Adventures in Travel Chicago & DVD

Flying out to South Carolina to meet my dad and a client today. We will be delivering his Beneteau 46 from Charleston to Key West over the next few days. From there I will be flying to Chicago to speak at the Adventures in Travel Expo there on March 21st.

Life has been busy here...working on the book, doing some speaking, finishing my last few highschool classes. I have been snowboarding a few times this winter and love it. Trying to get myself up there as often as I can now.

The DVD is being printed and should be available by next Tuesday. All the preorders will be shipped out ASAP. I will update again to let you all know when they have gone out. Thanks again for your patience and support. I think it was worth the wait!

Cheers,
Zac

Speaking & Documentary

So it’s calmed down a bit in the Sunderland home since Abby is now off and in good winds. As for myself, the book deal is going through as the proposal was just finished and now my literary agent David Kuhn out of NY is gonna shop it around to all the publishing houses. After it gets picked up, we'll finish it off.

The much anticipated documentary is undergoing final edits. I was done but I wanted to add some stuff so I'll be hitting the editing studios on Monday for a few days of touch ups and voice overs. It's gonna be worth the wait.

Well I spoke at the Adventure and Travel Conference at the LA Convention Center Saturday and Sunday. I’ve been doing a lot of speaking these days and just got back from speaking at the Bay View Yacht Club in the frozen land of Detroit. I've never felt -5F before and it’s not a good thing. I also spoke at the Brentwood Academy in Tennessee last week which was good fun.

Well I’m off to go work on the documentary.
Cheers,
Zac

Abby's Departure

My little sister Abby is heading out to sea tomorrow.

If you would like to come and see her off, here are the particulars:

WHERE: Del Rey Yacht Club
13900 Palawan Way
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292-6294

WHEN: Saturday, Jaunary 23, 2010
9:30 Press Conference and Q & A
11:30 Departure

For more info check out Abby's web site and blog at www.abbysunderland.com

News from Land

A new year and very different than last year. This time last year when I was rounding the Cape of Good Hope south of Africa. These days there has been a lot of work going on on Abby’s boat and almost all the time I can spare I'm down there. I've also been doing a minor refit on Intrepid mostly resealing and sanding. We replaced another bulkhead and have had to rewire some stuff that we didn’t have time to do before I left.

My senior year in highschool is also going well. I've got US History, Health, Government and Economics this year then I graduate. The DVD has been a really complicated process but its finally coming together and should be out in about a month.

As far as adventures go I'm aiming to climb Everest next season but right now I'm setting up a dirt biking trip down thru south America to Ushuaia the southernmost city in the world by way of the Darién Gap. I have also been doing a lot of research on the Northwest Passage - the ice pass above Canada and Alaska.

I've been speaking here and there which has been great. Sometimes I speak to yacht clubs like at the end of this month I will be heading out to Detroit to the Bay View Yacht Club to talk about my trip. Next month is the Adventures in Travel Expo in Los Angeles and the Brentwood Academy in Tennessee.

Cheers,
Zac

Back at Sea

Lots going on in the Sunderland house these days with Wild Eyes finally over from Florida and Abby's departure date right around the corner. Since my last blog which was quite a while ago I have turned 18 had a really fun party with some good friends down in the marina. Soon after that it was down to Ensenada with my dad, photographer Lisa Gizara and her fiancee Eric to pick up Wild Eyes off the ship. Abby had sailed down with our friend Peter a day before. We met up with an LA Times crew down there - it was good to see Pete Thomas and Al Seib again.

The next day the boat was put in the water and they were off. My dad, Abby and the LA Times guys in Wild Eyes and Peter and myself in his Fairweather 39 doing the bash up to San Diego. The trip went well in Lady K; warm food, 3 hours on and 3 hours off watches but from what I hear, Wild Eyes was quite cramped as the boat is really only made to fit one and there were five!

We bashed along through the night in the freezing cold til we were off of the Coronado Islands where Wild Eyes slammed into a drifting kelp patty. We ended up towing them for a little way and arrived in SD around 6am after a pretty sleepless night. We both cleared customs after which the LA Times crew got out of there pretty fast. Looking at Wild Eyes we saw that some how the boat was wrapped in kelp so out with the wet suit and knives and I jumped into the freezing water. It took me 2 hours to cut my way through it all. It was weird staying up all night and then being weightless under water. I was 10 feet under holding on to the keel and started to fall asleep under water holding my breath. I think I had a dream and everything!

After that experience and some super glue holding my sliced hand together we were off again for a pretty smooth sail down to Marina del Rey. Now that I'm back it is just lots of work to do. I've been doing a lot of work on Intrepid getting her back to her previous glory - slow and steady.

The long awaited DVD production is moving along and is due out at the first of the year. Thanks again for all of your patience.

Happy holidays to everyone.

Cheers,

Zac

The Latest

Got home to Thousand Oaks after an awesome run down the coast to Florida. We had heavy weather, light whether, wind on the nose and wind behind us. I think Abby really learned a lot about the boat. We loaded it on a ship in Fort Lauderdale and it should be arriving around the first week in December. Till then she is working out, going to meetings and interviewing as she tries to get the last sponsors on board.

I've been busy with school, the gym and still going to lots of meetings. As for my next adventure, I'm training for an Everest climb and also planning out a possible North West Passage sailing route and a motorcycle trip down to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.

Well turning 18 on the 29th finally gonna get my driver's licence.

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone!

Cheers,

Zac

Photos from Aboard Wild Eyes

Was having trouble with uploading blogs and photos. All seems sorted now. Here are a few shots from the trip. We should be pulling out today. Fort Lauderdale late tomorrow afternoon all being well.
Cheers,
Zac