Plastiki - now the book
by Sail-World Cruising round-up on 20 Jun 2011
Plastiki the catamaran SW
First there was the journey, and now there is the book. Banking heir David de Rothschild dreamed up the idea of sailing across the Pacific Ocean on a yacht made entirely (well, almost entirely) of 12,500 plastic bottles, to draw attention to the issue of plastic bottles in our world.
In 2010, David, jack-of-all-trades environmentalist, sailed from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, on his boat, which was held together by cashew-nut glue.
The plastic bottle journey had a dual purpose. First, de Rothschild wanted to demonstrate how everyday consumer plastics, with a little imagination, can be reused to accomplish spectacular feats of engineering. Second, the mission sought to attract attention to the vast amounts of plastic floating in our oceans.
At Sail-World Cruising we have often talked about the great garbage patches which are the end result of the gyres, or giant whirlpools that exist because of ocean currents and the revolution of the earth, and it is to these and the resulting degradation of our sea life and the food that David is drawing our attention.
De Rothschild's new book, Plastiki: Across the Pacific on Plastic, An Adventure to Save Our Oceans, documents the 8,000-mile journey.
The six crewmembers lived for four months on an untested, unorthodox sailboat, living off kale from the hydroponic garden (watered with recycled crew urine), generating electricity with solar panels, deck bicycles, and outboard turbines.
The book's presentation is unusual - but then that's like everything David sets out to do: We are asked to relive the journey and learn about its implications through hundreds of glossy photos, crew testimony, ecstatic tweets, hand-drawn flowcharts, splashy graphics, and interviews with expert environmental scientists.
If the book is not available in your local bookshop, it's certainly available on http://www.amazon.com/Plastiki-Across-Pacific-Plastic-Adventure/dp/1452100020!Amazon
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