WRITTEN BY RACHEL O’CALLAGHAN
ON LEG FOUR ANTIGUA TO ARUBA WITH RED ENSIGN GROUP
While our vision and mission of eXXpedition is to shift the way we feel, think and act towards our oceans, in order to take care of our oceans we need to take care of our planet. Onboard S.V. TravelEdge weʼve got many features to the boat that allows us to leave as little an impact on our planet as possible.
SV Travel Edge, a sailing boat
First things first, being on a sailing boat enables us to travel across the seas harnessing the power of the wind with our sails. (Of course, there will be times when the wind isnʼt in our favour and we need to turn on our engines).
Powering the boat
At the back of the boat we have our Silent Wind Turbines and solar panels. These are connected up to the boat’s batteries from Transporter Energy, and combined, they keep the batteries topped up – all of which has been installed by our Official Suppliers at Gecko Energy. These enable us to use sustainable methods to generate enough power on board to reduce how often the generator and engine need to be switched on – both vital for the battery due to how powerful they are. The wind and solar panels alone are not sufficient enough to be the sole source of power for the batteries aboard a boat of this size where navigational equipment is in constant use, a water maker needs to be run every so often and the crews personal equipment fully charged.
Photo credit: Rachel O’Callaghan & eXXpedition
Making water
So, what do we drink? On a voyage to aimed at plastic pollution, bottles of water are off the table. Our solution? A water maker – aka a reverse osmosis. It needs the engine running offshore, but it enables us to generate our own water to supply; to drink and wash. It works by drawing the ocean water up into the underside of the boat, pressurising and pushing the water through filters. The smallest filter the water goes through is 30 microns. Although this is great for filtering the water to make it drinkable, it does leave it deficient in nutrients – with a potential of causing dehydration. So we drink over our recommended daily allowance and ensure we get the nutrients in our food to make up for it.
Food supplies
Which leads me onto food – we have a zero waste approach with food on board and keep a note of foods that are going off or becoming overly ripe. The aim is that the crew then work around these ingredients when making meals for lunch and dinner and calling for some out of the box thinking. Any peelings or small pieces of leftovers are thrown overboard once we are out of sea away from the marina. If thereʼs leftovers from meals, we keep those either in the freezer or as part of the next days meal.
Photo credit: Rachel O’Callaghan & eXXpedition
Due to the nature of the mission, with some legs being 20+ days at sea, S.V. TravelEdge gets stocked at every marina with fresh fruit and vegetables as we can, but 10 days out of the marina and those ingredients are gone and itʼs time to call upon the tins and dried goods. The aim is to do the best we can with zero packaging, but with the nature of the trip, we do have to have some foods in packaging, all of which get recycled back on land.
Navarino technology keeps eXXpedition online wherever we go.
