I like projects that start out with a clean sheet of paper.
The difficulty is, of course, that you cannot compare to anything.
And we are using materials and we are in an environment that has hardly been modeled,
so there are a lot of things that you just have to try out for the first time
And simply see what happens.
A couple of months ago when this mission was scheduled,
we all had good hopes that we would just be fishing plastic out of Wilson.
After the first mission, it became clear that Wilson did capture plastic,
but it didn’t retain the plastic.
So we have not seen the massive plastic buildup inside the system we had hoped for.
So, the main objective of the trip number three was to carry out some tests
to understand why Wilson was not retaining the plastic as we expected.
We had a first look at the system again this morning. Everything still looking good.
We need to do some minor maintenance, but, so far, so good.
We had different tests.
Some what we call “drifter tests” – where small drifters with GPS on them were released
and then we could compare their trajectory to Wilson.
So the manta trawl is to collect microplastics from the surface.
Then we will collect it and analyze here on board.
Yeah, I see one, 30 degrees over starboard.
70, 80 meters.
We’ve also been able to capture a few ghost nets.
Today we are doing the long-expected and long-prepared dye test.
This is a special marine dye which is biodegradable and non-toxic,
and we will just pour a line of like 300 meters long in front of the system
and we would have drones flying that would just record
how the system interacted with the water and the ocean,
which we could very well track, thanks to the dye.
Not a perfect landing, but it will do.
All these tests were carried out, but not as many as we intended to do.
No matter how well prepared we are, we cannot control the weather.
It’s such a big factor.
The name “Pacific” can be very misleading,
we are a thousand miles, close to two thousand kilometers from the coast.
So the waves have a lot of time to develop.
Just before arriving, we had 5- or 6-meter waves.
Winds of up to 14 knots in wind gusts and that makes the waves quite steep.
When the waves are steep, Wilson is trying to follow,
but to follow it, it actually has to bend a lot.
Even though the system has been out here for only four months,
it has been through more than a million cycles already.
And we have modeled everything we could have modeled.
But, there’s, yeah, there’s always reality.
And reality and modeling…
Wilson has broken up
So all of a sudden we went from a maintenance mission and observation mission...
to a salvage mission.
Yeah, deck bridge.
Go ahead.
Will you come to the bridge please?
We’ll have a toolbox talk.
Well if we can lasso this one.
I might be able to go close,
and get a hold of it.
We have secured the tow head.
It’s all fastened here.
That very same afternoon, we recovered the small piece, we did the opening procedure,
let the system straighten out again, recovered the big part.
But it’s not over, yet.
Most likely, we will have to tow back Wilson to shore.
Looking at the weather conditions, it was much safer to tow it back to Hawaii.
I would say just start heading towards Hawaii.
Take it easy to start with, and then monitor at all times very carefully.
Thank you.
Speak to you later.
That’s it guys.
This system was supposed to be in the ocean for at least one year.
And then to see it fail after four months after all,
it hurts a bit.
We needed to find a nickname for the towhead,
to make it easier to accept.
"Little Wilson", "Willie", "Little Willie",
and in the end, we settled on "Wilma".
We now have Wilson and Wilma.
This is the very first time anyone has ever attempted anything like this,
and if you look at what has been achieved, then that’s quite phenomenal.
It is a success because we have been able to use it as a test bed,
and we will be able to correct some properties of the system,
to capture and retain the plastic better.
Something like this should not come as a surprise.
We are just learning to walk, we are just learning how we are going to tackle this problem.
We can get a better system.
It’s only just the start.