The ocean covers 71% of our planet, yet we know more about the moon. While climate change tipping points in the ocean are likely to be some of the most powerful future drivers for human adaptation to change, the ocean remains a distant dumping ground, badly understood and disconnected to human experience on land. Design can make ocean issues tangible and co-design can leverage lived experience into more adaptable solutions. We set out on a long term design project researching across a series of ocean voyages connecting coastal communities across the Atlantic Ocean. We report on our emergent methodology and the decision making and reflexiveness that was required. Tensions between wandering and research direction were explored as a process for re-focussing our goal refinement. Reflecting on the knowledge production emerging from our methodology we recognised design for future transformation as a quality that may be claimed retrospectively.