The Around the Americas expedition was a circumnavigation by sailboat
of the North and South American continents. Captain Mark Schrader and
crew departed Seattle on May 31, 2009 sailing the 64-foot boat S/V
Ocean Watch. They were the first sailboat to go through the Northwest
Passage, they were able to do this because of the lack of ice. They
sailed down the east coast, around Cape Horn, and up the west
coast of the Americas. The circumnavigation was completed with their
return to Seattle in June 2010.
While the expedition is completed, the mission of The Around the Americas Expedition lives on through the book, One Island One Ocean, written by Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson. One Island One Ocean documents the 13 month journey sharing the beauty that exists, the peoples who rely on our oceans, and the changes that
are happening all too fast.

You can learn more about the expedition through K-8 lesson plans created by the on board educators, scientific experiments that were done on board, photographs from David Thoreson, and archives of Herb McCormick's daily blog posts.

The expedition was possible thanks to partnerships with Seattle's Pacific Science Center and the University of Washington's Applied Physics Lab, and with the collaboration of Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere & Ocean, NASA, and MIT SeaGrant. Sailors for the Sea used the dramatic nature of this never-completed sailing adventure to focus international attention on ocean health by:

• Providing direct access to voyage updates through web-based field reports; creating bi-lingual educational materials that is freely available to classrooms, after-school programs, and homes.
• Hosted media events at 50 ports of call featuring conversations with scientists and educators discussing the relationship between the larger patterns of global climate change and its impact on local ocean environments.
• Produced a book, One Island One Ocean, about the expedition.

The voyage brought audiences in direct contact with local and global ocean conservation issues through scientific observation and evaluation of the ocean environment and providing a platform for scientists and educators to communicate the urgency of the issues to the broader public.

Around the Americas is made possible by generous lead grants from The Tiffany & Co. Foundation and the Rockefeller Family. Major support has been provided by James Bishop, Osberg Construction Co. and the Osberg Family Trust.

The project is also supported by Charles Butt, Edmund B. Cabot, The Campbell Foundation, John Castle, Jim & Dee Claypool, Ettinger Foundation, The Herbert W. Hoover Foundation, and Vantage in Philanthropy.

In-kind support has been provided by Blues Sea Electrical, Euro Marine Trading, Fisheries Supply, Freeborn Concepts, Hasse & Co./Bainbridge, Hatton Marine, Helly Hansen, Iridium/Stratos Satcom, Jeppesen Marine, Lewmar, Miller & Miller Marine, Northern Lights, Northwest Rigging, Outdoor Research, Raymarine Instruments, Remote Satellite Systems, Samson Rope, Seaview East Boatyard, SSI, Sure Marine/Webasto, Swedish Hospital - Ballard, Vi Jean Reno and Winslow Life Raft Company.