Rothschild heir to cross ocean on plastic-bottle boat

SAN FRANCISCO — Banking heir David de Rothschild is sailing across the Pacific Ocean on 12,000 plastic bottles.

The discarded containers were made into a catamaran called the Plastiki, which is heading for the Line Islands, 1,300 miles south of Hawaii, on a mission to showcase recycling. The crew includes two grandchildren of the late Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, of Kon-Tiki fame.

"I wanted to get people to think sensibly that waste isn't really waste, but merely inefficient design, and that we can turn it into a resource," de Rothschild, 31, said by satellite telephone as the boat sailed west from San Francisco. "Every day, we are seeing bits of trash floating past us. They look like jellyfish, but then we realize they are plastic bags."

The Pacific is littered with trash, including one mass of swirling plastic at least 1,000 miles across, said Charles Moore, an oceanographer who identified the conglomeration in 1999. Marine debris kills sea turtles, seals and sea birds and destroys coral reefs, said Timothy Ragen, executive director of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.

The Plastiki crew is logging the GPS positions of trash it encounters, interacting with school classes via Skype calls, posting photos on its Web site, and growing bok choy, kale and chard in a hydroponic garden. The trip is an outreach of de Rothschild's London company, Adventure Ecology, which advocates for environmental causes including ocean cleanup.

De Rothschild, son of British financier Evelyn de Rothschild, descends from the 18th-century European banking family that once held the largest private fortune in the world, according to "The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets," by Niall Ferguson.

De Rothschild said the Plastiki name pays homage to Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki, a balsa raft he sailed from South America to Polynesia in 1947. That voyage tested a theory that indigenous peoples migrated across the ocean before Europeans landed in the Americas, Heyerdahl wrote in his 1950 book, "Kon-Tiki."

Heyerdahl's grandson Olav, 32, and granddaughter Josian, 26, are crewing on the Plastiki, along with a captain, videographer and first mate.

At 60 feet, the Plastiki isn't large for an oceangoing vessel. It has encountered rough seas and a curious shark since leaving San Francisco on March 20 for the 3,400-mile trip to the Line Islands, de Rothschild said.

"All the crew members had to be clipped on to every part of the boat so we don't get washed over the side," he said.

The gyre of bottles, toys, fishing lines and tiny bits of plastic is whirling about a thousand miles off the California coast. The Plastiki won't sail through the mass because of weather patterns.

That's fine with Moore, who sampled and documented the vortex. He agreed to let de Rothschild borrow the Plastiki name, which he had used on his own vessel made of recycled bottles, aluminum and old T-shirts.

"Everybody is talking about carbon emissions, but our plastic footprint kills thousands of mammals," said Moore, a researcher based in Long Beach, Calif.

The final destination is Sydney, Australia, 4,100 more miles.

Weather changes quickly and sea temperatures are cool this time of year, said Jo Royle, 30, the captain and a racing sailor. The Plastiki is stocked with dried meats, fruits and vegetables, and 3 liters of water per person per day, she said.

It took a year to assemble the Plastiki's bottles into a seaworthy craft. The boat has two hulls and five sails and travels at an average speed of five knots. That's about 6 miles per hour.

"It's a little slower than I'm used to," said Royle, the captain.