December 17, 2023 • 13 mins
The Miniboat Traffic Report provides updates on miniboats at sea, new launches and landings, and other fun events that happen in between our full episodes.
This episode includes updates on the following miniboats and projects:
iFADO IV (El Hierro - Mar, Salitre y Lava)
The Serendipitous Transatlantic Tale of One Tiny but Mighty Boat by Syma A. Ebbin.
The Lancer Story: A Special 30-minute Webinar December 19
Donate to Educational Passages
Cape Cod Sea Turtle Project – Educational Passages
Morristown Beard School (Crimson Cyclone, Crimson Current, Crimson Tide, etc)
Track all miniboats currently at sea from https://educationalpassages.org/events/atsea/
If you would like to send us feedback please email: info@educationalpassages.org
Educational Passages is a non-profit organization that seeks to connect people around the world to the ocean and each other through unique global experiences.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cassie (00:12):
Welcome to the Educational Passages podcast.
This is the Miniboat TrafficReport.
Educational Passages is anon-profit organization that
seeks to connect people aroundthe world to the ocean and each
other through unique globalexperiences.
I'm your host, Cassie Stymiest.
Since our last traffic reporton October 17th, we saw six
(00:37):
launches, five landings and fiverecoveries.
It's now the middle of Decemberand you can see there are lots
of adventures happening, whichis why it's been a little bit
long since our last trafficreport.
So let's dive in.
Let's start with the PurpleHurricane.
This is the boat we mentionedlast time that made a complete
transatlantic voyage from offthe coast of North Carolina all
(00:57):
the way to Wales in just about ayear.
It was actually its secondvoyage.
The students were so excited tosee their boat reach another
place and across the pond, asthey say.
When we saw the PurpleHurricane approach the
Pembrokeshire coast, we reachedout to our friend Ben James for
some help and recently he sharedhis whole story, which he
kindly wrote up for us and Iwill share with you here.
(01:21):
My adventure began on a stormyFriday evening when I got an
email from Cassie saying thatanother mini boat was heading
towards the UK coast andPembrokeshire in Wales, where I
live.
I helped retrieve the Ospreyback in 2016 after it washed
ashore just five miles from here.
I quickly got onto the trackingwebsite and could see that the
(01:43):
Purple Hurricane was close tocoming ashore, about 25 miles
west of where I live in Tenby.
So I got a plan together tohead over there the next day,
saturday, but unfortunatelySaturday's weather was terrible,
with very strong winds andheavy rain, and so was Sunday,
so I couldn't make the trip fatesafely.
Luckily, on Monday, the weatherwas much better, so I made a
(02:05):
plan to head out after workabout 4 pm with my drone to help
me search a larger area and getclose to any objects that I
might see but not be able to getto.
It took me about an hour to getthere, as the roads are really
winding and narrow once you getclose to the area where Purple
Hurricane made land.
I parked up, grabbed my droneand headed out across fields
using Google Earth on my phoneto find the way to where the GPS
(02:28):
coordinates last located theboat.
Before long I came to whatlooked like a field on Google
Maps but turned out to be a lake.
Luckily, I managed to find apath around it and carried on my
way.
Just when I thought I was aboutthere, having got onto the
cliff path, I came around a bendto find the path blocked by a
load of cows that had escapedfrom a field where the fence
(02:50):
blew down in a storm a few daysbefore.
To top it off, there was a hugebull with massive horns there
staring straight at me.
Thankfully, they were toointerested in the grass to
bother me and let me walkstraight past them.
I was soon at the spot wherethe Purple Hurricane sent its
last signal, but it was way toowindy to fly the drone, so I
could only search from the topof the cliff.
(03:11):
After thoroughly searching thewhole area for an hour and a
half, and with daylight fadingquickly and finding nothing but
seals, I had to turn around andback to the car.
As soon as the tides allow theweather to improve, I am going
back with the drone to takeanother look.
