Middle schoolers' sailboat crossed the Atlantic in 462 days.

A 5.5-foot unmanned sailboat built by middle schoolers in Rye, New Hampshire, washed ashore on the Norwegian island of Smøla after 462 days and roughly 8,300 miles at sea. The Rye Riptides was launched off the New Hampshire coast in October 2020 as part of a project with Educational Passages, a nonprofit that ships build-it-yourself mini-boat kits to classrooms. Students at Rye Junior High decorated it with artwork, signed facemasks, fall leaves, acorns, and state quarters, then packed in a GPS tracker that reported home only intermittently. The pandemic complicated nearly every step, including the launch, which Educational Passages executive director Cassie Stymiest called "challenging with all the restrictions in place." Even the kids had doubts. "Honestly, I thought it would sink," student Solstice Reed told the Portsmouth Herald. Sixth graders on Smøla opened the boat to find it covered in barnacles. The trinkets inside were intact.