https://youtu.be/1_xZ77JGDOs

This is the link to the Sky Ocean film of our trip. IT's beautiful, funny, informative and has quite a lot of me in it - I'm wearing the green jacket.

We had a private viewing on a big screen in a hotel in London today - about 10 of the crew came plus the Meek family.  It was fantastic.

I'm doing a talk in Bournemouth about the trip and the issues of toxics associated with the plastics, tomorrow if Storm Brian doesn't stop the trains.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SkyOceanRescue/status/918184409815068672/video/1

Hi Everyone

This is a link to the trailer for the Sky Ocean documentary that was made of our trip, being shown on Sky next week.  It should be on YouTUbe shortly afterwards so I will post the link when it comes.

Thanks for watching, and still reading my blog!

https://www.theguardian.com/…/plastic-fibres-found-tap-wate…

Hi everyone
I'm back up north - still in Manchester but heading to Macclesfield shortly.

This link came into my FB stream this morning - you may have already seen it or heard about it.  I'm not surprised based on what we have seen in our very limited scientific research of UK coastal waters.  The sad thing is that fleece fabric may be a significant contributor to these fibre, and yet it was hailed as the great breakthrough in how to recycle plastic bottles - many fleece manufacturers use recycled plastic bottles.

I will continue to post in this blog, for those interested in my future work with plastics.

Micro plastic in a pinch of sand

Hi everyone
The trip is officially finished.

We arrived in Plymouth yesterday morning after an incredible weekend's sailing from London. Saturday was sunny - lazing on the deck in sunshine for the first time.  I was on watch from 4-8am on Sunday morning and the wind was picking up.  By 10am it was gusting up to 32knots, and carried on for the rest of the day.  Lot of sea sickness in the crew (even the skipper was sick) however, I felt relatively ok, so I was able to helm on other watches - at one point it was completely exhilarating, like the best roller coaster ride - until the watch leader realised it was quite rough and took over from me - my few minutes of wildness even better than the wild helming I had around Land's End.

My last watch was Monday morning from Midnight till 4am.  The sea was calm but it was very foggy, cold and damp - and I felt ill, I couldn't even helm, it made me too queasy.  A good chunder and I felt marginally better, but I'd not put my waterproof hood up properly and was very damp inside - wishing the watch over so I could go to bed.  Suddenly the someone pointed out the dolphins.  I'd never seen anything like it - closest description is the dementors in the Harry Potter movies.  It was really dark so we couldn't see the dolphins themselves, all we could see was their trails in the water lit up with phosphorescence.  It was magical. What a treat.  They hung around for about 30 minutes and then disappeared just before end of watch.  That's 3 magical experiences of dolphins I've had on this trip.

We arrived in Plymouth much earlier than expected so had loads of time to do some science in Plymouth sound.  Lots of polystyrene particles in the trawl!  We docked at about 10am and after interviews with film crews etc we spent several hours cleaning up the boat - I was on bilge duty, which I volunteered to do as I'd be with Holly and everything is fun with her.  New exercise - Bilge Yoga - she was contorted into the tiny space between the boat bottom and the pipes above cleaning, while I vacuumed up the washing water.

We were so grateful for the showers at Plymouth Marina after that.  Then a group of us headed to Plymouth Arts Centre for the showing of A Plastic Ocean.  Very beautiful film about a very sad subject.  We had a bit of a Q&A afterwards before rushing off to the restaurant where we were having our farewell meal.  Last night sleeping in my bunk!

This morning I went with another crew member to BBC radio Devon for a live interview and then to the Plymouth Aquarium to work with 'MuddyFingers' - a woman who contacted me on FB months ago saying she's like to be involved.  She and her partner travel the world to dirty beaches and make stunning art from the plastic.  BBC Devon were there too and I got interviewed for the TV show Spotlight on tonight.

Back to the Marina to write this up before I head off now for the bus.

I have lots of photos to put up but my phone is so overloaded I can't email them to myself yet!!

It's been amazing - thank you to everyone who has supported me financially - and continues to do so - bless you.

Looking out this evening as I write this from Hermitage communal Moorings

The view behind me

Being here on Hermitage Moorings has been wonderful - like an oasis of gently rocking calm in a cacophony of noise and activity.  It's been a hectic two days - we leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7am, for the final leg of the journey to Plymouth (arriving Monday about midday).

We've had two days of moving to St Katherine's pier to dock between 9.30 and 2pm for boat tours and to take part in the Thames 21, Kids Against Plastic and #OneLess event at St Katherine's Dock.

St Katherine's Dock

I was on cook duty yesterday so I was cooking lunch in the morning - vegan Minestrone soup - and then headed to Potter's Field on the other side of the river to assist with a huge art installation by Maria Arceo, of plastic collected from the Thames in 14 litter picks in one year.

