Archive for June, 2015

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” – we did not know what it was.

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Boyan Slat & Ocean Cleanup: Trawling in the North Atlantic Gyre

Today, with a now experienced crew and a comfortable 15 knot-wind, three back-to-back trawls were performed, each around an hour in length. Lots of millimetre to centimetre-sized particles were visible in the samples of the top few nets. Team member Francesco is currently working with some volunteers to clean the nets’ cod ends and prepare the samples for transportation.

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Boyan Slat & The Ocean Cleanup: Second day at sea

It’s our third day on board the Sea Dragon, our second day at sea. Most of us have never been on any type of sailboat, so the first and second day consisted of a lot of very basic training: how to pump the head, coil a rope, where all the supplies are kept. While still in the quiet harbor in Bermuda, we practiced putting the multi-level trawl in the water, each of us assigned a specific task, working as a team to ensure it was deployed safely.

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Back in Bermuda

When the Gibb’s Hill lighthouse blinked over the horizon last weekend a weight lifted off of all of our shoulders – we had made it!  Sea Dragon is back in Bermuda for the 4th time in the last three years, and its beginning to feel a bit like we have […]

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Gulf Stream: A Seasoned Seasickie

Something within is driving me to find that awe moment of sailing that I had experienced from my first ever sailing on the Corwith Kramer and the second trip with Sea Dragon around the Dominican Republic. Reaching these moments where I felt high off of life is much more rewarding when I had to work for it.

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