News
08-11-2007
Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour reaches final destination
The Green Blue has followed the progress of Yachtsman Mukti Mitchell and the ‘Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour’ over the summer. Supported by The Green Blue, Mukti has now finished his journey around the UK in his zero-emission explorer microyacht called ‘Chance’.
Mukti has gone a long way since he left Clovelly in Devon on Easter Sunday in his 15 foot boat. The past six months have seen him sail and row the boat he designed and built himself over 2,500 miles around the UK coastline. In that time, he has given more than 40 talks to over 2,500 adults and children about the tour and leading a low carbon lifestyle.
From seeing some amazing sea creatures to having stones thrown at the boat by children in Glasgow, there have been a fair few highs and lows over the course of the tour. And along the way numerous crew, including a Canadian who came all the way over to take part in a leg of the tour, have helped Mukti sail around the country and kept him company on those long days, and sometimes nights, at sea.
The journey took him round Lands End, up the Welsh coast before heading over to the Isle of Man in rough seas. This trip across the Irish Sea in Force seven winds got a little hairy at times but Mukti had specifically designed the boat to be as stable as possible so despite taking a bit of a battering the boat and crew got there in one piece.
He then hopped across to the Western Isles of Scotland before tackling the wilds of the northern coast, accompanied en route by whales and seals. Unkind weather had stalled his progress slightly and at one point the tour was two weeks behind schedule because the weather meant it was not safe to take the boat out into open water.
But with favourable winds he managed to make up for lost time sailing down the eastern coast of England - at one point travelling 80 miles in just one day.
Mukti said: “I was quite cautious when planning the tour and allowed a full six months so there would be no pressure to go to sea when the weather was bad.
“Some of the highlights of the trip for me included seeing a pod of 14 dolphins playing off the NE coast of Scotland and watching a family of seals off the Yorkshire coast.”
There was a political dimension to the tour as Mukti wanted to let the politicians know about what he was doing and also to give them copies of his book on leading a low carbon lifestyle. So he headed straight up the Thames into the heart of London to deliver copies of his book to the House of Lords and the Houses of Parliament as he had done to Scottish politicians in Edinburgh.
The tour then sailed back up the Thames, anchoring for a rough night near the Isle of Sheppey before heading on through the choppy conditions near Folkestone to Dungeness power station.
A slight misjudgement led to him scraping the boat along the jetty at Rye harbour then a stop over in Brighton included an event at which he was joined by the mayor, local politicians and an MEP. After more press interviews and talks he crossed the Solent to Cowes for yet another media event and talk. Back across the tricky waters of the Solent and into the mouth of the Southampton estuary, Chance pulled up just in time for the Southampton Boat Show. At the show Mukti had a stand from where he was able to talk to the public about his tour and, of course, boating in general. He was even featured on the ITV boat show programme, regional TV, newspapers and the radio talking about the tour and his experiences.
When Mukti arrived back on the Devon coast, he stopped off to talk to children at a coastal primary school before sailing up the River Exe in his Chance and rowing into the canal basin at Exeter Quay on a bright autumnal day.
As part of this low carbon celebration, a series of different distance runs were organised for those that wished to get a bit of exercise, then in the afternoon sunshine Mukti gave another talk about his low carbon lifestyle tour. Local politicians and over 100 well wishers gathered to meet him and celebrate his safe return to his home county. Chance was then towed to Bideford before being put back in the water for the final leg to his home town of Clovelly.
Mukti said the response to the talks he gave was encouraging and that the boating community were carrying out practices the Green Blue promotes, such as being more fuel efficient, and they were keen to sustain high quality water and local environments to help recreational boating go green. He’s now hoping to get an order to build a copy of Chance from a potential list of customers impressed with how Chance stood up to the tests the conditions threw at her.
He added: “It has been satisfying to find that all over the UK people want to do something about reducing their carbon footprint. I've had really positive feedback from the marine community who really want to do something to lessen their impact on the environment.”
Sarah Black, Green Blue project manager, said: "On behalf of everyone at the Green Blue, I would like to congratulate Mukti on his six month voyage around Britain. He has highlighted the merits of all of us trying to reduce our carbon footprint and be more responsible sailors. It also perfectly supports the Green Blue work to help everyone in the marine business to think and act in an environmentally conscious way."
» Visit the Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour website
