Days after Argentina canceled all international passenger flights to protect the country from the new coronavirus, Juan Manuel Ballestero began his journey home the only way possible: He stepped aboard his small sailboat for what turned out to be an 85-day odyssey across the Atlantic.

The 47-year-old sailor could have stayed put on the tiny Portuguese island of Porto Santo, but the idea of spending what he thought could be “the end of the world” away from his family, especially his father who was soon to turn 90, was unbearable. So he loaded his 29-foot sailboat with canned fish, fruit and rice and set sail in mid-March.

“I didn’t want to stay like a coward on an island where there were no cases,” Mr. Ballestero said. “I wanted to do everything possible to return home. The most important thing for me was to be with my family.”

Friends tried to dissuade Mr. Ballestero from starting the perilous journey, and the authorities in Portugal warned him he might not be allowed to re-enter if he ran into trouble and had to turn back. But he was determined, “I bought myself a one-way ticket and there was no going back,” he said.

Sailing can be a lonely passion, and it was particularly so on this voyage for Mr. Ballestero, who each night tuned into the news on a radio for 30 minutes to assess how the virus was spreading across the globe. “I kept thinking about whether this would be my last trip,” he said.

When he made it to his native Mar del Plata, on June 17, he was surprised by the hero’s welcome he received. “Entering my port where my father had his sailboat, where he taught me so many things about how to sail, gave me the taste of a mission accomplished,” he said. A medical professional administered a test for Covid-19 on the dock. Within 72 hours, after the test came back negative, he was allowed to set foot on Argentine soil.

While he didn’t get to celebrate his father’s 90th birthday in May, he did make it home in time for Father’s Day.

Engineers have launched a huge garbage collection device to gather plastic material floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

The plastic makes up what is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is the world’s largest spread of garbage, at twice the size of the state of Texas.

The organization Ocean Cleanup created the collection device, whose founder is Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old inventor from the Netherlands.

Slat was just 16 years old when he was moved to clean up the oceans. Last Saturday, a ship pulling the pipe-shaped floating barrier left San Francisco for the Garbage Patch. The barrier, called the floater, is 600 meters across. Attached to it is a screening skirt that hangs three meters down in the water.

The screen is designed to collect the plastic as it moves through the water. Sea animals can safely swim under the barrier.

The cleanup system also comes with lights powered by the sun, cameras, and other special devices. So the system can communicate its position at all times. That way a support ship can find it every few months to remove the plastic it has collected.

“The free-floating barriers are made to survive extreme weather conditions and damage from continue use. They will stay in the water for twenty years and in that time collect 90 percent of the garbage in the patch,” Slat added.

George Leonard is the chief scientist. He expressed concern about the cleaning project. He said even if plastic garbage can be taken out of the oceans, more continues to enter the water each year. He also raised concern that animals might be captured by the net hung below the surface.

But, Boyan Slat said he did not think that would happen. The system will act as a “big boat that stands still in the water”, with nothing for sea creatures to get caught in.