As we start sailing expeditions…so we end them with that critical message over the sat phone:
Inbox > Message Detail
Subject:
Arrival Vancouver
From:
“Sea Dragon 02? (Add as Preferred Sender)
Date: Wed, Jul 27, 2011 5:19 pm
To: Emily Penn , Ron Ritter
1715 local Sea Dragon moored alongside Coal Harbour Marina.
49 17.5 N
123 07.5 W
Handing over to Dale … headed home, until next time!
Cheers, Clive
Completing perhaps her most high profile trip to date (helicopters and news crews on both ends!) Sea Dragon has crossed the great North Pacific Gyre. The team has retraced Captain Charles Moore critical route through the epicenter of global marine debris. Tracing a path across the very heart of our global concern, they have updated our knowledge and brought the 2011 message home to millions of people in dozens of countries.
The team also had the sort of great human adventure that is now “normal” on Sea Dragon. Setting out from a remote oceanic shore, crossing thousands of miles on the open sea with a crew of dedicated conservationists – not professional mariners.
Next…. work does not stop. Dale is already working hard to prepare the boat for an important transit south to California. Finally stopping in Los Angeles and then Ensenada Mexico, the boat will get a well deserved “break”. We have a long list of refit and maintenance scheduled – and surprisingly little time to get it done. By late December, the team will be readying for a long 2012 season of conservation work across the South Pacific.
Details are still be worked out but the plan is taking shape to sail deep into the western North Pacific Gyre to track debris from this years tragic tsunami. Majuro, Japan…Maui… standby for more.