These Maine High Schoolers Made a Boat. Then It Washed Up in Scotland

A 4-foot-drifter boat students launched from Maine landed on the shores of a Scottish island after 168 days and 12 hours at sea.

Students in the Kennebunk Alternative High School program, who worked in partnership with the Landing School of Boat Building and Design and the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, constructed the boat back in December, the Bangor Daily News reports. The boat was equipped with sensors and a camera.

Students were hoping the boat would make landfall in Ireland, but it drifted with the ocean’s current south toward Spain and north past Ireland before washing ashore on one of Scotland’s Western Isles.

The boat, which some skeptical students named “The Little Boat that Could,” is not done traveling the globe yet. After students at a primary school in Scotland do some repairs, the boat will again be launched with hopes of landing in South America, according to BDN.

While some students said they learned new skills and gained global knowledge, others also said the project helped them stay on the right path. “It’s really kind of shown the kids that they can be part of something a lot bigger than themselves. That even just building just a little boat in Kennebunk can have this reach,” alternative education teacher Ed Sharood told BDN.

[Bangor Daily News]