" So thanks, ben and your wholefamily who took part in that
adventure, for helping to try tolocate the Purple Hurricane.
(03:33):
Over in the Pacific.
We hosted that zoom gatheringwith crew members from the Boat
to Freedom on October 19th.
To recap, the Boat to Freedomwas recently found in Hawaii.
It was launched back in July2022, but only reported for 176
days.
It went silent on December 5th2022 but was found by divers.
(03:55):
A father and son pair spottedit underwater and retrieved it
for us, and we were able tovirtually gather everyone
together over zoom.
We also saw another launch inAlaska recently.
On October 20th, we saw theChapman Middle School's second
mini boat, their first beingAPAK, which landed in the
Aleutian Islands.
(04:16):
This is mini boat called 907Seas.
The students even did a podcastwhile building their mini boat
this time and we will definitelyshare that out next year.
They launched it into KachemakBay, Alaska, which they intended
to do because they wanted tohave a short voyage so that they
could test it out and collectsome data.
The 907 Seas is also mini boatnumber 199 for Educational
(04:41):
Passages.
That mini boat will be headedout to the open Pacific soon
enough, so stay tuned for thatand is all part of a project
called SEAOTECH thanks to BOOM,and we'll be building more mini
boats coming up, so stay tunedBack in the Atlantic.
We watched Special skirt aroundthe Azores for a while and has
(05:04):
since sailed off to thenortheast.
We think the Sea Eagle is alsoabout a thousand nautical miles
from Europe now and iFADO 4 isstill headed for South America,
even after a trip going all theway over to the east, and now
looks like it's headed westagain.
(05:25):
Dream Sailor is still in theGulf Stream and Clipper Ripper
drifted over the Corner Seamounts recently, which means it
is still out there as well.
Just a couple weeks ago, we hita huge milestone, as 2023 is
the 10th birthday of EducationalPassages as a non-profit.
How fitting is it that we justsaw mini boat number 200
(05:51):
launched?
This is thanks to Captain Johnand the crew of the F/V, Rachel
Leah and the Little Bay LobsterCompany, who's launched a couple
for us this year, as they setto sail the Tapping of the Seas.
This was after a shakedowncruise in Lake Winnisquam on
November 10th and, from namingit to putting notes inside, all
(06:13):
311 students at GilfordElementary School have taken
part in getting Tapping of theSeas ready for this launch.
The build was inspired by theRye Ript ides mini boat and it's
really nice to see thoseripples turning into waves.
In Ireland, we connected withthe Raven Kaster relaunch team
in Achill Island, who haveinstalled the sensors in the
(06:36):
Raven Kaster.
This is an upgrade to theoriginal mini boat and we'll be
collecting a lot of informationwhen it is set to sail,
hopefully next year and also inIreland.
We are still in touch with theCrimson Current team in Cork and
recently had a reallyinteresting connection with
Crimson Current that I will tellyou about From the Barryroe
(06:59):
National Schools Facebook page.
They posted this recently Well,well, well.
When mini boat turned up onNantucket Island in
Massachusetts after travelingacross the Atlantic this summer,
we thought we would never seeher again.
However, 6th class studentNadine Hayes and her Aunt, Mary,
had other ideas.
Nadine and her Mum, Gertie,flew to Nantucket this week to
(07:24):
celebrate Thanksgiving and, withthe help of Mary, managed to
track down our boat.
So isn't that great.
There was a student from theclass in Cork that had prepared
Crimson Current to go back outto sea, that has an Aunt in
Nantucket and we had connectedwith Mary the aunt on Instagram,
(07:45):
who is helping us out locally,and now with three mini boats
that are on Nantucket.
So we're really building off ofall of these adventures, and
Morristown Baird themselves,with the Crimson Current being
their 10th mini boat, arebuilding off of their first one,
which was back in 2012, theCrimson Tide and Crimson, tide
(08:06):
being one of those three miniboats that are sitting there on
Nantucket.
