Eco voyage begins

The schooner Tara. Photo / Supplied

CAPE TOWN: The French yacht Tara, previously owned by New Zealand yachtsman Sir Peter Blake, leaves today on the second leg of a three-year voyage across the world's oceans to chart the effects of climate change on micro-organisms which produce half our oxygen.

The 36m schooner will depart from Cape Town a year after leaving Lorient in western France to head across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for New Zealand next August as part of a 150,000km journey.

The plankton-studying boat will sail to Ascension Island, the expedition's longest crossing since leaving France, before it heads for Brazil, Argentina and farther south to Antarctica.