The great pacific swimming pool opened for the second time this week, a 360degree ocean view, 2.5km deep and completely private for our use. We switched the engine off and after some tactics chat about swinging angles, we rigged up and fine tuned the rope swing off the spinnaker pole. The captain took home the prize for the best belly flop, Marissa for the best fall, and Michael secured his title as the best overall swing. It could not have been a more perfect day with the sun shining gloriously over warm waters and ridiculously flat calm seas.
Prior to this, we played the role of research scientists by collecting a sample of micro plastics, unseen to the eye floating on the ocean surface. The count was too many, well above 600 individual pieces collected in the space of 1nm by Sea Dragon’s Manta Trawl. The name Manta Trawl comes from the way the contraption looks, with its wings and tail and the way it collects the sample of micro plastics through its mouth. The results were unfortunately not surprising to us as we had been consistently pointing out larger bits of plastic floating on by since we left Hawaii. We have seen anything from buckets to lightbulbs, plastic bottles, egg crates and ghost nets.
A number of times the crew have been excited to don their lifejackets and leap through the companionway headed straight for the fishing line after hearing ‘fish on’ being shouted on deck, only to reel it in and find that we have caught yet another fishing net. We ended our day with a game of trivia on deck, with the sun setting in the background, I tested the crew on their knowledge of Sea Dragon and their fellow crew. Winning team Steve and Marissa flaunted their glory prize of ice cream by devouring it in front of the rest of the crew. We are now playing games with the wind and they are beginning to bore us. Engine on, engine off, engine on, engine off as the wind comes and goes as it pleases. We are still not able to point in the right direction to Ensenada and are still heading further north to ensure when we turn, we have the most favorable winds for our one long tack home run. We can almost taste the margaritas.
-Maggie