Just the other day, I actuallyzoomed with the Morristown Baird
School as they are preparingtheir 11th mini boat, named
Crimson Cyclone, and it allreminds me of the special
podcast episode that we did withAshley and Mrs Swanson.
(08:27):
You should check it out.
10 years and 10 mini boats, andI just love how these stories
keep building on each other.
Another great example of that iswith the Lancer, which is a
boat that started in 2016 andwas recently featured in a BBC2
documentary series highlightingthe work of the National Marine
Aquarium.
We worked with them in 2019when I met their head of
(08:51):
education at a conference, andsince then it has been an
absolute grand adventure.
They sponsored Project OCN andhad Lancer at their STEM Fest
last October, where over 1,400students came from all over the
UK to the Aquarium and got tolearn about Lancer.
A group of students atTorbridge School took on the
(09:13):
task of upgrading it with a newcargo hold and sensors so that
it could collect informationabout the ocean.
The boat is launched just abouta year ago now, actually from
Tenerife in the Canary Islands,and all along the way, it sailed
only with the wind and currentsand we tracked it on its
westward journey.
You may recall that on EarthDay, we also saw it recovered by
(09:35):
a wonderful couple in theBahamas and since then there has
just been a wonderful fullcircle with Kaitlyn with, who is
the student that started theproject in 2016.
To find out more about theseconnections and what has
happened since 2016, there's theBBC documentary.
(09:55):
There's also a Connecticut SeaGrant magazine in Wracklines
that tells all about the storyand how it is promoting ocean
literacy.
I would recommend having a readthrough that article or
watching the documentary orjoining our special webinar on
December 19th.
If you're not able to sign upor you're hearing this after
(10:17):
that date, reach out, let meknow and we will get you
connected with that story.
This webinar and our year-endappeal highlights how a
mini-boat can be a blank canvasand can give students like
Kaitlyn a life-changingexperience, so please consider
donating to educational passagesduring your year-end giving.
(10:39):
As a non-profit, we rely onpublic support to keep us going,
and wouldn't you like to beresponsible for helping one of
these mini-boat adventures anddreams come true?
Your donation of $100 willallow 20 more students the
life-changing opportunity toparticipate in this program.
Every dollar helps to empowerstudents like Kaitlyn to craft
(10:59):
their own narratives and fosterboth local and global impacts.
We need to raise $10,000 byDecember 31st in order to
support over 200 classesstarting in January.
Your generosity truly matters.
In 2024, we'll share new storiesand more on the latest Cape Cod
(11:20):
Bay deployments to helpcold-stunned sea turtles.
This is a continued projectwith lots of exciting new
developments to share with you,including all about the launches
we've had these last couple ofweeks and the students and whole
community in the Cape Cod areathat have been involved.
Keep an eye out for ourexpanding at-sea fleet too, as
(11:41):
more mini-boats are in the finalbuilding stages, like the
Crimson Cyclone we mentioned,but also the Grizzly Bear from
Barnes Elementary School inKelso, Washington, who is
scheduled to have itschristening ceremony this week.
This will probably be the lastpodcast episode of 2023, and
there is so much this year to begrateful for.
(12:02):
I'm truly excited for what 2024will bring and I really hope
you will join us every step ofthe way.
Your enthusiasm really fuelsthese adventures and contributes
to a global community oflearners, explorers and ocean
lovers.
I'll leave you with a littlesomething that Kaitlyn said in a
recent conversation about whatit's like to see the Lancer
(12:24):
project continue seven yearslater.
She said "Wow, high SchoolCaitlin never imagined where I
would be today in my life andthis project is still having an
impact on so many people.
I'm very thankful for thisproject, as it connected so many
people and introduced kids tothe ocean community.
That's it for this week'smini-boat traffic report.
(12:51):
Head on over to the EducationalPassages website,
educationalpassagesorg slash atsea to explore the tracks and
stories yourself.
