The Plastiki sets sail
The Plastiki, a boat with a hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, set sail from a Sausalito yacht harbor this morning on a risky and adventurous voyage across the Pacific.
The purpose, said expedition leader David de Rothschild, is to draw attention to the health of the oceans and to demonstrate the value of recycled plastic bottles. De Rothschild and his crew of five hope to sail to Australia, a voyage of about 11,000 nautical miles.
The Plastiki, named in honor of Norwegian explorer Thor Hyderdahl’s raft Kon Tiki, is a boat like no other in the world. Besides the hull of recycled plastic water and soda bottles, the vessel is made of a hardened plastic called PET.
The boat is a twin-hulled catamaran rigged as a ketch. It will rely on the wind for propulsion and has only a small auxiliary engine. No such boat has ever made an ocean passage before.
Skipper Jo Royle said the first port of call will be one of the Line Islands, a small group of atolls south of Hawaii.
The voyage can be followed on the Internet at www.theplastiki.com.
Bon voyage, folks. It ain’t ever easy with a craft this small.
I dunno about the wisdom of this particular adventure.
I do wish them well but after looking at the boat on their tracking web site today (3 days = 133 nautical miles), while I dearly hope not, I fear there may soon be another 12,000 plastic bottles, polluting the great southern ocean.
Maybe not. After all, there’s lots of ocean-going boats made out of plastic these days.
Cinaedh
March 22, 2010 at 6:51 am