The Rim Run™ Expedition • Western Caribbean • Launching October 2026

Scientific preparation now includes scheduled Reef Check EcoDiver training in Bocas del Toro, Panama in late August 2026, immediately ahead of the Rim Run™ launch phase.

As go the seas… So goes humanity.

An annual sailing and reef monitoring circuit of the western Caribbean — serious science by day, extraordinary living by night, and a story for the ages being written one circuit at a time. Wind and solar only. Zero carbon. Zero compromise.

Mexico • Belize • Guatemala • Honduras • Nicaragua • Costa Rica • Panama

Command

Catamaran Dan — Ove Ironhand

Led by Daniel Roe — U.S. Coast Guard–licensed 200-Ton Master Captain, ASA sailing instructor, former U.S. Navy submariner, FAA-licensed drone pilot, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and expedition sailor who has been doing hard things on the water since before most sailing influencers were born.

One credential doesn't fit on a tag but shapes everything: qualifying in submarines in the U.S. Navy's nuclear program. When a submarine is submerged, it is a sealed world. No signal. No backup. No helpdesk. Every qualified watchstander owns their domain completely — because there is no one else coming. You solve every problem, at any location, with what you know and who you are. That discipline never leaves you. It is exactly how this expedition is designed and run.

Modern Y-DNA work traces his paternal line through the I1 haplogroup to Thorvald Asvaldsson, Erik the Red, and Leif Erikson. He sails as Ove Ironhand. This combination shapes everything: calm decision-making, conservative risk management, genuine curiosity about the people and cultures of every coastline — and preparation over bravado. The life is extraordinary because the standards are real.

USCG 200-Ton Master USN Submariner Qualified in Submarines ASA Instructor FAA Drone Pilot LSS Black Belt PADI Adv. OW Blue Nose Shellback MBA · GWU MS Health Informatics

Full Background →

Daniel Roe — Catamaran Dan

Ove Ironhand

The Expedition

One Loop. Every Year.

The Rim Run™ is an annual sailing circuit of the western Caribbean coast — departing Mexico each October, sailing south through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, then returning northbound. First circuit launches October 2026.

The commitment is to repeat this circuit for as many years as the sea permits — building a longitudinal record of reef health that grows more valuable with every passing year. The data is real: GPS-referenced sites, standardized depth bands, repeatable methodology, water conditions, reef structure, coral health, biological observations, and human impact documented every season. That data will be made available to selected scientific institutions and conservation organizations who want to use it. This expedition does not exist to generate papers. It exists to tell the world — loudly, clearly, and with undeniable documentation — what is happening to these reefs, what must be protected, and what is being done right.

No funded research program has been willing to make the same physical commitment to the same small boats in the same shallow water for the same number of decades. The reefs don't need more one-time visitors. They need someone who keeps coming back.

By day: fins on at first light, structured observation, clean data, and genuine respect for every marine authority and fisheries department along the route. By night: the anchor goes down, the cast net goes in, the Rim Runner™ gets made — and the kind of evening begins that most people on earth will never have the privilege of experiencing. Both halves are the point. Neither is optional.

Anchor down — the Rim Run way

The Circuit — Caribbean Coastline

Life Ashore — Cultural Exchange

The Circuit

Seven Countries. One Unbroken Loop.

From Mexico's Yucatán to Panama's San Blas and back — 1,500+ nautical miles, two ecosystem zones, two operational hubs. The same loop every year, refined each season. No leg is hurried. No community is passed through without respect for the people, the government, and the coastline that belongs to them.

Country	Key Stops	Days	Why It Matters
🇲🇽 Mexico	Puerto Aventuras · Cozumel · Xcalak · Banco Chinchorro	~30	Northern hub — REEF coordination & staging
🇧🇿 Belize	Ambergris · Turneffe · Lighthouse Reef · Blue Hole · Glover's · South Water · Placencia	~117	World's 2nd largest barrier reef — home waters & citizen science base
🇬🇹 Guatemala	Livingston · Río Dulce · Lake Izabal	~35	Most stunning inland waterway in the Americas
🇭🇳 Honduras	Cayos Cochinos · Utila · Roatán · Guanaja	~80	Bay Islands — whale sharks & 100+ ft visibility
🇳🇮 Nicaragua	Big Corn Island · Little Corn Island · Pearl Cays	~29	Priority Year 1 — essentially unsurveyed
🇨🇷 Costa Rica	Tortuguero · Cahuita NP · Puerto Viejo	~35	Southern Caribbean transition zone — reef, river, jungle, and protected coastline
🇵🇦 Panama	Bocas del Toro · Escudo de Veraguas · Guna Yala / San Blas	~70	Southern hub — long-duration anchorage, biodiversity, and expedition reset point

Operating Principle

The route is not a publicity tour. It is a repeatable marine field platform designed to generate trust, continuity, and useful reef records over years and eventually decades. Every seasonal return adds comparative value to everything already seen.

