Sydney-Hobart power couple on environmental mission
Jasper Bruce |
While others entrants nurse Sydney to Hobart post-race hangovers and party into the new year, Annika and Ian Thomson will be continuing their work clearing a second million tons of rubbish from Australia’s waterways.
For 10 years, the husband and wife team have been personally clearing debris from lakes, rivers and the ocean through their charity Ocean Crusaders.
“We manage to remove around 150 tons of rubbish every year, which makes us the largest waterway cleaning team in Australia,” Ian Thomson told AAP.
In October, Ocean Crusaders cleared their millionth ton of rubbish, though the actual sum of their efforts is greater given they only began keeping records in 2017.
But it’s a remarkable statistic given a plastic water bottle weighs eight grams, and around a third of the waste the charity clears is polystyrene – Ian’s biggest bugbear.
“The number one item we pick up still is polystyrene, which weighs nothing,” he said.
Along with a dedicated team of volunteers and a handful of casual employees, the Thomsons have spent this year clearing garbage from the Sunshine Coast, Western Sydney and Bundaberg, among other locations.
Clearing trash was the first thing the couple did after sailing back from their honeymoon in Croatia, and in the past, they’ve organised clean-ups for Sydney to Hobart sailors on arrival at Constitution Dock.
This year, a project on Chipping Norton Lake in Sydney’s south-west has stuck in memory.
Ian Thomson remembers a family of geese emerging from the squalor as his team began clearing a mountain of rubbish from the lake’s shoreline.
“These creatures are living amongst the rubbish. Probably their nests are made of it. It’s horrible that we’re doing that to our wildlife,” Thomson said.
In two long days on Chipping Norton Lake, the couple removed a little over three tons of rubbish, equating to four boatloads or 25 cubic metres.
Raising awareness for their work is a major reason why the Thomsons are racing their TP52 yacht, Ocean Crusaders J-Bird, in the Hobart for a fourth time this year.
After ringing in the new year in Hobart and spending a week or so in Sydney for some work events, the Thomsons will sail north to the Gold Coast to continue their clean-up.
But the clean-up effort is not the only thing that makes J-Bird special; unlike others boats in the fleet, the yacht does not use a diesel or petrol-powered generator onboard.
Instead, its sat-nav and starlink communication systems, as well as other on-board appliances, are electrically powered by rechargeable batteries.
“We have an electric drive and we have set up the boat to recharge our 12-volt batteries by solar and also hybrid generator,” said J-Bird skipper Annika Thomson.
“We do not charge our batteries with diesel because we don’t have that diesel engine on board.”
Annika Thomson also has her eyes on a fourth consecutive Jane Tate Memorial Trophy, awarded to the female skipper who finishes the race first.
J-Bird was ninth past the post in last year’s Hobart and third in her division.
“It’s a tough competition this year. Natasha (Hill) on Antipodes, it’s going to be tough to beat her over the line,” she said.
“We’re doing everything we can to go as fast as we can to Hobart.”
AAP
