5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

(Blog post below from Jess Cramp, crew member of the South Pacific Gyre expedition and ambassador for Roxy)

“My grandmother’s had a double mastectomy and she can move faster than you! C’mon you facking land lover!”  Meet Dale. He’s our fantastically witty, at times inaudible and never censored, forty something Kiwi expedition leader who is at present, yelling at me to unroll the yankee, which is a bit difficult because I can’t stop laughing. We’ve had about as much wind as plastic this past week so a little 11 knot burst got me excited enough to drag him onto the deck.  If there are no nurdles for me to dissect out of fish bellies then I am going to learn to sail dammit!

I looked up and smiled as I saw three perfectly rounded sails, the yankee, the stay and the main all full with wind and gliding us (slowly) over a glassy Pacific to Ducie Atoll, our proposed next stop.

Just as I had regained my breath, Clive peeked his head up on deck and said “Three minutes to trawl”.  I shrugged my shoulders and chuckled with Dale as he slowed the boat down to 3 knots so we could safely trawl for a few bits of plastic.  We had sailed for 5 minutes.  As much as I am excited to explore the reach of these plastic bits, we have found very little on our journey and since we are officially outside of the accumulation zone, I can’t help but feel like trawling every 50 miles is a bit futile.  It feels like we’re just multiplying the number of data points on a flat line. In other words, can’t we skip just this one?

But my windless woes were fleeting.  I emerged from the galley to hear that we were stopping the boat for a swim.  The swell was manageable and the ocean was completely glassy.  It was now or never I thought.  I rushed downstairs, threw on a new Roxy bikini, scampered to the front of the boat and climbed unsteadily onto the railings.  With the help of a wave, I launched myself off the bow and into 13000 feet of the clearest and bluest water I’d ever seen.   I took the deepest breath I could manage and kicked down, down down.  All I could see was blue.  Clean water blue.