The Story of Bodacious Dream Expeditions is a story of learning and discovery, born of obstacles and challenges. It is also a story that is born of Skipper Dave Rearick‘s own rich and self-directed life experiences.

:: In the First Part of the BDX Story, we will look at the “origins” of BDX. Why was it that on top of sailing around the world, which is kind of enough of a challenge on its own… did we feel the need to build out an educational outreach component.  Why did we create explorer Guides in the first place? What were we thinking?

:: In the Second Part of the BDX Story, we look at the three Bodacious Dream Expeditions that preceded the Circumnavigation. The first of those in February of 2013 was a guide to a journey made by Dave and the crew of Bodacious IV along the coast of the Baja Peninsula. The next expedition coincided with the 2013 Atlantic Cup Race, of which Dave and co-skipper Matt Scharl were overall winners.

:: The Third part of the BDX Story brings us up to the present and to the solo circumnavigation, which is just about completed. We explain what we are up to with our Explorer Guides and with our Citizen Science Resources and through Tegan’s Science Notes, as well as more recently our Expert Interviews

It’s a growing story. Thank you for sharing it with us. Hopefully, you will find something in it to serve as an inspiration to inspire you to dream more bodaciously!

Thank you,

– Dave and the Expeditionary Learning Force
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THE BODACIOUS DREAM EXPEDITIONS (BDX) STORY
(as told by Skipper Dave Rearick – in 3 Parts)

Part 1: BDX Origins… Keep Reading Below!
Part 2: BDX THEN
Part 3: BDX NOW
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Part 1: BDX ORIGINS

Early on in my life, long before I began sailing and competitive racing, I learned something about learning … and that was … we learn best what we learn from each other. I see this lesson reinforced all the time, especially in the way seasoned sailors freely share their experience with more novice sailors. It is my feeling that one of our primary human responsibilities is to share with others (and especially with younger people) those myriad pieces of knowledge and particles of wisdom that we have been lucky enough to gain in our lives.

If we fail to seize such opportunities, if we don’t each of us seek out ways to share what we know with others, then we leave that critical task of instruction and mentorship to far more indifferent and institutional forces – which while they may be mostly well-intentioned, cannot possibly recreate the sort of intimate connection or make the same kind of lasting impression on quick and still-forming minds that learning directly from others can provide.

Matt Scharl and Dave Rearick field some tough questions in NYC Harbor.

:: WHAT IF WE KNEW THEN WHAT WE KNOW NOW?

In a blog post I was asked to write after the 2013 Atlantic Cup Race for our friends at 11th Hour Racing, I posed this question … “What if we knew then what we know now?“ If that were in fact the case, then how exactly might that change what we each do today? After all, we were all once inexperienced and in search of those FUNdamental lessons that would turn us one day into who we are now!

My own course has taken me from sailing Sunfish on Lake Michigan to sailing our beautiful  Class 40 Bodacious Dream on Earth’s great oceans … and now it has taken me on a solo sailing circumnavigation adventure all around the world!

Much of who I am today is largely owing not only to what others earlier in my life took the time to teach me … but also to what nature and the ocean itself has taught – and continues to teach me.

As sailors, we spend a lot of time on the water and so live in an intimate relationship with this immense natural force. Water covers over 70% of the earth’s surface, and the water inside of us is very nearly that same percentage. 50% of the air we breathe comes from the ocean. How can it be that the future of life on earth is not somehow intrinsically tied to the health of the oceans? Why is it that in spite of the great wealth of new tools and technologies now at our disposal, we still tend to “flounder” rather than “swim” toward intelligent and sustainable solutions. For myself, I think this is partly due to just how removed most people have become from any actual “experience” of the ocean. For too many of us, once we leave the shoreline, the ocean becomes invisible.

So it is, that one of the primary goals of our “Bodacious Dream Expeditions” (BDX) is to go out into “deep water” and to put some of that whizzy new Internet technology to work, to help bring a more direct and visceral experience of the ocean (and of the craft of sailing) back into people’s lives.

That is the challenge then that BDX was created to address – to introduce young and curious minds (of all ages) to the wonders of the ocean, but also to the many demands required of skillful sailing and sailcraft. BDX seeks to advance sea-based learning and to share that experience of being and sailing on the ocean with whomever chooses to join our “bodacious” online crew.

Even more than sailing, what makes “bodacious dreaming” so essential to a life more fully lived, are those unexpected life-changing moments that suddenly arrive when one experiences, for a brief time, being in an unbroken harmony with the vastness of nature, caught between the sea and sky.

In 1670, an English poet, teacher and occasional sailor named Thomas Traherne wrote the following words … “You never know the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.”

Now THAT is a deep experience he is describing … and while it may be difficult to share that level of insight in words and pictures over an Internet connection, it is not entirely impossible either … not if care is taken to keep the virtual in service to the virtuous “experience” that attends to shared learning.

One great challenge for those of us who would mentor in new and non-traditional ways, comes in accepting that all progress is incremental, and in keeping things in proper perspective – which requires that we first of all, face our own limitations, and see ourselves not as “authorities” or “experts” but as learners too … who are simply doing our best to navigate our course – and along the way to share our experience with others.

– Dave Rearick & the Bodacious Dream Expeditionary Force

Go to Part 2 > THE SHORT (BUT EXCITING) HISTORY OF BDX

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THE BODACIOUS DREAM EXPEDITIONS (BDX) STORY
(as told by Skipper Dave Rearick – in 3 Parts)
 
Part 1: BDX ORIGINS
Part 2: BDX THEN… Keep Reading Below!
Part 3: BDX NOW
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Part 2: BDX THEN

Here is some of what we have done so far in the service of teaching ourselves (and each other) to conduct Bodacious Dream Expeditions.

