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by Herb Holley
Mark Schrader, skipper of S/V Ocean Watch and chief of the Around the Americas project, was our speaker at CYC's Monday Lunch on September 20th. He gave a fascinating presentation illustrated with more than 100 photographs. The Around the Americas project involved a circumnavigation of North and South America, beginning in Seattle in May 2009, leaving the American continents to starboard, and returning to Seattle a bit more than a year later. The voyage was a scientific and educational adventure, supported by the Pacific Science Center, the UW Department of Atmospheric Science, and Sailors for the Sea, an organization dedicated to understanding the world's oceans and their interrelationships with life on our planet.
All photos by David Thoreson, Around the Americas
S/V Ocean Watch is a 64-foot steel hulled cutter-rigged sloop. She had a permanent crew of four and typically one or two scientists and one or two educators were also on board. Here she is off Apple Cove Point with the Olympics in the background, right after departing from Shilshole on May 31, 2009.
Ocean Watch carried an extensive array of scientific instruments to measure ocean temperature, salinity, acidity, chemical composition, and other factors of scientific interest. Instruments installed on the boat sent data continuously back to the scientists in Seattle, and a package of instruments was deployed regularly from the boat to take readings from the water.
This picture shows Mark Schrader and a crewman casting an instrument buoy into the waters of the Arctic Ocean.
The primary concern to Mark in planning the trip was to transit the Northwest Passage successfully in late summer 2009. Ocean Watch has a 3/8" steel hull, but the Arctic sea ice is constantly on the move and might crush her hull under certain unfavorable conditions. Canadian Coast Guard ice reports and forecasts were studied continuously to select an open route. Observations were taken of ice conditions encountered across the top of North America, as well as life on and around the ice.
Numerous polar bears were seen, including one particularly striking incident when a female polar bear and her year-old cub climbed onto an ice floe to get a good view of their strange visitor.
The expedition traveled close to 28,000 miles, through the Northwest Passage, down the east coasts of North and South America, around Cape Horn, up the west coasts of the two continents, and returned to Seattle on June 17, 2010. Along the way they encountered many examples of how humankind is putting pressure on the oceans and the adjacent coastal lands.
A beach near Buenos Aires on a summer holiday weekend was packed with humanity.
A beach in Peru was covered with trash and dead sea life. Many South American ports levy a hefty fee for trash disposal, and consequently most ocean-going vessels dump their trash in international waters before reaching port.
Education was an important part of Around the Americas. Ocean Watch was open for visitors at every port stop, and many school groups were welcomed on board to see the scientific work being done and to hear the scientists and educators talk about the oceans and their critical importance in sustaining life on the planet.
Chilean School children on board Ocean Watch.
S/V Ocean Watch is presently at Seaview East in Seattle, getting some TLC after a long voyage. She will soon be available for a new project, and Mark is working on possibilities. KOMO-TV is planning a special on Around the Americas for airing later this fall, and a PBS special is also a possibility.
Mark Schrader is a distinguished sailor with a lifetime of accomplishment. In 1982-83 he was the first American to circumnavigate the globe singlehanded via the Five Capes of the Southern Ocean. In 1986 he finished sixth in the Around Alone race, and in 1996 was Race Director for Around Alone. He is co-founder, along with David Rockefeller, Jr., of Sailors for the Sea.