Ships Log

Preconceptions – tales from the crew

Our first blog of eXXpedition Ascension 2015 comes from our first mate and professional crew Emily Caruso. Emily, along with Skipper Imogen Nash, have just arrived into the sweltering heat of Senegal to meet Sea Dragon and prepare for 2 months of sailing with our all girl crew!

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Art on the Edge of Change

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 […]

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Arriving 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 […]

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A 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 […]

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Say 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 […]

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Rachel 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 […]

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The 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 […]

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Project 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: 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.

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