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Old 11-02-2013, 17:11   #1
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Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

just curious if any cruisers after have encountered the Garbage Patch, and if so, what was it like ?
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Old 11-02-2013, 17:29   #2
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

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Originally Posted by scoundrel View Post
just curious if any cruisers after have encountered the Garbage Patch, and if so, what was it like ?
Are you asking about the garbage patch in my car? If so it is ugly,at least I dont throw it out the window and litter the streets...Ha haha
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Old 11-02-2013, 17:30   #3
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

I really dont think it exsists. Certainly I didnt go through it from Panama to Australia.
its only referenced by one video thats not scientific.
theres no hard evidence for it.

Remmember all the docks and tsunami trash moving from Japan to the US PNW. why has that arrived at the US coats and not gone into this claimed vortex?
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Old 11-02-2013, 17:54   #4
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

It's existed for years but is probably much more stocked since the Japan Tsunami. It's formed by the currents around the Pacific High that more or less form a circle in the North East Pacific. All the crap in the ocean doesn't get trapped there but a good deal has for a long time. Most of the plastic has been broken down into very very small pieces by UV. Important to have a good sea strainer as you power through it. Since it's in the middle of the high, there is little if any wind. The area is not fixed, however, just a general area roughly at the same latitude as SF. The high moves up and down in latitude with the seasons. Would imagine there is a lot of larger debris trapped in the Gyre since the Tsunami.

For those with a lot of fuel, the short cut for the Hawaii to Mainland voyage is to sail north till the wind quits. Then turn on the engine and take the rhumbline to your destination right through the center of this area. Eventually, the wind picks up on the other side of the high and you have a nice beam reach to your destination.
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Old 11-02-2013, 18:07   #5
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

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It's existed for years
.
How do you know?
Wheres your reference?
Wheres your evidence?
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Old 11-02-2013, 18:33   #6
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

I sailed from Hawaii due north to 38 then turned right to SF. I noticed mostly fishing floats and rigid yellow foam from docks or construction. Maybe two or three items an hour within several hundred yards of the boat. I picked up a few floats and found a large glass float with netting about the size of a basketball. Also picked up a good plastic bucket from china. I did see a small ball of fishing net but never saw fields of trash.
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Old 11-02-2013, 18:40   #7
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

Mark, it was there in both 1983 and again in 1987 when Ann and I transited the area, sailing between Kauai and SF. Lots of floating stuff, ranging from little plastic crap through fishing floats (got several nice glass ball types) to a fairly large and very mysterious buoy with antennae and Chinese writing (I think). For a couple of days the stuff was all around us.

Can't say more recently than that, but see no reason to believe that it has been picked up by the sanitation workers!

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Old 11-02-2013, 18:46   #8
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

I have been through it three times.

In 2000 I thought there was a boat ahead throwing 1 foot squares of plastic overboard.

In 2010 there was some visible.

Last summer there was more. Some was easily tsunami debris: overturmned hulls, pieces of dock. Other not so much: oil bottles, water bottles, pieces of fishing net, foam blocks.

Much of the issue is small piece of plastic particulate that you cannot see. I brought two extra raw water impellers just in case.

Last summer we had a debris report as a part of our radio for the VIC-Maui return.
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Old 11-02-2013, 18:58   #9
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

Refer Algalita Foundation. Algalita Marine Research Institute:: Captain Moore Plastic Ocean Book

Charlie has spent some time there.

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Old 11-02-2013, 19:10   #10
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

It was there in 1978, enroute from HI to AK came across a field a couple miles wide and 5 miles long, did not see it during following transits in '81, '83, or '88, doesn't mean it wasn't there, just not on our course.
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Old 11-02-2013, 19:46   #11
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

MarkJ; well my friend, try google "great pacific garbage patch".

How do you know it isn't?
Have you traveled so extensively in the North Pacific that you have seen it all?

Maybe you should learn to use your search engines before you jump to conclusions.
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Old 11-02-2013, 23:31   #12
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

It's not an island of garbage you need an ice breaker to get through, or something you can get out and walk around on... it's a huge area of thousands of square miles (Hawaii is INSIDE it, technically) in which there are some 'patches' or 'clumps' of rubbish, and all other kinds of drifting crap (more after tsunamis) as well as lots of millimetre-sized and smaller pieces of plastic. The plastic breaks down enough to sink due to UV action over time so most of the stuff on the surface isn't very old.
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Old 12-02-2013, 00:00   #13
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Re: Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

Gee MarkP, I wonder if Global warming is real now? If ABC news reports on the garbage patch then it must be liberal proaganda. or was that MSNBC?
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Old 12-02-2013, 03:39   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dos Gatos View Post
I sailed from Hawaii due north to 38 then turned right to SF. I noticed mostly fishing floats and rigid yellow foam from docks or construction. Maybe two or three items an hour within several hundred yards of the boat. I picked up a few floats and found a large glass float with netting about the size of a basketball. Also picked up a good plastic bucket from china. I did see a small ball of fishing net but never saw fields of trash.
Any of it glow at night? Hehe
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Old 13-02-2013, 08:52   #15
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Interesting thread. I heard about this complete with "the size of Texas" descriptor years ago. I've always wondered whether it was true.

I've never done a long passage by sailboat, but I run a business that delivers Airliners all over the world. I cross the pacific about twice a month in both hemispheres - multiple latitudes north routings (Aleutians) southern - Hawaii - Majuro - Guam - Palau routings and several in-between. On and off the tracks... I've spend literally thousands of hours staring off into the blue and never have seen anything of the like. Doesn't mean it isn't there, but you'd think I'd see something despite the fact I'm in the upper flight levels.

I have seen DOZENS of little atolls, reefs, and tiny land masses that aren't depicted on any charts I could find. Pretty cool. The sheer size of that ocean and the thought that humans have never set foot on parts of it always amazes me. Part of the reason I took up sailing.

Anyway I'll keep looking!
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