Two schoolgirls from either side of the Atlantic finally met in person months after making contact when a miniature yacht dispatched in a science experiment was discovered on a tiny Connemara island after a tumultuous 3,000-mile journey.
After tracking the vessel’s whereabouts on a GPS tracking system, Méabh Ní Ghionnáin was over the moon to discover that the three-foot-long sailboat named Lancer had landed almost on her doorstep near Lettermore.
Built from a kit by Kaitlyn Dow, 18, a student of Waterford High School in Connecticut. She stuffed it full of little gifts such as teddys and college memorabilia, with a memory stick containing essays from pupils of her old school.
Its deployment along with a number of other unmanned vessels on May 7 near Martha’s Vineyard was overseen by three marine science universities and progress across the Atlantic was tracked three times a day with GPS equipment.
As it approached the west coast, Kaitlyn and her teacher Mike O’Connor emailed people, pubs and organisations up and down the coast urging them to look out for the Lancer.
Méabh’s aunt Cliona Ní Chualáin, who runs the pub Ti Mheaic in Carna received the message and alerted her family scattered across Connemara.
When Méabh took her fisherman father Stiofáin out walking along the shoreline in search of the model yacht on September 17 last, they could not believe their eyes to spot the boat intact propped on Oileán Anamna, along with all its treasure.
Méabh’s local sea scout group and Ciarán Oliver and James Rattigan of Port of Galway Sea Scouts repaired the model and fitted it with a Galway hooker sail.
Kaitlyn and Méabh met for the first time earlier this month after the American student and teacher raised community funds for them along with Kaitlyn’s family to travel to Galway.
The schoolgirls visited the Marine Institute in Galway which is organising a further voyage for the Lancer from the transatlantic expedition of its research ship Celtic Explorer in April.
The post Girls meet up on back of miniature yacht’s 3,000-mile odyssey appeared first on Connacht Tribune.