San Diego. Every day that goes by I mean to get an update out, and when every day passes the list of things to update about on grows…
Well, firstly, our odd decision to do the exact thing everyone recommends against has paid off in spades. When we told other sailors that we were going to bash our way up the coast of the Baja just so we could chat to some schools, surf some waves and catch up with some friends, they were sure we had gone batty. “Just leave for Hawaii from here!” everyone said, “That is ridiculous”, was another often heard remark, “Why go up, just to come down?” Why would we sail against the wind for 800nm, just to sail back down the coast on our way to Hawaii? Well…. To talk to some schools, catch a few waves and see some friends…
Arwen and David of Gamut Productions arrived in San Diego and we all promptly tore off to the San Diego Surfrider Chapter meeting in La Jolla. What an inspiring group of people! These ocean stewardship volunteers are cleaning beaches, fighting lawyers, creating laws, talking to schools, and stopping poor coastal developments, all in the same breath and while working other full-time jobs. We were the last speakers of the evening and added our small touch to the evening with one of our presentations.
Up early the next morning and back down to Mexico. We headed down to Ensenada to meet up with Fernando Marvan at SurfENG, who has organized for us to visit two schools and talk to a group of marine scientists at the University of Baja California. It seems the smaller the school, the less financially able they are, the more rewarding the presentation. These kids immediately grasped the issues at hand and began to ask the right questions. Hugh and I seem to be hitting our stride with these presentations and are now able to add more and more details constantly.
On Saturday morning, we were treated to a REAL beach clean up by Surfrider and Coast Keeper. We arri ved 10 mins late (traffic…grrr), only to find we had to wait in a line to park, then line up to get a bag and data sheet to document everything. I would guess the crowd to be about 200 people! Young, old, hipsters, hippies, military personnel, house wives, lawyers, and everything in between. All walks of life had come out for a couple hours on a Saturday morning to clean their beaches! Everyone just volunteering a couple hours of their weekend to the simple act of trying to keep their beaches clean. Once again… inspiring.
We were also exceedingly lucky to meet up with James Leichter at Scripps Oceanographic Research Institute, who had visited the gyre in 2009 as part of the SEAPLEX expedition. They spend 19 days on the ocean in August, 2009 researching the gyre on a huge research vessel and his experiences should be invaluable to us in our trip.
Wow… what next… ?
THE highlight… we managed to connect with Captain Charles Moore of the Algulita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), who is the pre-eminent expert on the gyre. After visiting the gyre area 10 times, writing thousands of papers, presenting his findings to millions globally, he is without a doubt the most experienced person in the field. Not only were we able to sit down and chat with him, he also loaned us a manta trawl with which we will be performing detailed studies for the AMRF to use in understanding the gyre.
In amongst all this activity we have also managed to chat to 5 other classes in the San Diego area, snag a couple waves and catch up with some friends. Looking forward, we have 3 oceanographic classes to speak to in Carlsbad tomorrow, then are flying up to Sacramento over the weekend to chat to a couple more schools. All exciting stuff…
A huge Thank You goes out to the good folks at Globe International for helping us pay some for some of the costs of being here in SD and making it possible to visit all these schools. Huge Thanks.
Back at it, we have to be at High Tech High School in 20 mins!