Thanks for listening to thisbonus episode of the Educational
Passages podcast.
Educational Passages is anon-profit organization.
Please consider making adonation to help us continue our
(13:12):
work bringing people togetherto learn more about the ocean.
To donate, visiteducationalpassagesorg slash
support.
If you're enjoying this program, please consider subscribing to
the podcast an Apple podcast,spotify, google podcast or for
more, ever you download yourpodcasts.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Educational Passages podcast.
This is the Miniboat TrafficReport.
Educational Passages is anon-profit organization that
seeks to connect people aroundthe world to the ocean and each
other through unique globalexperiences.
I'm your host, Cassie Stymiest.
Since our last traffic reporton October 17th, we saw six
(00:37):
launches, five landings and fiverecoveries.
It's now the middle of Decemberand you can see there are lots
of adventures happening, whichis why it's been a little bit
long since our last trafficreport.
So let's dive in.
Let's start with the PurpleHurricane.
This is the boat we mentionedlast time that made a complete
transatlantic voyage from offthe coast of North Carolina all
(00:57):
the way to Wales in just about ayear.
It was actually its secondvoyage.
The students were so excited tosee their boat reach another
place and across the pond, asthey say.
When we saw the PurpleHurricane approach the
Pembrokeshire coast, we reachedout to our friend Ben James for
some help and recently he sharedhis whole story, which he
kindly wrote up for us and Iwill share with you here.
(01:21):
My adventure began on a stormyFriday evening when I got an
email from Cassie saying thatanother mini boat was heading
towards the UK coast andPembrokeshire in Wales, where I
live.
I helped retrieve the Ospreyback in 2016 after it washed
ashore just five miles from here.
I quickly got onto the trackingwebsite and could see that the
(01:43):
Purple Hurricane was close tocoming ashore, about 25 miles
west of where I live in Tenby.
So I got a plan together tohead over there the next day,
saturday, but unfortunatelySaturday's weather was terrible,
with very strong winds andheavy rain, and so was Sunday,
so I couldn't make the trip fatesafely.
Luckily, on Monday, the weatherwas much better, so I made a
(02:05):
plan to head out after workabout 4 pm with my drone to help
me search a larger area and getclose to any objects that I
might see but not be able to getto.
It took me about an hour to getthere, as the roads are really
winding and narrow once you getclose to the area where Purple
Hurricane made land.
I parked up, grabbed my droneand headed out across fields
using Google Earth on my phoneto find the way to where the GPS
(02:28):
coordinates last located theboat.
Before long I came to whatlooked like a field on Google
Maps but turned out to be a lake.
Luckily, I managed to find apath around it and carried on my
way.
Just when I thought I was aboutthere, having got onto the
cliff path, I came around a bendto find the path blocked by a
load of cows that had escapedfrom a field where the fence
(02:50):
blew down in a storm a few daysbefore.
To top it off, there was a hugebull with massive horns there
staring straight at me.
Thankfully, they were toointerested in the grass to
bother me and let me walkstraight past them.
I was soon at the spot wherethe Purple Hurricane sent its
last signal, but it was way toowindy to fly the drone, so I
could only search from the topof the cliff.
(03:11):
After thoroughly searching thewhole area for an hour and a
half, and with daylight fadingquickly and finding nothing but
seals, I had to turn around andback to the car.
As soon as the tides allow theweather to improve, I am going
back with the drone to takeanother look.
" So thanks, ben and your wholefamily who took part in that
adventure, for helping to try tolocate the Purple Hurricane.
(03:33):
Over in the Pacific.
We hosted that zoom gatheringwith crew members from the Boat
to Freedom on October 19th.
To recap, the Boat to Freedomwas recently found in Hawaii.
It was launched back in July2022, but only reported for 176
days.
It went silent on December 5th2022 but was found by divers.
