Brothers send toy ship on another record-breaking journey

A pair of young brothers who sent a toy ship on a record-breaking trip around the world are hoping the boat could reach Floria.

Harry Ferguson, eight, and brother Ollie, 11, previously set the world record for the longest distance travelled at sea by a toy boat, with their Playmobil pirate ship called ‘Adventure,’ and are now hoping to set another record with Adventure II.

The first toy boat sailed across the North Sea and the Atlantic to the Caribbean, and was launched from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, covering 3773 miles between May 2017 and May 2018, but its tracker died off the coast of Barbados and it was lost at sea.

Their dad, Mac, 46, helped the boys add a counterweight to the boat to help it stay upright and it was filled with polystyrene to help it stay afloat.

The onboard tracker is the same used by adventurers attempting to row across the Atlantic.

They are trying the challenge again with a second boat after being contacted by a family in Trinidad and Tobago.

Adventure II was launched off the coast of Guyana on September 22.

Fitted with a tracker which is linked to a satellite and transmits locations four times each day, the tiny boat has already travelled 2500 miles, endured 20 metre high waves and made it through two major Caribbean hurricanes.

It is feared the tracker may be running low on battery and is nearing an ‘isolated’ area of Honduras called Barra Patuca.

The Fergusons, from Turriff, Aberdeenshire, had hoped the boat would travel across the Caribbean Sea and be picked up by the Gulf Stream and float back across the Atlantic, from west to east.

Dad-of-two Mac said: “We’re hoping she could be picked up around Florida, recharged and then hopefully sent back across the Atlantic.

“But there’s been such strong winds and she’s around 40kms off the coast of Honduras in an isolated region.

“We’d like someone who’s out there to try and find it and post a picture of her condition and recharge the batteries.

“They might also be able to give her a little tidy up.”

Adventure II was mostly constructed by the Trinidadian family who followed instructions which had been sent over.

Mac, a senior oil and gas consultant, added: “A man got in touch from Trinidad and his family wanted to help us continue the adventure, so we sent a new boat out to Trinidad and got their kids to help build a new version that followed the same methodology as the first.

“The dad was on a big offshore vessel off the coast of Guyana and launched it.

“She’s been merrily sailing away and done 4000km already and made her way across the Caribbean Sea.

“She was heading northeast between Cuba and Mexico, because there’s such a strong current there, the Gulf Stream.”

“We didn’t realise that we’d manage to create something that’s as seaworthy as it is.

“I don’t know how we’ve been able to make them as strong and as durable as we have, but it works.

“The current one stands a really good chance.”

Adventure II’s progress can be followed here.