All entries under Renewable Energy

Today was my first real sailing experience. What better way to take the adventure head-on then to take your first sailing ride on boat 2041, a 67 foot yacht traveling the world on a“Voyage for Cleaner Energy.” After seeing Robert Swan tell his crazy and enthusiastic stories at my school, San Diego City College, of walking to both poles, sailing around Africa and speaking to students and country leaders on the affects of human actions on the environment, the only way I wanted to spend my twenty-second birthday last Wednesday, May 7, was touring the boat that carried such an amazing message. With a little persistence, and a return visit the following day for a second tour (where I also was able to take a bay tour and meet the full crew) I annoyed Maura enough to allow me to come with the crew for a sail up to Newport Beach. This was an amazing opportunity, there’s no way I was going to pass it up! I was invited alongside my Anthropology professor Steve Boucaren, a student from San Diego State,and a couple of fellow City College students, Beau and Marsha.

The morning started off. . . interesting. I awoke later than expected and got to the Harbor as fast as I could after picking up Beau. We boarded the yacht a little after 7:15 AM. Being that this was going to be my first real sailing experience, I was a little nervous as to how my Ohio-born, land-locked body would react with the motion of the ocean. To take extra steps, I bought some Dramamine the night before. We got on and got all settled in by running through a quick intro of ourselves to each other. The eclectic collection of different individuals aboard was the element that excited me most for the day ahead! As we departed the harbor, we put on our harnesses and became familiar with the boat. Hannah, the crew chef on board, brought up some muffins as a muncher for breakfast. This was the only thing I ate so far. The morning was actually a lot colder than I thought it would be with gray skies and cool winds. I think it was the first morning in San Diego since I have moved here where I wore jeans, two shirts, a fleece sweater and winter hat! The ride was smooth at first as we passed beautiful San Diegan cliffs and departed from the harbor. I was feeling great, until about twenty minutes later. . . .I most likely tripped my mind out and could not ease it as I kept thinking of the possibility of sea sickness. For precaution purposes, I took a couple of Dramamine, but it was too late. Within an hour after taking them, I could feel my mind swimming in nausea and all of the blood was sucked out of my face. I went to the bathroom and looked in a mirror - even my lips were white! It didn’t take long for others to catch on as I sat their quietly in the doghouse, hands folded in front of my turning stomach with a grim, green face. After multiple remedies from ginger, to fresh air, to simply taking deep breaths, I proudly puked my guts up onto the beautiful and great yacht that is 2041! I left my mark! I felt terribly embarrassed and even worse when the deckhand, Jake, had to help me clean it up.

I knew if I just started over,I could get myself together. I napped in one of the bunks for almost 2 hours and it was awesome. I never thought sleeping on a boat (especially after puking all over one) that it would be that peaceful. I slept like a baby in a rocking cradle that was the ocean. I awoke a million times better and was stoked to enjoy the rest of the day with my new friends and the sea. Today, there was never a dull moment. I got my sailing experience as I tugged a few ropes and manned the jib (I have no idea what that means or if that is what I really did, but it’s a learning process, right?!) From great conversations with educated, aware, interesting and passionate people, to catching fish, to great meals, to the relaxation that only floating upon the sea can bring you, to even the pukers (I was so happy to hear I was not the only one who had barfed up their pride). When I woke, Hannah prepared us hummus and pita chips for a snack, and a delicious pita-turkey-swiss-possibly Italian dressing-sandwich with a perfect pink lady apple. I chatted up with Brent, the laid-back handy man and first mate on board, on Aussie politics and the open sea. Maura, the paparazzi and group coordinator, had so much to say about her passionate biology-related knowledge and cool hiking stories. (I was excited to hear that she was a Berkeley Alumni and even more excited to go!) The Captain did a great job at explaining the workings of all the technicalities on board, from the bio-diesel engine to the solar panels overhead, and was knowledgeable in sailing, the environment, and sea related topics. Hannah had so many great experiences from her past to relate to, especially from her time with the Peace Corps and being stationed in Malawi. Jake, the deckhand, was a quiet student that was chosen as a student to go to Antarctica. He said he had to just get up and go the day after they called! Pretty amazing people.

