Offshore garbage

[Hesperus]

I wonder if the race committee would consider awarding a trophy to the competitor who arrives in Hanalei with the most trash collected from the open ocean. In today's Scuttlebutt online newsletter there is a discussion of the so called "floating landfill." That discussion and related article reminds me of the amount of trash I saw during the 2006 Transpac and my voyage back to the Seattle area last summer. The claim is that there is something where around 3 million tons of junk out there. The Transpac racers couldn't collect all of it, but what little they could collect would be a help. Many of the Transpac racers spend untold hours searching for glass floats to recover. They see something, disconnect the autohelm, alter course to investigate, and discover that what they saw is merely a bucket or milk carton. So they leave it floating. If they had an incentive to collect it, and did, the ocean would be a little cleaner and a little healthier.

Discussion?

Paul Woodward
s/v Hesperus

[Hesperus]

We might read the articles as http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7241428.stm or http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5865/948 (for the original source) and consider whether simply sailing across the ocean, not doing too much damage, is really good enough.

[BobJ]

I agree with your concerns Paul. Ben and Lucie can tell you how much garbage I handed over to the chase boat when I arrived in '06. BTW, I think that measure (garbage unloaded on arrival) is more productive than the new refuse management requirement in the Rules and Conditions.

That being said, I am racing and not planning to slow down and pick up anyone else's garbage on the way over.

[sleddog]

I agree with your concerns Paul. Ben and Lucie can tell you how much garbage I handed over to the chase boat when I arrived in '06. BTW, I think that measure (garbage unloaded on arrival) is more productive than the new refuse management requirement in the Rules and Conditions.

Apologies if off topic: SHTP RRC 4.12 requires "recyclable rubbish contained separately from non-recyclable rubbish." As Bob pointed out, it is perhaps a good measure of leaving a clean wake by how little garbage one finishes with. With pre-planning, it should be possible to minimize post use garbage carried aboard by repackaging into reusable containers, minimizing glass, aluminum, tin, etc. Certainly, styrofoam should be left ashore, and non-reusable plastic can be minimized.

The highest level of leaving a clean wake would be to put nothing overboard that hasn't been eaten first. No SHTP competitor wants to share a cabin or cockpit with multiple garbage bags of trash. Hanalei Beach Park's trash cans are not equipped for 15-20 competitors to arrive with bags of non-recyclable trash. And the recycling Transfer Station is five miles east of town.

Dealing effectively with one's waste in an environmentally responsible manner is a significant part of an enjoyable SHTP passage, and I'm sure is the intention of RRC 4.12., however it is worded.

[blighbaum]

I thought it is legal to dump metal and glass garbage that will sink (e.g., empty cans of Dinty Moore and empty, open glass bottles) and garbage that will quickly degrade (e.g., paper wrappers); and the stuff that you cannot legally dump is basically plastics like empty plastic bottles and used pouces of freeze dried food. Is that correct?

- Tom Kirschbaum Feral

[BobJ]

Legal, yes (except plastics). But when I saw how much junk is already floating around out there, I didn't want to toss anything over.

I ended up with two garbage bags in the back of the cockpit by the time I got to Hanalei. It added some windage in the trades - I probably picked up .00001 knot.

I'm with Skip - this time I plan to provision in such a way to minimize garbage.

[sleddog]

If any competitor sights a Cessna fuselage N52436 flying a square sail atop an awash raft of 15,000 plastic bottles, do not be overly concerned. It is just the "JUNK." (with a PCR rating of 523)
http://junkraft.blogspot.com/

[dogbark]

Good luck to them but if one of us does sight them they will be a long way behind their timetable. Just a little skeptical of huge radar signature provided by the fuselage and masts less than 6 ft above water. Here's hoping they don't contribute to the problem with the "junk" breaking up enroute. Al

[sleddog]

If any competitor sights a Cessna fuselage N52436 flying a square sail atop an awash raft of 15,000 plastic bottles, do not be overly concerned. It is just the "JUNK." (with a PCR rating of 523)
http://junkraft.blogspot.com/

6/10 JUNK is still anchored at San Nicholas Island, off S.Cal, dealing with problem of plastic bottle tops in their raft pontoons unscrewing themselves..so we are unlikely to encounter them. Roz Savage, also headed to Hawaii aboard her 27' ocean going rowing boat, has been drifting south in mostly gale conditions for 10 days under sea anchor, and is now 100 miles WSW of Pt. Conception. So we are unlikely to encounter her either. Her watermaker is not functioning well, and she may be asking for assistance in this department. http://www.rozsavage.com/

Matson container ships have regular weekly skeds between LA, Oakland, Seattle, and Hono. Most of their bridge officers are sailors, and they love chatting up racers. These ships stick to the Great Circle, have good lookouts,
can see you on radar at 6-14 miles, make 21 knots, and may even alter for a quick look see. More than one SHTP racer has been startled awake by a booming Matson horn.

The thundering sound of hoofbeats will be the Pacific Cup racers, numbering 63, that start 2-6 days after SHTP.

[John Hayward]

One of the things that amazed me most about "Junk" is the absolute and incredible stupidity and hypocracy of all involved. Yet another example of if it "feels good" then it must be right and we "have" to do it!!!

Didn't "anyone" consider the number of plastic bottles "they" will leave in the ocean if they have to abandon "Junk" or it breaks up in the middle of the ocean?????? Both of which seem "extremely" likely to me.

I know I am old and cynical but am I the "only" person that thought they might become the largest single ocean plastic bottle polluter of all time. Guess if it's a "ship" made of plastic bottles breaking up it doesn't count?????

John
Dream Chaser