Here on board Sea Dragon, the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. We returned from a very successful trip with The Ocean Cleanup on Saturday, and on Monday we head back out to sea with BAMZ, the punchily-acronymed Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo. In the intervening time, we are getting the boat ready for our voyage to Iceland with The 5 Gyres Institute.
If you have been following us, you may have noticed that we were struck by lightning on our way to Bermuda, frying our B&G Instrumentation. Setting up a complete replacement of the instrument system takes some time, so on Sunday, still half asleep from our crack-of-dawn arrival into Bermuda with The Ocean Cleanup, we welcomed Ramon, an electronics tech from Miami, who has systematically proceeded to spend the last few days tearing down the ceilings throughout the boat and pulling cable throughout.
There are checklists to check, laundry to do, approximately a ton of dirt and tire residue that was ground into our decks from the dock we were on last week to wax and scrub off, as well as machinery to spoodle — and even some carpentry — as we make up new instrument consoles for the new system.
This morning we finally managed to get our new yankee onto the furler, a multi-day affair that involves waiting for moments of calm wind, then frantically working until it returns, first unrolling and lowering the tired sail that brought us here and has sailed many miles since it joined the boat in Los Angeles. Shanley and I managed to wrestle it to the deck and into the fortunately large flat public square on the deck, spreading it’s 1,000 square feet and several hundred pounds across the ground, creating an inadvertent hazard for a few illegally off-roading Bermudians on their scooters. We flaked it, giving it perhaps the nicest fold its seen since leaving a sail loft, and stacked it next to the boat to await its new life as an awning at a friend’s house here in Bermuda. We climbed back aboard, ready to set the replacement, but the wind had picked up and a rain squall loomed, threatening even more wind. With visions of thrashing canvas and snapping lines in our heads, we had to delay, only to be awaked at 6:30 this morning by a lack of sound – no wind! We rushed on deck, dragging along a bleary-eyed Kate, to wrestle the new sail out and up the furler. That done, its off to the races to do accounting and help Ramon finish installing the autopilot and a few more gauges.
When Sea Dragon leaves for Iceland, carrying her crew of scientists and citizens from 5 Gyres, she’ll be leaving with new canvas, and new electronics, ready to sample for plastic across the North Atlantic.
– Captain Eric Loss, May 28, 2014