Words from ONCA Director Laura Coleman and Dr Emma Camp who will be leading the Art on the Edge trip next year. Details here. Sea levels are rising, climates are changing and wild places are being lost. In Guyana, a country that straddles South America and the Caribbean, eighty per cent […]
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Storms in Dakar, Senegal
Some words from the wonderful Andy Rogan – the deckhand on our sailing trip from Lanzarote to Dakar, Senegal! After a calm southerly sail, through a warm and stolid atmosphere enhanced by thick dust clouds rolling off from the Sahara, Sea Dragon anchored off the West African metropolis of Dakar, Senegal on […]
Read MoreArriving in Africa
From Pangaea’s favourite skipper, Eric Loss. As soon as I stepped ashore in Africa I knew it was going to be a very different port from where Sea Dragon has taken me over the last few years. We walked down the wooden jetty towards the beach, stepping over gaping holes where planks had […]
Read MoreA Thousand Miles to Dakar
The sun drops into the sea, a red orb in a quickly darkening sky. The glow of the Canary Islands recede with the last lazy flashes of a distant lighthouse. We’re alone on the Sea Dragon with nothing but ocean around us. A thousand miles to Dakar. The familiar flutter […]
Read MoreSay Yes More from aboard Sea Dragon
By Peter Kohler, aboard Sea Dragon from Lanzarote, Canaries to Dakar, Senegal. Two weeks ago I said “Yes” to a friend, a simple three letter word that can unlock so many doors and experiences. A word that has lead to me writing this blog. I’m on Sea Dragon, a 72ft […]
Read MoreRachel Labbe Bellas on Changemakers
Rachel Labbe Bellas, part of the eXXpedition Amazon team, is featured as a Changemaker for Awear World! Check out the blog here: Rachel has an adventurous spirit that literally emanates from her. A research assistant at Scripps Institution of Oceanography UCSD, she has also worked as the development coordinator for the ocean conservation […]
Read MoreThe importance of great kit!
Here at Pangaea Explorations we rely on having access to really great kit to enable us to fulfil our missions at sea. This comes in many forms on board Sea Dragon, but one set of gear we’d be rather miserable without is our brilliant array of Aquapac dry bags. From […]
Read MoreProject Ocean: Larger Than Us
We are part of a greater system – not above, beyond and outside it. If the ocean flounders, so will we. It’s environmental preservation, but self-preservation too. So go outside. Breathe the air. Taste the water. Go on a mini (or a massive) adventure. We cannot protect what we do not love and we cannot love what we do not feel connected to, so that’s my advice and that is what I am taking from Project Ocean 2015.
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Gyre to Gaia II: The island of Graciosa in the distance
We hope to find some shelter from the wind under Graciosa, where we plan to carry out our final trawls. These will give Adam a useful comparison between island and open ocean waters. Then we will sail the remaining 25 miles down the east coast of Lanzarote to Arrecife, our final destination on this trip.
Read MoreGyre to Gaia II: At sea, thinking about how we live our lives at home
At six people, we’re a rather small crew for this boat, and our four-hour shifts make me feel like a newborn baby — constantly put to bed and soon awoken abruptly, given food and drink, and thrust from my cocoon of a hammock-bed into a precarious waterworld above, strapped to the ship by a safety leash. But the crew is healthy and able, the weather’s been gorgeous, playful-seeming dolphins dance along the boat during the day, and magical-seeming bioluminescence dances along at night, and there’s no sign of human life in any direction.
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Gyre to Gaia II: Settling into the rhythm of life on board
The crew have settled well into the rhythm of life on board, with watchkeeping, rest, trawling, cooking, cleaning, and keeping Sea Dragon running smoothly. We have continued our twice daily trawls off the stern, and our scientist Adam is pleased with the results. He’s collecting enough data to keep him busy in the laboratory at Exeter University over the long winter months.
Read MoreGyre to Gaia II: Of plastic and plankton
The latest estimate of plastics afloat in our seas and oceans is put at 5.25 trillion pieces, weighing in at 250,000 tonnes. That, coupled with the fact that over 260 marine related species are known to be ingesting plastics from our oceans, and well documented evidence on the impacts of this ingestion on a wide variety of marine animals including zooplankton, makes man’s legacy a dirty one. However, it is not too late! We can change things.
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