Forever Sea

Sail Nauticus Academy

Updates:

1st Voyage

  • About Us

    Sail Nauticus Academy’s 5th-8th grade students have been working hard on their shared miniboat project. They named their vessel “Forever Sea” because, “when we had looked on the EP website, we noticed that some boats had been out at sea many years. So we thought our boat can be forever on the sea.

    On May 10th, 2025, Sail Nauticus Academy students and their parents were invited to celebrate M/B Forever Sea and christen her for a safe journey!

  • July 1 2025: Brought Aboard the Schooner Virginia for Deployment

  • July 2, 2025: Launch

    Forever Sea was launched at 10:02 am local time by the crew of the Schooner Virginia.

  • July 12, 2025: Lands in New Jersey

    On July 12, 2025, after 10 days at sea, the Forever Sea sailed to the coast of New Jersey. We first received a call from a group on a boat that they had the miniboat, but they released it. About a half hour later, we received another call from Gerry on Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Gerry was nice enough to take the boat in his truck and back to his house for safe keeping, until we can determine next steps.

    The next day we received an email that it had also been spotted during the day near the Mohawk shipwreck site. The email said, “we’re doing some virtual reality work yesterday 12 July at the Mohawk shipwreck (inshore near Belmar NJ) and your boat just came by!” So now we also welcome aboard Christopher and his team at Scuba.Tech to the project!

  • July 30, 2025: Update

    Forever Sea is brought back to Norfolk after landing in New Jersey.

  • Voyage 1 Complete

    Click on the titles above to explore the 1st Voyage of Forever Sea.

2nd Voyage

  • September 14, 2025: Voyage 2 Begins

    It’s official! The Carnival Cruise line: SUNSHINE will be relaunching miniboat FOREVER SEA for Voyage #2.

    She was dropped off at Norfolk’s port by Nauticus staff, and included an official K9 inspection before boarding the ship:

     

  • September 16, 2025: Launch!

    At 10:20 GMT, on the morning of September 16th, 2025, MB Forever Sea was launched into the Atlantic at coordinates 34º11.1 N – 068º30.7 W.

    With 6-8 foot swells and a wind speed and direction of WSW 7 knots, Forever Sea is already experiencing an epic ocean adventure from the start! We thank Carnival Cruise SUNSHINE for a successful deployment and can’t wait to track where the miniboat will go.

    Data from Onboard 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.

    Join us in wishing Forever Sea a safe and long journey as we follow her track together.

    September 20th, 2025 Update:

    Students and instructors from Sail Nauticus Academy were given a tour onboard the SUNSHINE and got to meet the captain’s who launched their miniboat. What a special opportunity!

    Read more about their experience by reading WAVY’s article: “Student-built Miniboat Relaunched into the Ocean by Carnival” ,WCNC Charlotte’s article: “Virginia Students’ Miniboat Embarks on Epic Journey Across the Ocean,” and The FlagShip’s article: “Sail Nauticus Academy & Carnival Sunshine Launch Student-Built Miniboat for Ocean Tracking.”

    Stay tuned for more updates!