From Monaco to Porto Cervo by the Tiber (Rome)

 

Monaco, Thursday 15 October – Around 15:00 today in the Marina of the Yacht Club de Monaco, the Sovereign Prince, Albert II of Monaco took over from the hands of navigator – explorer Yvan Griboval the moorings of the AMAALA EXPLORER maxi-catamaran until his return to the Y.C.M. pontoon of honour on 29 October at 11:00 a.m.

Thus began the OceanoScientific Mediterranean Contaminants Expedition 2020 which set sail for the mouth of the Tiber for the first large-scale scientific operations, after contaminants have been collected by Yvan Griboval and by Linn Sekund, the on-board researcher of the Team OceanoScientific, on route to Italy.

 

 

After leaving Monaco and meeting up with TUIGA (1909), the traditional yacht of the Yacht Club de Monaco, between the Principality and Ventimiglia (Italy) and having made a large detour via the mouth of the Tiber (near Fiumicino airport), the AMAALA EXPLORER maxi-catamaran will make a port call on Saturday, 17 October at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo, where a joint conference is scheduled with the One Ocean Foundation on the theme of their own campaign to collect micro-plastics all around Sardinia and on that of the OceanoScientific Mediterranean Contaminants Expedition 2020.

The conference will be held in the presence of the crews competing in the Audi Sailing Champions Leagueinvolving some thirty teams from more than fifteen countries. It will provide an opportunity to make this population of international regatta racers aware of the need to preserve the Ocean by reducing the use of polluting materials, first and foremost plastics of all kinds.

Before the AMAALA EXPLORER maxi-catamaran left, for the Sovereign Prince and a hundred children aged 8-12 from Monegasque schools (the number was limited for health restrictions, which are very much respected in Monaco), photographer Greg Lecoeur presented the exhibition of his images of plankton taken at night offshore – and not under a microscope in the laboratory – staged by Yvan Griboval in a plankton fresco 13 meters long and two meters high, on the theme of LOVE THE OCEAN® Exhibition – Greg Lecoeur. The open-access exhibition is offered with the support of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and will be held on the dock of the Yacht Club until Sunday 1 November.

“While almost everyone has realized that plastic pollution is an appalling scourge for the Ocean, I want to show just how remarkable plankton are, as well as being the first to be poisoned in their natural environment,”says Yvan Griboval.

​“Providing Greg Lecoeur with an occasion to show Monaco his incredible talent as an underwater photographer of the infinitely small was therefore an obvious choice. These tiny beings a few centimetres long are at the bottom rung of the food chain. Once poisoned, they transmit the contaminants to beings larger than themselves. And all of the poison that we human beings make and dump by thousands of tons into the sea ends up on our plates. Respecting plankton means saving future generations”,concluded Yvan Griboval before taking the helm of the AMAALA EXPLORER maxi-catamaran to leave Monaco and head for Italy.

CREW:

– Yvan Griboval (Expedition Director / Watch leader / France)

– Guillermo Altadill (Winner of The Race 2000 on board CLUB MED now OCEAN PEARL     and AMAALA EXPLORER today / Watch leader / Spain)

– Maciej Piejko (Boat Captain / Poland)

– Maxime Dreno (Second in command to Yvan Griboval / Helmsman / France)

– Frédéric Dahirel (Second in command to Maciej Piejko / Helmsman / France)

– Linn Sekund (Scientist / Sweden)

– Quentin Sixdeniers (On Board Reporter – OBR / France)

– Xavier Ciurana Llorens (Crewmate / Spain)

– Marc Archer (AMAALA guest –  Director of sports / New Zealand).

 

More info: www.ocenoscientific.org – www.amaala.com