By Jason Graziadei

I&M Staff Writer

Although an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound is still in the permitting process, a handful of islanders want to see one for themselves. And they’re willing to cross the Atlantic Ocean to do it.

Six Nantucketers will leave for Denmark next Tuesday to take part in a trip sponsored by Clean Power Now, a group which supports Cape Wind’s proposal to construct 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. They will join 29 other residents from around the Cape and Islands on a trip that will take them to two offshore wind farm locations, as well as two land-based wind parks in Denmark.

“I think we can be the eyes and ears for a lot of Nantucketers who are on the fence about the wind farm,” said Carl Borchert. “I want to talk to everyone I can over there about the aesthetics, tourism, economics, jobs and how it’s affected their communities. I’m going to talk to as many people as I can.”

The trip will feature stops at the 70-turbine Nysted Harbor offshore wind farm in Rødsand, the 80-turbine Horns Rev offshore wind park at Blåvand, and two onshore wind facilities in Tjæborg and Velling.

Clean Power Now Executive Director Matt Palmer said the 35 Cape and Islands residents taking part in the trip will be able to judge the wind farms first-hand so they can form their own opinions about offshore wind energy.

“The idea is to give people the chance to actually experience an offshore wind farm up close and personal and for them to draw their own conclusions,” Palmer said. “A lot of the effort is geared toward dispelling the misinformation and fear- mongering that people have been exposed to. This is an opportunity to have some first-hand individual experiences so we can share them with other people from the Cape and Islands.”

Borchert will be joined on the trip by his wife, Randi Allfather, as well as Nantucketers Laura Wasserman, Stephen Peckham, Victoria Pickwick and Dorothy Vollans. Both Wasserman and Peckham have been active members of the Nantucket chapter of Clean Power Now, formerly known as Islanders For Wind Power.

“I’m looking forward to a preview of the sculptures-in-motion soon to grace Nantucket Sound with their technological elegance and beauty, bringing clean energy to Nantucket,” Peckham said.

The trip marks the second Clean Power Now-sponsored venture to Denmark. In 2004, 26 Cape and Island residents visited the Horns Rev wind farm in a similar fact-finding excursion.

“I want direct, first-hand experience in the visual aesthetic and to talk to people and see how it is impacting the public, tourism and the environment,” Wasserman said. “There’s a lot of fear that comes with the anticipation of a project like this, and then there’s the reality. I think the trip will give a clear perspective.”

The Denmark trip comes on the heels of a major legislative victory for the Cape Wind project. The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board voted 5-2 last week to approve the construction of two 18-mile transmission cables that would eventually link the wind turbines to shore in Yarmouth and then to the electric transmission system grid.