Delayed post from Matt Scharl on Wednesday, July 25th..

Hello from the St. Lawrence Bay.

What a difference a day makes. We’ve had now 10 hours of the same conditions, NNW wind 18 to 25 knots, 10 to 17 knots of boat speed in the direction we want to go.  i can’t see the tracker, but if it shows much detail at all, you can see how many different times we’ve had to make course adjustments. Many of those adjustments or sail changes come during light winds where you’ll see a track that has no rhyme or reason other than the desire to get further down the course. With those changes come the obvious sail changes, but what you don’t see is the moving of what is called the “stack.”  This stack consists of all the sails not being used, unbolted down gear, personal gear, food bins and the required water on board 30 some one- gallon jugs.  So when the boat changes direction or the wind changes, we adjust sails and then adjust the stack, the stack goes to the front, heavy in the back, from the port side it goes to the left and so on until the boat is happy. This stack moving gets old really fast in the variable conditions. We have to really thank Emma for keeping us all in line with this, her diligences regarding this is spectacular. Conditions on board are good, some of the dampness has gone away except for the floor, where the only time my feet are happy is in my boots where its dry. We’re catching up on sleep and overall the happiness meter is on the rise.

Having boats nearby to race is great and the occasional dolphin riding our wake is awesome.

Matt

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

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