This month has been crazy, preparing for this expedition has been 10 times harder than my trip around the Americas. I guess that’s what happens when you buy a 42 foot steel boat with a rotten plywood couch roof, old wiring and a good engine with bad parts. It was all I could afford. I needed a sailing vessel that would allow me to take scientists and their equipment to the far corners of the planet, a 27 Albin Vega wouldn’t cut it. I tried to get someone to donate a boat or the money necessary to buy one. I now run an official 501 (c) 3 non-profit. The reality was that it could take years to find someone to donate the boat I needed, so I took out the biggest loan I could (which wasn’t much) and bought a good boat that needed a lot of work.
I bought my 42 foot Colvin Gazelle in the bustling town of Titusville, Florida last December. I sailed her to the Chesapeake Bay offshore as a shake down cruise. I learned many things about my new boat on the way up, like the deck was worse than the survey showed and the engine was leaking diesel faster then a leaky stuffing box. I removed the rotten deck, fixed the engine, added all new electronics, solar, wind power, wind vane, ect, ect. Long story short it was a 12 month refit crammed into 5 months. As all boat owners know the work never truly ends and I’ll be working on this boat until the day I sell her.
I wont be singlehanded this time (thank god), I sailed 42,000 miles alone over the last 4 ½ years and could use some company. I have onboard a NOAA scientist named Nicole Trenholm. She recently quit her job with NOAA, taking a major pay cut, to work for Ocean Research Project as its lead scientist. Nicole has done a great job gathering the scientific equipment and making connections with various universities and organizations. I couldn’t have organized this without her help.
So here we are, sitting on anchor in Little Creek, VA by the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay waiting for our allusive and two week late sails to finally show up so we can leave. Once at sea we will do our best to collect the scientific data and have fun while being as safe as possible. I have some great sponsors and partners, I thank them all for there support.
