Geoforce Sails the Seven Seas!

“Oh, the places you’ll go!”

-Dr. Seuss, but if you say ‘Theodore Geisel’, people will think you’re smarter.

Geoforce is proud to monitor the progress of Sailing on a Dream, a 2-meter unmanned sailboat bravely riding the currents of the Indian Ocean. Equipped with a Geoforce AT3 and using the Track and Trace online software platform, the Sailing on a Dream launched into the Cape of Good Hope on July 18, 2019.

And Geoforce has been watching over her ever since. Built and developed under the direction of veteran sailor Dick Baldwin by the United Technologies School in Bangor, Maine, Dick uses miniboats to educate students across the world about the science of our oceans.

The molded fiberglass miniboat is self-righting and wind-powered, equipped with a solar-powered GPS tracker reporting her progress into Geoforce Track and Trace. Students also equipped the boat with a sensor to measure ocean surface temperature as the ‘Dream sails eastward. Geoforce is sharing all recorded data with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in cooperation with AssetLink.

Dick says Sailing on a Dream could travel as far as Australia. Or… not. Which is why he was keen to know if Geoforce could provide frequent location updates. He settled on location updates every three hours and we did him one better by enabling Track and Trace’s device management features to provide even more visibility. Now Dick and over 30 students and professors can see every one of the ‘Dreams location reports, starting from when she left her original hangar back in Maine!

As of this writing, the Sailing on a Dream is east of Amsterdam Island, which is equidistant from Madagascar, Antarctica, and Australia. We’ll keep you posted as she continues her journey.

Oh, the places she’ll go.

Jay Karlson is a Senior Product Manager at Geoforce.