Mar a Delta

PLOCAN and IES Eusebio Barreto

Updates:

1st Voyage

  • September 2024 Launch and Recovery

    The IES Eusebio Barreto school in La Palma, Canary Islands, has built and launched another miniboat!

    This one is named Mar A Delta, and was launched on September 12, 2024 thanks to the boat company Fancy in La Palma.

    PLOCAN and Students from La Palma Launch the “Mar a DELTA” Boat to Collect Data about the Atlantic Ocean

    Read the article above from September 12, 2024 to learn about:

    • Students from IES Eusebio Barreto launch a small sailboat powered by the Canary Islands Oceanic Platform from the Port of Tazacorte, equipped with a GPS and a temperature sensor to analyze real-time data throughout the course
    • The event was attended by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy, the entity financing the DELTA project

    A Quick but Successful Voyage!

    The miniboat was picked up by the Ocean Explorer (see picture right), a whale watch boat, on September 16, not far from where the miniboat was launched! Since the boat had onboard sensors, all of this information will be helpful to the Project DELTA researchers, and already the teams are looking into some of the reasons for the deviation of course, such as: 

    • The bonanzas of September, characterized by the lack of wind in the Canary Islands
    • The high subtropical pressures displacing the trade winds, calming our waters
    • The sea currents

    A relaunch is already being planned. Click on titles below to explore more.

  • Voyage 1: Complete

    VOYAGE 1 STATS of the MAR A DELTA: 199 km traveled in 4 days.

    Click on the title above to explore the first voyage of MAR A DELTA miniboat.

Voyage 2

  • Voyage 2 begins October 8, 2024

    The Mar A Delta miniboat was relaunched from a PLOCAN vessel on October 8, 2024.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Data from the 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.

  • January 3, 2025 - Recovered in Brazil

    One of our first exciting things of 2025 is the MAR A DELTA finding its way to Brazil! It sailed into the Bay of Marajó after crossing the Equator on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2024. To the right is a picture of the track on January 2.

    Thanks to Dr. Lilian Krug at POGO (Partnership for the Observation of the Global Ocean), we were quickly connected with Vinicius and Renan, professors at the Oceanography Department, Federal University of Pará, in Belém.

    The MAR A DELTA made landfall on Jutuba Island on January 3 (pictured left). A recovery mission quickly began thanks to our new connections.

    Yasmin, Luan and Davi (students at the university studying Oceanography) sought assistance from a local boat operator and visited the family that had picked up the miniboat from the beach where it landed. They met with the family and talked. They were able to learn more about the project, and also hear more about the family and their life on the island.

    Now that the boat has been recovered, we are looking forward to learning more about our new friends, this new place, and helping students in the Canary Islands to connect with them.

    Stay tuned for next steps as they develop.

    VOYAGE 2 STATS of the MAR A DELTA: 5,402 km traveled in 87 days.

    Click on the titls above to explore the first voyage of MAR A DELTA miniboat!