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.