UPDATE: February 22, 2021
Boatwatch.org has been asked to assist in a most interesting and worthwhile project involving two young Scottish lads and their adventurous spirit. A toy pirate ship, named Adventure, launched by two young brothers from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, has previously sailed the high seas to Scandinavia and onwards to Barbados before being lost at sea.
A new toy ship, Adventure II, has now been launched and is presently riding the Gulf Stream between Cuba and Florida. Their story may be found at https://track-adventure.squarespace.com/aboutus.
The little ship has a GPS tracker sending real-time position reports, and may be seen at https://track-adventure.squarespace.com
The recent North winds has been the controlling factor the last several days, and the ship is possibly going to make landfall in Cuba somewhere West of Havana. Of course, if this happens it will complicate the situation. The family certainly is hoping the ship will be steered by the Gulf Stream once the wind slacks off a bit and will ride the Stream up the East Coast of Florida.
Boatwatch.org encourages all cruisers to follow this fascinating project and assist if needed. At some point the batteries are going to need charging and a bit of boat maintenance. We all know about that. It would be a lot easier if that could happen somewhere along the Florida Coast from the Keys to Miami. We will see.
Boatwatch.org will share this with the various Facebook Groups covering Cuba and the Florida Keys and North up the coast. We will even share it with the US Coast Guard, as it’s quite possible someone encountering this strange craft would contact the USCG and we want them to be aware of the kid’s project.
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Hello!
Do you know anyone that lives in or near Barra Patuca?
Please can you help us? Our names are Ollie (11 years old) and Harry (8 years old) and we live in Scotland. Our little toy boat has sailed all the way from the coast of Guyana and is now just a few miles off the coast of Honduras near the town of Barra Patuca. We expect she will come ashore very near the town.
This little boat has already travelled 4000 km. She has a tracker on board that tells us exactly where she is four times a day. You can see her progress on our live tracker map here: https://yb.tl/a2#
We really hope we can find someone local to pick her up and take some photos of the little boat wheen she has come ashore. After that she just needs her battery recharged and on a good tide and with the wind at her back put back to sea to continue her journey.
Please can you help us find someone to help us?
You can find out more about our boat adventure on our website: https://track-adventure.squarespace.com
and on our FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/tdajp
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The following excerpts are from email correspondence with these great kids and their family. Let’s all try to help them. This is a good link to their Facebook posts.
Hi Glenn
Where does your friends boat usually fish? If they could be able to take plot out to sea for us and drop it at a suitable point that would be amazing.
She has a battery but it lasts for months. No rudder she is a toy that is at the mercy of currents and winds. If you wanted to float down this region up past Florida where would you recommend? Is starting?
Our first boat got a Guinness world record of 6000 km from Africa to Barbados.
If we can get this one up past Cuba and into east Florida waters then we can smash that record!
We would really appreciate if you could contact any of you friends that may be able to help.
Where is the best place to look at the weather fir this region?
Regards
Mac
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On 20 Dec 2020, at 14:54, Glenn Tuttle <glenn@boatwatch.org> wrote:
Hello Mac, Ollie, and Harry,
That is really cool. As you can imagine, that part of the country is very rugged and probably no roads to the water. I will talk to a friend from Honduras and see the feasibility to bring their fishing boat (120 feet steel) into that area. I will check the water depths to see if it’s even possible to get near the shoreline. I think finding it by a small boat would be your best chance. It sounds like the batteries will allow it to ping for a long time so you can keep tabs on it. Looks like bad weather coming about a week from now. Would the boat survive being pushed ashore by high winds and seas from the North? Do you have solar panels on it to help keep the battery up? With the trade winds mostly out of the East, how can you sail it North. Can you steer it with a rudder?
Have you considered contacting the mayor of Brus Laguna to see if he knows some local fishermen that can help?
Merry Christmas, Glenn
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On Dec 20, 2020, at 9:22 AM
Dear Glenn,
Thank you for your kind offer to help. We would really appreciate it. Our boat has already travelled 4000 km and we want her to go north up to Florida then perhaps catch the Gulf Stream back across the Atlantic. This is her position. She ran aground yesterday and as stuck on this spit of land between the sea and the lagoon.
Location: Huarta / Laguna de Brus O Cartine
Position:
15°51’01.2″N 84°34’52.2”W
(15.850333, -84.581167)
Nearby Towns:
Brus Laguna 8 km SE;
Barra Patuca 30 km E
What we really need is someone to locate her take some pictures and or video to share with the boys and a community of people following the adventure around the world. Her battery is good (68%) and she is pinging four times a day still.
Once she is picked up we are hoping someone will check she is in seaworthy condition, recharge her battery then most importantly take out to a location at sea where she won’t come back on shore. We wanted to catch the currents that will take her north. She has a live tracker on her that can be seen here:
Please can you help?
Kind regards
Mac, Ollie and Harry
