Aleria's Adventures

A new study has calculated far higher concentrations of microplastics in the oceans than previously thought. Hopefully, data from samples collected by sailors reaching remote regions of the earth, like Jon Sanders and Matt Rutherford, will shed more light on the extent of the pollution. What we see on the beach and on the surface of the water is just a fraction of the plastic dissolved into minute particles that the sea creatures consume. Does man realise he is destroying his own food chain? No, man does not think beyond himself.  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17932-9.pdf

The Canadian government closed its borders to Americans in May to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The US has a much higher rate of infection than Canada. They also restricted recreational boating in Canadian Arctic coastal waters as of June 1 and until October 31. They are protecting their indigenous communities against the influx of Covid-19.  Yet some Americans chose to ignore the restrictions. Two vessels, one from the east and one from the west, decided to test the resolve of the authorities. Both were denied access. The first having sailed to the south of Greenland, the second having sailed from Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska. Each hoping to transit the Northwest Passage.  I cannot comprehend how people think they can get away with bending the rules on frivolous ventures. Yes, adventuring in the Arctic is a frivolous venture. It's not something that has to be done to survive. Lots of people have done it. Sure it's beautiful and intriguing and challenging, bu...

Billy Brannan being rescued by tanker The Atlantic crossing season has come to a close and our last vessel assisted spent 54 days at sea. It's a long story but I've written it up  elsewhere , so I won't repeat it here. But here's a tally of outcomes during the 2020 pandemic return to Europe.  We estimated about 900 vessels were in the Caribbean in 2020. About 300 returned to the US with the Salty Dawg flotilla. Another 200 signed up with the OCC Atlantic Crossing group on Facebook, and about 190 ended up crossing. There were more that crossed on their own and the rest remained in the Caribbean in Antigua, Grenada and the ABCs.  In our group, we followed 103 on a PredictWind tracker. One solo sailor with only one arm sailed all the way home from St. Maarten to Ireland nonstop because his crew could not get to him. We were with him by email every step of the way. Numerous urgent and distress situations were assisted, and disaster averted. These included two steering failu...