The USS Friends #223009 was found in Nuuk, in southwest Greenland on the water’s edge by Mads Olsvig’s girlfriend on August 3, 2024. This boat originated in Carbondale, Colorado and was deployed by the Le Commandant Charcot on August 17, 2023.
I, Sarah Johnson of Wild Rose Education, am a PolarTREC alumni who was paired with the International Arctic Buoy Programme in late 2019. Upon my return from the Arctic sea ice at Point Barrow, Alaska in the spring of 2022 I offered community education programs at the libraries, science center, and a Cadette Girl Scout troop to share my experience and understanding of arctic sea ice circulation, and my new relationship with the North Slope of Alaska and the science team. Each education program included participants decorating Float Your Boat wooden boats. Before boxing them up and shipping them to the University of Washington Polar Science Center, I decorated one of the extra blank boats. I decided to call it the 'USS Friends' boat and add some of my close friends’ names to the boat as I wanted to ensure they too got to send something to the North Pole.
Now, a couple years later I coordinate the Float Your Boat education program along with the project leads at the University of Washington. This week I received an alert that boat 223009 was found in Nuuk, Greenland. Of the more than 35 found and reported boats this season, this is the first boat reported from Greenland. Studying the ocean current map it is curious just how this boat traveled by sea ice and then open water all the way to Nuuk. We are guessing it went south from the North Pole through Fram Strait down the west coast of Greenland and then turned north again up the southwest side of Greenland. Other boats from this same deployment have been found in northern Iceland.
As an educator I coordinate, create, plan, design, and facilitate programs and courses; always giving of myself to create learning experiences for students of all ages. It is pretty neat to have a boat that I decorated (not only students and program participants) also be part of this international Arctic education program, and be found. Perhaps it serves as a sign that I should explore Nuuk, Greenland one day in the not so distant future.
Boat Number | 223009 |
Date Found | August 3, 2024 |
Place Found | Aligortooq, Ved Vores Hytte, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland 63*58.494’N 051*34.742’W |
Found By | Mads Olsvig's girlfriend |
Date Deployed | |
Who Deployed | Le Commandant Charcot |
Deployment Location | North Pole |
Track Taken | Transpolar Current through Fram Strait |
Decorated by | Sarah R Johnson, Wild Rose Education and Float Your Boat, Carbondale, Colorado USA |
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