The Big Blue

By Jess Cramp
We had been anchored just offshore since about 11 a.m. and a few of us were trying to decide whether we had time to unpack our boards and make the paddle in between safety procedures, watch schedules, and funny lectures on cleaning and exactly how to stack pots and pans. I had been lucky enough to catch a few fun waves during the previous days and, now that I was on the boat, I wanted to meet my crew, find my sea legs, and get on with the science of blue water plastic pollution.

Almost 24 hours later, we pulled anchor, turned the bow westward and into the setting sun. I let out a primal howl as my body shook with excitement. Rapa Nui faded into the darkness of a few lights on the eastern horizon.

I’m only 5’3”, but I struggled to find a comfortable position in the lopsided, sagging blue sack known as my bunk, the sides of which were raised by nylon straps to keep me cradled as the boat rolled side to side. There are 18 berths on our boat, which are about 6 feet long by less than a meter wide, with minimal headspace. The claustrophobic within me would have to be head locked into submission if I was ever going to get some z’s.

“Jess…Jess…Jess, it’s 3:45 a.m. Your watch starts in 15 minutes.” It felt as if I’d just fallen asleep.

On deck I was greeted by my watch-mates, a three-quarter moon, and our skipper Clive whose calm demeanor was as welcoming as his British clip. “Pick a star or a cloud,” he said when it was my turn to steer. Within minutes, I relaxed into the easy rolling of the boat and was relieved by the lack of swell. Although I’d been told all about Sea Dragon’s stability in extremely rough conditions, I was in no hurry to experience it first hand. Clive described Sea Dragon as I gazed at the Southern Cross to my left: “She’s a Challenge 72’ and is one of only 12 boats built to compete in the Global Challenge Round the World yacht race, which she did in 2000 and 2004. [Weighing 42 tons,] she effortlessly cruises at 8 knots and, with large storm and a wave to ride downhill, she’ll top out at about 20 knots.” Staring upward, I wondered if I could sweet talk my way to the top of our 95’ mast. I’d been secretly daydreaming about diving off of it and morphing into a mermaid-like creature that swims with the whales. Typing this, I wonder if I should keep similar thoughts to myself.

It’s about 7 a.m., still very dark, but time for my first manta trawl. Every 50 miles along the route, we slow the boat down to 2-4 knots, and trawl the surface for plastic. I am thrilled to participate in this event with 5 Gyres and can’t wait to see what we pull up. I had seen a number of horrifyingly dense samples from the Atlantic and North Pacific and expected something similar. To my surprise, the protocol was quite simple and resulted in very little debris. Was it because of the decreased human population in the South Pacific? Was it because the air temp and salinity affect the density of plastic and their place in the water column?

Honestly, I was a little disappointed in our lackluster results, but quickly realized that less plastic was a good thing. Less plastic = less pollution = fewer fish and birds eating plastic = less death, but does were these results true? And what of the beaches in the atolls along our route?

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Surfer and diver Jessica Cramp accompanied the 5 Gyres crew on a research expedition to Tahiti. Follow tales from her journey on the Sea Dragon last spring.