The Sea's sense of humor

New words from Junk, illustrated by this very exciting action photo of Marcus typing.

Day 6. The winds are beginning to subside, and should clear enough mid week for Junk to forge ahead. Granted, the sea has a mind of its own - with all due respect.

Here's one we didn't predict: the recent stormy seas have been twisting the caps off our Nalgene bottles only, while the other plastic bottles hold perfectly tight.

According to Marcus:
The sea is a master of twisting the caps off of bottles. We have 1000 polycarbonate sports bottles. I can count dozens with loose lids, still attached by their plastic O-ring. We even pulled out two bottles, where the sea twisted both caps off and put one cap on the other bottle! The sea also has a sense of humor. We have a new plan.

The plan: sealing the Nalgene caps with a rock solid cement glue. Tedious, tiring work - here's Joel counting bottle caps in his sleep - but at least gives our captains something to do in the meantime.













Junk's bottle cap issue certainly pales in comparison to the large water bottle crisis outlined in this USA Today article, an excerpt here:

"Plastic water bottles produced for U.S. consumption take 1.5 million barrels of oil per year, according to a 2007 resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That much energy could power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to the resolution.

Cornell University professor and environmentalist Doug James said the irony of bottled water is that it's marketed as clean and healthy when its production contributes to unnecessary environmental degradation.

"Fiji water, for example," he said. "A one-liter bottle is taken out of the aquifer of this little island, and shipped all the way across the world, producing like half a pound of greenhouse gases so you can have this one-liter bottle of water."

A reminder of exactly why we are doing this project.