MS Tûranor, the biggest solar boat in the world, is on her way to Singapore. After a one-week stopover on Hong Kong, which she left on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 10 a.m. local time (02.00 UTC), MS Tûranor is ready for the mythical economic metropolis of Singapore.
The PlanetSolar Village, constructed in Harbour City in the middle of Hong Kong, received thousands of fans in the week that is was there. Hundreds of children have used drawings to preserve their visions of what a solar world would look like, as well as participated in different activities at the PlanetSolar Village.
For Raphael Domjan, initiator of the Eco- Adventure and Co-Skipper of PlanetSolar, “the stop in Hong Kong exceeded all our expectations. Thousands of people came to the Harbor to see, film, and photograph PlanetSolar. The media transported our vision and our message allover China and even beyond. It was important to show the people of Hong Kong and China that we already have the technology and energy needed to change our lifestyles and live sustainably.
The navigation to Singapore (about 1,600 miles or 2,500 kilometers respectively), through the Chinese Sea will be complex, as Pascal Goulpié, the operative and scientific leader of PlanetSolar has stressed. “The monsoon rain in this region is strongly present, thus the danger for tropical storms in not yet averted.”
We are also pleased to say that the PlanetSolar Medical Team gave Raphael Domjan permission to come back onboard PlanetSolar at the beginning of September. The surgery from June went smoothly; therefore Co- Skipper Domjan will again be able to take over navigation. He is planning to join the Crew under Captain Erwann Le Rouzic during a short stay in Vietnam so he can tackle the rest of the over 10,000 mile world tour to Monaco with the rest of the Team.