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 a home away from home here on this tiny rock in the middle of the Atlantic. Our passage from West Palm Beach was particularly nasty this year, straight upwind into choppy seas that seemed to always be coming straight from Bermuda, no matter which way we tacked back and forth. It was wonderful knowing where to go to get things done here in St. George’s last week as we finished up the last few projects left from the yard and prepped for our next trip, which was a quickie – 48 hours of fast paced collection and science with the legendary Robbie Smith, the head of the Bermuda Museum. This was our 3rd trip with Robbie, and it didn’t disappoint – not much sleep, midnight fishing and plankton netting off Argus banks, and furious dip-netting for sargassum sea weed and all the creatures that live within it throughout the day. This year we set a new record for fastest recovery from seasickness – all 6 of the crew who were heaving on Fridaywere hungrily searching for Sargassum with their nets by Saturday morning. Now we’re back in again, a little dazed by the frantic sciencing we just finished, and are watching the 19th annual St. George’s Rubber Duck Derby before we start getting ready for our next trip with The Ocean Cleanup.
– Captain Eric Loss, S.V. Sea Dragon, June 7, 2015