I spent alot of time on the front deck of the boat. It was so amazing to look out and just see open sea, and only the horizon. At the very front, I just sat there, with no other view of the ship in front of me, and it felt like I was floating alone along the sea. It was an ecstatic and very blissful moment. I was eventually joined by the rest of the crew and guests and we just got to know each other more and laid out in the sunshine. Later, as if they day could not get any better - we started to see at a distance what looked like fish jumping up out the water, all over around the boat. We turned around and we didn’t have to go far to find a massive pod of dolphins swimming all around us. There had to be way more than a hundred in the pod, as they surrounded the area around the boat. They playfully rode next to us, getting so close that they were actually hitting the bottom of the boat. Gliding back and fourth and cutting rapidly through the water, they jumped up out of the water and cut across each other, showing us tricks and turning over on their bellies. We were just as interesting to them as they were to us.

I am so happy to have experienced today on this boat. It symbolizes action and hard work of those that are fighting to make a difference in this world and live through earth, not just in it. At the same time, Maura put it perfectly today: “See, working for a cause and living the right way can be fun!” Indeed it can be, as today I participated in learning how to live a sustainable lifestyle and act respectively toward the environment, and it was all a blast! Thank you to the crew of 2041 for this amazing experience. I hope I can join the cause even further in Antarctica one day.

• Ryan Ballard, San Diego City College Student

Waking up at 4am was not nearly as bad at it should have been. The pitch black and freezing cold actually led to some learning about charts and navigation. Last night I enjoyed an excellent dinner, followed by some great conversation with the crew about sustainable practices and efforts going on. Today was uber-beautiful all day, no need for shirts, shoes, and the like. We spent mostly all day up on deck, and I had some time to read some school stuff (about 5 min) before I put that down for a book from the galley (much better!). We talked all through lunch, where after a big group of balloons was spotted, and consequently retrieved from the water by myself and a couple mates. The water was surprisingly warm, and I had the chance to lay out for the rest of the afternoon and talk, as well as a small Cinco de Mayo celebration with chips, salsa, and fresh guacamole.

I am one of four Cal Poly students on board, and this experience has enabled me to get another perspective on the aspect of global warming, renewable energy, and sustainability, which is going to help in several projects I have going on right now. I missed a midterm which will not be able to be made up, a class which if I miss one more I fail, a lab class that can not be made up, but it doesn’t matter. This is college, this is my time. This is something that I have to do, and I have learned much more from this day than an entire week I could have spent in class. And the best part is that I actually care about it, and it is something that is going to affect us all in the near future. JUST SAY YES!

I am currently the president of Cal Poly Biodiesel, a group of student on campus currently in the process of building a reactor to turn waste vegetable oil from on-campus dining services to usable biodiesel fuel for the many tractors, vans, and other machinery on campus that currently use diesel. It has been a long and hard process, but our findings and process have proved that something of this magnitude can be done, with cooperation from the college, Campus Dining, and students. Our goal is to create a model program for other schools and campuses around the world to follow, using the information we have gathered, our hardships and how we overcame them, etc. For more information, please email: cpbiodiesel (at) gmail (dot) com. A website will be up in the next month or so.

James Pickering
President, Cal Poly Biodiesel
General Engineering Department, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

I just ran around the sailboat taking sadly, my last photos of my new friends that I’ve met on the 2041 yacht. We’ve managed to pick up amazing speed on our south track towards San Luis Obispo (technically Morro Bay). We’re running our sails “wing on wing” with the wind at our backs, going at an amazing 10-11 knots, several knots faster than we could motor (and carbon free!). We’ve all taken a stab at driving the boat, seeing who can surf the fastest. Bret, a newbie helmsman took the record at 11.7 knots. Call it beginners luck!

