Grand Midden Beach

This beach is usually the dirtiest of the trip it yeilded 3430 items this year

Hamish hauling and checking out the surf

4 ply rope. Great new tie-up ropes for the Velocity and cheiftan G
Rest after a long haul

Rubbish Run.

Transcript Three – North of Port Davey, amongst the middens. Report sent by Matt via satellite phone at 9 pm 3rd April 2010

“We had another big day! The crews of the Miss Carmen and Chieftain G all rose at 4:30 am to lift the craypots, with all hands on deck helping, in 3.5 meter seas and light winds. We then proceeded on to “Grand Midden” beach. After a tricky beach landing on the south end of the beach, we found the beach fouled with considerable amount of large plastic pieces, bottles, buoys, nets and ropes. In all we collected 3430 items. The debris collected today were generally larger items, much different to the plastic bottles and small items collected at Spain Bay. Once again the most numerous items were small pieces of rope followed by plastic pieces, bait strips and caps and lids. After a big day the crew cooled off with a late arvo surf. The waves were chest to head high punchy beach breaks. Coxy scored the wave of the day, air dropping into an inside dredger, to the hoots of all. Vege curry and chilli beans for dinner and another early night. … Hey Jim can you call us back with a swell forecast…?”

Long day at Spain Bay

Transcript Two - Spain Bay has been cleaned. Report sent by Matt via satellite phone at 10 pm 2nd April 2010.

"It turned out the two kayakers decided to help the rest of our team clean Spain Bay, which was a bonus. Together we spent four and a half hours, cleaning the full length of the beach, collecting 3602 items. “Usual suspects”* were found: small rope pieces, plastic pieces, bait box straps and plastic caps and lids. The Miss Carmen and Chieftain G crew finished setting their gear** just as we finished at the eastern end of the beach. We were met at Whaler’s with a dolphin escort off the bow. Early night for all tonight..."

Harry and Sam Beachcombing. Cleanup 2010

Holiday Isle - Not for us! Heaps of rubbish to collect. Cleanup 2010
The First Nights sort. A slow long one for the first timers who have to work out what each item is. Cleanup 2010

Notes:
* Check the History and Statistics page of this Blog to see the typical breakdown of items found from past SW cleanups
** The owners/skippers of the Velocity, Chieftain G and the Miss Carmen have volunteered their time, expertise, diesel and bunk space to this years SW Cleanup. The personal cost of this undertaking gets increasingly expensive each year and they must mitigate this cost by continuing to fish for Australian Southern Rocklobster when opportunity and the weather allows.

First report from the South West

Transcript of the first remote blog from Matt direct from Spain Bay* via the satellite phone 1030 am 2nd April 2010

“After seeing Velocity steam off from Constitution Dock, I did our fresh food shopping from the Hill Street store, before driving south to meet Jules, Hania and Jacinta at Huonville. Together we did a quick $1000 shop to stock up on dry food supplies and then continued to drive south. We all arrived at the Dover Wharf at 7 o’clock to meet the crews aboard the three boats: the Miss Carmen, the Chieftain G and the Velocity. We had a ‘mega-crew’ catch-up dinner on the Velocity with Wursthaus sausages and burgers, Deano and the crew from the Miss Carmen provided a fresh vege plate. Dinner was washed down with some non-alcoholic Gillespie’s Ginger Beer**. Once fed, we handed out the rest of the Patagonia T-shirts to the crew, and then returned to our allocated boats to prepare for departure. We left the wharf and headed south, with the Chieftain G leading the way, at 10 pm. It was a beautiful evening for steaming with light winds, low seas and a beautiful moonlit sky, averaging 10.3 knots (10.9 knots when the tide was with us). We made it all the way [west] to Spain Bay (inside the heads of Port Davey, within the boundaries of the SW wilderness area) arriving to drop anchor about 6 am. After a short siesta, a solid breakfast and delivering the two sea kayakers (who hitched a ride from Hobart for their Easter break paddling in Port Davey), we were all ferried on to the beach at Spain Bay via the dinghies and are currently cleaning the beach…talk to you again soon”

Notes:
* Spain Bay is one of the baseline beaches that we have monitored over the last decade.
** Ginger is thought to be a great natural remedy to prevent seasickness. May as well drink it as beer...

All Aboard! Velocity Steams South, then West....

Velocity, the SW Marine Debris Cleanup's mothership, steamed south from Hobart this afternoon with an excited crew of volunteers. Sam, Dayna and Dara joined Nic, Jo and Hamish on board for the evening cruise down the d'Entrecastreaux Channel. They were all eager to meet the other two boats and crew in Dover before sunset, so that they could enjoy their first night at sea as they make their way past Tasmania's three Southern Capes, rounding Southwest Cape early on Good Friday morning. They'll all be waking up to be greeted by the splendid coast of the South West World Heritage Area.

Some photos for the Mercury and a few words to ABC before departure

Just before leaving Hobart the SW Marine Debris Cleanup team were able to fit in a couple more media engagements. Lookout for the pictures and story in this weekends Mercury (Southern Tasmania's most read newspaper). Matt also provided a lengthy sound bite to the ABC which will air on local and national radio over the Easter break.

The top photos shows Matt talking with Jessica from ABC news. While the following shot features Jo Goldfinch, Nick Harris, Hamish Renwick and Matt posing for the Mercury Photographer in their new 100% organic cotton Patagonia T-shirts. I am sure they are all hoping for some more T-shirt weather as they head west this evening.

Bon Voyage!

The 2010 SW cleanup’s mothership, the Velocity (skippered by Nick “Harry” Harris), leaves Constitution Dock this afternoon at 3 pm.

So if you have a chance, please get down to the wharf to see this years crew depart and wish them fair weather and good times! You may even make it onto the Blog!

Media Interview with Southern Cross News

These last couple of days have been pretty manic. In between provisioning the boat and organising last minute Patagonia kit for all of the volleys on the trip, I have been zipping between media engagements! If you were watching Southern Cross News last night you may have seen Me chatting about this years cleanup. Keep an eye out in the local TV, print and web news sites for more coverage of this years trip in the coming week. And of course keep checking back here for more photos and their daily "tweet-style" updates.