Atlantea, In Brief

A scientific, educational and human adventure to better understand the Ocean!

During the Atlantea expedition, a crew of passionate young people will embark for more than a year on a sailboat around the North Atlantic Ocean to participate in the study of the Ocean, to encourage a sharing of experiences and knowledge during stopovers and to sail with a minimal environmental impact!

A few numbers

kilometers traveled

Crew members

Months at sea

 The first expedition of the Plankton Mission!

Plankton represents most of the marine organisms as it is all those that drift with the currents. The mission of the Plankton Mission is to encourage a frugal and accessible study of plankton and its environment. Atlantea is the first expedition of this mission and it focuses mainly on the marine microbiome, the invisible part of the plankton spectrum. At the base of the marine food chain, it is also the first indicator of the health of the ocean and is hyper sensitive to environmental changes. Studying it is therefore a priority!

The Itinerary

After two months of sailing off the coast of Brittany to get used to the boat and carry out final tests with the scientific equipment, the crew will set sail from Brittany in the fall of 2023.

The journey will take them across the Bay of Biscay and then along the coast with the aim of arriving at Cape Verde via the Canaries. He will then attack one of his two transatlantic routes to reach the Caribbean and then go back up north via Bermuda and Newfoundland.

Then, heading for Greenland, the most difficult part of the expedition due to the climatic and navigation conditions, but also one of the most important, because this difficulty implies that fewer measurements have been made, making them all the more important. Our itinerary will then take us from Iceland to the Faroe Islands and then to the United Kingdom for a hoped-for return to Brittany in the fall of 2024.

On board

 

Sustainability being a key value that guides all our actions, low-tech technologies on board and a questioning of environmentally unfriendly sailing practices will be our driving force to revisit the practice of sailing by combining adventure with science to minimize our environmental impact.

Embarked Laboratory

 

With the objective of making science accessible, prototypes of frugal instruments and measurement methods will be embarked in a small sailboat to prove that science has its place at all scales and that it is possible to be just as rigorous and efficient with simpler and less expensive instruments.

Share and Inform

 

Because we love what we understand and we protect what we love, this expedition aims to resonate the beauty of the ocean through art, understand it through education, and raise awareness of its preservation through shared experiences and open discussion.

A Human Adventure

 

A permanent crew of 3 young people and 2 to 3 other semi-permanent young people will carry on board the missions of Atlantea during one year at sea. The adventure of this expedition starts already now during its preparation and the crew is surrounded by a tight and dynamic association!