Coral Tempest

Voyage 1

• About Us

  Our miniboat project is part of the junior and senior year (sixth form) oceanography course. Students are learning about how the ocean and climate interact with each other. Students have worked on assembling and preparing the boat and learning about robotic observation systems and global circulation, including waves, tides, navigation, weather forecasting and more!

  

  

  We named our miniboat Coral Tempest because our island home is surrounded by coral reefs and Shakespeare’s “Tempest” was based on the story of the settlement of the island when the Sea Venture was shipwrecked off the east end of the island after surviving a hurricane.

  The goal of our project is for students to learn more about weather, ocean currents, forecasting and navigation, while also gaining an appreciation for the size of the ocean and how hard scientific observations are. As a bonus, learning more about the various countries on the other side, as well as to see the ocean as an opportunity to travel rather than an obstacle to fly over.

  We would like to thank Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS) for bringing our miniboat kit to the island aboard the RV Atlantic Explorer and for agreeing to deploy her while on a research cruise offshore when she is ready!
  

• Miniboat Progress Update

  Since our miniboat’s arrival in September of 2025, we have been hard at work, together and in our separate teams: Sail Team, Hull and Keel Team, Deck Team, Cargo Team, Launch Team, Media Team, and Tech Team.
  

• Testing in Hamilton Harbor - December Update

  Our crew headed out to Hamilton Harbor on December 6th for some sea trials. We tested for leaks as well as the speed of our mighty miniboat! Overtaken by an oceanography student in a Laser, the Coral Tempest got a taste of what it will be like when out at sea.
  
  Wind speed was recorded at 16-18 kts SW, while the approximate speed of our miniboat was 3 kts. A lot of fun was had and to make our outing even more exciting, the sensor pack inside our cargo hold reported data at the same time this first image was taken!

  December 18th Update:

  A local newspaper, the Royal Gazette caught wind of M/B Coral Tempest and arrived at Saltus Grammar School to interview the crew and learn more about the miniboat project! Read more in their article: Saltus Pupils Prepare to Launch Their Atlantic Research Vessel.
  

• January 2nd, 2026: All Sealed Up and Ready to Set Sail!

  After being on display at the local aquarium, students completed their pre-launch check-lists and loaded up their cargo hold with goodies for their finder to come across. Captains and crew are predicting she will land somewhere in Northwest Spain and some are hopeful it will land in the Azores!
  
  She is now all sealed up, including the GPS and MakerBuoy sensor pack systems to collect data.
  
  Stay tuned for more updates as M/B Coral Tempest will be launched very soon!

• Data from the Sensor Pack

  The location reports from the main GPS will show on the map at the top of this page here (which updates hourly with new positions if available). Here below is where you can see the data reporting from the second GPS which is connected to a custom sensor package. In addition to reporting location with a secondary GPS tracker, this system is also collecting air temperature, water temperature, and orientation of the boat. Please note that the map below will only the last 7 days of data and may include invalid points and data. If you are interested in looking at the data in a different format from the whole voyage, contact us.