:: Our FIRST EXPEDITION at the end of March of 2013, was along the coast of the BAJA PENINSULA. Our vessel for that undertaking was our Transpac entry and sister-ship, the beautiful Bodacious IV. 

Our Bodacious Dream Expeditions Trailer!

Our five-person crew was comprised of many old and trusted friends, several of whom go back with me to our early sailing days on Lake Michigan where I grew up, and those exciting early Mackinac Races. It is this same group of colleagues who buoyed along by the vision and support of our other dear friends, Jeff Urbina and Gaye Hill, have helped keep all things Bodacious on the high seas and moving forward to the next destination – even when fate finds us flying by the seat of our pants!

For the Baja Expedition, with the help of our onshore team, we created study materials; an Overview of the Baja Peninsula as well as six Explorer Study Guides specific to the subjects of Math, History, Wild Life, Environment, Geography as well as a Glossary of Terms.

An example of what one of our Explorer Guides look like … 

After we published these materials, we shared with our various friends and followers, how to use them. We encouraged people (and teachers) to print out the materials and to follow our progress alongside and mentoring  the younger people in their lives. We also did some pre-expedition videos, such as this one.

Dave visits Captain Ann at the SeaBreeze Limited nautical chart store in San Diego.

The expedition departed from Cabo San Lucas and along the way to San Diego, we saw and we learned what there was to see and learn. Over the course of 10 days, we made many interesting discoveries and generated many Expedition updates, each accompanied by cool photos and videos. We also received and responded to questions from the public … and our crew of five kept coming up with new things to explore and share.

• If you care to, you may track back the sequence of some of our major BLOG POSTS here …. http://bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com/category/baja-peninsula/
• My “One-page” RECAP of the Baja voyage is here … http://bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com/daves-baja-expedition-recap/
• A selection of Baja PHOTOS can be found here … http://bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com/photos/
• And a selection of our Baja VIDEOS are here … http://bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com/videos/

:: Our SECOND EXPEDITION back aboard Bodacious Dream, took place concurrently to the ATLANTIC CUP RACE in May 2013 … and while here again we prepared study materials, an Overview and Explorer Guides, the time and effort it took to actually sail (and win) the race left less time than we would have liked to generate deeper learning updates. Still, we did what we could, – and we SURE were happy to have won the race!

• (Get a one-page recap of the Atlantic Cup, with links within it, HERE!) 

Bodacious Dream in NYC harbor …

:: Our THIRD EXPEDITION was in July 2013 back aboard Bodacious IV, and was similarly designed to coincide with the TRANSPAC Race from California to Hawaii … and this time, while I was optimistically hoping that more crew meant more downtime and thus more time to post videos and longer learning-directed updates, once again the realities of racing, somewhat slowed our ability to generate more media or to interact more with people on Facebook. Still, the updates were steady, and thanks to our onshore team, we got the message out there as best we could – and once again we had a helluva grand time out there!

• (Get a one-page recap of the Transpac, with links within it, HERE!) 

So, while we have learned much over the course of the three expeditions, what we see now, is that in moving forward, we must strengthen our focus, expand our reach, make clearer our goals and give ourselves the time that we need to do this big job right … which is to get Bodacious Dream Expeditions up there and out there, where people can see it, and so be inspired to help us (help them) make it the great and new “mobile-learning platform” we know it can be.

– Dave Rearick & the Bodacious Dream Expeditionary Force

GO TO > Part 3: BDX “RIGHT NOW!”

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THE BODACIOUS DREAM EXPEDITIONS (BDX) STORY
(as told by Skipper Dave Rearick – in 3 Parts)

Part 1: BDX ORIGINS
Part 2: BDX THEN
Part 3: BDX NOW … Keep Reading Below!
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Part 3: BDX NOW

The future of Bodacious Dream Expeditions took us the world’s oceans as Dave worked to make real a lifelong dream to SOLO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE!  Learn more about this giant next step which commenced on October 2, 2013, at the links below.

Click to get the recaps of the 4 Legs of the Circumnavigation!

:: So, who’s onboard WITH us? 

We are working with our friends at EARTHWATCH INSTITUTE – a highly respected “international non-profit organization that brings science to life for people concerned about the Earth’s future.” They have at present over 50 expeditions underway around the world. When I take off in Bodacious Dream this fall, we will be conducting some incredible conservation research in waters around the world. Along the way, we expect to hear from one of their ocean scientists, Tegan Mortimer.

Our friends at HURRICANE ISLAND OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL are assisting us on our journey. I myself am an alumnus of their program, having taught there for three years. They do incredible work introducing younger people to the wonders and challenges of the ocean and sailing.

Another alliance is with 11th HOUR RACING, the people who host the incredible Atlantic Cup Class40 race every spring. They are also leaders in initiatives that bring greater sustainability to racing  … not to mention their many progressive efforts at educational outreach.

A long-time supporter of Bodacious Racing are our friends at HENRI LLOYD. This originally British company, now expanded to the U.S., are makers of the finest and most durable sailing and foul weather gear imaginable. Any sailor who has endured rough seas and storms knows how important it is to be wearing great gear. We thank Henri Lloyd daily for the quality of their support and their offshore gear.

:: And then there was YOU!

Beyond that, we are here, balanced somewhere between heaven and the deep blue sea … open to hearing from any person or organization that might have ideas, talent or resources to help us make our AROUND THE WORLD EXPEDITION generate not just heaps of  fun and adventure (though it WILL do that) … but also some good measure of unique broad-based learning opportunities and meaningful life-altering experiences!

We are open to and grateful for any and all input … as to what we will be doing (and sharing with the public) during those roughly 9 months we are traversing ALL the world’s oceans!

Thank you, one and all!

– Dave Rearick & the Bodacious Dream Expeditionary Force