We’d like to congratulate S.V. Sea Dragon and eXXpedition crew member Jenna Jambeck on her superb paper, “Science waste inputs from land into the ocean,” published in Science in February 2015.
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My Amazing Adventure at Sea: One More Generation’s Olivia Ries
We wanted to share My Amazing Adventure at Sea, a great piece in The TerraMar Project’s news outlet, The Daily Catch by Olivia Ries, co-founder (with her brother) of One More Generation!
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Exploring Mindset: Martinique to the British Virgin Islands
To date, Exploring Mindset has been firmly based on the swaying, floating base of Pangaea’s Sea Dragon, our 72ft yacht. The solitude of ocean life alongside the team work and sailing skills needed to ensure each passage is successful, provide the ideal scenario for our program. And no, you don’t need to have any sailing experience to join us!
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eXXpedition: Art and our daily consumption
Discussions on board have also centered on making visual the problems we are facing with plastics. This was further emphasized in the evening presentation by Maria, our other on-board artist. Maria shared with us pictures of her many dramatic sculptures and installations that capture the impact of humans on the environment. She has no shortage of creative raw materials and easily collects several bags of plastic daily from a small patch of beach.
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eXXpedition: A wind of active positivism
We are still enjoying the amazing crew members’ talks, and yesterday evening we heard from the Norwegian environmental activist, Malin. Malin started her environmental activist career at the early age of 14, and then by 18, she was named Norway’s Environmental Hero after succeeding in her work to stop Hydro’s oil drilling off the southern coast of Norway. Even at her young age, her work has consisted of intense involvement at the intersection of environmental activism and political participation. Questions of where our energies are best directed arise directly from this. Her talk has kicked off an active discussion on board about how individual actions can move and inspire bigger decisions, even at higher political levels.
Read MoreeXXpedition: On nature, art, and giving thanks
The day ended with a bright moon on the water and each of us sharing what we are grateful for. Reflections on our current journey, as well as tributes to family and friends, were recurring themes. Also, our gratefulness to each other for creating an environment of support, caring, and harmony in our floating shelter, very far from home.
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eXXpedition: Exploring health and building community
As the evening came along, we all jumped outside to get some fresh air of hope and listen to the story of the night. This time it was Sue’s turn. She spoke passionately and beautifully about community spirit, drawing on her experience at the all-women’s protest in Greenham Common in the 80s. Her presence here is like an embodiment of the endurance of female power, and she eloquently helps us all to feel the strength that can and needs to be drawn from our shared journey. She reads us Joanna Macy and Anita Barrow’s translation of Rilke by moonlight, and we all get goosebumps…
Read MoreeXXpedition: Meet S.V. Sea Dragon
All our meals are made in the galley, and we often gather in the salon to chat. Food scraps are saved in a small pail in the galley and dumped over the side to feed the fishes per regulations. The stovetop is gimbled so that it stays level as the ship rocks from side to side. There is also a small library in the salon with sailing and marine life identification books and also other relative books to our trip like, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and Garbology. We normally eat our meals on deck in and around the cockpit and the helm.
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eXXpedition: Flying fish, manta trawls, and gender balance
The sun was shining and Sea Dragon was sailing wing-on-wing. This diamond sail combination makes a beautiful sight against the cool blue sky. At 1pm sharp, it was time for our second manta trawl, which we accomplished smoothly in 1 hour 20 mins. Shanley assures us that this is a great time for our second attempt, and we are all pretty excited at the prospect of breaking some kind of record. We’re hoping to be down to 1 hour by the time we reach Martinique – let’s see if we’re up for the challenge!
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eXXpedition: Our first trawl
Finally after days of rain, storm and strong winds, we made our first trawl. The trawl was an ‘all hands on deck’ task. We put out the trawl in calm seas, travelling at 2 – 3 knots of boat speed. All the path was recorded in detail with Marine Debris Tracker, as were the conditions, like wind, speed, and direction. Everyone watched the trawl with curiosity as is it sliced through the water, resembling an animal gobbling plankton on the surface. The ocean looked pristine and deep blue, but the trawl told a different story.
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eXXpedition: Finally the storms pass
At around 3am, we spotted a cargo ship just after we emerged from yet another squall and realising that the vessel was less than 6 miles away and bearing straight down on us, our captain Emily picked up the radio and said: “San Fernando, San Fernando, we are the sailing vessels 6 miles in front of you on a collision course with limited manoeuvrability, as we have just one sail at the moment, are you able to avoid us?” Just another night on Sea Dragon crossing the Atlantic Ocean with her rookie crew.
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eXXpedition: All hands on deck
In the afternoon we were having a very merry time bouncing through the swirl occasionally getting face full of seawater as waves broke over the boat. We were pinching up wind with Shanley at the helm making 7-9 knots with 2 reefs in the main sail and both the Yankee jib and the staysail flying. Then all of the sudden the sheet of the Yankee jib severed in a gust of wind.
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