Day 4 - Schooner Cove - Mt Rugby - Horse Shoe Inlet

Day 4 Blog

Q. What has 30 heads and 60 wet feet? A. The south west coast clean up
crew. Very wet day today here on the clean up, so our dreams of hitting
the beaches was postponed until the tropical weather shows up tomorrow.
Nothing could dampen our spirits however, and the team split into three
groups, some opting to tackle Mount Rugby (the view from the top was not
too bad, some said all white), some crew went to find the fabled MONA
Art installation while some of the die hard clean up crusaders hit the
rocky coast to see what rubbish they could find. After making it safely
back to the boat, Masaaki worked his magic again, constructing a
Patagonia Logo replica platter out of fresh Tuna, some nourishing
Crayfish miso soup, and the Odalisque crew made some tasty pizzas.
Having made the most out of a very wet day, the crew is keen to get back
on clean-up mission tomorrow.

Days 1 to 3

Day 3 Coxs Bight - Spain Bay - Schooner Cove

All 4 boats arrived today in Spain Bay after an early morning steam from
Cox's Bight. We were on the beach by 11ish, the late start may have
been due to last night's very rolly anchorage and dance floor antics.
Small plastics were the main find at the start, a few token wins were a
clob foot, genie bottle, tyre and gumboot. The creek was full of ropes,
plastic and cans, 5 people worked one section for a good 20 minutes. We
decided to do the count before tucking into Masaakis delicious tuna
platters. 6958 items we totalled for the day. Fresh sashimi and sushi,
Gillespies ginger beer, moo brew, live tunes, pirate costumes and
dancing washed down another rewarding day.

Day 2 Coxs Bight

The end of Day 1 found three boats safely anchored in Cox Bight.
Unfortunately (for the rubbish and them) the fourth boat is stuck in
Recherche until the weather improves. The team cleaned the beach from
the western end up to Point Eric in both rain and shine - 2999 items in
all. We'd love to say we got it all but the beach may have beaten us in
the end. Quartz pebbles were very good camouflage for all sorts of
plastic, rope and bait straps and the general consensus is it has been
the most technical beach cleaned in a few years. However the team pulled
through and collected an impressive immunity selection including a toy
plastic boot, an axe head, a lure (which Masaaki is now proudly wearing
as a broach), and a die. Nice work! We are now in recovery mode having
had a quick abalone dive and a surf in somewhat un-ideal conditions,
dinner is solving all issues though and soon we'll be amped for
tomorrow. Bring on Spain Bay!



Day 1

And we're off! The biggest Southwest Marine Debris Cleanup in history
has kicked off with a bang. After traversing some wild south coast seas,
two boats are safely anchored in Cox's Bight ready for a big day of
beach cleaning tomorrow, and a third is on its way.

After a few last minute logistics, all Team Clean's boats were loaded,
crewed up and heading south by the early afternoon. The Breaksea was the
first boat around South Cape on the south coast having left Dover at
midday. The Velocity followed close behind, meeting up at Louisa Bay on
the way to the calm anchorage of Cox's Bight.

All the crew are absolutely amped about steaming round Southwest Cape in
a few days and are gearing up for a huge week of cleaning up some of
Australia's most remote and spectacular beaches.

Team Clean sets sail for the wild west

And we're off! The biggest Southwest Marine Debris Cleanup in history
has kicked off with a bang. After traversing some wild south coast seas,
two boats are safely anchored in Cox's Bight ready for a big day of
beach cleaning tomorrow, and a third is on its way.

After a few last minute logistics, all Team Clean's boats were loaded,
crewed up and heading south by the early afternoon. The Breaksea was the
first boat around South Cape on the south coast having left Dover at
midday. The Velocity followed close behind, meeting up at Louisa Bay on
the way to the calm anchorage of Cox's Bight.

All the crew are absolutely amped about steaming round Southwest Cape
and are gearing up for a huge week of cleaning up some of Australia's
most remote and spectacular beaches.

Thanks to the ABC for the Media coverage

Well its coming to the end of a pretty hectic day. The day started well with Harbs and I heading down to the ABC studios for an interview with Felicity Ogilvie from the World Today Program.  Harbs starred in his first stab at media duties.

The Audio from the interview can be found here. The World Today

The ABC were also kind enough to run the story online with some pictures of the beaches we visit. The article can be read here. ABC News Online

The rest of the day was spent collecting the large shop from Marco at Hill Street, dividing up the meat from the wursthaus, and getting the last of the supplies together. By late afternoon we had organised for the sponsored clothing from Patagonia to be over night express posted down for the troops, then cooked up a mammoth  Butter Chicken for 15 people and got the interstate crew settled into their digs and ready for a day of adventure tomorrow.

Now its 10.30 pm I can start packing my own gear.  Looks like I will definitely need some some good wet weather gear.

Media Release - Team Clean sailing west to fight a wave of rubbish

The largest ever Tasmanian South West Marine Debris Cleanup expedition sets sail from 12pm next Wednesday. The annual volunteer-run expedition has been cleaning up Tasmania’s wildest beaches for the past 15 years.

In 2014 alone, the cleanup team removed 48,340 pieces of rubbish from Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area on the west coast.

“A toxic wave of plastic is trashing our oceans. Marine debris travels from across the seas and washes ashore on some of the planet’s most isolated and spectacular beaches in western Tasmania,” said cleanup coordinator Matt Dell.

“with total worldwide plastic production doubling every ten years the amount of plastic that is present in our oceans is likely to get much worse without a concerted effort to properly dispose or recycle used plastics”

“The annual cleanup keeps our most precious wild places clean, documents what is washing ashore and is a key part of the global effort to fight the toxic wave of plastic that’s trashing our oceans.

With a four-boat fleet and a crew of over 30 hardy volunteers, Dell is expecting 2015 to be the biggest expedition yet.

The team launched a crowdfunder earlier this week to raise much needed funds for food and fuel supplies – www.pozible.com/teamclean

For more information, contact Matt Dell: 0419 922 887

Final checks

Things have been running pretty smoothly over the last few days, the dry and fresh stores have been ordered from our generous sponsors at The Hill Street Grocers and the Wursthaus.  We have had the usual last minute hiccups with a few crew pulling out and one of the boats on a quick dash fishing mission up the North East coast. At this stage the Velocity, Odalisque and the Breaksea will try and get away early Wednesday to push along the south coast before an expected westerly change during the afternoon which will make travelling very unpleasant. The Diamantina will hopefully be departing from Margate around 6pm that evening.

6 Days to departure

Well its that hectic time of the year again when we start getting the boats and crews geared up for the ultimate beachcombing adventure.  This year the Velocity, Diamantina and Breaksea will be joined by Pieter van der Woude's new charter vessel the Odalisque II. This flotilla will take the largest contingent ever of volunteers to the remote beaches of Southwest Tasmania. Many thanks to the myriad of generous sponsors and particularly the fishermen for donating their vessels and expertise as none of the past 15 years efforts would be possible without them. We have a number of new faces joining the team this year and there short bios can be found on the Team page.

The weather for departure day and the few after that look interesting to say the least.
One thing is for sure its not going to be a nice calm trip along the bottom of Tasmania.