[DAY 78] Finding plastic

We have been very lucky with the weather, we have been able to avoid the typhoons and still make great progress toward the east. We have kept a study pace taking advantage of the wind whenever we could and used the engine when we lost speed. As a result, it looks like tomorrow we will reach the swim point and I will finally be able to resume the swim.

Today again we have seen so many debris floating around the boat. We tried to catch a floating buoy but could manage to get a good hold and it felt back in the water. The second time we spotted one, I wasn’t going to let it go by, so I put on my fins and a pair of goggles and jumped in the water. A few minutes later it was a net floating about 20 meters off the port side of the boat. Again I jumped in the water and swam to it. When I got close to it I looked below and many fish were finding refuge there. I grabbed one end and started swimming on my bag dragging the net with me. I felt something gently pinching me on my chest, I looked down, it was a crab that had landed there and was moving up and down. We pulled the net on deck and found many smaller crabs in that mingle of fishing lines, ropes, net and small buoys. We also found some pieces of plastic and a plastic fork, a clear reminder we are the perpetrator of that mess.

Ben