After two seasons of international competitive sailing aboard the Class 40 racer, Bodacious Dream, Dave Rearick who began sailing on Lake Michigan before going on to win his first Mackinac Races there, is about to live a life-long dream — to sail singlehanded around the world. Dave will skipper Bodacious Dream on a 30,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe. He will leave Newport, Rhode Island on October 1, 2013 and return to the same spot some 9 months later.
The Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (HIOBS) is part of Dave’s motivation. I asked Dave some questions about his experience at HIOBS.
Amanda: Tell me about your experience with HIOBS?
Dave: I did an expedition back in 78’. I arrived in Boston in September anxious, excited and looking forward to my course start the next day. The following morning, after sleeping in the airport, I met up with a number of others as we waited for the bus to take us up to Rockland, ME. The ride up to HIOBS base in Rockland, ME was all new discovery to me, new places, new sights and new people. I remember my whole world changing with each mile and passing the old grounded schooners in Wiscassett. It was as if I had crossed over a threshold. Little did I know. I hung around and work for HIOBS for the following year.
Amanda: What do you find special about Outward Bound and especially (specifically) about HIOBS?
Dave: The Hurricane Island Outward Bound School is a magical place, it’s not easy to put into words and even harder to explain to someone unfamiliar with its basics. But I think, as we all know, when you mix people with open attitudes, sun, water, physical fatigue, you come out with some really cool stuff….all of this grounded by the serenity of the nature that underpins the whole experience. HIOBS, being played out in and among the islands on the Maine Coast, steeped in ancient natural ways and human history makes the perfect serene foundation to discover one’s inner self.
Amanda: When and why did you begin sailing?
Dave: A friend took me sailing on a sunfish from the shore off Lake Michigan when I was just 11 or 12. From there, it’s been a downhill slide leading up to this circumnavigation!!
Amanda: Speaking of – how did you decide to do the circumnavigation?
Dave: Solo sailing and doing a solo circumnavigation have been in my world since I was in my teens and read of the great historic adventurers. It was easy to dream as a kid, living on the shores of Lake Michigan, but impossible to shake it as I got older and became more and more proficient with my skills. The plan was to participate in the Global Ocean Race scheduled for this fall of 2013, but as we have all learned via Outward Bound, being flexible and resilient, toss in a dose of stubborn persistence, and these traits allows us to adapt the plan and continue forward. So, we are taking this chance to do the solo Circumnavigation and show the world about the ocean.
Amanda: What are you most excited about regarding the upcoming expedition?
Dave: Without question, most excited about the new things I will discover about myself and the new places I will see……at the same time respectful of the struggles that will come from the weather in the Southern Ocean and the long periods of solitude.
Amanda: What advice do you have for HIOBS students?
Dave: Ah…..I wish this were easily done with a few words. There is so much to life and the more you experience, the more you learn that the things you worried about years back, were never as big a problem as you, yourself imagined them to be. Trust your intuition, follow your dreams. Life is a grand adventure, live it all, live it always.
To follow Dave’s voyage, visit http://bodaciousdreamexpeditions.com/.