Category Archives: Matt Scharl

Québec to St-Malo – BD Update – Day 2

Posted on by

We’re beginning day two here. The first day was a full one with southerly breezes starting about 10 knots at the start and building through the day to 25. Quite a day of gybing down the race course!! As night came to us, the winds went light and the challenges began. Picking our way thru navigation, tidal currents and holes in the wind made for some frustrating sailing. We’ve managed at this point to round the mark at Roumiski. Coming to the mark we had less than two knots of wind and as we rounded, we were gifted with five knots…..we’re moving now and hoping to make some ground up from those that got past us last night.

Sailing in the peaceful calm last night gave us some interesting experiences. While picking up zephyrs of breeze, we could hear whales sounding around us. We’ve sighted a couple so far—one Beluga. The other wonderful sound that brings back many memories is the lonely cry of the Northern Loon. Throughout the night and early morning hours, on occasion, one would cry out. That and the occasional pine-scented zephyr from shore, let us know we were sailing thru some beautiful wilderness.night.

Well, onward we will charge, planning to reel in some miles on the leaders.  (Follow the race live here.)

– Dave

Bodacious Dream Update (7.21.12)

Posted on by

It’s the night before the race and all is well.  Bodacious Dream is in great shape for the race thanks to huge efforts from Emma, Matt and Mark. It’s an amazing process that’s hard to explain, but there are various levels of checks and safety checks, loading of water and food, packing and planning…. and then the meetings and events…. all of which are in French, which makes it extra hard to get all the details down….especially for such a detail-orientated guy!!

The actual start is 11:20 EST on Sunday the 22nd, but we’ll be leaving the harbor by 8:45 or thereabouts and do a tour up the river to the starting area.  Once the start goes off, we point the boat to the North East and head for open water…..but wait, not so fast.  There’s about 400 miles of the St. Lawrence to traverse first before we get into the Atlantic and to make things interesting, there are a number of buoys that we have to round on our way there.  This adds excitement to the harbors along the way as the boat come close off their harbors and sail past.

I was a bit challenged by time and a camera, so I really don’t have any exciting photos of the fleet as they set in Quebec City, but I’m sure you can find more photos on the website   at www.transatquebecstmalo.com where you can also find the tracker and follow our progress and our race position along the way.  (Here’s the live link for following the race)

There’s a great group of competitors here and there is a chance that any number of boats could have a great race. I expect lots of lead changes and interesting tactics for the first three or four days after we get out of the river.

In the meantime, to satisfy some visual desires, here’s a photo of one of the spectacular sunsets we saw on our way up here a week ago.  The sun broke through at the horizon and lit up the underside of the clouds as we moved along into the night.  Sometimes these things just take your breath away, and you forget all the trivial things about life and realize how rich and beautiful the world is.

Hope you’re all having a good summer.  The Chicago Mackinac Race started Sunday and all our cohorts are on “Bodacious IV” working their way up the late.  Check in on them too and see how they are doing.

So stay tuned.  We hope to get into a regular rhythm sending out an email post every other day.   Check onto the website www.bodaciousdream.com. We will be putting the news up there with some regularity as well as our Facebook page.

Thanks to everyone for making this a wonderful experience.

Dave, Matt, Emma and Mark

 

Bodacious Dream Update (7.18.12)

Posted on by

Bodacious Dream arrived in Quebec City on Sunday morning after 11 days of traveling from Newport, Rhode Island around Nova Scotia and up the St. Lawrence Seaway. We are now in a full press to prepare Bodacious Dream for the Quebec to St. Malo Race which will start on Sunday. The Race is almost 3000 miles long sailing the first 400 miles out the St. Lawrence Seaway and then across the North Atlantic finishing in St. Malo, France. (Follow it live here.)

I was fortunate to have good friend and fellow sailor, Kevin Finnegan along on the trip—not only helping out with the work of sailing the boat, but manning the binoculars keeping a watch out for whales, boats and other interesting events along the way.
We left Newport on July 4th in the afternoon, a few hours later than we’d planned, but if I were smart, I’d have waited a few more hours and it would have been a convincing argument that the July 4th celebration and fireworks were a sendoff for us!! Very gentle breezes gave us a chance to catch our breath as we motor/sailed to Halifax where we cleared customs, refueled the boat and spent a night.