(03:55):
A father and son pair spottedit underwater and retrieved it
for us, and we were able tovirtually gather everyone
together over zoom.
We also saw another launch inAlaska recently.
On October 20th, we saw theChapman Middle School's second
mini boat, their first beingAPAK, which landed in the
Aleutian Islands.
(04:16):
This is mini boat called 907Seas.
The students even did a podcastwhile building their mini boat
this time and we will definitelyshare that out next year.
They launched it into KachemakBay, Alaska, which they intended
to do because they wanted tohave a short voyage so that they
could test it out and collectsome data.
The 907 Seas is also mini boatnumber 199 for Educational
(04:41):
Passages.
That mini boat will be headedout to the open Pacific soon
enough, so stay tuned for thatand is all part of a project
called SEAOTECH thanks to BOOM,and we'll be building more mini
boats coming up, so stay tunedBack in the Atlantic.
We watched Special skirt aroundthe Azores for a while and has
(05:04):
since sailed off to thenortheast.
We think the Sea Eagle is alsoabout a thousand nautical miles
from Europe now and iFADO 4 isstill headed for South America,
even after a trip going all theway over to the east, and now
looks like it's headed westagain.
(05:25):
Dream Sailor is still in theGulf Stream and Clipper Ripper
drifted over the Corner Seamounts recently, which means it
is still out there as well.
Just a couple weeks ago, we hita huge milestone, as 2023 is
the 10th birthday of EducationalPassages as a non-profit.
How fitting is it that we justsaw mini boat number 200
(05:51):
launched?
This is thanks to Captain Johnand the crew of the F/V, Rachel
Leah and the Little Bay LobsterCompany, who's launched a couple
for us this year, as they setto sail the Tapping of the Seas.
This was after a shakedowncruise in Lake Winnisquam on
November 10th and, from namingit to putting notes inside, all
(06:13):
311 students at GilfordElementary School have taken
part in getting Tapping of theSeas ready for this launch.
The build was inspired by theRye Ript ides mini boat and it's
really nice to see thoseripples turning into waves.
In Ireland, we connected withthe Raven Kaster relaunch team
in Achill Island, who haveinstalled the sensors in the
(06:36):
Raven Kaster.
This is an upgrade to theoriginal mini boat and we'll be
collecting a lot of informationwhen it is set to sail,
hopefully next year and also inIreland.
We are still in touch with theCrimson Current team in Cork and
recently had a reallyinteresting connection with
Crimson Current that I will tellyou about From the Barryroe
(06:59):
National Schools Facebook page.
They posted this recently Well,well, well.
When mini boat turned up onNantucket Island in
Massachusetts after travelingacross the Atlantic this summer,
we thought we would never seeher again.
However, 6th class studentNadine Hayes and her Aunt, Mary,
had other ideas.
Nadine and her Mum, Gertie,flew to Nantucket this week to
(07:24):
celebrate Thanksgiving and, withthe help of Mary, managed to
track down our boat.
So isn't that great.
There was a student from theclass in Cork that had prepared
Crimson Current to go back outto sea, that has an Aunt in
Nantucket and we had connectedwith Mary the aunt on Instagram,
(07:45):
who is helping us out locally,and now with three mini boats
that are on Nantucket.
So we're really building off ofall of these adventures, and
Morristown Baird themselves,with the Crimson Current being
their 10th mini boat, arebuilding off of their first one,
which was back in 2012, theCrimson Tide and Crimson, tide
(08:06):
being one of those three miniboats that are sitting there on
Nantucket.
Just the other day, I actuallyzoomed with the Morristown Baird
School as they are preparingtheir 11th mini boat, named
Crimson Cyclone, and it allreminds me of the special
podcast episode that we did withAshley and Mrs Swanson.
(08:27):
You should check it out.
10 years and 10 mini boats, andI just love how these stories
keep building on each other.
Another great example of that iswith the Lancer, which is a
boat that started in 2016 andwas recently featured in a BBC2
documentary series highlightingthe work of the National Marine
Aquarium.
