Polk CS Explorer

USF & Polk County Florida School District

March 2018

Middle school students at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Florida and other students throughout the Polk County Florida School District, prepared this mini-sailboat in 2018. Read the full article at SECOORA here.

Photo 1: Pictured is the Polk CS Voyager getting the final touches before being deployed this fall. Lisa Richardson (pictured left) is an undergraduate student from University of South Florida who led the assembly of the boat. Pictured next to her is Chad Lembke (University of South Florida College of Marine Science) and George Bartuska (Lawton Chiles Middle Academy and Polk County Schools).
March 1, 2019

Derek Cox reports from the FWC Tequesta Field Lab “Good news! We got the boat launched today! It was released at 10:20 this morning at 26* 53.260’ -79* 49.606’. We went out of Palm Beach Inlet and ended up releasing it about 12 miles offshore, which for that location is definitely well within the Gulf Stream, and in 1100’ of water. ” Thanks to staff Peter and Sarah for the assist!
Quiet after 7 days...

Unfortunately the Polk CS Explorer stopped transmitting its position a week after it was deployed. The GPS did, however, continue to “talk” until March 22 but without its location. This may mean that water got into the cable connection to the computer box inside… and since the GPS and cable were on the deck of the boat, the boat could still be floating out there and maybe wash up one day…