“Outward Bound” – The Journey of a Lifetime

Posted on March 24, 2014 by oceanexplorer

Outward Bound… when a ship leaves the security of its harbor, pointed beyond the horizon to lands far away. As I write this, Bodacious Dream sits patiently in Wellington Harbor, New Zealand – both of us ready and looking forward to heading outward bound later this week just as soon as the cyclone east of us settles down and moves away, opening the route to another adventure that will ultimately bring us back into northern waters and home to Jamestown, Rhode Island by the middle of this coming summer.

BoDream harbor-bound in Wellington

As I prepare to head outward bound once again, I remember an earlier time in my life. The year was 1978 and I was a 20 year old, free-spirited young man. It was summer and I was headed east to Rockland, Maine to attend a 28-day course sponsored by Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (HIOBS) among the rocky islands of Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine. As I left Chicago on a plane to Boston, I really felt outward bound, pulled away from the comforts of my life, the security of home, the known paths of my hometown of Chesterton, Indiana and off in search of adventure and carrying the hope of getting to know more of the person that I knew was somewhere hidden there inside of me.

An Island of Discoverable Treasures

Just as it happens each time I leave harbor aboard Bodacious Dream, within hours my land-based life falls behind me and disappears and my onboard life begins again. So it was that shortly after arriving at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, I found myself in a new world – a world full of excitement, challenges, among pine-studded rocky islands and laughing, adventurist comrades.

For 28 days, we bounded along rocky shores and climbed cliffs, ran trails and swam in the cold waters of the bay, sailed open boats beyond the horizon and hauled our personal selves to new levels of confidence, skills and self-reliance. We laughed, got mad, grew very tired and hungry, became cold from the water and warmed by the sun, we ate new foods and pushed ourselves beyond limits we didn’t even know existed, only to then touch new limits even beyond those. We were outward bound in every sense of the word … out beyond our old lives and old limits, out discovering what more of what we were and what more we could be … and give.

Before I began this circumnavigation journey with Bodacious Dream, I asked the folks at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School if I could place their name on the sides of the boat in honor and respect to the spirit and ethos of the school. Though my dream to sail around the world single handed was born years before I had heard of Outward Bound or ever attended a Hurricane Island course, the experience of learning that I had the ability not only to pursue my dreams, but to accomplish them as well – that grew out of my experiences at the school. It was there that I realized for the first time that there really were no limits that could prevent me from reaching my dreams.

At some point in our lives, we all find ourselves stalled. Maybe we are young and fresh out of school and haven’t yet found our passion. Maybe we are older and our day-to-day worlds have become stale, or maybe we are just long for new horizons, experiences and change. If you were to ask me what to do about this, my instantaneous response would be to get online, look at the catalog of courses of Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, choose one and sign up – they’re not all 28 days long, some are as short as a week! Trust me … it’s a life changing experience and the stuff you learn will stay with you the rest of your life. It will help to define you, embolden you and set you apart.

I’ve been lucky enough to learn many interesting and unexpected things throughout my life. I would have to attribute much of that ability to advance towards and embrace such experiences, to lessons I learned about life and myself while at Hurricane Island.

So, as Bodacious Dream and I sit here patiently in Wellington Harbor waiting for the hurricane to pass and to open up another door of experience for us, I hope you will find it fun to remember a time in your life when you too were headed Outward Bound… on a new job, a faraway travel, a new dream or the beginning of a new life. Ah, the memories of a lifetime … the memories that fill the sails of a Bodacious Dream.

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

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The Atlantic Cup Shares the Dream

Posted on March 16, 2014 by oceanexplorer

Here in Wellington, preparations for our departure are complete. Bodacious Dream is ready and waiting to take off on Leg 3 of our single handed circumnavigation, but as has happened before … weather considerations are conspiring to delay our departure! First there was a cyclone named “Lusi” that dropped down on us from up north and then another storm that also delayed our departure. (You can view the state of the winds at any place in the world (and in near real-time) on the marvelous EarthWindMap website.)

Once the weather stabilizes, Bo and I will depart this lovely place and head east to a waypoint along Longitude 100 West – about a three-week sail from Wellington. Once there, we’ll carefully weigh all the seasonal weather projections and at that point make a final decision as to the prudency of either heading south and around Cape Horn as planned or instead heading north along the west coast of South America to the Galapagos Islands and from there onto and through the Panama Canal. Whichever way it goes, big decisions and big adventures await us. More on all of this very soon!

In the meantime, and in case you missed it earlier, we want to update you on a SUPER cool education initiative being undertaken by our good friends from the Atlantic Cup Race – 11th Hour Racing and Manuka Sports Event Management.

After what I know has been a particularly harsh winter for many, springtime once again approaches … and as it does, thoughts of another sailing season begin to stir.

For the past two years, Bodacious Dream has started its season off by racing the Atlantic Cup, a challenging three-leg event up the Atlantic Seaboard, starting in Charleston, SC, with a stopover after reaching New York City before finishing up in Newport, RI for the inshore leg. With Bo and I being in the Southern Hemisphere, we’ll sadly be missing the fun this year.

I have many fond memories of the past two years, especially last year, where after winning the first two legs sailing double handed with Matt Scharl, I along with a stellar inshore crew held off an incredibly competitive fleet of challengers to win the overall event!

That’s Bodacious Dream from last year’s AC … with the Jamestown FiSH sail!

Another exciting side of the Atlantic Cup is that the sponsor, 11th Hour Racing along with race organizers Manuka Sports Event Management, run by Julianna Barbieri and Hugh Piggin take a very active interest in providing educational opportunities to youth in the harbors into which the racers sail. We have always enjoyed taking part in these “Education Days,” as you know our abiding interest is to share the Bodacious Dream experience, just as we do now with our own educational aids for kids and teachers through our BDX website and Explorer Guides.

