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...

PredictWind Tracker with OCC Atlantic Crossing Fleet 22-07-2020 As the situation eases in the Atlantic with most cruisers having reached their destinations in Europe, America and the Caribbean, we find ourselves with a little more time on our hands. The Pacific fleet is in capable hands. So I'm wondering now what to take on next. I have to write up the pandemic response of OCC for the ICC Annual and the OCC Flying Fish. We're also going to write up the new PredictWind tracker software that we got to beta-test in the fleet. But what next after that?   There are more than 15M confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world. More than 4M and climbing fast in the States. Ireland is number 56 on the list with only 25,800 cases confirmed. But we are not launching Aleria this year. As the sole carers for Alex's mom, we cannot be away for even the three days it would take to bring her home from Kilrush. Pantaenius which has insured  Aleria since day 1 decided to jack up o...

A crowded USVI anchorage during the Covid-19 pandemic Bob of s/v Pandora wrote an excellent blog entry about whether cruisers should be planning to cruise the Caribbean next season.  His description of getting stuck in the Caribbean with his wife without being able to go ashore was typical of stories we'd heard all along. His plight of being with a relative non-sailor and making the decision to return home to the states without crew was also a familiar theme. These issues and others are making me wonder what the future of cruising will bring before the advent of an effective vaccine. There are already fears of a new H1N1 flu being able to jump from swine to humans and creating a new pandemic wave soon.  Methinks there will always be two schools of thought: people who believe the risks are high and those who deny any increase in risk. Those who deny any increase in risk will continue to take risks by sailing across oceans to see what's over the horizon. Those who believe the ...

Our local paper made quite the splash with an article about what Alex and I have been doing with OCC to help cruisers return home or to safe harbours. A page and a half in the Living section.  Here's a scan.  We're very pleased that our story could be told. Thanks to Mayo News and to Aine Ryan, lead reporter. 

Heading out the inlet at Ross We haven't been able to sail since we can't launch the boat -- it's about 3 hours away in another county but we're only allowed to travel 20 km or within our county. But the weather has been amazing. Calm, warm and dry for weeks. So I've used my kayak quite a lot lately. It was my Christmas gift from Alex a year ago. Clew Bay is such a wonderful place for small boating. We have 365 islands to explore. Pristine water,  lots of birds, surrounded by mountains. Plenty of Blue Ocean Mind Therapy  where the mountains come down to the sea. I tend to stay in our inlet but have been venturing farther out lately. I think I will get brave and go out to Inishdaff one day. I just love stopping and watching the sky go by. I love spotting birds I might have missed while out in the powerboats or hearing lambs bleating and the cock crowing on the shore. It's really calming and normalising to be out there at one with nature. I wouldn't w...