Exxpedition women with Maria Arceo

It was then a big taxi collection of whole crew to ZSL, the Zoological Society of London, for talks by Prof Richard Thompson of Plymouth University who first described Micro Plastics about 25 years ago, Dr Jenna Jembeck a leading plastic environmentalist, the incredible Meek sisters of Kids Against plastic (#Kidsvplastic), the sustainability manager of Selfridges who have done wonders in de-plasticising their brand, and Exxpedition founders Dr Lucy Gilliam, who works with persistent organic pollutants and their effects on endocrinology, and Emily Penn, who is an extraordinary adventurer.

Taxi rides back, and off to visit the art installation as it was being lit up at night.

Finally to bed, for another early start today.  I was at St Katherine's dock this morning, talking to whoever I could get to stop and listen - and my 'sort of cousin' Fiona came.

Sam and I on the stall

Fiona having a boat tour

Then it was a quick rush back to the boat to get back to Hermitage as we had a story telling workshop for the story telling event this evening at Hermitage.  I did a very hilarious skit on the day in the life aboard Sea Dragon - some one filmed it so hopefully I can post it some time.

Got back to the boat to find science lead Diana and Nicole, filtering loads of jars of water samples - the pump broke about two weeks ago and the new pump had been trying to catch up with us since.  An impossible task while the boat is moving, and needs to be completed before Plymouth.

So I'm off to bed now having had a quick shower.

I have so enjoyed my time - these last few days will be quite nostalgic.  Definitely more sailing for me.

Perfect Sailing Conditions for the Manta Trawl in the North Sea

We managed to do quite a bit of science en route from Edinburgh - having the best sailing weather of the trip, sunny with a good wind.

The photos show the manta trawl, and some of the contents, bits of plastic.  We also saw a lot of helium balloons - managed to rescue a few.  Remember we are only deploying the trawl for 30 minutes and it only skims a small area of water - multiply what we find as if we'd done a 24 hour trawl of the whole ocean.....And what we see is only the 'micro' plastic, visible pieces up to about 5mm - we do other samples for the 'nano' plastics, the minute fibres etc that we can't see.

The newspaper article describes some of our concerns about plastic pollution - these chemicals which are washed into the sea via sewage plants and manufacturing, are attracted to plastic particles, creating highly toxic particles which are ingested by fish and ultimately by us - good reason to go vegan!

What's in the trawl net???

Micro plastics attract these chemicals

Bits of visible plastic

Bridge opens for Us

Passing under the Bridge

Hi everyone
We've arrived in London - moored on the historic and beautiful Hermitage wharf by London Bridge till Saturday.

Took us all night to motor the 80 miles of Thames estuary.  I was on watch from 8pm to midnight, passing Harwich and Clacton etc waking to the outskirts of London - The London waste incineration plant, Woolwich Ferry and the Barrage.  One of our crew had grown up in the area and we were treated to a running commentary on the area, it's development in the past 50 years and the local riverside pubs.  Coming in past Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf was so exciting as we had an appointment with Tower Bridge - opening especially for us at 10am and then again at 11am for us to pass back.  It was so exciting.

We have two days of events; Exxpedition dinner at Hermitage, boat tours, Plastic free open event at St Kat's dock, creating an art installation using Thames litter with artist Maria Arceo, story telling evening at the Cutty Sark, an evening of talks at ZSL (Zoological Society of London), an evening of films about plastic pollution at the Dicken's Inn.

Meanwhile boat work is underway; Skipper and Holly deep in the bilges replacing an effluent pipe - bless them - we may have two loos again for the remainder of the trip.

Holly and Diane doing Essential Plumbing

Our Itinerary for London - beautifully written by crew member Liane alias Pirate Scarlet  Macaw

I passed my on line Micro Plastic course with the Open University of the Netherlands.  So pleased.  It involved a final dissertation of about 8000 words.  I did mine on Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear from the Orkneys.

Hi All
We're heading off for London now - 6 new crew on board for leg 3, plus 2 returners from leg 1.
We will arrive on Wednesday, AND we will be having London Bridge raised especially for us to pass through!!!!!!

I think I may have found my new creative venture - combining my science background in microscopy with my art using sea plastic.  These last two days working with microscopes to look at micro and nano plastics has totally inspired me - I have some beautiful images.