Learning by raising questions from nature …

Sharing our mutual interest in providing learning experiences for people and kids, the Atlantic Cup has chosen this time around to combine our efforts with theirs by utilizing some of our Explorer Guides materials to launch their own new KID’S PAGE this year. So, while Bodacious Dream will greatly miss competing in this year’s Atlantic Cup, (truly one of the top Class 40 regattas worldwide,) we are grateful that our presence will be felt in the content on the Kids Page of the Atlantic Cup Site. This chance to continue to influence and educate people and kids, (not to mention seeing myself represented as a friendly cartoon character) – is almost as big a kick and honor as winning the event itself.

I guess I DO look like that! What do you know. Open their PDF by clicking on the above image.

This is only the latest turn in the story between the Atlantic Cup and Bodacious Dream. Last year, at the request of 11th Hour Racing, I drafted a blog post wherein I tried to capture some of what I have to know about learning and discovery. I titled it … “If I knew then, what I know now“ … and you can find that by clicking on the link. In it I try to make that case that the true test of what you learn will not be a test score as much as it will be the tangible gifts that a new skill or awareness brings to your life and to your relationships with others. Ultimately, we learn best what we learn from each other. Give it a read if you like (and feel free to drop me a line.)

Matt Scharl and I try to stand up to tough questioning … during NYC “Education Day”

Beyond the youth education outreach of The Atlantic Cup, we also support their sponsor, 11th Hour Racing in their efforts to establish dynamic new platforms for “public” education that emphasize the responsible use of energy and resources in the context of competitive sailing. Through sponsorship of winning sailing teams and regattas, advanced sailing and production practices, they help improve the energy profile and performance of racing boats and increase the personal investment of sailors in the health of our waters.

Since the beginning The Atlantic Cup, sponsored by 11th Hour Racing, and run by Manuka Sports Management has endeavored to present the most environmentally responsible sailing race in the United States – with both racing teams and race management working together to create a fully carbon neutral event event and to continue to play a leadership role in redesigning sailing practices and sailing regattas for the 21st Century.

:: Atlantic Cup Kid’s Page :: 11th Hour Racing :: Manuka Sports

So, as I prepare Bodacious Dream for the final 12,000-mile homeward journey, I hope you will follow this year’s Atlantic Cup as well as check out and share their Kids page with the kids in your world. There will be more great information coming from them once the actual race gets underway, but this is a terrific starting point for our younger followers, and those who care about their futures.

– Dave and Bodacious Dream

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Tegan’s Science Notes #5 – Penguins in Africa?

Posted on March 12, 2014 by oceanexplorer

With Bodacious Dream back in the water in Wellington, a quick update from Dave followed below by an earlier but previously unpublished “science note” on African penguins from our ocean scientist colleague, Tegan Mortimer.

Dave Rearick: Wellington, NZ has a worldwide reputation for windy weather. For the past few days though, it has instead offered up absolutely gorgeous days of clear and sunny skies with winds at less than 15 knots. This has made for perfect conditions to test sail Bodacious Dream after the recent work and refit she just underwent. So far, everything is coming together just fine. Our awesome crew has done a great job getting Bo into shape for Leg 3! (See some pics below in slideshow format.)

Today, we’ll begin the sorting and packing of the boat as forecasts are for wet and windy weather to return this weekend. Our hope after that front passes is to get the go-ahead weather window that we need to depart early next week!

Test sailing … Click the arrows to advance, and scroll over to read the captions.

While we get ready for all that and I head off to do some major provisioning, we wanted to revisit some of Tegan Mortimer’s Science Notes, we didn’t have a chance to publish before now.

We are also readying a wonderfully informative science note on “Seabirds,” which includes a list of all the seabird sightings we’ve identified so far on the voyage. But before we do that, we want to focus in on one particular seabird that holds a special interest for people all over the world – and that’s penguins!

During our post-Leg 1 Cape Town stopover in December, we were treated to the unique experience of visiting a large colony of African penguins that reside near the Cape of Good Hope (the southernmost tip of Africa.) While the overall distance from there to Antarctica is pretty substantial, it is still within the habitat range for penguins, for reasons that Tegan will explain in her excellent report. And I’ll be back soon with more.

– Dave

Tegan Science Notes #5 – Penguins in Africa?

When Dave and Bodacious Dream reached Cape Town and the end of Leg 1 of his circumnavigation at the beginning of the year, he took time to explore some of the many diverse natural wonders of that region.

One of his first trips was to see the penguins. Yes, you heard that right, penguins in Africa! The African penguin is only found along the west coast of South Africa and Namibia, though it is also one of the most common species kept by zoos and aquariums.

Dave’s Photo …

We usually think of penguins as only occurring in the snow and ice of Antarctica, but there are actually quite a few species that live in more temperate habitats along the coasts of South America, Australia, New Zealand and of course Africa. All species of penguins are native to the Southern Hemisphere, so you would never find penguins interacting with Northern Hemisphere species like polar bears and walruses.

The areas in which penguins are found do have something in common though: cooler water. When we look at charts of surface water temperatures around South Africa, we see that there is colder water around the western coast of South Africa and Namibia, in exactly the area that African penguins are found. This is called the Benguela Current. This current carries cold water northwards and creates an upwelling zone near the coast. The South East trade winds then push the surface waters away from the coast which draws the deep cooler water up to the surface.

Cold water carries more oxygen and nutrients in it because it’s denser than warm water. When phytoplankton undergo photosynthesis, they use up nutrients and oxygen from the surface water; unless this surface water is replenished then photosynthesis will stop due to a lack of oxygen and nutrients. This is why upwelling is so important; it continually brings new oxygen and nutrient-rich waters to the surface. High levels of plankton support rich ecosystems of small schooling fish, krill and squid that then help sustain larger predators such as whales, sharks, and sea birds.

