Now More Than Ever
by admin | Aug 20, 2018 | Uncategorized
About 3 weeks ago we came back to Liverpool. My circumnavigation was history, after 11 month and about 40'000 nautical miles at Sea. I'm happy and privileged to have made a lot of experiences, highs and lows. Now back home in Switzerland my brain is rotating, I'm currently thinking how I best continue my plastic pollution campaign and tackle the big issues I have seen. Surely after what I have witnessed on our planet I have to say "now more than ever"!
THE Whale – My Highlight
We have seen several whales on our journey. There was the near miss with a whale on our way from Australia up to China. This unknown whale was scared that much, it did literally sh*t itself. But he was not the only one who got frightened, it went all so quickly and could have harmed our boat seriously. And him. Or when we left New York we sailed through a area with hundreds of whales, breaching and feeding. There where so many, to avoid a rather sure collision we had to place an outlook on the bow.
But if I write about THE whale, I'm thinking of the fella following us for about an hour. This happened off the coast of Mexico. Without experts on board we could not identify the species, but all the experts I asked afterwards, reply with either "Seiwhale" or "Baby Blue Whale". What ever it was, it was still the highlight of my year. Clearly. Have a look, the video you'll find here: Youtube/Facebook.
Lowlight: Cape Hope – Crash with Team Greenings
In contrast, torn into pieces I was after Halloween 2017. That night we run aground near cape hope, just a few miles after race start in Cape Town. We were on our way to Fremantle, Australia when A chain of little things led to that incident. Luckily no one got hurt, but without a doubt we were all shocked. If you like to read, the MAIB Accident Report was published recently.
The days after did show the enormity of the accident. Our boat could not be saved anymore and had to be cut into pieces and disposed. Our team was spread amonghst other teams. For me that meant Cape Town – Zurich, Zurich – Abu Dhabi – Perth by airplane. There I joined team "Dare to Lead" where I felt at home after some initial struggles.
A further low-light was of course the condition of our oceans. And many of the very developed cities. A lot of litter in the streets, which sooner or later finds it's way into our water cycle. Especially in Asia litter is everywhere; and the rest of the world does not look much better, either. I find it very scary that most of the marine litter is too small to be seen when sailing by. But studies show that wherever in the world you drag micro mesh through the seas, some plastic is to be found in it.
As mentioned my brain runs is pretty much overloaded and I hope to know soon, how I can contribute better and tackle this plastic disease.
© Copyright Matthias Eigenmann 2019