Yacht Newsletter

Swimming Across the Pacific
By: Jeremy Davis, Operations Manager

What's the farthest you have ever swum? 100 yards? A few miles? Can you imagine swimming across the Pacific Ocean for nearly 4600nm?

Swimmer Ben Lecomte is attempting to do just that, becoming the first person to swim across the Pacific. He will swim at several intervals through the day, resuming the swim at the exact point that he exited the water to swim in one continuous route. The attempt, called "The Swim", began at Choshi, Japan and will end at San Francisco in about six months.

The S/Y Seeker provides full operational support, with Lecomte resting/eating onboard between swims. The crew includes offshore support from researchers to doctors to onboard support of crew who navigate the vessel, track Lecomte's progress, and keep him in good spirits.

The Swim began June 5 and lasted for several days, but they had to turn around to Choshi due to an approaching tropical storm. The expedition resumed June 12^th, and Lecomte has made excellent progress since then, utilizing the Kuroshio Current for maximum assist.

The goal of The Swim is multifold - besides setting an incredible endurance record, Lecomte and the team will study:

Concentrations of plastic throughout the Pacific
Radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster
Water chemistry
The effect on weightlessness (Lecomte will be weightless approximately 8 hours per day for the next 6 months)
Psychological effects for such a long duration event

Weather Routing is proud to be a sponsor, and provide full weather surveillance and routing for this incredible journey. We have been working to ensure the best possible route, taking advantage of the most favorable currents and best wind and sea angles. Of course, for such a long journey, severe weather will be unavoidable at times, but the WRI team will keep Ben and the crew well-advised to be prepared and minimize impacts as much as possible.

You can follow The Swim at http://benlecomte.com/, and view our forecasts here

Ben Lecomte swims across the Pacific, as shown in this July 9^th photo, courtesy of The Swim.

The Marlin Mission: An Atlantic Fishing Expedition Fundraiser
By Amanda Delaney, Senior Meteorologist

Since 2011, the M/Y Dorothea has traveled much of the world: from Alaska to Southern Chile, and from the Southwest Pacific to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Overall, the vessel has traveled a staggering 140,000 nautical miles and visited 75 countries. However, there were more to these travels besides visiting new places and immersing into another culture. On some expeditions, the Dorothea III was one of many yachts who joined YachtAid Global, delivering supplies or clean water to countries devastated by tropical cyclones, or school supplies to remote villages.

Now the Dorothea III is underway again. This time with a sport fisher called Post One, in tandem, on a journey across the Atlantic to Western Portugal, and eventually into the South Atlantic to arrive in Rio De Janeiro in January 2019. Along the way, they will fish for Atlantic Blue Marlin and this sparked the idea for their own fundraiser. On their website, people can pledge between $5-$100 per blue marlin that are caught and released by Post One from now until January 15. The goal is to catch and release 30 blue marlin and raise $15,000. This will pay for school supplies to be delivered to rural schools and communities in the Cape Verde Islands and Brazil.

WRI is one of many companies who have pledged for the Marlin Mission so far. In the first four days of the fundraiser $8000 has been raised already. If you would like to pledge to the Marlin Mission and learn more about the Dorothea III and Post One's journey, please visit: http://dorothea3.com.