African penguins feed on small schooling fish, particularly sardines and anchovies which are supported in huge numbers by the Benguela Current ecosystem. Sardines and anchovies are some of the most important commercial fish species and are caught in large numbers throughout the world. In South Africa, penguins compete with fishermen for these precious fish.

Unfortunately African penguins are considered to be endangered. Their population has declined by about 60% in the last 30 years, which is a very rapid rate. It is thought that a lack of food is the major cause of the decline. This lack of fish is due to both the huge numbers that fishermen remove, as well as environmental fluctuations in fish numbers and distribution.

Earthwatch scientists are active in studying the nesting colonies present on Robben Island; trying to understand their rapid decline and formulate strategies, which will increase their chance of survival. One success so far seems to be the addition of artificial nesting boxes to the colony. These birds typically nest in burrows, but many of their nesting sites have had the naturally thick layer of guano removed for use as commercial fertilizer leaving nothing for the penguins to burrow into. Penguins now seem to actually prefer the nesting boxes, which allow them to be more successful at rearing chicks than if they were in a burrow or out in the open.

It is very easy in this instance to blame fishermen for catching too many fish, which reduces what is left behind for the penguins. It is true that many fishing practices are very destructive, both to fish populations and to the marine ecosystem, but it is also important to remember that the ocean is an ever-changing eco-system. If the lowest levels of the marine food chain (plankton and small school fish) change, we see changes in the higher levels too. Climate change is driving these changes, just as we humans are driving climate change. Everybody has the ability to make a difference by way of the choices we make every day. We all can help to save the African Penguin.

To close things off, here’s a cute internet video that shows the ups and downs of being a penguin.

– Tegan

:: Tegan Mortimer is a scientist with Earthwatch Institute. For more exciting science insights, check out our BDX Explorer Guides or stop by our Citizen Science Resources page, where you can also find all of Tegan’s previous “Science Notes.” We welcome your input or participation on our BDX Learning & Discovery efforts. You can always reach us here or @ <oceanexplorer@bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com>

A Storm of Bodacious Videos

Posted on February 27, 2014 by oceanexplorer

While maintenance and repair work continues on Bodacious Dream here in Wellington, I’ve found some time to review the many hours of Leg 2 video and photos I took on the voyage here from Cape Town, S.A.

It’s a Very Wavy World Out There – 42.568808S, 120.320942E

As you may recall, during that 7000-mile leg, we encountered quite a few tenacious storms – or what the weather people call “strong frontal passages.” I compiled some video clips from some of the storms into two briefer and more watchable pieces. I did some simple edits on them … which is all I can manage at the moment. Maybe soon, we can do a cool edit, but even without a thrilling musical soundtrack, you should still be able to get a feel for what it’s like out there on the open ocean when the winds and seas are “up.”

At the same time you are experiencing loneliness and fatigue, you are also carried along by something both energizing and mesmerizing.

To remind you, these cold fronts blew up from the South (Antarctic) and progressed westward providing us with westerly winds that pushed us towards New Zealand. They generally announce themselves by a couple days of northwest wind, which then builds into the 30-knot range as the front passes through, after which the winds switch over to the southwest before gradually fading out.

One particularly interesting storm I wrote about previously, involved a spin-off of a low-pressure system from a cyclone, which teamed up with a passing cold front to amp up the winds and make our sailing a couple levels more extreme. While the strongest part of this front/low passed rather quickly over a 24-hour period, it was a week-long event of sailing as fast and as far east as we could to get in front of its path, so it could push us along instead of smacking us in the face. In the end, we did make it east of the storm, but just barely. During the height of the storm, we were clocking winds around 50 knots – and you’ll see in one of the video clips, the TWS (True Wind Speed) reading on the instrument panel showed gusts to 40 knots!

No matter how senseless and arrogant we humans are about using up the ocean’s resources and wasting its precious beauty, it’s hard not to think that it is the ocean that will have the final word.

While all of this seems a bit edgy to the uninitiated, rest assured that Bodacious Dream is designed and built to handle these conditions, and in fact, is much more adept at it than I am! It’s specialized and custom-built for such tasks, whereas we humans are generalists who must keep adapting by learning new tricks. At the same time that the tempest tosses you around like a toy, you can’t help but succumb to the storm’s seductive beauty. To be in the center of such oceanic intensity, all the while knowing that there is so much more potential scale and force there yet to be unleashed, is humbling to say the least.

Coming up next, in a few days, will be some video that shows another side of Earth’s majestic powers. I’m talking about the glaciers of South Island, New Zealand. Stay tuned for that, as I think my visit to the glaciers was one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life.

Hope you enjoy the videos. I have a lot more footage and will try to compile them into more videos for those of you that have the time to watch.

Thanks and more soon….

– Dave

P.S. As a bonus for those of you who consider yourselves “veterans” of the sea, I have included another video of around 6 minutes in length that is mostly me talking through a week of strategic adjustments that I had to make in order to deal with the storm.

A sailor’s way of thinking about storms

Volcanoes and Sea Changes

Posted on February 19, 2014 by oceanexplorer

I’m back in Wellington, where maintenance and preparations for the next leg of the circumnavigation continue. As the work goes on with Bodacious Dream, I find myself eating everything in sight and loading up on chocolate, in response to what I can only suppose are abnormally low chocolate levels.

The weather here in Wellington has varied dramatically. The past few days have been extraordinary beautiful, which stands in sharp contrast to the dreary, cold, wet and windy weather we encountered upon our arrival and for the following several days. As dynamic as the weather is, the landscape of this country is equally as powerful, from amazingly majestic mountains to gently rolling hills that spill down into bucolic farm fields.

