, and some calculations as to how far away the destination is, and when I might likely arrive. I finish up with another entry in the logbook on the day’s happenings – 5 ships spotted today … 2 rather close.

Back up on deck, I scan the horizon for the twinkle of a light that would indicate another ship. I don’t see any. You can’t look directly at the horizon, as some of you know; you have to use your peripheral vision, which is more sensitive to low light, to pick up the faint lights away on the horizon. If you look directly at the lights, you’ll miss them. Only if you look above the horizon, will you notice them. Try it next time you’re out at night.

As it’s a quiet night, I soon turn to working on my nap routine. I’ve had to shorten my naps to 10 minutes duration since leaving Antigua. At the speed I’m traveling and with more ships nearby, they can come up quickly and surprise you. So, through the rest of the night, until the morning comes, I’ll be taking my mini-naps, reading a little, starting the engine to charge batteries, nibbling at leftover dinner, followed by my midnight cookie … and another nap. When the sun clears the horizon, I’ll make note of that in the log and check the distance to the destination again … and so begins another day on the water.

So, what are you doing tonight I wonder? Hopefully something fun.

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

@ (+22.2000 -70.3500)
Boat speed: 9.5 knots
Wind Speed: 14 -20 From 110 South of East
COG (Course over ground): 318-325 degrees
Bearing to way point at Northwest Passage Bahamas: 318 degrees
Distance to way point: 376 miles

BODACIOUS DREAM

"Maximizing our lives, minimizing our impact."

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BoDream News / Excitement Builds for Cabo & Beyond!

Changing w/ the Seasons – Big Plans for 2013!

Boats to be Sailed, Stories to be Told!

BoDream News/ The Solo Crossing in Photos & Videos

BoDream News/ Home Again!

BoDream News/ Edge, Excitement and Fanfare!

BoDream News/ Closing the Loop – A Year on the Water

BD Atlantic Crossing / What Really Happens #2 (Nighttime)