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Foundation 31 December 2018

A few of our highlights from 2018!

Having set sail from Lorient in April 2017, the Race for Water Odyssey has been continuing to make headway, conveying its messages along the way, which favour the preservation of the Oceans and the struggle against pollution via illicit plastic waste. It has already racked up over 18,500 miles, 13 stopovers, meeting up with over 8870 people including 3385 schoolchildren.

1 January – 00’ 00’’- Guadeloupe
Arriving 24hrs after Hurricane IRMA rolled through,
Over 2,675 people welcomed aboard over a 3-month stopover.

15 February – 10:35am – Panama, from one ocean to another!
Passage through the Canal and entry into the Pacific.

25 March – 11:30am – Bâselworld, #BreguetExplorer
Mr Marc Hayek, President of Breguet watches and Mr Marco Simeoni, President of the Race for Water Foundation announce a 4-year partnership.

25 April – Iquitos (Peru), a village in distress.
A project to install a Biogreen machine is under study in Iquitos, the source of the Amazon!

16 June – 10:30am – Valparaiso, the Presidential visit!
Chilean President, Mr Sebastian Pinera, four of his ministers and Messrs Gunter Pauli and Marco Simeoni take part in a working session aboard R4WO. 
Objective: installation of a Biogreen 300 on Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

28 June – Dominican Republic
Continuation of the fieldwork initiated during the Race for Water stopover in Santo Domingo in August 2017. Alongside the Dominican NGO Heroes del Medio Ambiente, the R4WO teams endeavoured to rally together public and private protagonists in an ambitious project to convert plastic waste into energy for the benefit of disadvantaged areas situated along the Isabella and Ozama rivers.

3 August: the magnificent Juan Fernandez or Robinson Crusoe Island!
R4WO makes a stopover on Robinson Crusoe Island…
A magical encounter with the inhabitants and a Biogreen 130 under study.

1 September: Rapa Nui, the comeback and “Act”s!
After the odyssey in 2015, R4WO promised to return…
On behalf of Mama Piru, one of our ambassadors, who passed away this year, and of the Rapa Nui people, who are witness to this global pollution, which affects the islands at the ends of the earth.
A memorandum of agreement was signed and the process for installing a Biogreen 300 is underway for a better future!

5 October: Polynesia smiles on us!
R4WO flirts with its first lagoons… Despite this obvious beauty, Polynesia has also been struck by the scourge of plastic pollution. Between the presidential welcome in Papeete and the signing of a study to install a Biogreen 300 in Bora-Bora, R4WO confirms the urgent need to find local solutions to a global issue!

21 November: We’re planing! R4WO and its Kite break records!
Somewhere between Polynesia and Samoa, R4WO sets the speedo spinning with 9.8 knots under kite alone and an average of 6.3 knots over a consecutive 9hrs27 of flight.
Congratulations to all the crew and to Skysails Yacht, which each day optimises this fabulous energy source: the wind and the kite.

22 December: Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and that’s not all…!
R4WO is completing its long, winding passage through the Pacific Islands…
And the findings are that here too, pollution is rife! The latest scientific study carried out in this part of the Pacific is terrifying: Of the 34 fish species studied, 33 had plastic in their digestive system, which equates to over 97% of fish affected by plastic pollution in this peaceable zone cut off from the world! (source SPREP. Study carried out by Ana Markic, a scientist from New Zealand. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.09.031)

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