One of Scott’s favorite books as a kid was Kon-Tiki. Here’s an interesting adventure that he’s been following. Plastiki, a boat made of 12,500 recycled plastic bottles, nears the end of a Pacific voyage. Next, perhaps we should try building a battleship out of bottles or maybe cruise ships :)
Update: Success. After setting sail from San Francisco and sailing across the Pacific Ocean, stopping in Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Cook Islands, the Plastiki finally arrived in Sydney, Australia. It was a journey of 130 days and 8,000 nautical miles. Ironically, or not so ironically, the crew said that they encountered so much plastic and pollution in the ocean that was difficult to find clean water and food.
The journey was a success, but the boat was slow and difficult to maneuver and took damage from several storms. However, the Plastiki’s journey showed that it is possible to build a boat out of recycled materials and sail it across the ocean.
The Plastiki was a 60-foot oceangoing “waste-catamaran” made of 12,500 recycled plastic bottles. It was built by a team led by British explorer David de Rothschild to raise awareness about the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.
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