Sabine & Dario Schworer With Their Youngest Child, Daughter, Mia, at RiRa Last Friday Afternoon. Founders of ToptoTop.org
“Mother Earth” the Family’s 50 Foot Aluminium Sloop, Rides Out the Storm at Handy Boat Yard Falmouth, on Friday.
By Carol McCracken (Post # 2,611)
Sabine and Dario Schworer and their five children were in Portland last Friday having just made a passage through the Northwest Passage aboard their 50 ft. sailboat and were preparing for a tour along the New England coast looking for another sponsor for their urgent message warning the public of the consequences of climate change. The Swedish couple is the founder of ToptoTop.org. a fifteen (15) year project. The informative webpage lists their upcoming tour with the final event held at the Mystic Aquarium, Mystic, Connecticut on December 2nd. B0b Pratt, CEO & President of IIHEC, a clean energy company, is making tour arrangements. rpratt@iiec.org for more information.
Getting their message about climate change and its dire consequences to school children was the motivator for this global expedition that has brought this family to five different continents so far; their five children ranging in age from eleven (11) years old to eleven (11) months old were all been born on five different continents.
“You can’t tell anyone not to drive a car, but you can show them the dire consequences on the climate if you do” reasoned Sabine,an attractive registered nurse last week.
Her family was bivouacked in the recently refurbished upper dining room of RiRa, Commercial Street, Portland riding out the strong winds that prevented the family from sailing into Portland Harbor early that morning for the press conference hosted by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Rather the energy efficient sloop was riding out strong winds at Handy Boat, Falmouth.
Dario, who is a climatologist and is still recovering from a serious leg injury, said that the changes on their journey is sometimes distressing. “It’s hard for our children to see polar bears struggling to feed themselves because of melting ice. It was alarming to sail through the Northwest Passage for the first time without an icebreaker making the way. These are the changes we are seeing because of climate change. There are still people who don’t believe in climate change. That needs to change.”
Mountain climbing is the passion of this duo. Their plans include a climb of Mt Vinson at the South Pole for which they need volunteers. It will take a month to hike all of the supplies inland, a month to climb the mountain and another month to exit the in land area.
“We are both happy with the size of our family now,” said Sabine smilnig. “There will be no more babies born on another continent,” she said grinning widely.