The Green Journey Sails for Climate Change
Megan Routbort and Thomas Polo, two late-20-somethings from the US and France, are traveling the world, but only on forms of transportation that have a climate-positive effect. What does that mean? Airplanes and private cars are out; trains, bikes, hitchhiking, and literal hiking are in. They chose human- or nature-powered modes of transportation only.
Sailing included, of course!
But why? It’s all to create a codex of 10 climate hotspots — places where innovative and impactful solutions to the climate crisis are being developed — on each continent, and to collect human experiences instead of flags or numbers of countries visited. Reduce, respect, restore are their guiding principles as they visit each climate hotspot and write with optimism about collaborative human efforts successfully making positive climate change.
Their undertaking is called the Green Journey.
Routbort and Polo met in Berkeley three years ago and quickly discovered the Cal Sailing Club (CSC) together. “Polo has always had this dream to sail; his sister did an Atlantic crossing and it’s a super-compelling mode of transportation,” Routbort says. “One of my first birthday presents to him was a membership to CSC. He was excited, but just looked at me. ‘Where’s your membership? We have to do this together!'”
So they did.
On one of those cold, sunny September days in Berkeley, they leaped into the pursuit of dinghy sailing in the South Sailing Basin. But it was not love at first sight. “I’d say we really fell in ‘like’ with it, not love at first sight,” Routbort explains, noting how intense learning to sail there can be. “But just something about being in a wetsuit and foulie jacket out on the Bay was so exciting and won us over.”
They started off on dinghies, progressing through a Fast Track clinic in 2022, and moving on to more advanced techniques like learning to trapeze. They also got really good at capsize recovery, as anyone who has ever trapped out in the Berkeley Marina would understand.
Now the pair are calling from Barbados, with stories about making their first Atlantic crossing together on big boats! It’s quite the level up from dinghy sailing, and reflects their passion for taking big steps toward their goals.
Thus, the Green Journey was born from a curiosity to explore the world. Their aim is to show local communities at home in France and the United States (such as Cal Sailing Club) that there are grassroots efforts, right now, helping the planet from their own backyards.
Dinghy sailing was a catalytic experience to crystallize their vision of the project.
“Dinghy sailing is more of a sport than big boats — you have to be more aware of your environment, to read the wind. You have to use your body to know where you are,” Polo explains. “To really be a sailor, and understand sailing mechanics, is essential on the ocean. So the dinghies were a good place to start, as you learn the basics, and basic survival without a computer.”
In our modern lives, we lose our connection to nature. Polo likens our modern lifestyle to riding in an SUV versus taking a bike — both take you to the destination, but one separates you from your environment and guzzles fuel while the other is a climate-positive mode of transportation.
Really, the Green Journey is a way to prove that just changing your mindset and expanding your comfort zone, like dinghy sailors crossing the Atlantic, can make a difference.
After leaving Berkeley, the co-founder couple moved back to France. They launched the Green Journey while traveling across Europe, but since airplane travel was out, this necessitated another, greener mode of crossing the Atlantic. Being very “green” sailors, they weren’t sure if they would be able to find their way onto a boat. But in the end, they found passage on two boats! A flotilla took them on — Polo on the guys’ 39-ft sailboat and Megan on the girls’ 40-ft catamaran, departing from Montenegro.
“The Mediterranean Sea is really tricky at that time of year, end of October and beginning of November,” Polo says. “I got advice to always eat something to avoid feeling sick. So when one guy went to cook a pizza, I went down to demolish it, and 15 minutes later, I threw up in the crazy seas.”
With bad weather, it was the best and worst of sailing. The best parts included stopping at little European ports, whale sightings, and stunning sunsets. The worst part was just … the seasick-inducing enormous waves and big winds. On one night in Sardinia, they clocked 40 knots of wind in port. For green sailors, it was way out of their comfort zone and a trial by fire that would test anyone’s resolve to love sailing.
In many ways, it’s an interesting experiment to make good on big talk: Not everyone can physically or financially take the time it takes to cross the Atlantic by boat. It’s not that Routbort and Polo are against plane travel when no alternatives exist. But advocating for regular people to take alternative forms of transit when possible really just means challenging ourselves to get out of our comfort zones and to practice radical humility and vulnerability to become a non-expert in a new, challenging environment.
Ultimately, they finished the crossing to Barbados, saying, “We just go where the wind goes.” (…sounds familiar!) since the original destination of Sint Maarten was not possible with given winds.
Being adaptable is just the reality for humans as climate change progresses and the landscapes we know today will not be there in the future.
Stay tuned for the rest of their sailing journey, unfolding in the next month with their scheduled arrival in Miami in early March. We’ll have the full story for you in the upcoming April Latitude 38 magazine — check back in a couple of months!
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