Polar diary: 6 months pass since Turriff ships set off on an Antarctic adventure
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Back in July 2023 two model ships built by brothers Ollie and Harry Ferguson from Turriff, were launched in an effort to circumnavigate Antarctica.
The mission took its inspiration from the Ross scientific expedition of 1839-43 which involved HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
Replicating the construction of the original ships, they built one metre long replicas of the two vessels, which were set to follow the circumpolar current around Antarctica, a journey of around 20,000km and which could take up to two years to complete.
As part of the journey the boats transmit scientific data on a regular basis including air temperature, ocean temperature and ocean pH along with a monthly photograph which is uploaded via satellite.
Unfortunately contact with the Erebus was lost after 500km into the journey, but sister ship the Terror continues to transmit data.
In the latest update, Icoteq who helped design the ship's systems said: "Six months after launching, Terror has travelled nearly 5000km and has just crossed the prime meridian passing into the eastern hemisphere.
"Camera images are still coming in, though the lens is getting increasingly contaminated and spoiling the view for us all.
"This is a remarkable journey already as Terror has cover around 44 degrees of longitude, or 12 per cent of the total circumpolar journey, so there's still a long way to go.
"The batteries are looking strong so barring any devastating incidents we're confident the boat will keep going for several years at this rate."
Having passed the marker of 4429km, Terror is now to geographical east of Turriff on the globe !
A long term project, the construction and transportation of the ships via the Falkland Islands took over two years, as official approval for the project was sought and transport down to the Antarctic waters.
The boats were crafted from elm wood and are fitted with bespoke tracking and monitoring devices developed by Icoteq, with a battery life of more than six years.
They are also fitted with cameras which will be able to send around one image a month.
After the boats were completed, they were shipped to the Falkland Islands until the family received official approval from authorities that they could be launched into the Southern Ocean.
The Pharos SG, a South Georgia fisheries patrol vessel, then transported them out and launched them into the circumpolar current on Tuesday, July 11.
They were quickly attacked by a pair of petrels which seemed to think the boats were food but fortunately the birds soon lost interest and flew away.
The boys are no strangers to such challenges as they have undertaken many adventures, previously setting the world record for the longest distance travelled at sea by a toy boat.
They sailed their Playmobil pirate ship Adventure more than 3700 miles across the Atlantic to the Caribbean as part of a list of 500 adventures.
