.OK, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the time has finally come to get this show on the road
Dauntless is loaded, (I wish I was) and most stuff is put away, well, at least on the outside of the boat.
After more than 5 years of dreaming, hoping, wishing, planning, reading and even some arithmetic, the time has finally come to shove off.
In about 4 hours, Sunday, 20 July 2014, Dauntless, with Julie and I will depart our home away from home in Providence, Rhode Island and set our sights on the Portuguese islands of the Azores.
But before we can even go east, we must travel down the Narragansett River, then northeast through Buzzards Bay, to pass through the Cape Cod Canal in midafternoon when we will have favorable currents.
From then, we’ll see how we feel, whether to anchor one last time in North America at the tip of Cape Cod or to turn right and head east.
While our route is somewhat dependent on weather and seas, we are planning on the great circle route (course 082° T) from Cape Cod to the Azores as it takes one southeast of Nova Scotia, east along 42°N then east-southeast.
Our planned route
1900 nm, it will take 13 days, maybe 12 with the following seas we hope to have, we will pretty much be riding over the top of the Bermuda/Azores High.
We now have a Delorme InReach Satellite Phone. It will only do texts, but it does allow two way communications all the way across the ocean. You can follow our route with updates every 10 minutes and/or contact us by going to the website https://share.delorme.com/Dauntless
Once on the above page, on the left column, you click on my name, which allows you to select the other buttons above, Locate, Message, and Center. So Locate pings the phone, basically updating the map. Message allows you to send us a text message and Center, does just that, it re-centers the map.
I’ll pretty much have the InReach on until I get to winter quarters, probably in Ireland, probably at the end of September.
I’m an eclectic person, who grew up in New York, lived overseas for many years and have a boat, Dauntless, a 42 foot Kadey Krogen trawler yacht. Dauntless enables me to not only live in many different parts of the world, but to do it in a way that is interesting, affordable, with the added spice of a challenge.
Dauntless also allows me to be in touch with nature. As the boat glides through the ocean, you have a sense of being part of a living organism. When dolphins come to frolic, they stay longer if you are out there talking to them, watching them. Birds come by, sometimes looking for a handout; sometimes grateful to find a respite from their long journey.
I grew up on the New York waterfront, in the West Village, when everything west of Hudson St. was related to shipping and cargo from around the world. For a kid, it was an exciting place of warehouses, trucks, and working boats of all kinds: tugs and the barges and ships, cargo and passenger, they were pushing around.
My father was an electrical engineer, my mother an intellectual, I fell in between.
I have always been attracted to Earth’s natural processes, the physical sciences. I was in 8th grade when I decided to be a Meteorologist.
After my career in meteorology, my natural interest in earth sciences: geology, astronomy, geography, earth history, made it a natural for me to become a science teacher in New York City, when I moved back to the Big Apple. Teaching led to becoming a high school principal to have the power to truly help kids learn and to be successful not only in school but in life.
Dauntless is in western Europe now. In May and June, I will be wrapping up the last two years in northern Europe, heading south to spend the rest of the year in Spain & Portugal.
Long term, I’m planning on returning to North American in the fall of 2017 and from there continuing to head west until we’re in Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, where we will settle for a bit.
But now, my future lies not in NY or even Europe, but back to the water, where at night, when the winds die down, there is no noise, only the silence of the universe. I feel like I am at home, finally.
View all posts by Richard on Dauntless
You are living the dream man! Congrats! You are about 5 years ahead of us…Please dont be shy when you get back to update your blog on how your crossing went with a KK42, as I am looking at one….Why you stopped in Nova Scotia and any details about your crossing.
Dauntless at Sea 
Have a safe trip Ric and Julie!
Have a GREAT trip and enjoy!!!!!!!!
Safe travels! Have a great trip 🙂
The quiet rumble of the engine, the splash of the waves and a far off horizon beckoning. Press on! Stay safe.
You are living the dream man! Congrats! You are about 5 years ahead of us…Please dont be shy when you get back to update your blog on how your crossing went with a KK42, as I am looking at one….Why you stopped in Nova Scotia and any details about your crossing.
Cant wait to hear
Steph http://www.cruisingdream.com
You have reached land! Congratulations!