The sailing yacht „Malizia II“ with the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on board has made good progress less than a week after her start in Plymouth, England, and is on schedule on her trip to New York. „We are happy with the weather and the future,“ said Hamburg skipper Boris Herrmann.
The „Malizia II“ has made about 1,500 nautical miles, about 1,700 nautical miles are still there. According to current forecasts, the ship will arrive in New York on 27 or 28 August. „We sail in comfortable winds around 13 knots, the sun is shining,“ said the 38-year-old on the phone last night.
Herrmann and his Monegasque co-skipper Pierre Casiraghi bring Thunberg, her father Svante and the filmmaker Nathan Grossman on their racing yacht from Plymouth to New York. Thunberg wants to attend New York’s UN Climate Summit in September. The Swede waived because of the climate on flights.
„You can not solve all responsibilities on an individual level“
Recently, however, there was criticism, because the sailing trip indirectly attracts several transatlantic flights. Herrmann and Casiraghi, according to the German newspaper „Tageszeitung“, are returning by plane, and other team members are to bring the boat back from New York to Europe, after which they would have to fly to the USA.
Herrmann said that the crew, of course, noticed that people were dealing with the journey. „In general, however, we find it positive that you deal with flying and recognize flights as a problem. That’s what we want. “
The skipper basically justified the support of Thunberg and its goals. „You can not solve all responsibilities on an individual level. The discussion about our journey is very short-term, if you think about what the intention is: Politically, something has to change. Our flights do not change the fact that Greta comes to New York without emissions. We ourselves are a racing team anyway and would otherwise train and fly during this time. „