Tongairo Alpine Crossing in the middle of NZ’s North Island

Last week, I went off with some friends to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 10-mile hike up, over and through an area of active volcanoes complete with sulfur-smoking fissures in the ground. Unfortunately, it was cold, wet and windy. However, we pressed on, even when some were calling for a turn back, because the “sailor” in the crowd kept arguing that the wind and rain were at our back and too early a return would put it right in our face! Though we made the crossing without incident, I could feel my legs had been greatly weakened from the 52 days at sea!

Our Intrepid Crew

Bodacious Dream is getting such a thorough going over from the guys that know her best, the original builders, and so far, they have found no issues with any of the construction. This is more than just good news as it says much about the design and the quality of her construction. As I said in my previous post, Bo has over 32,000 miles on her now, and the 15,000 of those since the circumnavigation began, have been very tough miles!

In between work and jaunts out-of-town to explore this amazing land, I am trying to firm up plans for the next leg of the circumnavigation. As many of you know first-hand, everything in and around the ocean and the experience of sailing, is by its very nature in a state of constant change. This is no different for Bodacious Dream and myself.

Our original plans and timeline called for our leaving New Zealand no later than mid-February, to head east and around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, there to meet up with some of the most treacherous weather and water in the world. However in addition the various delays in the journey so far, there has also arisen a pressing family matter that will require my return to the States for a short time, which means my departure from New Zealand may need to be postponed until the middle of March. A delay of that duration may have an effect on our course and timeline. Allow me to explain that a bit more.

Cape Horn – (Web Image)

As you know, the seasons are reversed here in the Southern Hemisphere, so that the March 21st Spring Equinox in the North, signals the Fall Equinox down here. What this means, is that with the delays, I might be sailing around Cape Horn in what would be the equivalent of late October back home. Cape Horn, at 58 degrees south latitude, corresponds to the northernmost border of the U.S.

Considering all this, my weather routers and I are considering an alternative route that would take me north through the Pacific Ocean and then through the Panama Canal. While not allowing me to capture the holy grail of sailing – rounding Cape Horn – such a course change might also offer other adventurous learning and discovery opportunities.

In life, I’ve found that sometimes the best adventures are those that life takes you on, rather than the ones you try and take life on. So, we will remain flexible as we continue to weigh our various options and do what we must do before deciding on the actual route that will bring us back to our home waters sometime in the middle of the summer. Naturally, we will keep you posted on our decision-making process here as it develops.

Thank you as always for your continued support and enthusiasm for our expedition. There are lots of photos and videos coming out here soon. I am captioning the last of the Leg 1 photos and the “Leaving Bermuda“ album is ready for viewing. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did capturing them in those many magical moments we have experienced since we left now-distant Jamestown.

– Dave, Bodacious Dream, Franklin and our many Kiwi friends!

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Meeting up with My Mates

Posted on February 13, 2014 by oceanexplorer

Hello from Auckland, NZ! I’ve driven up north to Auckland to pick up some equipment and to see some friends. I’m trying to get some downtime in between commencing the necessary work on the boat.

Not long after I arrived in Wellington, my “mates” who built Bo right here in 2011, started stopping by the boat. There was Matty G., who was the main foreman on the build, Gordy the main rigger, Lapo A. the uber-brain at BT Boats, along with Matt S. and David M. the electronics specialist as well as David from North Sails. The whole crew of them took over the boat and sent me off for some much needed R&R! I can rest easy though, confident that if anyone knows this boat as well as I do, it’s these guys – and I can see that they are taking to the inspections, maintenance and repairs as if Bo was their very own.

First Sightings of New Zealand … 2.05.14 – 42.4027732S, 169.4447448E

Can’t say the weather in Wellington has been overly welcoming – cold, windy and damp most of the time, but nonetheless, the guys now have the mast and rigging down and out of the boat, in preparation for Bo being hauled out of the water on Friday. This is interesting because when I was initially making up the inspection and maintenance list, pulling apart the rig was not on the list … as I’d had this done in Newport before leaving. But then in talking it over, we realized that was over 15,000 miles ago or about half the sea-going life of Bodacious Dream, who now sports over 32,000 miles of travel under her keel! So, I guess it truly is time to inspect the rig once again!

300 Miles West of Tasmania – 1.27.14 – 43.230462S_136.2241334E

Here’s the action list. We’ll have the mechanics go over the engine. The electronics are being upgraded and non-functioning parts are being replaced, the rigging is being inspected and some of it replaced. Also, we’ve come up with some modifications that we think will help a lot with the handling of lines. Some of the dings and bruises to the boat will be fixed, in addition to some enhancements on the cockpit protection. All in all, a host of mighty maintenance measures to be undertaken by the greatest crew imaginable, on the way to getting Bo all ship-shape for Leg 3, which will begin sometime in early March!

A calm morning after another storm – also 300 Miles West of Tasmania

In the meantime, I’m going to skip out and see some of New Zealand! So stay tuned for some photos of the many pretty sites of this amazing country. I’m also beginning the upload the Leg 2 photos and videos … so we’ll have those for you soon as well.

Until later …

– Dave (happy in his dry clothes)

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All is Well-ington!

Posted on February 11, 2014 by oceanexplorer

Bodacious Dream, Franklin and I arrived in Wellington, New Zealand and the end of Leg 2 of our Circumnavigation on Saturday, just as the day was drawing to a close. Earlier in the evening, with the sun setting, I had pointed Bo’s bow towards the first Wellington Harbor light. From that point – about 3 miles out, we slowly made our way into the large bay. Before too long we were met by Lapo Ancillotti and some other friends on a powerboat, who helped guide us past the reefs and into the marina. What a relief and joy it was to see such wonderful old friends, after so long alone. Lapo and his gang at BT Boats were the builders of Bodacious Dream, so the return to Wellington had special significance for everyone, including Bodacious Dream!

Ocean Odyssey

As my email has been mysteriously unavailable for the past 10 days, let me begin with some highlights of the past week.

