July 22, 2010 - The plastic bottle catamaran sailboat, Plastiki, is scheduled to end its transpacific voyage in Sydney, Australia this coming weekend. Plastiki left San Francisco 125 days ago and has crossed 8,000 nautical miles of Pacific Ocean. Once in Sydney, the Plastiki will tie up at the Australian National Maritime Museum. It will remain on display for a month as crew members hold special events aimed at raising awareness of plastic waste in the ocean. The general public will also have the opportunity to visit the vessel.
The boat's hull and cabin are made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other forms of recycled PET plastic. Plastiki is the brainchild of explorer David de Rothschild. The boat and its voyage are intended to highlight a range of environmental concerns including global warming, ocean acidification and marine pollution. Rothschild, a descendant of the British branch of the Rothschild banking family, financed the project himself. Here's more from CNN.
For the record - On a much lower budget and with much less fanfare, Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal completed an 87 day voyage from Long Beach California to Hawaii on a raft made of plastic junk in August 2008. Here's more on their voyage.
