At six people, we’re a rather small crew for this boat, and our four-hour shifts make me feel like a newborn baby — constantly put to bed and soon awoken abruptly, given food and drink, and thrust from my cocoon of a hammock-bed into a precarious waterworld above, strapped to the ship by a safety leash. But the crew is healthy and able, the weather’s been gorgeous, playful-seeming dolphins dance along the boat during the day, and magical-seeming bioluminescence dances along at night, and there’s no sign of human life in any direction.
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Gyre to Gaia II: Settling into the rhythm of life on board
The crew have settled well into the rhythm of life on board, with watchkeeping, rest, trawling, cooking, cleaning, and keeping Sea Dragon running smoothly. We have continued our twice daily trawls off the stern, and our scientist Adam is pleased with the results. He’s collecting enough data to keep him busy in the laboratory at Exeter University over the long winter months.
Read MoreProject Ocean: Exploration to the Gyres
And this is what lies at the heart of Panagea Explorations, taking ordinary people out to sea, to witness and research the growing problem of marine plastic debris. And this is what lies at the heart of Selfridgesโ exhibition also. A concept model of Sea Dragon is surrounded by five beautifully designed items, each of which are representations of the five ocean gyres, by artist duo Studio Swine.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Greetings from the Azores
Nothing more shocking than feeling as if you are in the most remote part of the planet, and yet, seeing evidence of our footprint float by every day.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Underwater selfie
Today, due to the lack of wind and calm seas, we had a late afternoon swim call.
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The Ocean Cleanup: Pfannekuchen, swimming, and bioluminescence
Starting off as a joke, the Dutch/German cooking team decided to make Pfannekuchen, the European predecessor of globally popular pancakes. Not thinking of the consequences we started at around 9:30 AM with the cooking, giving us 2.5 h to make approx. 40 Pfannekuchen for the 13 hungry sailors. Needless to say, frying Pfannekuchen on a sailboat rolling with the swell and waves is quite a treat.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: What I’ve Learned
Before starting this trip I had close to zero sailing experience and my sea voyages were a few ferry rides. After 2 weeks at sea I have learned and experienced so much it is hard to sum it all up.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Collecting plastic debris
In addition to our trawl sampling, we are accumulating quite the collection of larger plastic debris! So far on our journey we have retrieved crates, jugs, buoys, fenders, hausers, and floats.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Plastic in the North Atlantic Gyre
On first impression, it seems possible to confirm the theory of a higher accumulation of plastic in the area called the center of the gyre. But only when all the samples have been processed in the Ocean Lab, and the results analyzed and discussed, will we be able to definitely confirm this theory. By the time this blog is posted, our team on the Sea Dragon will have already set sail in the direction of the Azores, where the boat and all the team will again reach safe land after having crossed the Atlantic Ocean collecting samples.
Read MoreThe Ocean Cleanup: Reaching the center of the North Atlantic Gyre
Lead Oceanographer for The Ocean Cleanup Foundation Julia Reisser wears a hat resembling the foil bags that trawl samples are stowed in for safe keeping. Written on her hat? Trawl 33, Net 11!
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The Ocean Cleanup: The illusion of emptiness in the ocean
Flying fish rush over the waves. First mate Shanley has spotted bioluminescence. We felt like we could almost touch the dolphins that briefly played around the boat. The emptiness is an illusion, that much is clear. There’s not just plastic in there, there’s life, there’s beauty. And this is what I think we came here for – life and beauty, to experience, and preserve.
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The Ocean Cleanup: Setting sail from Bermuda to Azores
We were soon back to routine sailing until about 1720 hours when Captain Eric spotted something large and white floating about 100M off the port bow. In addition to the trawl’s catch, we had been seeing mezzo-plastics (several cm-long), some larger, floating by all day but this object was big, coiled on itself like a great white serpent. Eric called out and immediately turned the boat toward the “thing” โ we did not know what it was.
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