Guinness World Record for Turriff brothers
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Turriff brothers Ollie and Harry Ferguson whose adventures have gained global media attention can add two new adventures to their list this week with the confirmation of a Guinness World Record and the publication of a book of their adventures.
Several years ago, their parents created a list of achievable adventures for the two youngsters, which in turn quickly grew to have five hundred in total.
Written by the brothers, it included outdoor activities mixed with challenging and exciting things to do.
This has included everything from having a bath outdoors, constructing a giant catapult, sending a LEGO figure into space and mummifying a fish through to hunting for meteorites eating Surstomming and even setting up their own independent country, the Kingdom of Ce.
But it was the quest to launch a toy boat at sea that catapulted them to worldwide acclaim.
In May 2017, the boys with some parental help used a Playmobil pirate ship which they named Adventure to undertake the task on their list.
Making it watertight the boat was launched near Peterhead containing a message in a bottle with contact details for the boys.
It duly made its way across the North Sea, being found by a couple on the north-west coast of Jutland, near Hanstholm after a 390 mile crossing.
After relaunch it turned up in a tree on the Swedish coastline, where the finder also contacted the boys and carried out small repairs before relaunching the boat on its' travels before being potted of the coast of southern Norway by a conservation vessel, where crew member Haakon Braathu Haaverstad of the National Conservation Authority found it near Vesteroy.
After the story was picked up by the Norwegian press, national papers in the UK and even international yachting news releases, a new offer of an adventure beyond Scandinavia was on offer.
Captain Clas Jagdum, master of the internationally renowned Norwegian three masted sailing ship the Christian Radich which is a regular participant in the Tall Ships races and appeared on BBC TV in the 1970s in the Ondein Line offered to take the vessel on its next voyage which saw it headed out for the Cape Verde islands.
In December 2017 the boat was launched off the coast off the coast of Mauritania spending many weeks travelling westwards across the Atlantic, almost making landfall on the northern coast area of South America before tidal currents drove it north towards Bardados.
Despite local efforts, the failure of the battery in the tracker meant that, to date the last known position was off the coast of Barbados, with landfall unconfirmed.
A replica of the original vessel has been on display at Peterhead museum and the plastic boat, the Adventure has now been confirmed as a new World Record holder, making its entry in the 2020 edition.
The citation reads: “A Playmobil Pirate ship, the Adventure travelled 6072.47km (3773.28miles) between May 2017 and May 2018.
“Brothers Ollie and Harry Fergusson launched their toy from near Peterhead and sea currents carried it to Scandinavia.
“The Norwegian ship Christian Radich picked it up and released it 160km off the coast of Mauritania where it continued its journey across the Atlantic to near Barbados.”
On the award the boys said: “We were really excited when dad told us that we were going to be world record holders, it was surprise and something extra to add to our list.”
Having told their story to many schools both locally and internationally, they received awards as Ambassadors of Adventure and were also the youngest recipients of a John Muir Conservation award.
Their adventures have sparked considerable interest from youngsters and parents and as they continue to work through the list, having now completed 311 of the 500, they have inspired a new book - Ollie and Harry's Marvellous Adventures which is published this week.
Covering many of their own adventures, it offers inspiration for families to get outside and explore with simple and achievable goals, through to more challenging adventures.
To follow their continuing quest to complete the 500 tasks visit https://www.facebook.com/marvellousadventureclub/.
Grampian Online readers can get Ollie and Harry's Marvellous Adventures with a special 25 per cent discount and free shipping via wwnorton.co.uk, search for Ollie and Harry and add the code to WN680 at the checkout.
