THE next chapter in the remarkable story of an unmanned boat which found its way from the USA to Borth after sailing 4,800 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, has begun.

It was reported in the Cambrian News last week that plans were being drawn up to send the Carolina Dreamer, a 1.6-metre-long educational vessel equipped with a sail and GPS device, on the next leg of its voyage after a Cambrian News appeal helped locate the boat which was found by Helen Hinks and her children on Borth beach in February.

It is hoped that the boat, which was launched on 19 May last year by pupils and staff at the St Andrew’s School of Math and Science in Charleston, South Carolina, will now be able to make its way back to the USA after it was launched from Cobh, Ireland, on Tuesday.

Pupils, staff and parents at Ysgol Craig yr Wylfa, Borth, have been busy repairing the boat to make it seaworthy ahead of the official hand-over to St Andrew’s teacher, Amy McMahon and two others flying from the USA to Ireland, where they will launch the Carolina Dreamer aboard the training vessel TS State of Maine.

Miss McMahon, who admitted having a “nightmare” trying to arrange the hand-over, has this week thanked Stena Line ferries after they stepped in and offered free passage for her and the other teachers from Rosslare, Ireland, to Fishguard, where the hand-over will take place, and back to Rosslare again.

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