Miniature sailboat launched in Florida found shipwrecked in Cape Breton

Three months ago, a small sailboat was sent adrift off the coast of Florida. 

The tiny autonomous vessel was created by a group of American students who expected it would travel across the pond to Europe. 

But instead of tracking to the east, several hurricane systems brought the tiny ship into Canadian waters. 

"It's kind of like a message in a bottle, but we have a GPS tracker on them, and they just sail with the wind and currents all around the world," said Cassie Stymiest, executive director of Educational Passages, the non-profit organization based in Maine which created the mini-boat program.

"Usually they take that path up to the North Atlantic Drift and most of them end up in Europe. And the goal is to try to connect classrooms so when the boat lands on the other side, the students then get to meet and have new friends."

Stymiest said the vessel known as the TMS Sea Challenger was created by Grade 7 students at Frank E. Thompson Middle School in Newport, Rhode Island.

Last week, the mini boat stopped sending reports that led Stymiest to believe it may have run aground in Cape Breton. 

"We're like, uh oh, and it's in the middle of nowhere. We don't have any contact. We've never had a mini boat up there, so we took to social media."

An email sent to a surfing group in Nova Scotia caught the eye of Michelle Richards — an avid explorer of the coastline in Richmond County on Cape Breton's south coast.

Richards put together an expedition that included herself, two surfers from Maine, and another person familiar with the area.

"We encountered everything from long sandy beaches, cranberry bogs, tall grass, cobblestone, rugged rock … high bluffs [and] thick brush.  It was a little bit of everything you can imagine," said Richards.

"It's definitely one of the most isolated, rugged sections of coast I've encountered in Cape Breton."

The crew found what was left of the vessel last Saturday along a rocky section of St. Esprit Beach and stuffed it into a surfboard bag.

After the hike back was completed, Richards said they opened up the remains of the Challenger to discover it contained a capsule of treasures such as the key to the city of Newport, R.I., a signed baseball and a student journal carrying the messages "Enjoy the ride" and "Wave at Canada when you go by."  

The capsule is now expected to be brought to students in a Cape Breton classroom, where it's hoped they will be able to form a connection with the boat builders from Rhode Island who sent the vessel on its 88-day journey. 

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