Dubbed Little Lagoda, this five foot, self-steering sailboat is making its way across the Atlantic Ocean, drifting with the currents on its way to an unknown destination.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum worked on the project with Educational Passages, an organization that collaboratively builds miniature boats and tracks their voyages after being launched from various points across the globe. Designed as educational tools to teach students about the sciences of the world’s oceans, the boats are powered solely by ocean winds and currents and are capable of sailing thousands of miles.
Grade 5 students from William H. Taylor Elementary School in New Bedford decorated the boat and decided what items and messages should be included in the watertight compartment. They named it Little Lagoda in honor of the Museum’s famous half-scale model of an actual 19th century whaling vessel, the Lagoda. Prior to launch, Whaling Museum staff, assisted by Museum docent Peter Fenton, made three in-class presentations to review oceanography, geography, navigation, currents, and boat building.
The Northeast Maritime Institute assisted with launching Little Lagoda in the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream on May 10, 2017, 25 miles southeast of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 miles south of Nantucket. The Taylor School students are tracking the boat via the GPS transmitter on board.
Click here to track Little Lagoda across the Atlantic Ocean: https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/drift_ep_2016_2.html
Then click on the pins until you see “Little_Lagoda.”
Visit the New Bedford Whaling Musuem for more info https://www.whalingmuseum.org/
Photos of Bon Voyage to Little Lagoda!