Two Permanent Programs

The Expedition is the Platform. The Legacy is Bigger.

Blue Rim 5™ is not just an expedition. It is the field platform for two permanent, scalable programs designed to outlast any single voyage: a regional citizen science alliance and a living media archive.

Regional Science Network

Citizen Science — CCRA

The Caribbean Coastal Reef Alliance (CCRA) is the long-term citizen science framework connecting reef observers, partner institutions, and aligned coastal stakeholders across all seven Rim Run™ countries. The goal is disciplined participation, standardized observations, and better continuity where formal monitoring is thin or absent.

Citizen Science →

Documenting the Human Story

The Living Saga™ — The Archive

The Living Saga™ is the documentary and media arm of the expedition — the reefs, the coastlines, the people, the boats, the weather, the culture, and the reality of living this life year after year. It exists so the world can see what is being protected, what is changing, and what still remains worth fighting for.

The Living Saga™ →

Blue Rim 5™ — First Chapters

The Global Sailing Expedition. Beginning in the Caribbean.

The Rim Run™ is the first operating chapter of Blue Rim 5™ — the larger global sailing expedition model that will eventually extend far beyond the western Caribbean. The first years are about proving the platform, establishing credibility, building a regional science network, and generating a repeatable field record where it matters most.

That means the early work is intensely local in method and global in significance: small boats, disciplined observation, reef systems under pressure, and a public-facing record grounded in real-world continuity rather than abstraction.

Blue Rim 5™ — First Chapters

Shamrocket — Expedition Platform

Life at Anchor

This is not Escape. It is the Point.

The reef work matters. The science matters. But the life built around it matters too. The evenings at anchor, the food, the weather, the stories, the people, the rituals, the silence, the music — this is not some decorative side element to the mission. It is the other half of it.

What the Mint Julep is to horse racing, Bourbon Storm™ is to the yachting community. Born on a blue-sky equatorial Pacific day in 1984 that turned dark, wet, and alive — then cleared just as fast. The recipe remained private for forty-one years. It belongs to the water and to the evenings the water gives you when you've earned them.

Glass & Rim

Heavy straight-sided rocks glass with a blue rim band. Rim mix: 2 parts coarse sea salt, 1 part sugar. Wet the outside rim with fresh lime and dip. Fill with fresh ice.

Equatorial Blue Base

1½ oz white rum • ¾ oz blue curaçao • 1 oz pineapple juice • ½ oz fresh lime juice • 1 oz coconut water • 1–2 dashes ginger or aromatic bitters. Shake hard ~10 seconds. Strain over fresh ice.

The Dark Storm Cloud

Float ½–¾ oz dark rum over the back of a bar spoon. Blue below. Dark above. Salt and sky at the rim. Do not stir.

Bourbon Storm™ Variation

Same blue base. Float ½–¾ oz bourbon instead of dark rum. The bourbon is the star — the first nose, first sip, and finish live in that top layer.

Rim Runner™ Zero

Pineapple juice, coconut water, orange juice, lime, blue curaçao syrup (NA). Float iced tea or cola as the storm band. Same glass. Same rim. Same protocol.

First drink: Face the horizon — "Better Beachy than Bitchy™"
Second: "Better beachy than busted." | Empty glass: one tap. "Anchor down."

The Rim Runner™

Rim Lightning 1984 — the storm that started it all

Rim Lightning — 1984 · The origin

Get Involved

This is a Working Expedition. Choose Your Role.

The mission moves whether or not it is supported. But the right support — from the right people and institutions — determines how far it reaches, how many reefs get documented, how many coastal communities benefit, and how much of this story the world gets to hear.

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Fund the Science

Support expanded reef observation, improved data collection, and the environmental measurement capability that makes this data worth having for institutions and conservation organizations worldwide.

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Join the Fleet

Become part of the Nevado Raiders™ — disciplined sailors on real boats who understand that genuine respect for these coastlines and the people who live on them is the only operating standard that matters.

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Follow the Saga

Track the expedition, the reef record, the imagery, and the broader Blue Rim 5™ global sailing story as it grows from Caribbean fieldwork into a larger long-range adventure.

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