Step-by-Step, Day-by-Day – We’re Getting Closer!

I’ve been in Rhode Island for about 10 days now, getting Bodacious Dream ready for the upcoming circumnavigation. Sorry for the lack of updates, but as you might imagine, there’s a lot going on over here!

There are several significant projects happening concurrently – modifications to the mast, adding new satellite mounts and a hydro generator – as well as other tasks, each of them requiring that I order parts, organize the work, set up schedules and follow through to completion. While sailing often looks like just another fun day on the water, there’s easily as much time spent off the water in preparation and maintaining a boat as there is in sailing her!

BD's Mast down ...

At present, the mast is dismantled and over at the Hall Spars shop in Bristol, RI, and in the competent hands of Dave Moffit, P.J. Schafer and Phil Garland. We choose to move the mast to their shop, as they have all the necessary tools there to install a winch on it and to add some clutches, a new shive or two and do some detail checks of the rod rigging. As you can imagine, the mast is like the engine in the car … without it, the boat stalls out and you’re a floating box … so having everything in perfect working order is paramount.

While that is going on, we started installing the new satellite mounts and reworking the stern life lines, which are the taut wire handrails that keep us from flipping overboard! This has required drilling new holes, filling old holes, adding new hardware and rerouting wires. We’ve also upgraded our computer system to handle the workload better – which feels great.

On Wednesday, Steven Griffin from KVH, the mobile satellite communications company, and provider of our Tracphone V7ip unit, were kind enough to give me a fascinating tour of the KVH facilities right here in the Newport area. What amazing technology the’ve developed to produce the most sophisticated satellite tracking hardware available for boats today. It’s an impressive operation, run with not only a precision focus on quality and technology, but also with a firm and moral commitment to their workforce too! I learned that many of the employees have been there from the first days when they made gyro-stabilized compasses. I’m proud to use their equipment.

Stuff n' StuffEach day is a little like Christmas here as boxes arrive regularly with parts and pieces in them. When considering that I will be away from U.S. shores for eight to ten months, it’s necessary that I consider the availability of spare parts. While I may be able to receive shipments in Cape Town, South Africa or Wellington, NZ (cookies ship nicely, btw,) deliveries to the middle of the Indian Ocean are a different story. So, you have to think it through, and take a real close look at what you have and what you might need. Things like spare pumps, hoses, clamps, tools and such all have to be packed to ensure I’m as self-sufficient as possible.

Last week, we had a great meeting of the minds with the Earthwatch Institute team and myself to discuss our future progress. We are all looking forward to this joint venture, as we’ll be able to provide Earthwatch with a “virtual” expedition, as we send back research data from remote points on our travels. The Earthwatch folks are also connecting us with other research projects of theirs, as well as with tools and methodologies to do samplings of plankton, micro-plastics and visual observations, etc.

Bodacious Dream ExpeditionsI look forward to integrating all this research into our Bodacious Dream Expeditions Circumnavigation’s Explorer Study Guides which are our learning and discovery components, to help provide context and insights along the way, for learners of all ages. It’s quite a job when you consider the 30,000 mile wide whiteboard we are working on!

After the meeting, Tegan Mortimer, a dynamic young woman whose enthusiasm for whales and plankton is deep and inspiring, invited me to join her for a whale watching tour on the boat she works on. I’ll do a separate update just on that part of the Earthwatch program, as Tegan showed me so many interesting and exciting things that I never knew about the really big guys, whales and the really little guys, plankton. Here’s one factoid … did you know that plankton is responsible for the oxygen we use in 1 out of every 5 breaths? Amazing, huh?

Here’s a short video intro to Tegan … with subsequent ones to come in the next update … as well as soon on our Bodacious Dream Expeditions YouTube Channel.

So, I’ve got to get back to work here – some composite work in the back of the boat to make mounting the satellite, lifelines and hydro-generator all work out. So, off I go … mask on, into the dark and scrunchy depths of the stern lazzarette to grind away at some fiberglass. All you sailors know just how much “itch by itch – little by little” fun that is! Oh well … just another day in the life of a dreamer … and what a fortunate one I am!

Until later, thanks as always for your support!

Dave & Bodacious Dream (out here on the “verge” of the dream …)

From Newport to Newport, by way of the Earth!

#`I arrived back in Rhode Island this past Monday from my home on the shores of Lake Michigan. At the Hinckley Boatyard in Portsmouth, RI, I’m reunited now with Bodacious Dream, which has been waiting patiently for me to return.

BoDream in Portsmouth, RIBodacious … just hanging out … getting ready … 

Leaving there and arriving here marked a big transition in the life of Bodacious Dream
and myself. It means I’ve done the majority of the organizational work necessary for me to be away from home for some ten months! Imagine if you had to do the same … a whole lotta lists … that’s all I can say.

We’ve kept you updated the past two years as best we could with our travels and our races onboard Bodacious Dream … but that has all been something of a dress rehearsal for what is about to happen now … in that all that has allowed me the opportunity to really get to know this marvelous sailing ship and to see just how I might best configure her for the main event … that of a SOLO GLOBAL CIRCUMNAVIGATION.

