It has been a busy time and here is an update on where we are up to !
The Delivery Of Patricia
Patricia B is a 40 foot yacht that will serve as our ocean base in Samoa promoting ocean protection, collecting plastic and being base for volunteers that visit the island. The ship was due to be delivered this month beating the cyclone season however a failure in the heat exchanger and the time required to fix it means that we miss the safe weather window for heading to Samoa ! Instead, Patricia will sail to Christchurch from Opua in October for further work and be ready for delivery after March 2023 when the weather is again favorable. Patricia has had an engine overhaul, installation of safety and navigation gear and is ready for adventure. The original plan was to deliver her this year, followed by the sailing ship Delight a 30 foot sloop next year. Given the change of plan it looks like there will be two deliveries post March 2023 ! Pencil us in for a sailing camping adventure in Sunny Samoa next year, tent it on the beach with us, sail with us, plant the reef and forest with us!
Plastics
We continue to collect plastic from our drop zone at ARCADIA www.arcadia.net.nz and are chipping away. We have used our small machines to make 200 recycled plant pots so far and are looking at expanding our range of machines so we can make more things ! This in our effort to get used to chipping collected plastics and making useful things, the aim to set up a plastics recycling station on the island of Samoa Upolu. The ultimate is to make fence posts, roof tiles and useful household items. We are acutely aware now that we will need a much bigger chipper!
Bicycle Collection
Thank you to everyone that donated bikes. The intention to repair them, transport them to Samoa and use them for biking on the island ring road to sites where we can plant coral. We have fixed up 15 bikes and they are ready to go ! They will head over inside our shipping container when we have finished building it into our first hut.
Coral Reef Replanting
Thank you to all of you that have supported us with donations towards direct action on reef planting. Our friends Artificial Reefs Samoa have multiple sites and projects on across the country. Sitting here ready for delivery we have two submersible drills, go pro camera set and we have raised $600 in tips to send over. While we wait to get hands on, we love to support this group with the small humble amount of resources we can gather.
Check out our friends here https://www.facebook.com/ferron.fruean.94
The First Cabin
We have purchased the first container to be converted into the first off grid cabin that will kick off our eco hub on the beach. This camp is for volunteers that pop over to get into our various proposed projects. We have kitchen, toilets, shower, electrics and other gear to fit out the container and now just need some time! The weather is picking up nice here in Christchurch so soon, this will be built! It will be delivered to Samoa full of bikes, bee hives and other resources to further the eco-pirate mission. Let me know if you are free to chill out and build from time to time.
There has been much debate about the cost effectiveness of building on containers. Our vision is that the containers have built onto the front of them, a more traditional Samoan Fale. After going back to cost the project building and using items in Samoa, it turns out that the only cheaper option would be to order in from China for the basics and then to build on and customize from there. At the moment it looks like for 20k a shipping container can be purchased and landed including fit out with recycled material. What we found was that should we seek to build a structure of the same size there, with the toilet, shower and kitchen units, it would be upward of 30kNZD : CRAZY huh !
Heres to getting the eco camp off the ground and out of the imagination !
Bee Hives
Many of you following our threads will know that we are looking to get involved in bee keeping as a project that will support locals into self employment and a valid contribution to the environment in Samoa. Bees are good.
Our project lead, Tess is completing a course in rearing queens. There have been issues around supply of bees and queens for establishing hives. Our solution is to learn to raise queens and then to populate the hives. We have decided on a design for the hives and are due to build the first 120 hives from December 2022 for delivery in the first quarter of 2023 and then we will raising queens !
Heres to honey !
Thanks to everyone that has shown interest in the Eco-Pirates. Soon we can host you for relaxing times on the sunny beaches of Samoa!
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