6-Foot Sailboat From Rye, New Hampshire is Found by a Boy and His Dog in Norway

This is SO cool.  A mini-boat made by Rye, New Hampshire Junior High students landed in Norway a year-and-a-half after its launch.

It started in September of 2018 when Educational Passages delivered a boat kit to Rye Junior High School. Educational Passages, according to their website, is a nonprofit focused on ocean and environmental literacy.

People of all ages and across dozens of countries track our little boats. Clubs, schools, libraries, individuals, and foundations have joined our international educational community. We work together globally to connect and educate students by building, launching, and recovering the boats.

 

The students, thanks to GPS, were able to keep tabs on the boat that took them two years to build...

...and then launch.

After two months without location pings, the students were a bit worried that the boat sank. Then, exactly 463 days later, ping! The boat had landed on a tiny Norwegian island.  Schools were on holiday, so the Rye students, not having anyone to contact with the exciting news, sent out an SOS.

UNCREWED 6 foot long sailboat (MINIBOAT) ashore west of Smøla Island (63°23’25.6″N 7°47’30.5″E) after 463 days and 13,400+ km voyage drifting across the Atlantic Ocean. Please recover if possible to do so safely. This is an educational project built by students in Rye, New Hampshire, U.S.A. Contact Educational Passages for more information and if you know anyone that can assist in a recovery to avoid damage to the vessel. It is an uncrewed vessel, like a message in a bottle, but we would like to recover it and have it brought to a nearby school to connect students.

The message got around, and a little boy named Karel and his Chocolate Lab puppy, Morgan, boated out to the island with the help of Karel's parents. The island is just a few minutes from Karel's backyard where he plays with Morgan.

Keral and Morgan searched the tiny island using the coordinates provided by the Rye students...

...and found the 6-foot sailboat.

When school was back in session, Karel and his classmates opened the hatch...

...and discovered messages and trinkets inside...

...and of course posted it on Facebook with a big thank-you.

If you'd like to get involved with Educational Passages or find out more about their various programs and activities, click here.