WATCH: Get on board a special floating laboratory at the Waterfront this January
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:12 pm
2018-12-21 10:45 - Hanlie Gouws
Ahoy Cape Town! Visitors to the Mother City can get on board the Fleur de Passion in January, and learn about the scientific studies done by the scientists on board. (Supplied)
Human beings are leaving an ever-growing footprint on our oceans. From plastic pollution and bottom dredging to decimated stocks and noise pollution, our economic endeavours are wreaking havoc on the waters and the creatures who live in it.
It is becoming increasingly important to study what we are doing to our seas and what the seas are doing for us, so we can find solutions and encourage all the world’s people to do their bit for conservation and to limit the impact of climate change.
A group of dedicated sailors and scientists from The Ocean Mapping Expedition have taken up this challenge and are on a four-year journey following in the wake of the great explorer Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies in the early 1500s leading to the first circumnavigation of the Earth.
This modern-day Magellan expedition is specifically scaled to assess the state of Earth's oceans, with the team having just arrived in Cape Town for a stopover and a few necessary repairs. The vessel will dock at Quay 6 in the V&A Waterfront Harbour, right in front of the Table Bay Hotel, in January and will be open to the public for guided tours and talks with the scientists in residence.
Their laboratory is a beauty: a 33m-long Swiss ketch, the Fleur de Passion, that was a German minesweeper during World War II. The expedition studies the extent of plastic pollution, the effects of noise pollution on marine creatures, the Indian Ocean as a possible methane sink, the spread of greenhouse gasses and the state of coral, to name a few.
Read more about the science and the aims of the expedition here.
Pietro Godenzi, the board chairperson of Fondation Pacifique, the non-profit behind the journey, and skipper of Fleur de Passion, has been on board from the very start.
https://youtu.be/1KGPu5QId1E
“Friends and I found this boat and fixed it up,” he told Traveller24.
The vessel has had a busy and eventful life in its new, more peaceful incarnation. It set sail on this research circumnavigation in April 2015 from Seville and aims to dock in the Spanish city again in September 2019.
“... after the Strait of Magellan, the sailing conditions along the East Coast from Durban to Cape Town have certainly been the most challenging we’ve ever had since the departure of the expedition”, Godenzi says. “In case of sudden bad wind and sea conditions, there’s nowhere to find shelter.”
The yacht and its crew are currently berthed at the Royal Cape Yacht Club and will move on to the Waterfront in 2019, where you can get on board.
- When: 3 to 24 January 2019, daily from 10:00 to 12:00 and again from 14:00 to 18:00
- Where: V&A Waterfront, Quay 6 (in front of Table Bay hotel)
- What: 1-hour guided tour for groups of up to 30 people
- Cost: free (but there is a donation box)
- Booking: only required for organized groups
Ahoy Cape Town! Visitors to the Mother City can get on board the Fleur de Passion in January, and learn about the scientific studies done by the scientists on board. (Supplied)
Human beings are leaving an ever-growing footprint on our oceans. From plastic pollution and bottom dredging to decimated stocks and noise pollution, our economic endeavours are wreaking havoc on the waters and the creatures who live in it.
It is becoming increasingly important to study what we are doing to our seas and what the seas are doing for us, so we can find solutions and encourage all the world’s people to do their bit for conservation and to limit the impact of climate change.
A group of dedicated sailors and scientists from The Ocean Mapping Expedition have taken up this challenge and are on a four-year journey following in the wake of the great explorer Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies in the early 1500s leading to the first circumnavigation of the Earth.
This modern-day Magellan expedition is specifically scaled to assess the state of Earth's oceans, with the team having just arrived in Cape Town for a stopover and a few necessary repairs. The vessel will dock at Quay 6 in the V&A Waterfront Harbour, right in front of the Table Bay Hotel, in January and will be open to the public for guided tours and talks with the scientists in residence.
Their laboratory is a beauty: a 33m-long Swiss ketch, the Fleur de Passion, that was a German minesweeper during World War II. The expedition studies the extent of plastic pollution, the effects of noise pollution on marine creatures, the Indian Ocean as a possible methane sink, the spread of greenhouse gasses and the state of coral, to name a few.
Read more about the science and the aims of the expedition here.
Pietro Godenzi, the board chairperson of Fondation Pacifique, the non-profit behind the journey, and skipper of Fleur de Passion, has been on board from the very start.
https://youtu.be/1KGPu5QId1E
“Friends and I found this boat and fixed it up,” he told Traveller24.
The vessel has had a busy and eventful life in its new, more peaceful incarnation. It set sail on this research circumnavigation in April 2015 from Seville and aims to dock in the Spanish city again in September 2019.
“... after the Strait of Magellan, the sailing conditions along the East Coast from Durban to Cape Town have certainly been the most challenging we’ve ever had since the departure of the expedition”, Godenzi says. “In case of sudden bad wind and sea conditions, there’s nowhere to find shelter.”
The yacht and its crew are currently berthed at the Royal Cape Yacht Club and will move on to the Waterfront in 2019, where you can get on board.
- When: 3 to 24 January 2019, daily from 10:00 to 12:00 and again from 14:00 to 18:00
- Where: V&A Waterfront, Quay 6 (in front of Table Bay hotel)
- What: 1-hour guided tour for groups of up to 30 people
- Cost: free (but there is a donation box)
- Booking: only required for organized groups
