We’re still trying to wrap our heads around this one…

Season 4 of the Educational Passages Podcast continues with our “Imagine This” series — where the stories behind our miniboats reveal something even deeper than ocean currents and GPS tracks.

Each episode invites you to step into a moment of possibility — to feel the anticipation, the uncertainty, and the extraordinary connections that unfold when students send something small into a very big ocean.

Now press play, close your eyes, and imagine this:

Ever heard of six degrees of separation? Well, this is a story with only one. In May 2026, three miniboats found themselves connected by a thread no one had ever planned for. To understand how, you have to rewind ten years, to a brand-new research vessel's very first cruise and a high school science project that nobody quite expected would still be sailing in 2026. Along the way: a buoy array, the Azores, an Albatross, and a decade-long coincidence we're still trying to wrap our heads around. 

Transcript

Welcome To Educational Passages

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to the Educational Passages Podcast. Educational Passages is a nonprofit organization that seeks to connect people around the world to the ocean and each other through unique global experiences. I'm your host, Cassie Stymist. Welcome everybody to Season 4. Get ready to set sail on a brand new adventure as we launch our Imagine This series, where the magic of mini boats come alive through the voices and visions of those who make it all possible. In this series, each episode will paint a vivid picture of discovery, connection, and curiosity, not just tracking the voyages, but exploring the challenges and unexpected outcomes behind them. Now press play, close your eyes, and imagine this. Ever heard of six degrees of separation? Well, here's a story with only one, one research vessel connecting three mini boats over a decade-long coincidence that we're still trying to wrap our heads around. It's 2016. A brand new research vessel, the RV Neil Armstrong, operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is heading out on its very first cruise. It's called a science verification cruise, which is a fancy way of saying, let's see what this ship can do. On board, alongside the instruments, the gear, and the crew, is a small uncrewed sailing vessel about a meter and a half long. It has a GPS on board so it can be tracked. It was built by Caitlin Dow and her classmates at Waterford High School in Connecticut as part of a research project to study wind and currents in the ocean. It's the mini boat named Lancer. The crew sets her in the water, in between their tasks, and she sails away. Across the Atlantic she went, riding the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic drift, all the way to Ireland. She gets picked up, refurbished, and relaunched. Then she lands in the UK. She becomes a gift each time as new students open the cargo hold, find the treasures from the classrooms before them, and fill it again with their own. Letters, sail designs, sensors, stories, a boat that keeps being sent forward. By 2022, Lancer is ready to sail again, so a new group of students at Waterford High School back in Connecticut decide to build her a sister ship. The name is Lady Lance. She's launched from the very same vessel that launched the Lancer, the Neil Armstrong, which is now heading out to recover an array of scientific buoys from the Northeast Shelf for the National Science Foundation's Ocean Observatory's initiative. The Lady Lance drifts eastward. Two weeks later, the Lancer is relaunched from the Canary Islands. It travels west to the Bahamas. It's as if the two are dancing and the ballroom is the Atlantic Ocean. Lady Lance lands in the Azores. A school there takes on the project, a year later, opens her cargo hold, and begins the work of getting her ready to sail again. That spring is April 2024, and over in North Carolina, the very same OOI buoy array is getting reinstalled in the Mid-Atlantic. That September, the Lancer is relaunched from the Northeast in the very same waters where she first set sail near where the buoys once anchored. But this time, the mini boat heads south, quite unexpectedly, as most mini boats tend to find the Gulf Stream from that spot and head east. The Lancer sails all the way down to Corolla on the outer banks of North Carolina, just northeast of the relocated buoy array, in fact. There she visits a new classroom ready to write another chapter. Fast forward to May 2026, where these stories start to collide. The Neil Armstrong is now out in the Mid-Atlantic doing repairs on those buoys. They need to come out of the water every so often to clean them up and make sure all the data continues to flow. They're working only a few miles off the same stretch of coastline where the Lancer sits in that classroom. The very first mini boat that the ship ever launched, and the ship itself, practically neighbors giving a wave to each other. That same week, back in New England, a group of students at Dudley Middle School were researching boats that could take their mini boat back out to sea, the DMS Anita, a mini boat that went out twice on the RV Endeavor, each time resulting in a landing to the north, once in Falmouth Mass and the second in Nova Scotia, Canada. In their research, they find that the Neil Armstrong is going to be heading out from Woods Hole in a week. It's only 100 miles from their school, so they reach out. They don't yet realize that this ship also launched Lancer and Lady Lance before, and the exciting coincidence that is about to rise to the surface. And the Anita is no stranger to coincidence. Inside her cargo hold on the first two voyages was a hand crocheted albatross, which represented the inspiration of their project, Wisdom the Albatross, and the mascot for the ocean race. And the ship that launched those first two voyages? The RV Endeavour, the oldest ship in the fleet at the time, which is actually nicknamed, yep, the albatross. And so with the Endeavour retired, the students needed another ship to take Anita out to sea again. They let Educational Passages know about the cruise they found, and it turns out that they're heading right back to the same waters where the Lancer and Lady Lance first set sail. And the PI just happens to be on Educational Passages Science Advisory Board, Dr. Glenn Kawarkowitz. The cruise is going out to study the currents. The perfect opportunity for launching a mini boat. They agreed to launch the DMS Anita on Monday, May 18th. Now here is where the layers all fold onto each other. Because the next day over in the Azores was supposed to be the launch of Lady Lance. Because that is the National Booth Schools Day in Portugal. Students there have been working to repair and redecorate her. Funding came through just in time for a new sale and a GPS to be shipped in April and to get the tracking systems back online and ready. Lady Lance's relaunch has actually been planned for months. The same mini boat the Neil Armstrong originally launched in 2022 in the Northeast while recovering the very buoys it just returned to the Mid-Atlantic to repair. And now the Neil Armstrong will set DMS Anita back to sea as the Lady Lance returns to the waters in the Azores soon after. One launch has been planned for months, the other came together in a matter of days. But both are connected by one thing, the RV Neil Armstrong. A decade after the Lancer first hit the water on its maiden voyage, that same ship is the line tying these stories together, supporting science and connecting students to the ocean and each other. But wait, what's next for the Lancer? Well, she's not done either. Students in North Carolina are preparing her for a sixth voyage. Three mini boats, still teaching, still connecting, still carrying letters, collecting data, and inspiring curiosity across an ocean that has somehow, against all odds, kept bringing them back to each other's stories. That's the thing about miniboat magic. There are always more connections than you think, more overlaps than you can plan for. Because the truth is, we're all connected by the ocean. And when you think about it, the world isn't really so small after all. It's just that mini boats have a way of making it feel that way. You have been listening to the Educational Passages Podcast. Educational Passages is a nonprofit organization. Please consider making a donation to help us continue our work bringing people together to learn more about the ocean. To donate, head over to educational passages.org/slash support. If you're enjoying this program, please consider subscribing to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or from wherever you download your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the