We’ve done well in some of our races and learned a lot in the rest, but I’ve learned the most I would say from sailing her back from Europe alone, and from talking with other sailors with more open-ocean experience than I. So, now the time is upon us and for the next six weeks, I’ll be here in Rhode Island implementing those lessons and refinements so that I can sail her around the world in as safe and natural way as possible.

Here’s a video I shot Wednesday at the boatyard … a little introduction as to what lies ahead … and some of the work that needs to be done before we set sail.

Dave’s Intro #1 to the Circumnavigation …

We’ve got new mounts for the KVH Satellite Dome, where our Internet connection resides. We’ve also got new hatches, new hardware, new spray shields for the cockpit, new lines and halyards as well as expanded storage units for lots of food (and cookies) to keep us fit and happy. We’re also working on enhancing the quality of our information uploads with GPS-tagged photographs and Google Earth/Ocean mapping tours. These amazing technologies are going to allow you to see much more of what’s happening in real-time, than we can show you here in e-mails or blog posts. We are determined to get ourselves on the leading edge here in so far as how we use these great new tracking and recording technologies!

To give you a feel for the scope and distance of the adventure, here is our ITINERARY for the circumnavigation, along with a few details and comments.

We’re looking for good weather October 1st to leave Newport, RI and to return there around June 1st, 2014!

If you are reading this and you have any thoughts, learning advice, questions or such, please feel free to email them to us at info@bodacousdreamexpeditions.com!

So, let’s take a look!

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GLOBAL BODACIOUS DREAM EXPEDITION

Circumnavigation of the Globe (Planned Itinerary – updated 8.20.13)

#1) DEPART NEWPORT RI (OCTOBER 1, 2013)
Coordinates: 41 29’ 13.20”N, 71 20’ 34.25”W

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#2) Commence onward to  ST. HELENA ISLAND (in the middle of the Southern Atlantic)

 

Coordinates: 15°55’4.42″S, 5°43’42.36″W 
Length of sail:
 5758 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 30 Days

Goal: This remote and desolate island in the middle of the south Atlantic provides a unique opportunity to stop and explore.

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#3) Commence onward to CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

Coordinates: 34 15’ 11.115”S, 18 37’ 33.29”E
Length of sail: 1700 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 10 Days
Goal: Visit whale habitat, various cultural areas and this historical maritime waypoint for world circumnavigators both modern day and historical. Cape Town is known as the “Tavern of the Seas.”

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#4) Commence onward to WELLINGTON, NZ

Coordinates: 41 20’ 15.265”S, 174 50’ 49.61”E
Length of sail: 6500 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 32 Days
Goal: Wellington, NZ is on the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. It is also the birthplace of Bodacious Dream as she was launched there in December 2011. The plan is to visit many interesting natural sites around New Zealand.

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#5) Commence onward to CAPE HORN AND STRAIGHTS OF MAGELLAN

Coordinates: 55°43’2.15″S, 66° 6’59.07″W – Google Maps
Length of sail: 4200 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 21 Days
Goal: Visit and cruise historic Cape Horn and Straights of Magellan. Cape Horn is the Everest of Sailing.

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#6) Commence onward to the FALKLAND ISLANDS

Coordinates: 51 49’ 19.01”S, 59 35’ 22.24”W – Google Maps
Length of sail: 400 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 2 Days
Goal: These interesting islands are just east of the southern tip of South America.

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#7) Commence onward to SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND

Coordinates: 54 28’ 46.78”S, 36 26’ 26.66”W
Length of sail: 800 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 4 Days
Goal: This historic location was the final rescue place of the Shackleton Expedition when they were trapped on Antarctica through the winter and traveled overland, built a small boat and sailed to South Georgia Island for rescue. This was an amazing story of human endurance. Shackleton is buried on South Georgia Island.

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#8) Proceed North towards South America to the MOUTH OF THE AMAZON RIVER  (off the coast of BRAZIL)

Coordinates: 0 34’ 15.04”N, 49 23’ 33.97”W
Length of sail: Approximately: 14 Days
Expected duration of sail: 2700 miles
Goal: Explore the mouth of the largest river in the World and its effect on the ocean and species of animals that adapt to the mix of salt and fresh waters.

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#9) Commence onward to ANTIGUA, WEST INDIES

Coordinates: 17 0’ 46.41”N, 61 46’ 17.63”W
Length of sail: 5000 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 30 Days
Goal: A short visit to this great Caribbean Islands on the way back to the East Coast of the United States.

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#10) Commence onward to CHARLESTON, SC

Coordinates: 32 44’ 27.10”N, 79 51’ 11.99”W
Length of sail: 1400 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 6 Days
Goal: A quick stop in Charleston, which has become a second home for Bodacious Dream as she has competed the past two years in the Atlantic Cup Race that starts in Charleston.

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#11) Commence onward to completion of circumnavigation in NEWPORT, RI

Coordinates: 41 29’ 13.20”N, 71 20’ 34.25”W
Length of sail: 700 miles
Expected duration of sail: Approximately 4 Days

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Bodacious DreamBodacious Dream – A Class 40 Sailboat

dave_crowdSkipper Dave Rearick