TED演讲：我为什么划船横渡太平洋(7)

 　　But what do you do? Fall down nine times, get up 10. 能怎么样呢？只有屡败屡战。

　　So, the following year, I set out and, fortunately, this time made it safely across to Hawaii. 第二年，我重新出发，我这次比较走运，安全地划渡到达了夏威夷。

　　But it was not without misadventure.  但也不是完全地一帆风顺。

　　My watermaker broke, only the most important piece of kit¹ that I have on the boat.  我的制水机坏了，它可是我船上最重要的装备。

　　Powered by my solar panels, it sucks in saltwater and turns it into freshwater.  它由太阳能电池板发电，吸收海水，然后把它变成淡水。

　　But it doesn't react very well to being immersed in ocean, which is what happened to it. Fortunately, help was at hand. 但如果它被海水浸泡，则不能正常运转，而这样的事情却不幸地发生了，万幸的是我立刻得到了帮助。

　　There was another unusual boat out there at the same time, doing as I was doing,  正好有条与众不同的船经过那里，他们和我做着同一件事情，

　　bringing awareness² to the North Pacific Garbage Patch, that area in the North Pacific about twice the size of Texas,  用行动来呼吁对北太平洋垃圾大陆的重视，那个地区在太平洋北部，面积是德克萨斯州的两倍，

　　with an estimated 3.5 million tons of trash in it, circulating at the center of that North Pacific Gyre. 据北太平洋环流系统中心测试所得，大约有350万吨的垃圾存在于北太平洋垃圾大陆之中。

　　So, to make the point, these guys had actually built their boat out of plastic trash,  为了能引起人们重视，这些家伙用塑料垃圾建造了他们的船，

　　15,000 empty water bottles latched³ together into two pontoons.  他们把15000个空水瓶捆成了两个趸船。

　　They were going very slowly. Partly, they'd had a bit of a delay.  他们航行速度缓慢，他们在一定程度上被拖延。

　　They'd had to pull in at Catalina Island shortly after they left Long Beach 他们不的不在离开长滩后不久便在卡达琳纳岛休整了一段时间，

　　because the lids of all the water bottles were coming undone⁴, and they were starting to sink. 因为他们所有水瓶的盖子都松动了，所以他们的船开始下沉。

　　So they'd had to pull in and do all the lids up. 所以他们不得不停下来，把这些盖子盖紧。

1 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

2 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

3 latched   

v.理解( latch的过去式和过去分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上）

参考例句：

• The government have latched onto environmental issues to win votes. 政府已开始大谈环境问题以争取选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He latched onto us and we couldn't get rid of him. 他缠着我们，甩也甩不掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。