It was on a wilting breeze, that we first caught sight of the southwestern coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Instead of the forecasted cold front that we had hoped would propel us up the coast and into the passage between the North and South Islands, we fell behind a low-pressure system that took the winds with it, leaving us struggling our way north along the incredibly beautiful coastline. As I explained in the last post, thanks to the generosity of the fisherman aboard “Ocean Odyssey,” (pictured here @ 43.433024S, 169.37806E ) I was able to acquire more fuel to assist us in our northward progress.

Here’s a video I shot not long after that encounter …

Along the Eastern Coast of New Zealand’s South Island

After a few days of traipsing along behind that low, we met up with a cyclone system coming down from the North Island. After that tossed us around for a while, we bumped into a high-pressure system pushing up from the eastern side of the South Island. Ultimately, we entered the famously windy Cook’s Strait, where 25-knots or so are considered to be a “rather appropriate amount” of wind. As it turned out, here and for most of the last 100 miles, we wrestled with 35-50-knot winds which we had to take right “on the nose” too – not exactly what I was hoping for after 50 days of sailing across the Southern Ocean!

Eastern Coast of New Zealand’s South Island – 43.42444S, 169.328302E

As I approached the northwest corner of South Island, known as Cape Farewell (or Farewell Spit, which we discussed in our last post) – we came upon more of the wondrous bioluminescence, but this time it was doing something different still. The glowing orbs, instead of floating on the surface as before, were now submerged a couple of feet below the surface, giving an eerie sense of depth to the water. The bioluminescence on the latter leg of the trip provided me some of the most amazing sights I’ve ever encountered.

With a hundred miles still to go, there was nothing left to do but “grunt” it out. That’s what the mates here in NZ say. “You just have to “grunt” it out mate!” So grunt it out we did. Hunkering down, Bo and I sailed those last hundred miles in just less than 24 hours. Fortunately, the first leg of about 60 miles we were able to sail without a tack. Through the last 40 miles, Cook’s Strait fully lived up to up to its windy reputation, which made for quite “sporting” conditions with plenty of pounding waves and wet spray everywhere. I took heart in knowing it was the last 40 miles of the voyage and not the first!

As I made the last tack, I began to congratulate everyone … Bo, Franklin and Otto and began to partake of the final cookie from my secret emergency stash, when suddenly – all hell broke loose! With the boat in the middle of the tack, alarms started to go off! I took a quick inventory – the engine was overheating, the autopilot display had suddenly stopped working just as the ferry from Wellington began passing us … though too close for my AIS alarm to announce it. Somehow in the next frantic 30 minutes, I was able to put everything to rest. I shut the engine down, organized the sail trim, reset the course, got the autopilot driving again, shut down the AIS alarm and turned the inside of the boat upside down looking for the spare parts kit for the engine. With Bo bouncing up and down in 30-knot winds and seas and just a couple of miles offshore of the point, I changed the “impeller” (a rotor part) on the engine, then got it restarted at which point all returned to semi-normal. After a moment or two to review what had just happened, I chided (and reminded) myself to never ever congratulate yourself in advance of actually completing the task.

At that point, I wasn’t so much using the engine for propulsion, but rather to charge the batteries so the autopilots and navigation could keep operating, but I kept it going as a precaution when tacking through the heavy wind and seas. I do this because every once in a while, with the autopilot making the tacking turn, the progress of the tack is interrupted by a brutally large wave, which can stall and throw the boat back, taking away the forward motion and the ability to steer the boat. With just a touch of engine engaged, I can usually prevent this from happening. When racing where you can’t use the engine, I would instead use a slightly different but much more demanding (and multidextrous) tacking procedure.

Sometimes, time just stops and the world shows its soul. 43.4242114S, 169.33042E

So it was that within an hour, we were pointed towards the harbor in a darkening and misty fog that shrouded all landmarks, at which point the arrival of Lapo and friends was a terrific relief! Once tied up in Wellington Harbor, we quickly cleared though customs whereupon I was handed a cold Heineken beer. Now I could finally count my passage as accomplished! What a relief! Soon there would be a long and extra soapy shower and some grand and uninterrupted sleep!

At present in Wellington, it continues to be cold, rainy and typically windy, but it’s also time to take stock of the work list and to begin making arrangements for getting things done … so I guess I’m now “back to work.”

I’ll share more of the recent days of sailing here shortly now that I have email access. And stay tuned for videos and photos of this amazing leg!

Thanks again for all your support and words of encouragement. It meant an awful lot to all of us.

– Dave, Bodacious Dream, Franklin, Otto and Assorted Salt Monsters of the Southern Oceans

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The Mystery at Farewell Spit

Posted on February 6, 2014 by oceanexplorer

A quick update from Dave followed below by a very interesting new science note from Tegan Mortimer on recent mass pilot whale strandings exactly where Dave will very shortly be passing.

Dave Rearick: We’re in sight of land now and heading up the west coast of New Zealand here. The cold front that we hoped would push us up to Farewell Spit at the northern tip of the South Island and down into Cook’s Strait dissipated and left us fighting through wind right on our nose. It was an unusual weather pattern that made for very rough seas with lots of pounding waves. I kept trying to work my way towards shore to grab the best angle north against the wind – but it was a slog with very little progress to show for a lot of effort. As my weather guy commented … It’s kind of like sailing up Lake Michigan in the Mackinac Race, getting to the bridge, and losing wind. You can see the finish; you just can’t get there!

41.1179S, 171.47621E

Yesterday, I began to grow concerned about having enough fuel to carry me through the notoriously unpredictable winds of Cook’s Strait. I got on the radio to see about landing somewhere along the rugged and dangerous coast, when a commercial fishing boat named “Ocean Odyssey” picked up my radio signal and offered to help. Eventually, we got our boats close enough together, that I was able to tie my gas cans to a line and drop them over the side, where they picked them up and refilled them for me.

