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100KM sailing charity challenge around Hong Kong for our oceans

  • 11/07/2021 - 01/08/2021

OneOceanHK is fundraising for Plastic Oceans Limited

I am sailing 100km over 4 days around Hong Kong in an inflatable catamaran to raise awareness and funds for our oceans.

My Story

Check out our website and Instagram!: https://oneoceanhk.wixsite.com/oneocean @oneoceanhk

Hi, my name is Ocean and I am a sailor from Hong Kong.  As my name suggests, the ocean has been my second home for as long as I can remember. My family always takes me and my brother out to do something by the beach whenever we are free.

Last summer, I purchased an inflatable paddleboard and took it out almost every day. I played an adventurer and hopped from one secluded beach to the next, even ending up camping on the back of a random island one night (which was not the best experience). All these beaches shared one thing in common: the seemingly infinite flow of trash washing up onto the shores. I immediately took action and gathered a few friends who were willing to support my spontaneous effort to clean beaches up. We filled bags after bags of random trash ranging from your average coke bottle to the lungs of pigs (I know. Wild right?). I won't lie to you, after a week of ferrying trash from beaches to the orange trash cans on my little paddleboard, I gave up. I adopted the mindset of "if no one's doing it, why should I?" This summer, I'm going to try a different approach. Rather than picking up trash at the beach (which obviously still makes an impact albeit small), I'm going to raise awareness for ocean conservation by sailing around HK, documenting the state of different beaches and the underrated beauty of our ocean.

I came across inflatable sailboats in an ad on Cheung Chau, an island in Hong Kong, and became heavily invested in the idea. I spent the last year researching different models and finally settled on one, the Minicat 420 Catamaran. I then jumped onto planning the trip while finishing freshman year in the US. My catamaran is called “HiPP | OneOcean” (thank you to my friends at HiPP who have so generously covered the cost of the boat and supported this cause) and my slogan is “One Planet, OneOcean”, because we only have one ocean and we should protect it at all costs. My mom gave me the idea of selling t-shirts to raise money for an NGO. I scoured the internet and there were hundreds of international NGOs that were advocating for the same cause: save our oceans. However, I wanted to find a local NGO so that we could actually get stuff done and see change happen, not just a marketing campaign. I settled on A Plastic Ocean Foundation HK which also made the movie A Plastic Ocean on Netflix . The movie made me pretty emotional, but it made me even more determined to give back to our ocean which has brought me so much joy over the years. They pledged me their full support and I got to work designing t-shirts.​I remembered from the back of my head that companies were using plastic bottles to create clothes. I thought it would an amazing idea to offer that as the fundraising product. Creating closure and taking eliminating plastic waste to the next level. I found the company Tsunami Sportswear who are dedicated to creating sustainable clothing. I reached out to them and they agreed to partner with OneOcean without hesitation. I cannot wait to see what the t-shirts will look like! ​So, that's my story of how I got to where I am now! My effort to advocate for change will not stop here, I will continue to find ways to give back to our beautiful ocean. I hope you too will feel motivated and create change. Because change starts with you and comes in waves!

Me and my partner Raphael Macresy plan to sail around Hong Kong for 4 days, camping on different beaches for the nights. We will set sail from Discovery Bay, going along the bottom of HK Island, then navigating up the east of Kowloon and finally, into the beautiful beaches of Sai Kung. The whole trip is roughly 50 nautical miles (around 100 km). We hope to use this trip as a platform to raise awareness for ocean conservation. Our catamaran will bear a flag with the logo of A Plastic Ocean which will hopefully generate curiosity and lead to people watching the movie. The slogan "One Planet, OneOcean" will also be written across my boat which will reinforce the fact that we only have one ocean and we must protect it at all costs. We will be documenting my trip through a GoPro, filming the state of the open seas, and also the state of secluded beaches in an attempt to show Hong Kongers what our beautiful home has become, and could become if we put an effort. We will be fundraising for A Plastic Ocean which will enable them to continue educating our next generation on ocean conservation, engage in research on how we can reduce plastic waste, and sustain their beach cleaning efforts.

The raised money will go towards several projects that are managed by A Plastic Ocean Foundation. The first project will be the #OneTonneLess Beach cleanup campaign with the goal of removing at least 1 Tonne of Beach waste from our coastlines every year. The money collected will also be going to fund their educational programs for underprivileged youths, aiming to take care of these teenagers’ personal growth and train them to become our future ocean conservationists. Furthermore, the fund raised will be used to film an updated version of their award-winning feature-length documentary “A Plastic Ocean” on Netflix. The Foundation has always been actively supporting the development of products from recycled materials. The funding will be allocated to keep up their assistance in these innovations. Consider donating today, APO is in need of your support to keep the wave of change growing!

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Recent Donors

  • Rosa Tseng

    Ocean we are so proud of you! You have a big heart and deep sense of compassion for the animals and plants living in the ocean. Let’s do what we can to save it - eat less fish may help too! Love Rosa, Daniel, Amber and James

    HKD 2,000 07/24/2021 01:34:18 PM UTC

  • Patrick Tsui

    HKD 300 07/23/2021 03:42:59 PM UTC

  • Everett Mokarow

    USD 250 07/23/2021 03:34:49 PM UTC

  • Denise Pettersson Ng

    Well Done !!

    HKD 500 07/23/2021 01:00:05 PM UTC

  • Anonymous

    USD 25 07/23/2021 03:01:22 AM UTC

  • Sunny Sun

    Let’s save our ocean together.

    HKD 200 07/23/2021 12:40:36 AM UTC

  • Grace Chow

    Thank you for making our home a better place. So proud of you!

    CAD 200 07/21/2021 07:15:19 AM UTC

  • Phoeberino Ki

    Go Ocean and Raphael! Ocean, when your parents named you, they knew that you were destined to be one w the ocean!

    USD 100 07/20/2021 09:37:40 PM UTC

  • Thayer Newton

    USD 25 07/20/2021 04:32:48 PM UTC

  • Oliver Li

    WELL DONE

    HKD 1,000 07/20/2021 05:44:01 AM UTC

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