ALL HANDS ON DECK

1st Voyage

• About Us

  Lexington Academy is an academic environment dedicated exclusively to students who have been diagnosed with a complex language and learning disability.

  Our name Lexington Academy comes from the word lexicon, which is defined as the vocabulary of a person. Our name shows the importance we give to building knowledge through a robust understanding of the words around us. We provided a safe dedicated learning environment for all of our students.

  Our boat is called the – All Hands on Deck. We voted and this name was chosen, it represents our efforts perfectly. We built the boat together, with all members of the school participating and putting work into it – all of our hands were involved. This experience allowed us to work together as a team and develop our skills in communication, geography, physics, engineering and more.

  Please follow our boat and look at the photos of our boat building journey!

• Preparations

  First, a stand was built:

  

  Then the keel was ballasted:

  

  And the bottom was painted with antifouling bottom paint:

  

  Then the boat was decorated:

  

  

• January 13, 2022 - Dropped off with fisherman Marc Palombo

  Chris brought the ALL HANDS ON DECK down to fisherman Marc Palombo in Sandwich, Massachusetts.

   

  

  Marc and the crew of the F/V TERRI ANN have launched FOUR other miniboats for us over the years, and this will be the fifth. Most recently, the BHS Roweboat which was launched last June, sailed up to Newfoundland. Another one that their crew launched, the Midnight Moon, landed in France in 2019!

  We are so grateful to Marc and the community members that support this program.

   

• January 23, 2022 - Set to sea

  On January 23, 2022, the ALL HANDS ON DECK was set to sea near Georges Bank by fisherman Marc Palombo and the crew of the F/V TERRI ANN. We’ll post a video of the deployment soon, but in the meantime here are some pictures from from the video:

  

  After a couple days, the boat found its way off the Bank and into the greater Atlantic Ocean… It almost landed in the Azores at one point, but kept sailing around.

• November 14, 2022 - Recovered in Cockburn Harbor, Turks and Caicos Islands

  SEEKING ASSISTANCE WITH RECOVERING 1.5m UNCREWED MINIBOAT NAMED ALL HANDS ON DECK FROM COCKBURN HARBOUR, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS

  Update 11/22/22: Miniboat has been successfully recovered! Read below.

  An uncrewed 1.5m-long educational sailboat (“MINIBOAT”) has been recovered near Cockburn Harbour, Turks and Caicos (21.497011184692, -71.535705327988). If you have any information please share it with us as students and participants in the project from Hampstead, New Hampshire USA are seeking assistance to have it brought to a nearby school. It traveled 295 days and 18,468 km around the Atlantic Ocean by wind and currents. It is part of a student project to study ocean science and provide a cultural exchange when it lands. The students would also like to see any pictures and videos that are possible so they can learn more about where the boat landed, and so the story can continue on the boat’s webpage: https://educationalpassages.org/boats/allhandsondeck/. Please visit this website to learn more about the project and story so far. See picture above for reference – it is approximately 1.5m long and 20kg.

  Contact Educational Passages for more information and if you have any information about its recovery. It is an uncrewed vessel, like a “message in a bottle”. Thank you.

  November 22, 2022 – Found!

  We noticed not far from where the miniboat was reporting from (after it appeared to have been taken from the sea on November 14th) that the Field Studies Marine Resource Center was not far away. We contacted them and they helped to connect us with the finders. Here is the nice family that recovered the boat:

  

  Thanks so much to the Field Studies Program, especially Kassandra, Heidi, and Devon for connecting us all.

  We’ll share more details and updates as they develop, so check back later!