20130107 Day 1. Departure

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There are some moments that are too beautifully strange to be described with words.

Snapshot. It is 3 AM and I am playing basketball alone on top of one of the world fastest and most hygienic boat in the world, cruising speed between San Diego California and Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico.

Screenshot. My name is Cesar Harada, 29, I am an Unreasonable at Sea Entrepreneur. With my colleague Gabriella Levine, we got on board of the MV Explorer, for a 106 days sailing journey around the world with 10 other entrepreneurs that want to change the world, 20 world class mentors, 50 scholars, 600 american students to sail across 14 countries.

Thanks for joining the voyage! I will do my best to document the journey and share with you this privileged experience. This trip will be translated in several languages, thanks to a magnificent crew of volunteers translators : Thank you! We have just boarded, and we haven’t started to work yet. I will explain discussions, people, places, work as it develops over the next few days. The last days have been intense, and “now” feels more surreal than ever before. To understand bit more what’s happening, let’s rewind the last 72 hours :

Vancouver – Los Angeles – San Diego. A few hour ago, I was in the sky, in the narrow cabin of a 4 seat wide plane, flying above mega cities, distracted inspecting my wound.

A few hours earlier, I injured myself quite badly. As I brought a large wooden box for FedEx, I was asked – very last minute – to reduce the size of the wood crate I had just made. Working with a new and sharp wood saw just outside of FedEx in the dark and cold  streets of Vancouver Canada, I simply butchered myself. In my bad luck, I am always the luckiest : the husband of my girlfriend’s best friend is a doctor, he decorated me with 8 pretty stitches above my left hand thumb tendons.

This is the box, containing 3 – in progress- prototypes of Protei, the Open Hardware Shape Shifting Sailing Robot. Too big to travel with me, the box is being transported to Hilo Hawaii where we will pick it up in a few days as we cross the Pacific Ocean.

We will use these prototypes to demo our technology. At sea for the next few months we will be developing both the technology and the business strategy for Protei technology.

It is now 5 AM, everyone is asleep, everything is vibrating as our 1000 passengers boat gently rolls. I am sitting in the cantine of the ship, our vessel is moving fast, cutting steadily through the steamy waters. This is the beginning of an amazing journey. Sore eyes, and brutal expectations.

Tags: Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico, Ocean, San Diego, sea, Translate, Unreasonable, USA