Make the sea clean again

During the last 2 weeks we have been sailing in Cinque Terre (Italy), Elba (Italy) and Corsica (France), we had the chance during our cruising to see dolphins (twice), a turtle and a couple of jumping swordfishes. But..

We are all astonished that we see more plastic floating around than fishes when we are sailing. Everyday we see at least one plastic bag floating in the sea.

It is everyone’s responsibility to make the sea clean again, minimising plastic usage and throwing away the plastic to the recycling bins. You can also support sea plastic reduction by collaborating with associations like ‘Expéditions MED’.

Kids are getting very conscious about sea. So much that they even created a cartoon mascot and draw its adventures while protecting the sea.

Cinque Terre (the villages) from the sea is beautiful, we stayed a couple of days anchored in front of Porto Vennere and we loved the village. Kids started practicing Italian, they did not have any other choices: they had to ask for their ice-creams in Italian. They did not resist the genuine Italian “gelato” and they learnt quickly how to order them. Our kids love dogs too, so asking if they can play with dogs in the village was also a good way to practice Italian. We also had opportunities to practice when ordering Spritz for aperitif 🙂

From Porto Vennere we went to Capraia island (we though we were going to Capri… no comments on the silly mistake, the lesson is now more than learnt: check geography and do not follow your instinct while translating places names!). We did our first night shifts with the kids: they prepared the shifts. The shifts went well but we all were exhausted after sailing our first non stop 24h sailing.

We also fished a couple of helium balloons from the sea. I don’t think our kids will ever ask for another balloon ever, now that they know where they may end.

From Capraia island we went to Elba and we spent one week in Elba. We loved sailing around Elba. Porto Ferraio is plenty of history, from Romans to Napoleon, the island is beautiful and from the sea you can see old iron mines. Mines are now closed, but we explained the kids what a mine was and how do they work (thanks YouTube). We were all greatly surprised by the waste management at Elba. In every beach we found recycling bins. Congratulations to Elba for the amazing recycling efforts!

From Elba we went to our beloved Corsica island, we discovered the East side of the island (we had been sailing on the west coast for 4 summers), we visited Bastia (technical stop to change the diesel/gasoil primary filter – air was getting into the old filter) and also Porto Vecchio (hopefully last technical stop to receive and install davits). Water is incredibly clean (especially in Canella), but we still see plastic bags or other kind of non organics wastes floating on the sea from time to time.

Some days are easier than others… kids are getting very creative, they have opened a restaurant in the boat called “Yamalu”; each of them have also created their own table game and they are now working on the cartoon mascot.

We are having some fun, like when we took Bastia’s train tour or when we dive all together.

I am personally missing human contact, we’d like to meet other sailing families and have some drinks together 🙂

Update on February 28th 2018: we try to find solutions in our life to reduce the use of plastics. For the last 3 months we are usings reusable vegetables bags. They are fantastics. in grocery shops, they like the idea!