Trash Tour started... and meet our newest crew member

After two weeks (hectic weeks to be honest, it is a boat project as well as a trash project), we set off on Sunday June 26 as planned. On board were a great and appropriate group of people: me and James, my mom and dad (who not only tolerated us but they dog sat, fed us, let us take over their house, laundry and time and all with the most generous enthusiasm... beyond even the call of a parent), Tom Peterson (our very first supporter and a sailor himself), my cousin Laurie Bell (who had spent many years on the Clearwater sailing up and down the Hudson), Hickory, Smudge and our newest crew member for the summer, Sloane Suciu. This is the brave soul who answered our call for a changemaker/intern and she has been awesome. We will use this post to introduce you to Sloane... or, I will let her introduce herself (because there is just too much todo, blogging was part of the lengthy job description and I have to learn to delegate anyway). Tomorrow we start the program at The Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay (we are writing this from mooring CB10).
We have time for the general public to join us Friday later afternoon into the evening right off the Oyster Bay Pier! We would love to see you or your friends who are around the north shore of Long Island!
And now, meet, Sloane...

rzm


Hey everyone out there, my name is Sloane, and I am the latest crew member to join the Rozalia Project on its mission to clean up our oceans. I am a student studying at the University of Detroit Mercy, but am lucky enough to be with the Rozalia Project for the next two months. While we have only been on the American Promise since Sunday, we have already experienced so much, from picking up trash on the Hudson River to sailing around New York City. New York City from the water was incredibly beautiful and an experience I am sure I will never be able to duplicate. Removing debris from the Hudson prior to sailing into the New York Battery also proved to be very enlightening; within a few minutes we were able to remove over 80 pieces of trash, and undeterminable amount of micro-plastic. It seems to me that even though we have a very busy summer ahead of us, we are also in a position to do a lot of good by removing debris and educating the public on the part they can play in keeping the ocean clean. As with everyone else involved in the Rozalia Project, I am very excited to be here and am looking forward to meeting my fellow ocean enthusiasts!!

Moving mostly forward

Before starting, I have to say the biggest THANK YOU this font allows to all of you who showed great enthusiasm and endurance voting for us in the Boat US Grassroots Grant funding contest. We ended up third which is as good as winning and we are waiting to hear from Boat US with the final contract (more on that when it happens - just wanted to say thank you).

I have been composing a new post in my head for a few weeks, especially throughout the last week as we have been in full-on high gear getting the boat ready for the official start of the Trash Tour. My feeling on boatwork is that the best one can expect is to move mostly forward in a day. And for the most part, we have been doing that - moving forward. Today - not so great, but the good news is that it is one of the first days since our big push that we have had a set-back that cost more than an hour or two. Today's issues notwithstanding, we have been rolling along. The interior is nice and newly white and now on the road to being organized. See photo right - those cabinets were literally a jumble of tools, fasteners, tape and parts from machinery that has not been on the boat since the original circumnavigation (anyone need Westerbeke generator parts?). I take no credit for this but give it all to our great friend Shirley Waterfield who was the driving force behind much of what you will see that is clean and organized on the boat. She could have her own organizer reality show.

Some of the issues that plagued us on the trip

up almost exactly one year ago are fixed - stuffing box being one of the biggest, James conquered that today, and the deck beam is done as well. Scarano Boat Building did an extremely and typically neat job (see photo right, and then go back to one of my first posts to see the rotten version). The rigging is re-run, deck repairs complete and the boom up. If all goes well, we will have the bottom painted tomorrow and boat launched on Wednesday. Then, after the next phase of (a lot of) jobs that require us being in the water, we will set off Sunday morning down the Hudson (a spectacular trip)!

In the nooks and crannies in between painting, scraping, cleaning, ordering and planning, I am working on a way for people to follow us (looking like the Spot Messenger) and I do

promise more frequent blog posts as well as Facebook updates with photos of trash and kids and trash and adults and trash and cool fish and pretty islands and our increasingly beautiful (and functional) American Promise... who is about to get some lovely new lettering and American flags.

More very soon. Keep your fingers crossed and best boatwork vibes coming our way.

Happy solstice,

rzm