Yesterday, we went about 20 miles due west of Cape Mendocino, just south of Eureka, California. My graduate research proposes to harness the same energy that’s filling our sails, to power offshore wind turbines. Cape Mendocino has the best offshore wind resource and until recently, had been completely ignored as a feasible renewable energy resource for California. The offshore wind farm Cristina Archer, Mark Jacobson, and I proposed would locate 300 turbines off of Cape Mendocino, to supply California with 1500 MW of clean power generating capacity (about the capacity of 1.5 large nuclear power plants). Winds at this offshore site blow consistently throughout the day, especially during the summer months when electricity is most needed. The proposed Cape Mendocino wind park could replace about 4% of California’s current carbon emitting electricity generation (including out of state imports).

We’ve ignored vast clean energy resources like wind, solar, and geothermal, in our quest for economic growth at nearly any environmental cost. The California offshore wind resource is a perfect case in point. By relying primarily on coal, oil, and uranium for our energy, we’ve gotten lazy in inventing novel ways to harness the free energy available on our planet. As I write this now, we’re being hurled down the California coast at a comfortable cruising speed in the 2041 sailboat. My laptop right now is being powered by PV solar cells and the wind generator. All of this comes at a minimal environmental cost.

My hope is that everyone who visits the 2041 boat and reads about the Voyage for Cleaner Energy tries to think about ways in their life, as well as ways for their governments to come up with more creative solutions to solving global warming. We can mitigate the effects of climate change and manage to keep our western standard of living if we are creative enough.

Mike Dvorak
Atmosphere/Energy PhD student
Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering

I’m just getting used to living on a four hour sleep schedule now. We have watch every five hours, which wakes me up at 3:45 am for my hour watch (along with the three other watches per day). Us fair weathered passengers have it pretty easy, compared to the crew which have longer watches and other responsibilities to attend to (e.g. cooking for seven people, polishing the deck rails, and plumbing/electrical maintenance).

This morning was particularly stressful though, as I had to wake up in time for my sustainable energy correspondent spot on the ‘This is Hell’ radio show (WNUR Chicago). Captain Mark was kind enough to turn the engine off and let us drift for the 25 minutes it took for me to call in live. The satellite phone made it for about 15 minutes before it died. At least I got to tell Chicagoans and several tens of thousands of podcast listeners about traveling on a sustainable sailboat.

The winds off the Oregon coast have not been kind to us, making us motor most of the day. We did get a couple of hours of ‘motor sailing’ in this afternoon, which increased our speed over ground by about 20%. The sail acts like a big wing, pulling us along and making our fuel consumption slightly less.

Crappy winds aside, I’m extremely happy to be at sea right now. The sweet smell of the marine air, the glowing squid in the water at night, the current gently pushing us down the coast at 1.0 knot, lazy naps, reading in my bunk, and the excellent home cooked meals by Hannah, all make this an unforgettable experience.

• Mike Dvorak
  Atmosphere/Energy PhD student
  Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  Stanford University

