Carolina Dreamer

St. Andrews School of Math and Science

Updates:

1st Voyage

  • February 2015 - Science Night Presentation

    The Carolina Dreamer’s debut but was in February 2015 at the St. Andrew’s Science Night where she was a big hit and sparked a lot of curiosity and inquiries!  Our friends at High and Dry Boat works adopted her and did a fantastic paint job.  The students were so excited. She was displayed in the cafeteria for all  700 + students to learn about her and the amazing journey she was about to take.

    Prior to setting sail, students placed a variety of objects in her time capsule and wrote an “ABC” book of Charleston.  Letters to future finders and fact sheets about our hometown were also included.  Many people from our community came together to assemble the sailboat and donated their time and supplies to ensure she sails for years to come!

     

  • May 19, 2015 - Launched

    The Carolina Dreamer’s maiden voyage was on 19 May 2015. She was launched along with another boat, the Maine Shire, off the State of Maine training vessel.

     

     

     

     

     

  • May 22, 2015 - Recovered in Bermuda

    She sailed for less than a week before making landfall on Bermuda where she was rescued by Butch Agnew, a sailing buddy of Kurt Oberle’ from High and Dry Boat works.

    VOYAGE STATS

    Voyage 1: 3 days at sea (5/19/15 – 5/22/2015)

2nd Voyage

 

 

  • May 24, 2015 - Relaunched off Bermuda

    A few days after she was recovered in Bermuda from her first voyage, she was relaunched and subsequently made her way across the ocean.

     

  • January 2016 - Approaching Ireland

    As of early January 2016, Carolina Dreamer was approaching Ireland.  The students and their teacher Amy sent a SOS to a number of European organizations in an attempt to save their miniship.

     

  • February 5, 2016 - Approaching the UK

    On February 5, 2016 David Jenkins of Aberystwyth Marina in Wales responded he was very interested in hearing about “Carolina Dreamer”, he has passed the information along to local newspaper such as “The Cambrian News” and he mentioned it to the Local Fisheries Officer who monitors the coastline of Cardigan Bay. Other people contacted for help were; Nigel Collins from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Dingle, Ireland. Paul Connelly and the Marine Institute in Galway.

  • February 2, 2016 - Recovered in Wales

    Helen Hinks and friends who found the boat

    On the afternoon of Feb 10th, Dick Baldwin got an email that read as follows: “About a week ago, I was on the beach with my son and we saw a little boat come sailing in on the waves. We pulled it out and stored it safety. My daughters go to school in Borth and were really excited about the finding. I will take it to the school tomorrow morning and explain the story. Very exciting to have found and to give news to the children at your school. Many thanks Helen Hinks.”

    The deck of the boat had been removed at some point

     

  • February 18, 2016 - Adventures in Wales

    The Carolina Dreamer with students in Wales

    In a matter of days after her recovery in Wales, the Carolina Dreamer became internationally famous. Not only did the local Welsh print and TV cover her story but she was featured on BBC news as well: “US pupils’ boat Carolina Dreamer found on Borth beach” (article on February 18), “Family finds boat from American school washed up in Wales” (video on February 24).

    She was also featured on Teacher Tube:

    Back home in South Carolina, the students at St Andrews Math and Science appeared on both ABC news and News 2 in Charleston and a few days later appeared on national news here in the US with several dozen comments.

    VOYAGE STATS

    Voyage 2: 254 days at sea (5/24/15 – 2/2/2016) traveling 7,581 miles (12,200 km).

3rd Voyage

  • July 2016 - Repaired and relaunched

    The Carolina Dreamer was brought to Ysgol Craig yr Wylfa.

    Pupils of Ysgol Craig yr Wylfa, Borth: Harvey Perkins, Jac Steen, Connor Yabsley, Ben Cave, Eliza Williams, Oliver Williams, Erin Yabsley, Reece Steen, teacher Miss Hughes, Glyn Clift and Ewan Taylor with the American model boat which is due to set sail from Ireland across the Atlantic – 16APJ30June01 – County Echo Reporter

    Amy Mcmahon’s class, along with help from the community, prepared a new deck and, in early June 2016, mailed it to overseas. Amy herself and a fellow teacher visited Wales in July and met the school children and teachers:

    They then drove the Carolina Dreamer to Cobh where they presented the re-rigged boat to the Captain of the TS State of Maine before they left port on July 5th from Cobh, Ireland.

    The Carolina Dreamer was relaunched on 07/18/16 at Lat. 43′-59″ N; Long. 018′-03″ W and was last seen heading south under light northerly winds. Everyone wishes Carolina Dreamer all the best on her voyage back across the Atlantic Ocean.

  • December 2017 - Stalled in the mid-Atlantic

    As of this writing, in late December 2017 she is stalled in the mid-Atlantic.

  • September 25, 2018 - GPS last reported

    After traveling almost the same distance as the earth’s circumference, she went quiet on September 25, 2018 (after over 800 days at sea) when we thought the batteries had died.

  • December 2018 - Recovered in the Azores

    On December 6, 2018 we received an email from Andre Vitorino whose parents Duarte and Noélia Vitorino had recovered a boat he thought was an EP miniboat in the Azores. Photographs later confirmed that it was the Carolina Dreamer which stopped reporting on September 25, 2018 after sailing over 800 days at sea!

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Andre was kind enough to answer some questions we had:

    How did your parents come across the boat?
    They were walking on the coast when they come across the boat. This happened in Fajã D’Além, São Jorge Island, Azores, Portugal. This is a link where you can find out more about the place.

    What part of this is most exciting to you?
    I feel it’s great that this boat was found, after so much time. It was an opportunity for me (and probably much more people) to get to know educational passages, which I think is a very interesting program to get people and schools to know more about the ocean. It interests me even more since I’m a marine engineer, so I do love boats and the ocean.

    What would you like to see happen with the boat?
    I think it would be nice to have it repaired and on its way to the ocean once more maybe. There are 3 schools in the island, I can get in contact with them. It would require some effort to take the boat to a school, since the place where it was found is a small “village” that can only be reached by a walking trails down a 500 meters hill, but it is doable (see picture to the right).

    On Monday morning the 10th of December, Amy Mcmahon (the lead teacher for the Carolina Dreamer) awoke to the exciting news in her email inbox. She responded with great joy, “I can’t believe it! Great news! I thought her story finally came to a close! This is so exciting! Unbelievable!” Now that’s a way to start a week!

    An article was published on December 25, 2018 in the Post and Courier, “SC students’ tiny ship adventure wrecks on Azores rocks” 

    VOYAGE STATS

    Voyage 3: 871 days at sea (7/18/16 – 12/6/2018) traveling over 24,392 miles (39,254 km). A straight line from deployment to recovery is only 8,313 miles (5,167 km)!

This boat was prepared by Amy Mcmahon’s students at St. Andrews School of Math and Science with help from Kurt Oberle and Pete Ferrara at  the High & Dry Boat works in Charlestown, S. Carolina.

Follow the Carolina Dreamer on Facebook!