The whole operation took us about two hours, but now I am better set for Cook’s Strait, with 50 gallons of fuel intend of 5. The skipper Barry even suggested that I come onboard the Odyssey for a shower and a hot meal … but I begged off, preferring to stay crusty with a belly full of freeze-dried filler. Today is all stormy and bouncy and so I have to stay focused. Oh well, onward we go! Looks like another great update right here from our Earthwatch scientist Tegan Mortimer – and on a very important topic, so be sure to check it out! Be back soon with more!

Tegan Science Notes #4 – Whale Strandings

At the very northwest corner of New Zealand’s South Island, Dave and Bodacious Dream will round a sandy spit which stretches 16 miles out into the ocean like a great arm creating the northern shore of Golden Bay. This is Farewell Spit and it is the longest sandspit in New Zealand. Sandspits form when currents called “longshore drifts” move and deposit sediment laterally along the coastline. In the case of Farewell Spit, currents and strong winds carry eroded sediments down from the Southern Alps, the mountain range that stretches the length of the South Island. As the spit builds, it shelters the leeward (or inward) side where additional sediment then builds up allowing mudflats to form.

At low tide over 30 square miles of mudflats are exposed at Farewell Spit which is an important feeding habitat for shore wildlife. Recently through the month of January, it was the site of a massive effort to rescue a pod of around 70 pilot whales which had beached themselves several times in a mass stranding event. Mass strandings of whales are a complex and still little understood behavior, which most unfortunately can be deadly for the whales. Why did it happen here?

What’s a pilot whale?

The pilot whales are actually two different species, there is the short-finned pilot whale and the long-finned pilot whale. The two species look almost identical and it is very difficult, especially where the two species’ ranges overlap in habitat, to tell them apart. Both varieties of pilot whales are toothed whales which usually frequent deep water habitats such as the edge of the continental shelf and along deep water canyons where they feed on fish and squid. Tagged whales have been known to dive to depths as much as 2,000 feet! They are highly social animals and live in pods of around 10-50 animals though groups can be of more than 100 animals. Pods keep in contact with each other through complex whistles and other vocalizations which are believed to be unique to individual pods. Animals will instinctively follow the calls of key animals such as mature older females which act as pod leaders or to the distress calls of young whales. This behavior makes pilots whales particularly susceptible to mass stranding.

Pilot Whales

Why do whales strand?

Around the same time that pilot whales where stranding on Farewell Spit, there was also pilot whales stranding in the Florida Everglades. Pilot whales together with other social and toothed whales like dolphins, killer whales, and sperm whales are the most common whales to become stranded. You might remember me talking about sea turtles stranding in my last Science Note when the turtles get washed on shore after becoming stunned by the cold water. Toothed whales seem to actively beach themselves, swimming into shallow water where they get stuck as the tide recedes. The tight social bonds between animals in a pod mean if just a few do this, then it’s likely that whole pods will follow suit and strand together. Why this occurs is a mystery and there is probably no single answer that fully explains the behavior.

There are a few causes which are often pointed to when whales strand. Individual animals may beach themselves if they are sick or injured. Other healthy animals may strand if they are unwilling to leave an injured pod member. This seems like it might have been the case of the pilot whales that stranded in Florida, they were not in very good condition and necropsies (animal autopsies) of the animals that died showed that they had nearly empty stomachs.

In contrast to the Florida pods, the whales that stranded on Farewell Spit were in good condition and seemed healthy, so probably they stranded from other reasons. These whales may have gotten trapped in shallow water as the tide flowed out of Golden Bay. Farewell Spit forms a long hook which can be difficult to navigate out of, which is made worse by the quick drop in sea level when the tide recedes. The soft muddy bottom doesn’t reflect the whales’ echolocation, which means that the whales can’t “see” the bottom. Essentially they don’t realize they are in shallow water until it is too late. There is also evidence that noise disturbances from seismic testing and military sonar could also be a factor in mass strandings.

Unfortunately, stranding is fatal for whales. Out of the water, whales as quickly susceptible to dehydration and overheating. Whales are designed for a weightless world, which allows them to grow very heavy. Out of the water, all this weight presses on their vital organs and can cause death in and of itself. Unless they refloat on an incoming tide there is little chance for a whale to get back to deeper waters.

Luckily there are well-developed stranding response networks in many places around the world which can hastily mobilize volunteers and experts to attempt to rescue stranded whales. New Zealand has one of the best rates of successfully rescuing stranded whales. However it is still a difficult task and many whales die naturally or have to be euthanized, and even whales which are successfully moved to deeper water will return to re-beach themselves a second time.

Here are two particularly good articles about the stranding in New Zealand.
:: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11189886
:: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11191661

:: Also, if you happen to know other scientists, educators or journalists who might be interested in contributing on our Learning & Discovery side, we’d love to make their acquaintance @ <oceanexplorer@bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com>

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Great Mother of Wonder

Posted on January 30, 2014 by oceanexplorer

Another run of exceptional days out here in the Southern Ocean – two cold fronts in two days, our first lightning storms … not to mention a kelp attack, close encounters of the “bird” kind and an utterly amazing experience with bioluminescence.

The two back-to-back cold fronts began last Sunday night. The first one arrived in typical fashion, riding in on a northwest wind, but the second came in with a headwind that took forever to switch back over to the northwest, which was fine by me as it put the wind behind us and made the sailing easier. Once it did switch though, it brought along with it lightning and thunderstorms. I had not seen lightning in these squalls before, so it made for an interesting (and dramatic) night. Eventually both cold fronts and their stormy winds passed, leaving us with good winds for racking up some good miles.

