A
round-the-world sailing event will be setting sail in 2014 to raise awareness of the
global effects of climate change.

The
Blue Planet Odyssey is spearheaded by Jimmy Cornell, the founder of the
Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) and organiser of several other
international sailing rallies including five round-the-world events.

This
global sailing event will have starts in every continent and its
route will call at some of the most threatened islands in every
ocean: Tuvalu, Tokelau, Tuamotus, San Blas, Maldives, Micronesia,
Kiribati, Marshall, and Andaman Islands.

It
also aims to highlight the effects of climate change on the Arctic
icecap, the Great Barrier Reef, and nature reserves such as the
Galapagos Islands.

At
every stop at those endangered places, the sailors will take part in
community projects such as building wind and solar powered
desalination plants.

Participants
with specialist skills will take part in local projects and carry out
essential repair and maintenance work.

The
event will reach out to children worldwide by delivering books and
educational material to places en route where local schools will be
offered the opportunity to be twinned with schools in the country of
origin of the participants.

As
the route will pass through some of the least travelled parts of the
oceans, arrangements are being made for oceanographic institutes and
research centres to use this unique opportunity to receive
environmental data gathered by participants.

Throughout
their voyage, the sailors will take seawater samples and make
measurements to test for acidification, pollution, the depletion of
the plankton population, changes in temperature and salinity to
compare to previous data.

Participants
will be able to start and finish from a port on their own continent
or join the event at any point along its route.

The
Blue
Planet Odyssey will
sail westabout around the world along the classic trade wind route
via the Panama Canal and Torres Strait, although there will be other
more challenging route options available.

European
participants will start from London on 20 July 2014.

On
the way to the Canary Islands they will stop at several ports before
crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean and will continue to Panama
and the Pacific Ocean.

The
main route will be joined at certain points by participants who have
started from New York, Miami, Vancouver, San Francisco, Rio de
Janeiro, Cape Town, Sydney and Shanghai.

Detours
will be made along the main route to call at endangered islands in
every ocean.

Participants
who wish to explore destinations that lie off the usual sailing
routes may join one of the suggested detours and rejoin the main
fleet at a later stage.

To
find out more, click here
or email info@blueplanetodyssey.com.

Subscribe to Practical Boat Owner this Christmas and save up to 31%!