With the round the world superboat Goodheart’s first leg across the Pacific taking us from Acapulco to Honolulu, we always knew we’d encounter the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This a vast concentration of plastic debris and chemical sludge trapped in the North Pacific gyre, a huge current that circulates clockwise over much of the area of the North Pacific. It’s the kind of plastic rubbish that might have blown off landfill sites or been thrown off ships, the accumulation of decades of trash. The plastics actually break down into ever smaller pieces, so while occasionally patches of floating debris may be spotted, most of it is little confetti-sized pieces or smaller suspended in the water.
In fact, it breaks down into ever-smaller particles all the way down to the molecular level, which is then ingested by fish and thus enters the food chain. Tuna, anyone? It’s not visible from space, but scientists know that rubbish from Asian coasts take around a year to enter the gyre, while from the west coast of the USA, it takes around six years.
All of this might just be of passing interest, but it does have a bearing on Goodheart’s voyage. When the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March of this year, millions of tons of debris were swept into the sea. Since then, scientists have been trying to track the ever-expanding debris field, and predict its movement. Early estimates suggested it wouldn’t reach Hawaii for a couple of years, but recent calculations backed up by sightings suggest it might start to hit the north-west Hawaiian islands by this winter.
This is of rather more concern to us. While heavier things will have sunk, there are timbers from thousands of destroyed houses floating out there, along with car tyres, TV sets and refrigerators. In September a Russian ship recovered a 20ft fishing boat which had been swept out to sea from the Fukushima region.
Skipper Alan Priddy and I know from past experience that even at the best of times there’s an awful lot of junk in the water which could disable a boat. This includes shipping containers, which can lurk just below the surface for days before they finally sink, and tree trunks. There were a couple of occasions in 2002 when we had to negotiate not just the odd tree trunk, but veritable floating forests! One of the delays building Goodheart has been putting in extra safety features into the hull, but even with those, and using night-vision equipment, there’s still a possibility we might hit something. Needless to say we’ll be following this with increasing interest.
Bearing in mind our original expectation was to have the circumnavigation record attempt under way right now, we’ve nevertheless been checking up on the weather along our route. By now we would have arrived in Singapore, which is the longest of our stops. Here engineers from Fiat, Castoldi and Raymarine will inspect and service engines, jets and navigation electronics. Up until now, the weather has been absolutely perfect. Actually, it’s not what a lot of you would call perfect, because it’s been quite rainy, but from our point of view, there’s been very little wind to get in our way. Which adds up to a fast run. Fingers crossed we get the same conditions in 2012!
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