Posts tagged with: amazon2015

If the ocean could speak… Thoughts at sea from Erika

If the ocean could speak, what would it say? I imagined this would be an incredible experience, but I cannot believe that it would be so beautiful from the beginning. Looking at the sunset, the sunrise, the dolphins that swim next to Sea Dragon, the light of the stars that reflect into the water, the […]

Looking back on eXXpedition by First Mate Emily Caruso

I cannot recall how many times I have advised my crew that much of what we come to appreciate and love about our sailing adventures occurs in retrospect. It was for this reason that I chose to pause upon my return and wait a while before taking the time to document any final thoughts and […]

Days of science

Day 8 – Amazon 2015 Apologies for the silence but the sun and heat does funny thing to ones brain – it turns it almost to mush. After we celebrated Lisa’s birthday with a delicious pad thai and vegan coconut and tapioca cake last night, it was my team’s turn to do the 8 pm […]

Day 12 – Off to the jungle

Last night I was on the watch from midnight to 4 am. I find this watch the hardest. The sweltering heat during the day heats the metal deck (Seadragon is made of 50 t of steel) and then at night the metal cools down releasing the heat down into our cabins. I have supposedly been […]

Passing Amazon

The steady South Easterlies and North running Guiana current have aided us in playing catch up since our delayed departure in Recife. Until now, the majority of our sailing has been downwind with an interchanging variety of gybes, sail area and use of poles. The equator crossing fell in the middle of the day and […]

Las Olas Grande

Last night after science we celebrated my birthday with an awesome Pad Thai dinner made by chef Stella and Barbara and I was surprised with a vegan cake with sprinkles and candles to the tune of the birthday song being sung by the crew. It was more than I could ever ask for on a […]

Birthday Wish

I celebrated my birthday at sea today by starting the day off with an early morning watch and as the sun started to rise, we were greeted with a pod of dolphin that stayed with us surfing the bow wake and the swell coming in under the boat for about 30 minutes.  It was more […]

Citizen Science

My personal love for the ocean is obvious, but working on making the unseen seen to those that might not naturally express the same concern for protecting our oceans is a task that deserves exploring every angle possible.  One of those angles that we are working on back home in eastern NC and here as […]

Amor La Mar

Making the unseen seen as it relates to ocean pollution and coastal conservation is as big of a deal to me as the ocean is vast. It’s been a life mission of mine since as long as I can remember. I often explain it as simple pride. I am a proud eastern North Carolinian, but […]

Welcome to 24 Hour Living

We’ve been at sea for 4 days now and I am finally starting to feel adjusted to all of the newness. New routines, new roles, new food, and new companions. When we first set off from Recife and started the watch system, Emily the First Mate, said “Welcome to 24 hour living”. I expect she […]

Watching the sun rise

Day 3 –  Amazon 2015 My team’s watch this morning was from 4 to 8 am. Normally you wouldn’t get me out of bed at this time of the morning but knowing I would see the crescent moon and the sun change places in the sky I was up on deck pretty quick. Mars was […]

Disconnect / Desapegar

As the sight of land disappears, there is one word in particular that resonates that of disconnect. We are finally sailing, as smoothly as possible, and sensing the elements that we would not usually notice in our everyday lives on land. We now adapt to wind direction, temperature, sunlight, balance, and starry nights. For our […]

In the swing of things!

Day 2 – Amazon 2015 With Imogen’s call that we are ready to go Emily started lifting the anchor and discovered that it was jammed with loads of yucky plastic bags. This was not surprising given the amount of rubbish we logged on the debris tracker passing by us whilst in port. Although the water […]

Hello World! eXXpedition Amazon is now underway!

As I write, we sail a course of 090 degrees heading North East at approximately 5 knots bound for Georgetown, Guyana from Recife, Brazil. Ahh Recife, and beautiful Brazil. The past week has seen the eXXpedition Ascension team exchange for the eXXpedition Amazon team, and while we swapped stories and forged friendships, excitement and anticipation […]

Day 1 – Expect the unexpected

Day 1 – Amazon 2015 We got to the docs ahead of the 9 am meeting with the Brazilian TV. Our expedition has attracted the interest of the national news – 14 women from around the world on a mission to make the unseen plastic seen. Having been photographed from all angles including wearing all […]