Bahamas Plastic Movement: Journey to Change: My watch is better than.......YOUR WATCH!

Allow me to introduce you to the best watch team ever created............”The Mudda-MoonBows”

Watch teams come and go but the ‘Mudda-MoonBows’ will remain as one forever! Sometimes people can be the determining factor for the making or breaking of a trip. For me the people on board this ship made this experience so much more worthwhile! The diversity, personalities, pleasant attitudes, humor, knowledge and experience of each crew member left us all feeling blessed to have met each other. With several countries, scientific realms, and plastic industry sectors being represented, our ship turned into a melting pot of information and ideas.

Before I introduce members of my watch, I’ll introduce the other watch teams who are as equally awesome as ‘The Mudda-MoonBows’.

Watch Team #1
This watch team consisted of some great people, like all of the watches. Although they never created a ‘name’ for themselves, this crew made a mark on all of our hearts. Rodrigo, our boat captain was the watch leader of this team. I don’t know where to begin with Rodrigo, he is amazing! By far one of the best boat captains I’ve ever worked with. Hailing from Baja, California Mexico, Rodrigo has years of sailing experience. Having studied Oceanography, Rodrigo has been sailing around the world for quite some time studying whales and dolphins. We shared lots of stories and talked about The Bahamas, as he has sailed all around the islands of my homeland. His caring, nurturing, and humorous personality definitely brought some pizzazz to the boat. Rodrigo was joined by his lovely partner Belinda, a filmmaker from England. This lovely duo has been travelling the world together to study and film whales. Bebe as she was known on board was filming our entire expedition day by day and was gracious enough to put together a video for us all. Valerie, one of the sweetest people you could ever meet, hails from France. As a wife and mother of three Valerie realized the effect plastics and its chemicals, can have on the environment. To tackle this issue Valerie created her own line of biodegradable plastic beach toys and dishes that have microbes that help plastic to degrade overtime. Her company is called Zoë B Plastics, named after her first daughter. Their motto is, ‘It’s time to mother nature’; she could not be more right! Last but not least is ‘Bob, the Body’, a self proclaimed explorer from Maine. Bob is a part of the Explorers Club, where they travel the world to take part in scientific and recreational activities.

The Shan Watch Man Watch

This crew formerly known as the banana bunch was lead by Shanlee, our resident fierce ferry. Shanlee is an avid sailor who recently received her Yacht masters certification. She is a BEAST when it comes to sailing; I was so inspired and proud to see a young female taking charge of the seas. Way to go Shanlee! She was the only female of this team but she kept all the guys on her watch in check. On her team were The Water Brothers Tyler and Alex a.ka The Water Boys (inside joke), two brothers from Toronto, Canada filming their environmental TV show called the Water Brothers that addressed worldwide issues facing water. Hank Carson, a Marine Debris professor at University of Hawaii Hilo, was also on this watch. Hank is HILARIOUS!!!!! He kept me in stitches daily and did I mention he plays a mean Ukulele’. Mike Brown has a packaging company in Rhode Island called Packaging 2.0 where he uses all recyclable plastics to make his products. Although he was often outspoken, he had a very funny side to him.

The ‘Mudda-Moonbows’

Before I even begin to describe my fantastic watch team, I think it’s only right that I explain our name. During one of our late night/early morning watches we had a squall (small rain storm) pass through. At this time I was briefing some of my watch mates on common Bahamian slang terms, ‘muddasick’ being one of them. After the rain had passed the moon was shining bright and there was a moonbow (night rainbow) glowing in the sky. The topic of choosing a team name came up and all of a sudden Cynthia had this stroke of genius! I swear I saw the light bulb turn on on her head. “I know” she gasped, “How about the Mudda-Moonbows?!” There was silence for a brief second followed by uncontrollable laughter, I could not contain myself; the look on her face was priceless. That’s how we came to be the ‘Mudda-Moonbows’.
Jessie Horton, our first mate and watch leader, was born in Bermuda, lived in Costa Rica and now resides in Colorado. Jessie is AWESOME! For a young person he has accomplished so much in his life. At 32 years old Jessie is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, sailor, world traveller, submarine pilot, whale enthusiast, I could go on but I don’t have that much time. His easy-going and charismatic attitude certainly brought a good vibe to our watch. Marcus Eriksen, where do I begin? Marcus is INCREDIBLE; I would not be on this trip if it wasn’t for him. He is the founder (along with his lovely wife Anna) of the 5 GYRES organization and has studied plastic pollution in all 5 gyres of the world. His passion of the plastic pollution issues exudes whenever he speaks. As an artist and a palaeontologist, Marcus has many sides to him, including a very humorous one, and bleeds innovation everywhere he goes. “Gee Whiz.......It’s Cynthia!” This is the ditty we sung everyday whenever she came around. Cynthia is a passionate marine biologist/cetacean specialist from Washington State who now lives in Maui, Hawaii. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard a Cynthia story, she tells the best ones; and they are quite detailed. One can’t imagine the amount of jokes and laughter shared between her, Boxy and I. Carolynn a.k.a Box, CBox, Boxy, Foxy Boxy, Boxette, Boxina; she had a lot of names. Box, is from Santa Cruz, California but lives in San Francisco where she works in the Environmental policy realm; she is going to be real instrumental in helping me with my plastic campaign in The Bahamas. She and I were probably the loudest crew on board, every single day we could be seen and heard laughing, shooting videos for our blogs or discussing a certain donkey on board. These people were the elements of a great trip.