JUNK PSA 5: A Plastic Diet
Saturday, August 2, 2008

Beyond simply a disagreeable eyesore, plastic debris has far more dangerous impacts on marine wildlife that commonly mistake plastic for a snack. Heres JUNK to tell you more, straight from the North Pacific Gyre:
And here is the rest of it. Read more!
Posted by Anna at 7:41 AM 11 comments

JUNK - the 411
Friday, August 1, 2008

The last few posts have focused on fish, squid, sail speeds, and general sanity. Bringing it back to the mission:

Here's a reminder of why JUNK - why two men cast themselves to the wild seas on a pile of junk, enduring fish and granola for breakfast, and only one another's company for several months:

Squid Parts
Thursday, July 31, 2008

Apparently intrigued by what it saw, this inquisitive squid launched itself onto JUNK for a closer look, a costly move for little Mr. Calamari. Finding him on deck the next morning, Marcus checks him out, and finds that squid have some pretty interesting features...

JUNK flying along, launch revisited
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

As of 9:30 tonight, JUNK was forging ahead at top speeds (relative, of course), possibly making today another record mileage day. Last night, she hit record speeds - 3.2 knots - a 58 mile day.

I asked Marcus how JUNK performs at high speed. Other than some new and strange bottle crunching noises, she apparently does just fine!

With the half-way mark now passed, heres a great reminder of why we're doing this, put together by our amazing friend and media savior Randy Olson.

And here is the rest of it. Read more!
Posted by Anna at 10:39 PM 9 comments

Hit the halfway mark!!
July 28, 2008

We’ve crossed the 1300 mile mark, and the midway point of the trip in terms of miles traveled and miles to go. On top of that, we traveled a record 56 miles in 24 hours! If we keep this up we’ll be home before you can say, “I’m dying for something to eat besides fish and granola.”

Our spirits are up, knowing that we’ve got 3-4 weeks to go, provided all goes as anticipated. Right now our main objective is maintenance. The raft is suffering a bit, as all boats do. Last night the eyebolt holding the mainsail gave way, but was caught by the chain we installed a few days earlier. The galvanized wire holding up the mast is beginning to fray in places. We’ve got tons of rope to replace them if needed. Bottles and netting are holding up fine at this point. Today we will drop the mainsail and do a little maintenance for a couple of hours. This is just a fact of all boats.

What has impressed us is the durability of everything in light of the few small failures. Joel has kept the batteries tapped, constantly chasing short circuits. I’m still making mini-pontoons, sewing netting as I find weak spots, and tightening lashings between the deck and pontoons.

To mark the milestones in our trip, we decided to celebrate. Tonight we’ll whip up two boxes of macaroni and cheese, and share a pack of beef jerky. Wild times!

P.S. Check out Ecousable to find alternatives to the disposable plastic bottle.
And here is the rest of it.

(Clearly this isn't a photo from JUNK (our sailors looking clean shaven and, well, clean) but as there was no image for todays blog: this was a celebratory moment on our 2008 Gyre Voyage with Algalita, when we committed to take JUNK on. I imagine they'd trade a lot of jerky right now for a pina colada....)

How JUNK communicates from sea
Monday, July 28, 2008

Here's how Marcus and Joel are able to communicate with the world, floating in the middle of the Pacific - the longest uninterrupted expanse of ocean in the world. We are tremendously grateful to our communication sponsors. This makes the sheer isolation bearable for our two sailors.....who are always eager for news from home. So keep the comments coming!