Gitana - Eco-bricks to epic downpours!

Quick updates for TPA

> - Switch off Fortnight at TPA
Delighted to receive the updates from school and a huge thank you and well
done to Army and Arnya for managing the 'Switch off Fortnight'* for TPA,
proving that whilst we rely heavily on technology to deliver many things –
sometimes it's good for many reasons to switch off! (Wonder how many
people have taken the ideas home too!)
Well done Mr Dalwood, Mrs Begum and Miss Bellazrak for raising the bar
with the projector challenge and of course it's not right without student
voice – well done to Miss Patel's tutor group!

Final counts awaiting verification. Well done TPA! And there's us
running on batteries 24/7 as well, in dark 13hours a day and trying to
remember to reduce the amount of non-essential energy we're using so our
solar panel and wind turbine can maintain supplies for us.

*Switch off Fortnight is an EDF initiative for schools, but worthwhile in
work places and homes alike! (Quick web search and you'll be away!)

> - Environmental Challenges: Eco-bricks
With limited places for waste and limited list of things we can put over
the side, before we left I was looking into the options and the best one I
found, particularly for plastic waste was 'Eco-bricks' where empty plastic
bottles are used to stuff plastic packaging and plastic waste into. It
condenses the volume of waste significantly and there are companies around
parts of the world would then use those bricks for recycling, construction
or reuse as a secondary plastic. Amazingly, wealthier countries are often
behind the lower income ones where community based projects like this are
common and involve everyone. Haiti and Rwanda both have major projects
like this (Rwanda banned plastic bags nationally years ago!) supporting
the reduction of plastic waste.

Students from school emailed this week to suggest using empty containers
for storage too, so we're looking at other options too. Get researching,
how can we reduce the amount of plastic we've got? Does it start with the
producers and enforcing recycling or is it driven by us? Is it both and
how do we do it! Look around school at the end of break and lunch and see
what impact plastic is having there alone!

> - Quick Q&A: from Amy (TPA): Have you had to deal with any extreme
> weather?
The last 48hours we've been introduced to Atlantic Squalls – thankfully,
rather small ones compared to the potential.
We talked a couple of days back about squally showers and what to do if
they hit. Squalls are essentially intense cloud concentrations, low in the
atmosphere that create heavy showers, strong gusty winds underneath them
and can pass as quickly as they arrive.
Night before last, the boys experienced one, but the boat wasn't set up
ready to handle it when it hit leading to a frantic 30mins of activity
getting the sails in a better, stronger position to handle events should
they happen again. During that one, winds increased quickly, steering
went way off course and the boat crash gybed (turning with the winds
behind the boat), breaking a few of the blocks that hold supporting lines
for the sails!
A couple of hours later, Mike experienced another, but this time there was
more rain than wind. I checked in on Mike on deck, he was absolutely
drenched!! The rain was flying horizontally at him in the cockpit! His
description was the best ever - "i turned around and it was like someone
was spraying a fire hose in my face!" made me laugh!!

The rest of the morning was a mixture of rain showers and decent wind,
we're flying along with 2 reefs in the mainsail (making it smaller so it
doesn't tip us over) and 1 in the headsail. Last night on my watch, the
boat was ready, reefed and prepared and she stayed on course, sped up,
handled it really well and all was calm again 45mins later!

Otherwise, the other extremes really has essentially been life at an
angle! Cooking, walking, standing, getting in and out of bed, using the
loo – constantly rolling from side to side... makes for extreme cooking,
extreme laundry, extreme ablutions – which can be hilarious, bruising,
frustrating and timely :)

> - How many days left?
A few more days of travels left across the Atlantic
We finally got below 1000nautical miles to run last night, so 2/3 of the
trip done, 950 miles to go... get your maths working (formula given
yesterday)... how many days and at what speed left?


I've got a few questions left from Geography teachers on the forums, but
would be great to see some more from school!

Watching out for your responses!

Miss French!

--
SY Gitana