14:00 The sun decided to come out today for once and I watched our whole crew’s spirits improve. Laughter blossomed like a spring wind: light, airy and playful. We felt so good, we even did some team building exercises on the ropes. We are finally leaving Astoria, after getting postponed by low tide and silt deposits in the marina where we tied up last night. We are headed out the mouth of the Columbia River, with green ridges, snowy mountain peaks, lumber mills, paper mills, and bridges in our wake. Flocks of terns hover over the river and geese fly in a shifting arc overhead. Randy mentioned yesterday that the tern populations are booming for some reason on the Columbia, and they are devouring the local salmon fry in the river. The biologists aren’t sure yet why the population is growing so fast. I wonder: habitat shifts, warmer ocean waters, changes in food supply? It gets me thinking about how climate change is already pitting some native species against each other. Certain species will benefit from the changes, and others will suffer. It is possible that within 10 years we may not even recognize our local flora and fauna in some areas of the world.We are on our way south now, leaving the Pacific Northwest behind. I think back to our entry into the Strait of Juan de Fuca – the clearcuts creating a patchwork of the scenery and dividing contiguous wildlife habitat. I recall the countless lumber mills along the Strait and the Columbia River. I am by no means anti-logging or anti-industry. In fact I have a minor in Forestry and I have done my time in corporate America. Here is the thing…seeing so much along the river has me thinking more about what we are doing right now to make the smartest decisions we can with our resources. I walked into downtown Astoria today, and after the silence of sailing and living at sea, I realized how much noise cars make and I got a real sense of the gluttonous resource use around me. I will be the first to raise my hand to say “I am guilty, I participate”. But things are shifting inside me being on the ‘2041’ yacht. I am re-thinking so much about my impact, my footprint, and how I am personally contributing to global climate change. It is time for action. Recently, while I was in Peru a friend shared a very powerful metaphor with me. He said that when you think about the enormous global problems we face today, we cannot become defeated before we begin to address them. He told me to remember the process of siphoning water through a hose – you start putting in effort and for awhile nothing happens. After a few moments, all it takes is one molecule to shift in the direction you are siphoning, and soon you have a flood of water effortlessly flowing, for as long as there is water to siphon. He looked at me and said “you are one of those molecules, now go find others”. All it takes is one of us to be a catalyst for change, an inspiration to our peers, and soon the positive reaction will become contagious. It is possible that one day we will look back on these times and remember how hard things were and we wont believe that this was how it all started – a global population staring down the barrel of a gun.

In Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (Oslo, 2007), he stated, “It is time to make peace with our planet…When we unite for a moral purpose that is manifestly good and true, the spiritual energy unleashed can transform us.”

I want to be transformed.

We created this mess, it is time to rise to the challenge, accept responsibility, and take action. The reason I was drawn to Robert Swan’s 2041 organization and the Voyage for Cleaner Energy is that I was impressed by the organization’s action-oriented approach to bringing important climate issues to the forefront of an individual’s mind. ‘2041’ has connected and inspired many “molecules” in the past and I am thrilled to help add to this process on the 2041 yacht.

Tomorrow I will begin introducing our 2 new passengers, who are both working directly on important renewable energy projects. I can’t wait for you to meet them!

Goodnight world.

• Maura Fallon-McKnight

As each day blends into the next it’s all of a sudden time to set sail again. Three days in Seattle and the only Seattle flavor we got to experience was a quick sneak away to the famous Pikes Place Market where Brent, Jake and I grabbed a cup of Joe at the first Starbucks ever and then bought some fresh produce for the next leg of the journey. I could have spent hours picking fruit, smelling flowers and watching freshly caught fish get thrown across the crowd but we absorbed the smells, sights, and sounds and got back to the boat where there is always work to be done. Cleaning up from one journey and preparing for the next takes a lot of energy and leaves little room for free time so I think it is safe to say that we are all ready to get back to sea where the solitude and (often) the madness of the open waters is therapy for the soul.

At each port we give tours of the boat and today Maura handled the tours and surprise radio interview with grace. I was running around trying to stock the boat with enough food for 9 hungry sailors! This afternoon, in the midst of it all, 300 gallons of soybean oil was fed into the belly of 2041. She’s a hungry beast and the task took over 4 hours but she’s full now and ready to take us where we need to go. In the middle of the daunting task my dad and stepmom arrived with fresh Washington grown asparagus….enough for every day of the voyage. Yummy. I snuck away to a delicious seafood dinner while Brent and Jake stood in the surprise spring hailstorm that Seattle so graciously bestowed upon us and with freezing fingertips they filled her up. Thanks guys.

So….Round one- Success. Round two- here we go. Happy Sailing.

Hannah Huntley