The skipper has been on watch since 1.30am because the seabed is only 50m below the boat. Fatigue is felt, he wakes Laurent fresh like a roach taking the helm.
We are no longer very far from this archipelago and we must redouble our vigilance. We approach slowly and finally we perceive some trees on the horizon. That’s it we have almost arrived, the joy gives way to reflection to determine our place of docking. “Threes island” will be our first island to explore.
Its coastal vegetation could constitute an environment favorable to our observations. Navigating to get there is like everywhere in this very delicate archipelago, we slalom between sandbanks and coral potatoes. We already see a dozen of ray turtles, a dozen Remora circling the boat and will never leave us. We drop anchor less than 80 m from the beach in front of a white sand dune stabilized by rare plants.
Finally we dock with our dinghy, by oar, as the first explorers were able to do, and start our prospecting. The afternoon is devoted to the shooting of countless macro-plastic waste washed up on these beaches: thousands, everywhere, along this uninhabited island. A distressing observation which confirms that 80% of plastic waste comes from the earth, and sometimes from very far: we can read on the labels Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Maldives …
The turquoise waters of these islands hypnotize us but this waste is unfortunately there to remind us of this ecological disaster. Mickael strums a few chords for us on the guitar, Laurent prepares us a dessert of which he has the secret and Serge prepares the navigation for the next day. The night is coming
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