August 2023 Novara update
by Novara 13 Aug 2023 13:07 UTC
Novara One Planet © Novara
What an amazing first four months of our Novara One Planet adventure! We've sailed 2,500 nautical miles, engaged with 8 coastal communities on climate adaptation and had 100+ visitors on board Novara. Onwards!
Where's Novara?
We've had some amazing sailing on Novara - from Poole in the south of the UK, to Lerwick in the north, to the Outer Hebrides in the northwest and now Novara is in France, ready for our next phase.
Novara One Planet project
We had such an incredible time in Scotland working with communities (Dunoon and Campbeltown to Lerwick, and Hoy, Stornoway, Raasay, Barra, and Islay (blogs coming soon on our website). As a result of our time in Scotland, we contributed to two climate events (Lerwick and Barra), had more than 100 people tour Novara and engage in climate adaptation discussions, met many climate action co-ordinators, and gave feedback on several climate action plans. In addition, we've left the following ongoing connections/support in place:
- Dunoon: We connected The Food for Survival work to people invNew Zealand who are now looking to replicate this in NZ schools.
- Campbeltown: Connected the community council to an EVvcharging company to support their work on charging infra in the area.
- Shetland Islands: linked Lerwick council to Prof Bruce Glavovic, an expert on holding difficult conversations with communities around climate adaptation decisions and provided feedback on their climate action
- Raasay - linked Climate Neutral Islands (CNI) coordinators to a climate finance expert who has agreed to mentor them over the next few months regarding the deployment of their funding
- Barra and Islay: connected CNI coordinators to on-going coaching.
While in Scotland, we were able to look through many of the climate action/adaptation plans. We were impressed with the depth of dedication of the teams working in the field, and in awe at the huge task ahead of them. We also noted several issues - mainly relating to funding, some gaps in the plan focus areas and the need to support climate action coordinators.
What engineering work are we doing on Novara?
Why didn't anyone tell us that maintaining a boat would take so much time and effort? Oh, hang on. They did! Anyway, we're keeping on top of things as they need maintenance, and gaining confidence in our ability to deal with technical issues when they occur. For example, when the Raymarine system collapsed enroute from Isle of Man to Holyhead. Turns out that having multiple redundancy on Novara pays dividends.
So, that's it from us. We've got 6 weeks exploring the French coast before heading south again. If you have any questions, or you'd like to get involved, let us know. And if you feel like following us on Instagram or FB, we're @novaraoneplanet.
Veronica, Nigel and the Novara team
novara.world