Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Students helping to build Junk

Junk is beginning to take shape! Thanks to the incredible help of Samohi's Team Marine and the Environmental Charter High School's Green Ambassadors, we'll have our first few pontoons built by the end of the week.
















Here's the "mock up" above, the skeleton of what Junk will look like - aluminum shipping masts lashed together to create a massive, recycled foundation.
















The frame will perch atop 4, 30-foot long pontoons made out of plastic bottles and derelict fishing net, collected from Port Townsend, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and possibly New Orleans in a few weeks.....



Each pontoon provides roughly 2,000 pounds of buoyancy, adding up to 8,000 pounds total - more than enough to carry our two lean sailors, the airplane fuselage they'll live in for 6 weeks, a ton of supplies, and just enough chocolate to keep Marcus fueled.
















Here are some Green Ambassadors getting busy with bottles after school - washing, de-labeling, making sure caps are super tight, and laying in a trough lined with derelict fishing net.

















This mass of bottles will be wrapped with a few more layers of net, and voila - our first light weight, low cost, functional pontoon. 1 down, 3 to go......


3 comments:

jenny said...

Hey Anna, I met you at the talk you gave in santa cruz recently. You and marcus have passed on your "sense of ergency" to me. I haven't been able to find where you guys are going to keep a running blog that we could leave comments on while this whole junk project goes on (and maybe ask you questions?). I wish you were closer to santa cruz so i could lend a hand in the building of this raft. but i am trying to spread the word here at cabrillo college in santa cruz and people are really interested.

jenny said...

okay i feel silly, i guess this is the blog i said i wasn't able to find. sorry. i'm new at blogging. i don't know if i can ask questions and be answered on this blog... can i?

Anna said...

Hey....JShedden,
Thanks for checking in, and for coming to hear us in Scruz.

Yes, this is in fact the blog where you can ask and be answered. Right now we're documenting the building process, and once Marcus and Joel set sail, the voyage.

We wish you were closer too! This weekend will be a big final push - boat needs to be in the water by end of next Monday. C'mon down.....

And thanks for spreading the word at Cabrillo. Perhaps we can swing through on our fall bike tour.