1300 Miles to Port – 45.35797S, 148.83321E

As I write this, I’m just passing under Tasmania at about 45.5 South Latitude and setting my cross-hairs on the southernmost tip of the South Island of New Zealand! That waypoint, at about 155 East Longitude is just about 600 miles away, but there’s still a lot of sailing as the course to Wellington travels up the South Island and then down the Cook Strait. By my estimate, there’s still over 1300 miles left to the end of Leg 2 … but isn’t that cool? I figure, since leaving Jamestown, Rhode Island on October 2nd, I’ve sailed over 15,000 miles! I’m still hoping by the 10th of February to be tied up at Chaffer’s Marina in Wellington, New Zealand, and celebrating my return to Terra Firma.

Now, when I say KELP attack, I probably should have said kelp “attach!” The other morning, just after the second cold front, I began to feel that something was slowing down the boat. That’s the sort of learned intuition one gets around boats. You sometimes sense it before you have any idea what it might be. I finally looked aft and saw a long brown object dragging off the starboard rudder. I hooked up my tether and reached over the side to grab onto it and pulled as hard as I could but got no release. This one was tenacious, but after several attempts, I was finally able to dislodge it. Here’s a picture of it.

Encrusted kelp – 42.5441046S, 134.5444664E

For a few moments, I thought that maybe it was a piece of waste rubber, but it was obviously kelp. Upon further inspection, I found it was laced with some sort of crustaceans that were incredibly beautiful in their simplicity and in their subtle color shading. Here’s a picture of them.

Something special, wouldn’t you say? – 42.5441046S, 134.5444664E

Having never seen anything quite like it before, I could not help but marvel once again at nature’s infinitely fertile ability to manifest life forms of such diverse and inexplicable beauty. Now, I wonder if anyone can tell us more specifically what type of crustaceans these might be? (My best guesses to the questions I pose here are all down below.)

Now as to the BIRDS, for the past week or so, this very interesting group of birds has been regularly circling the boat. I’ve watched them for endless hours, entranced by their curious flight patterns. They aren’t big birds; one would probably fit in the palm of my hand. They have a white band around their mid-section, but what captures your attention is the way in which they fly. Swooping up and over waves, but getting right down to the water and then seeming to dip their right wing in the water, time and time again. Darting up and down in quick motions … it almost looked as if they had a dysfunctional wing.

Now I figured there was some sort of feeding action going on, but I couldn’t tell exactly what, even though I watched for days on end. I did start to notice that they occasionally dipped the left wing too, so maybe it was just a matter of convenience relative to their stalking food. Even after days of watching them, I find it hard to take my eyes off of them. But here’s a picture of one of them about to dip his or her wing. Anyone want to take a guess as to what kind of bird these are?

As close to constant companions as I get for now – 42.2220238S, 127.330546E

So, the other morning, after the last cold front passed, I was up on the foredeck making a sail change and noticed something unusual … tiny fly-like bugs on part of the deck. I wasn’t sure where they could have come from, but after a much closer look, I realized that what I was looking at were like very tiny shrimp, but no longer than a couple of millimeters. I thought these must be what the birds are catching as they swoop and dip into the waves. How about this species … anyone have a clue what they might be?

And as if both these creatures weren’t fantastical enough, the other night, an explosion of bioluminescence proved as spectacular as any I’ve ever seen in all my years at sea. As I typically do, I came up on deck to have a look around. It was pitch dark out and raining with some flashes of lightning off to the north. At first look I panicked … thinking I was seeing the stern light of a ship just in front of me. (In case you’re curious, I haven’t seen another ship for about four or five weeks now.)

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized what I was seeing. The sea was alive! Every wave top, every white cap was glowing whitish green. The wake from the boat was looking like I had a light on under the boat. The trails from the rudders looked like luminous streamers flying from a circus tent flagpole. Most amazing of all were these floating orbs, glowing bright in the water … and not just one orb, there many all around me! At one point, I counted 20 or more behind the boat and you could see them for quite a ways away… constant in their gleaming brightness.

On each side of the boat, there was this same density of bioluminescence. Quite the surrealistic event, I can assure you – sailing along at 10 knots, all alone in the black of night, thousands of miles away from anywhere, in the middle of a thunderstorm and rain … with this incredible beauty erupting all around me. I’ve been back out every night since looking for them, but nothing more so far. I suspect that night was so uniquely spectacular because of conditions that followed from the electrical storm and the super-charged air.

On reflection it strikes me that the closer you get to the ocean, the more it reveals, the more you become part of its surface life. It is truly the great mother of wonder. It surrounds us, feeds us and cleanses the earth and the air. It also provides us with pathways to anywhere in the world and along the way, never stops teaching us and showing us sights and sounds even beyond our wildest imaginings. I so wish there was a way I could photograph this bioluminescence to show you all, but perhaps it’s one of those things you just have to see for yourself. I stood there for half an hour observing it all in the pouring rain. I was both soaked and stoked when I finally went back inside again.

:: (SPOILER ALERT! As to the QUESTIONS above, I shared my observations with Tegan Mortimer, our Earthwatch ocean science colleague for the Circumnavigation, and here are our combined best guesses as to what I saw.

The creatures that attached to the kelp are called goose barnacles!
The birds look to be gray-back storm petrels.
The type of flying they do is something called “dynamic soaring,” which Tegan says she will soon be covering in a new science note about pelagic sea birds. (See Tegan’s previous science notes on our Citizen Science Resource Page here!)
Strangely enough, if the birds are in fact gray-back storm petrels, they actually concentrate on feeding on the larvae of goose barnacles, so the tiny shrimp I saw on deck were likely that, which is what the petrels were stalking the whole time.

