Wow, Palau!

Season 4 of the Educational Passages Podcast continues with our “Imagine This” series - Where the magic of miniboats come alive through the voices and visions of those who make it all possible.

Each episode will paint a vivid picture of discovery, connection, and curiosity — not just tracking the voyages, but exploring the challenges and unexpected outcomes behind them. 

Now press play, close your eyes, and imagine this: 

How far can a summer project carry the dreams of a new generation of ocean explorers? Sparked by hands-on learning with the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, high school students along the Oregon coast build an uncrewed sailboat—the Yaquina Neversink—and launch it into the Pacific. What follows is an extraordinary eight-month voyage across thousands of miles. This miniboat’s resilient journey forges global connections, breaks records, and brings students closer to science, community, and the power of the ocean itself. Guided by a name rooted in hope and heritage, this tiny vessel proves just how far small beginnings can truly travel.

Visit https://educationalpassages.org/boats/yaquinaneversink/ for more information about the boat and project - and what happened next!

Support the show

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.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Welcome to the Educational Passages Podcast.
Educational Passages is anonprofit organization that
seeks to connect people aroundthe world to the ocean and each
other through unique globalexperiences.
I'm your host, Cassie Stymist.

SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
Welcome everybody to season 4.
Get ready to set sail on a brandnew adventure as we launch our
Imagine This series, where themagic of mini boats come alive
through the voices and visionsof those who make it all
possible.
In this series, each episodewill paint a vivid picture of
discovery, connection, andcuriosity, not just tracking the

(00:44):
voyages, but exploring thechallenges and unexpected
outcomes behind them.
Now press play, close your eyes,and imagine this.
It's summer on the Oregon Coast2024.
Students from several highschools in the Lincoln County
School District gather at theHatfield Marine Science Center
for Summer Learning Programswith the Oregon Coast STEM hub.

(01:07):
Those interested in marineengineering come together to
build an uncrewed sailboat andlearn about different careers as
they do.
For two weeks they prepare theirvessel.
They sand the fiberglass hull,ballast and attach the keel,
install sensors measuring airand water temperature,
orientation and transmittinglocation.
They apply anti-fouling bottompaint and decorate the deck and

(01:31):
sail.
It's a lot of work, but onestudent says in a news article,
but at the end of every day, I'dremind myself that I'm building
a tiny unmanned research boatthat will transmit important
data for years.
They aren't just building aboat, they're building
connections to science, careers,to the ocean, each other, and
getting ready to connect withclassrooms far beyond wherever

(01:54):
the boat will go.
They choose a name rich inmeaning, Yakina Neversink.
Yakina honors the local bay andthe native people who first
lived on those lands.
Neversink is their confidenthope that this boat will endure.
A new school year begins inSeptember and the cargo hatch is
sealed.
The boat is brought to the docksand aboard the RV Bell M.

(02:16):
Shimada.
Their crew includes the OSUPlankton Ecology Lab, and
they're going about 150 milesoff the Oregon coast to work.
On September 21st, the YakinaNeversink is launched to the
open sea.
A crew member sends thismessage.

(02:38):
The students, though not on theship themselves, watch the map
back in their classrooms,tracking, waiting, imagining
what might happen.
Will the boat go across thePacific?
Will it come back to Oregon?
Only time will tell.
Now imagine that tiny craftfloating free, powered by only
the wind and currents, chartingits own course across the

(03:00):
Pacific.
She traveled south with thewinds at first, but then there
was a big change in the weatherand she changed course, moving
first east, then north.
Luckily the winds changed againand she headed south.
Two weeks after launch, she hadtraveled 500 miles and was 300
miles offshore, still headingsouth.

(03:22):
The crew predicts Hawaii orMicronesia as a final
destination.
A month goes by since thelaunch, and the mini boat has
now traveled over a thousandmiles, and the tracks start
shifting westward.
She continues west and exactlytwo months after launch, heads
almost directly to the northeastcoast of the island of Hawaii.

(03:44):
Her speed is consistent, and sowe put up a notice online and
start reaching out to localcontacts.
Can you recover the boat if itmakes land?
She comes within three nauticalmiles of the island and then
makes a sharp turn northwest andgoes around.
She doesn't go to Maui either,but sails right between, just

(04:06):
saying aloha for now, but notready to end the adventure just
yet.
She hangs out behind the islandsfor a week or two, watching the
whales, resting for the longerjourney ahead, then suddenly
speeds off and heads southwest.
Three months after launch, andit's now December 21st, Yakina
traveled another 400 nauticalmiles west from Hawaii and is

(04:29):
near Johnston atoll.
By January 21st, she had sailedanother thousand miles, looping
once but keeping a westwardgoal.
She is north of the MarshallIslands now.
Another month later, she wasjust southeast of Guam and had
sailed 1,500 more miles.
By the beginning of March, shesailed through the Caroline

(04:51):
Islands, which was another 500miles since February 21st.
Then she began to slow down andmake much shorter distance
spurts, back and forth, back andforth.
It was getting hard to predict afinal destination.
From March to April, she covereda lot of distance, but not if
you look at the start to finish.
Did the wind stop?

(05:12):
We keep checking every day forprogress.
In April, the sensors stopreporting, but we don't know
why.
The tracks keep going as themain GPS transmitter is still
online.
On May 19th, after eight monthsat sea, Yakina makes landfall on
Kyangle in Palau, a nice sandybeach.

(05:34):
We reach out to the Sea Grantnetwork and quickly the boat is
recovered the very next day.
The pictures come in.
The sail is still there, but thebaton is a bit worn from the
ceaseless motion of eight monthsof wind and wave.
The drawings from the studentsin Oregon still there, just
softened by months of sun andsalt.
The boat itself appears to beundamaged, no cracks, still

(05:57):
seaworthy.
How can this be?
She spent two hundred and fortydays at sea, two hundred and
forty sunrises and sunsets, allalone across the mighty Pacific.
From the cold gray swells offthe Oregon coast to the deep
open blue of the mid-Pacific,the Yakana Neversink faced it
all.

(06:17):
The Pacific is often cited asthe most dangerous ocean basin
on Earth, so imagine the squallsand storms she must have met,
the enormous waves, magnitudesbigger than the boat itself.
She may have crossed paths withmigrating whales, tangled lines
of sargasm seaweed, and thesilent pulse of bioluminescent
plankton lighted her path atnight.

(06:39):
And through it all, this littleunmanned sailboat, only one and
a half meters long, held itscourse.
The solar panels kept hersystems alive, the keel kept her
balanced, and the ocean currentscarried her onward.
When the wind shifted, sheadapted.
When rain lashed down, sheendured.
When waves crashed over her bow,she surfaced again, a resilient

(07:01):
explorer on a vast andunpredictable sea.
Upon landing, Yakata not onlyset a record for a new country
reached by the Miniboat Program,Wow Palau, but it was also
confirmed that the voyage is thefarthest GPS tracked linear
distance of a mini boat everrecorded, and that's 5,362
nautical miles start to finish.

(07:24):
As her new friends in Palau openthe cargo hold and decide what
to do next, we hope shecontinues to live up to her
name.
May Yakina Never Sink.
To find out the rest of thestory with Yakana Never Sink,
please visit our website,educationalpassages.org.

(07:45):
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Educational Passages is anonprofit organization.
Please consider making adonation to help us continue our
work bringing people together tolearn more about the ocean.
To donate, head over toeducationalpassages.org slash
support.
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(08:07):
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Thanks for listening.