A shard of hard red translucent plastic about 7mm in length and 3mm wide with sand grains attached - from Musselburgh

Images collected at today at Ocean Terminal shopping centre using Leith Labs microscope and my phone camera

A hard fragment of blue plastic in amongst sand grains - from Musselburgh

Fragments of hard plastics 1/2-3mm in size, resulting from degradation of much larger items
from a manta trawl on a previous expedition

Exxpedition, Leith Labs (a community science project) and Kids Against Plastic set up in Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre today, with the Sky Ocean Rescue Whale outside 

Leith Labs use these fantastic desk microscopes, which magnify about 100x, and the image can be photographed on a mobile phone

I collected loads of samples of degraded plastic from Musselburgh beach to look at

Amongst the grains of sand I found many microscopic fibres, this one is the length of a grain of sand - possibly washed out to sea in waste water after washing an item of fleece clothing

These are synthetic fibers from a small tuft of fibrous material 

Another fibre amidst grains of sand - these were not hard to find

The presence of these tiny fibre in such abundance is a real issue - they act like sponges, attracting all sorts of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins and flame retardants, which act like hormone disruptors - they are eaten by tiny creatures, feeding into the food web and eventually to us.

Exxpedition at ASCUS

ASCUS is an amazing facility available to the pubic for combining Art and Science

After 36 years I'm back on a Micro Scope, this time doing Art - Yay

After holyrood we had a lovely walk around Arthur's Seat to Summerhall and the ASCUS lab. Edinburgh Festival in full swing so loads of people and events going on.  ASCUS is my idea of heaven, being able to look at plastics under a  variety of microscopes.  Got some great images for new cards.

Presenting Exxpedition at Holyrood
Key Speakers - Emily Penn and Lucy Gilliam - co-founders of Exxpedition, Amy and Ella Meek, founders of Kids against Plastic and author and eco-philosopher, Alastair MacKintosh

We had various MP's and other interested parties attending.

Sky Ocean met us at Musselburgh Beach Edinburgh

The Nurdle Kit by Alice
The Firth of Forth has a Particular Problem with lost Nurdles 

Exxpedition Meets Marine Conservation Society, Wild About Scotland, Kids Against Plastic and a Bunch of Local School Children at Musselburgh to Litter Pick

Sky's Tour

My Litter Documenting team - The Meek family #kidsvplastic

Litter Documenting Kit

Hi everyone
Yesterday started with a beach clean at Musselburgh. For the first hour we did a 100m transect, documenting every thing we picked up, this data is used by Marine Conservation Society to lobby manufacturers and governments about the types of plastic litter that are an issue - hence plastic bag tax. They are now lobbying against 'flushable' wet wipes (of which we found dozens - yeuch) and for a plastic bottle deposit scheme.  Then we were joined by dozens of school children and we did a general blitz on the beach litter.  The children were really surprised to find lighters and wet wipes!

Sky Ocean - who are filming us for one of the series they are creating - coincided their round Britain with ours showing off their giant plastic whale, which represents all the plastic that lands in the sea per day.

Then it was a dash by taxi to Holyrood. See next post

Sunrise over North Sea coming into Firth of Forth this Morning 

Sieving Samples from Manta Trawl in Firth of Forth

Examining Manta Trawl Haul from Firth of Forth

Micro Plastics From Manta Trawl Haul in Firth of Forth
Several Nurdles and other Tiny Fragments of Plastic

We're Moored in front of The Britannia in Leith Docks Edinburgh

Hi Everyone
We've arrived in Edinburgh after a two day sail from Inverness. It was a bit blowy until last night, many of us resorted to taking the pills, including me - I couldn't face a third bout of seasickness.  Only problem is they make me very sleepy so I've arrived in Edinburgh - having been up since 4am as I was on the dawn watch - very tired.  We have an evening of meetings, so I'll finish this and get back for a nap.  I'm using the Holiday Inn WiFi having had a lovely shower in the Sky film crews room.

We had a very successful trawl this morning - found more visible plastic than in every other trawl we've done - of course that's not a good thing, however, it was ironically exciting too.  Interesting that we found several nurdles - the white plastic 'beads' that are used to manufacture most plastic products.  Were these washed down a river or lost at sea from a container?  To find 3 in a 30 minute trawl of a tiny section of the Firth of Forth suggests there are a lot more around.  We also found several tiny coloured fragments of degraded plastic - larger items that have broken down.  These were approximately 2mm by 1/2 mm, really tiny and definitely the sort of thing that would be consumed by sea creatures along with plankton etc.

Our daily routine when sailing - we have 3 watches, led by our 3 professional crew, with 3-4 exxpedition crew in each.  Watch shifts are very traditional as used by the navy etc, 00.00-04.00hours, 04.00-08.00, 08.00-12.00, 12.00-16.00, 16.00-18.00, 18.00-20.00, 20.00-24.00.  Breakfast is between 7.30 and 8.30, lunch from 12.00 till 13.00 and dinner from 17.30 to 18.30, with loads of drinks and snacks in between.

I'll do my best to get back on line before we leave Edinburgh and let you know what we've been up to.  Beach clean tomorrow morning, followed by a reception at Holyrood, and then off to ASCUS an Art/Science centre.