From Halifax, you continue east for a hundred miles and then transit the Canso Cut which saves quite a trip around the eastern tip of Nova Scotia. We made a stop there for just a few hours before heading thru the locks and into the outer reaches of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. With Kevin on the binoculars, we spotted our first whale!! Locals told us to keep a close eye out for Whales as we entered the Gulf and we weren’t’ disappointed!!

A great night and following day of sailing got us up around the tip of Gaspe and into Riviera du Renard where we met up with fellow Class 40, Red. We stayed in R du R for a couple of days to wait out bad weather and winds before making the last 350 mile trip to Quebec City.

The trip to Quebec City brought us all sorts of sighting of wildlife, many birds, seals, whales and most exciting was the pod of Beluga Whales that seemed to swim around us as we passed thru their territory off Touldasac. Quite a thrill!!

It’s very busy in Quebec City these days. Kevin left for home yesterday as Emma Creighton arrived. Matt Scharl and Mark Zaranski arrived today and we’ll be a full, four crew strong as we continue to prepare and set up the boat for the race. There seems to be a constant stream of papers and forms to fill out, a list of safety items to locate and purchase, boat repairs and maintenance to do all while meeting and greeting old friends, new friends and the many press people around.

When you get the chance, check out the website www.transatquebecstmalo.com for the race and get your pointers set to the race tracking. This promises to be an interesting and exciting event to follow. There are 21 Class 40 boats in the race, all of which are crewed by top level, international sailors so we’re expecting the competition to be very close and with the currents, winds and interesting navigation challenges of the St. Lawrence, you’re likely to see the lead change many times before we even get to the Atlantic and the crossing to France.

Stay tuned, we’ll have more updates as the start gets closer and we are planning on sending along updates from out on the race course. This will be our first attempt at bringing you right onboard the boat as we are racing.

Dave, Matt, Emma and Mark

Bodacious Dream Update (7.05.12)

Posted on by

BIG NEWS!  Bodacious Dream is now entered in the Transat Quebec—St. Malo race which starts on July 22nd!!

After much thought and consideration, we decided to enter the race. Not only will this be good fun, but it will give us the opportunity to make the trans-Atlantic crossing in order to get to France for our other races later this summer.

Check out the race web site at.. www.transatquebecstmalo.com

The race requires a crew minimum of 3 and we are going as a team of 4. Along with Matt Scharl, who you met during the Atlantic Cup Race, we will be adding Emma Creighton, www.emmacreighton.net , a fellow competitor and skipper of Initiatives in the Atlantic Cup and Mark Zaranski, a long time friend and crewmember of Matt’s.

We will be a great and fun team. And, at this point, the only American entry. I’ve heard from so many of you about how much fun it was to watch the racing in the Atlantic Cup, so I hope we will be able to provide you the same fun this time.

My good friend, Kevin Finnegan has just arrived here in Newport to help me transport Bodacious Dream around Nova Scotia, Canada and then back west up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Quebec City for the Start. We are rushing to try to leave the harbor here on July 4th figuring the trip will take us about 8 days—hopefully not too much motoring. We hear this is a wonderful and beautiful passage, and are looking forward to it. I’ll send more pics from the trip later!!

MORE EXCITING NEWS: The announcement of our sponsors.

William Blair, a Chicago based Global Investment and Asset Management Company will bring a great presence to our program.

Earthwatch Institute, an international environmental group that links support to scientist and educators in the environmental field. We will be providing them with raw data and observation while at sea that will be used by scientist and teachers to help with ocean health and awareness.

So… Bodacious Dream is sporting a new look today as we head out to sea.

Bodacious Dream

Hoping those of you in the USA had a great July 4th holiday and everyone is having a great summer…..or winter – if you’re in the southern hemisphere. I’ll send a more detailed update on the whole race in a week or so.
– Dave