So, if our answers are correct, then all these sightings were actually interrelated, which gives me a special feeling of gratitude to be able to plumb a little deeper into nature’s mysterious and inter-connected cycles. ::

So onward towards New Zealand! Just another 7 to 10 days and I’ll get a chance to take a break, eat some real food, reconnect with old friends, restock the chocolate and cookie supply, as well as everything else, and begin to prepare Bodacious Dream for Leg 3 of this amazing journey.

I do hope you’re enjoying following along with these updates. I also hope you’ve had a chance to share the Explorer Guides with some young people in your lives or to look them over yourselves. There’s so much more to share and explore out here. Give me a few days once I arrive in New Zealand to get some of these amazing photos and videos up for you to see and enjoy! And here’s the link to the Email List Sign-Up.

But for now, it’s back to sailing. “Roll East Young Franklin, Roll East!”

– Dave, Bodacious Dream and (the well-weathered) Franklin

Nature’s Music

Posted on January 27, 2014 by oceanexplorer

It’s been a week of good sailing and good distances made. Doing the math, I see that we’ve tracked another 1000 miles this week, leaving Cape Town 5000 miles behind us now!

Moving along … 43.50603S, 137.53928E

Presently we’re under the Great Australian Bight (Bay) about 940 miles from the southern tip of Tasmania and beyond that, at another 1300 miles, New Zealand. So, the good news is we’re getting there, though not as fast as I’d like. If I might whine a moment, the freeze-dried meals are wearing on me some and every time I look at the chocolate supply it looks evermore depleted! In any case, best guesses for our arrival in New Zealand are now for about the 10th of February.

The weather is starting to stir up again after giving me a week of pretty settled conditions. So it is that the good times pass too quickly and trouble never quickly enough. I’m looking at two cold fronts crossing our route very shortly; the first on Sunday evening and another on Monday evening. These look similar to the ones I dealt with in the western Indian Ocean. Typically, these fronts signal their imminent arrival the day before with a NW wind that eventually builds to 30 knots or so with some showers and rain squalls imbedded in them. As they pass, the winds switch over to the SW, which then clear out and die off. As far as our ability to use the weather to make up distance goes, it is a fairly predictable pattern of moving along quickly and then slowing down. Because I know it’s coming, the slow down can be a bit frustrating just because I’m keen on keeping steady progress towards New Zealand. As one quickly learns, patience is no less difficult a virtue to practice out here, than it is anywhere else!

The good thing about days of calmer weather is that it makes it easier to accomplish ordinary tasks like sleeping, eating, reading and writing. I’ve been able to finish a number of books. Those would be … Long Walk to Freedom (about Nelson Mandela), Losing my Virginity (about Richard Branson,) Incognito (David Eagleman on the brain,) Dreamland (David K. Randall on the science of sleep) and What the Dog Saw (Malcolm Gladwell essays.) I’ve started a couple more that hopefully will get me through these last couple of weeks.

An interesting dilemma I have (which a lot of people are going through these days,) is whether I like the physical feel of a book in my hands or reading on a tablet like my iPad. I think I’m old-skool enough to prefer having the book in my hand, but then a wave splashes over and I think … you know, this waterproof iPad isn’t such a bad idea after all, is it? And it comes with music at the same time! But out here, that’s not such a selling point, as there’s so much of nature’s music all around me all the time.

Speaking of nature’s music, the sounds that reach my ears are a complex symphony. Allow me to give you a little tour of the sounds around me now. As I sit below decks typing this, the constant push of water against the hull where the bow enters the water sets up a strong rhythm – a surge UP and then a flow back DOWN as the boat powers over a wave. Behind me, in the transom (the back of the boat) there’s a steady cadenza of splashing noises as the water pushes up against the transom. At first listen, you’d swear the stern hatch was open and the water was flowing into the boat, but no, just the sound of it. All along, at any time, you can hear a thud or loud SLAP as a wave comes up against the side of the hull. This throws you at first as you think you’ve hit something, but once you get used to it, you start to miss it, if this sidewinder sound doesn’t come along somewhat regularly.

Back up on deck, and outside of the resonator of the cabin, these sounds aren’t as pronounced, but up top, there’s the squeak of the gooseneck of the boom, at the point where it attaches to the mast. I’ve doused it a number of times with WD40 in the hopes of quieting its complaining cat sounds. There’s a different type of squeak coming from the point where the main sheet connects with the other end of the boom. And of course, there’s the broad billowy sounds of wind in the sails.

– Imagine the sound of it … 3.4420118N, 33.224636W (from Leg 1)

Then are the 2 Ottos … our autopilots, that have their peculiar whine as they move back and forth steering the boat. The hydro-generator that I mentioned in the previous post has the most interesting sound; like a wind-up airplane … and as the boat speeds up, the pitch gets higher, until it comes off a surf, which causes the pitch to get lower. As I said, it’s a reassuring acoustic reminder that everything is working and that the boat is moving right along.

Sounds of the Sea

(On the last leg, at one point, I realized I’d lost the sound of the hydro-generator. I went up top and found the unit had become unattached from its mount and was dangling off the back of the boat! Yikes … almost lost it there!)

Oh, and add to the sounds, the incessant flapping of the jack lines. These are the straps of nylon that I tether myself to, and while I am grateful for the added protection they provide, the sound they make can drive you a bit batty in higher winds especially when combined with the snapping of the halyards along side the mast.

All in all, it’s a crazy concert of sounds … very much like the tuning-up session before a classical orchestra starts to play. But then again, once Bodacious Dream is up and high in the water and everything is going well, then the sound grows sweeter and more like when the symphony starts to play!

Yesterday’s Light – 38.57215S, 100.361912E

Well, as I said, I’ve got a few cold fronts coming up, so I’ve got to get set for them. At this point, it’s kind of like family coming to visit; you want everything to be ready before they ring the bell.

More later, when the weather has passed.

– Dave, Bodacious Dream and Franklin (who occasionally adds his own bouncing percussion to the concert.)

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