We worked with them in 2019when I met their head of
(08:51):
education at a conference, andsince then it has been an
absolute grand adventure.
They sponsored Project OCN andhad Lancer at their STEM Fest
last October, where over 1,400students came from all over the
UK to the Aquarium and got tolearn about Lancer.
A group of students atTorbridge School took on the
(09:13):
task of upgrading it with a newcargo hold and sensors so that
it could collect informationabout the ocean.
The boat is launched just abouta year ago now, actually from
Tenerife in the Canary Islands,and all along the way, it sailed
only with the wind and currentsand we tracked it on its
westward journey.
You may recall that on EarthDay, we also saw it recovered by
(09:35):
a wonderful couple in theBahamas and since then there has
just been a wonderful fullcircle with Kaitlyn with, who is
the student that started theproject in 2016.
To find out more about theseconnections and what has
happened since 2016, there's theBBC documentary.
(09:55):
There's also a Connecticut SeaGrant magazine in Wracklines
that tells all about the storyand how it is promoting ocean
literacy.
I would recommend having a readthrough that article or
watching the documentary orjoining our special webinar on
December 19th.
If you're not able to sign upor you're hearing this after
(10:17):
that date, reach out, let meknow and we will get you
connected with that story.
This webinar and our year-endappeal highlights how a
mini-boat can be a blank canvasand can give students like
Kaitlyn a life-changingexperience, so please consider
donating to educational passagesduring your year-end giving.
(10:39):
As a non-profit, we rely onpublic support to keep us going,
and wouldn't you like to beresponsible for helping one of
these mini-boat adventures anddreams come true?
Your donation of $100 willallow 20 more students the
life-changing opportunity toparticipate in this program.
Every dollar helps to empowerstudents like Kaitlyn to craft
(10:59):
their own narratives and fosterboth local and global impacts.
We need to raise $10,000 byDecember 31st in order to
support over 200 classesstarting in January.
Your generosity truly matters.
In 2024, we'll share new storiesand more on the latest Cape Cod
(11:20):
Bay deployments to helpcold-stunned sea turtles.
This is a continued projectwith lots of exciting new
developments to share with you,including all about the launches
we've had these last couple ofweeks and the students and whole
community in the Cape Cod areathat have been involved.
Keep an eye out for ourexpanding at-sea fleet too, as
(11:41):
more mini-boats are in the finalbuilding stages, like the
Crimson Cyclone we mentioned,but also the Grizzly Bear from
Barnes Elementary School inKelso, Washington, who is
scheduled to have itschristening ceremony this week.
This will probably be the lastpodcast episode of 2023, and
there is so much this year to begrateful for.
(12:02):
I'm truly excited for what 2024will bring and I really hope
you will join us every step ofthe way.
Your enthusiasm really fuelsthese adventures and contributes
to a global community oflearners, explorers and ocean
lovers.
I'll leave you with a littlesomething that Kaitlyn said in a
recent conversation about whatit's like to see the Lancer
(12:24):
project continue seven yearslater.
She said "Wow, high SchoolCaitlin never imagined where I
would be today in my life andthis project is still having an
impact on so many people.
I'm very thankful for thisproject, as it connected so many
people and introduced kids tothe ocean community.
That's it for this week'smini-boat traffic report.
(12:51):
Head on over to the EducationalPassages website,
educationalpassagesorg slash atsea to explore the tracks and
stories yourself.
Thanks for listening to thisbonus episode of the Educational
Passages podcast.
Educational Passages is anon-profit organization.
Please consider making adonation to help us continue our
(13:12):
work bringing people togetherto learn more about the ocean.
To donate, visiteducationalpassagesorg slash
support.
If you're enjoying this program, please consider subscribing to
the podcast an Apple podcast,spotify, google podcast or for
more, ever you download yourpodcasts.
Thanks for listening.
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