Snoopy is waiting for a "weather window", before making his next attempt. He needs a day with suitable conditions for launch, and sail south to about 16 miles off the coast, before heading west, almost 300 miles. This stretch to south of Ireland, was always going to be tough, so we want close to a week of favourable wind, from the East or North, rather than from West or South. We are back from Holiday but other things stopped us using what looked like good "weather windows". The next attempt on the Atlantic could be a weekend in June or July - when the winds and waves are right ! See the new June 2013 video.

Snoopy has his new boat, like that used last year, for his next attempt at the Atlantic.
We plan to launch him again from Barton-on-Sea as soon as we can, and the wind and waves allows us.
We need a dry weekend day, with Winds expected from the North or East for several days, ideally a week.
Ideally, the launch day will have waves smaller than 1 ft, or FLAT conditions, forecast on magicseaweed.com .
You can see where Snoopy is now, by clicking on his SPOT map * , updated every hour - on Bray Lake or relaxing at home :-)
* SPOT map updates expected to resume again soon, after SPOT Support Desk complete an account change.

Snoopy tried the Atlantic twice in March, when we had an excellent "weather window". The last attempt was on Saturday 30th March, and before that is was on Saturday 14th March. Enjoy the pictures and videos below. We've now had two successes to get away, and two failures - when the waves were higher. Here above is Snoopy relaxing, before the next dramatic attempt, sat on his Windmill Boat :-)

Snoopy was on 24/7 test, sailing back and forth in the corner of Bray Lake, for over four weeks in early 2013. He did many months of this, on the other, identical boat, in 2012. If the wind dropped to below about 1mph - as often happens at night - Snoopy "went for a wander". If he got stuck near the shore, Robin went over to push Snoopy out again. See the design page for a blog of 24/7 testing, including these notes, repairs, changes, and tests.

Want to cheer Snoopy on ? Be prepared to sing "Rule Britania!", and bring a Union Jack flag to wave :-)

Snoopy's route ...

This is all academic if Snoopy only survives a few minutes, hours, or even days, but here was my best guess on how long it would take to travel the 5300 miles to the USA, if at 1.5 mph - and if he had got away on March 30th ! I'll keep this section updated, when we launch again, and while we are able to track Snoopy, to see how well he progresses, and at what speed, the latest weather predictions, etc.

• Barton-on-Sea, UK. Launch at about 1245pm Saturday 30 March, to head 16 miles due south to his "Channel" waypoint. 11 hours ?
• Channel Waypoint, 16 miles offshore - before midnight on 30th ? Then heads 282 miles west, to the Microtransat Start Line south of Ireland.
• Microtransat Start Line at 7.5W - by Monday 8th April ? Then heads 1240 miles south west, towards the Azores, to catch the trade winds.
• Azores - by Sunday 16th June ? Then heads 2360 miles west, towards the Microtransat Finish line, at 60W near the Bahamas.
• Microtransat Finish Line at 60W - by 28th July ? Then heads towards the USA east coast: maybe 1400 miles. Landing by 8th September ?

Snoopy's attempt on Saturday 30th March ...

Is that a big wave coming ? See below the pictures for the video links. Then see "How might we beat the surf ?".

In short: the result was exactly the same as the earlier Saturday attempt - Snoopy being "tumbled over" by the surf, and having to be brought home to check out before we try again. This time the waves were even bigger than the earlier Saturday, and the video footage more dramatic of Robin and his friend Dick being knocked over by a big wave !

We've now had two successful launches from the beach at Barton-on-Sea, that you may have already seen on video: the small yellow "Snoopy Sloop 6", thrown in from rocks last summer, and "Snoopy Sloop 8" who ended up near The Needles in November. But, just as conditions looked perfect this March, we've had two failures to get past the breakers.

This needs to be a "coast to coast" project, to satisfy my goal, but maybe we can find a simple means of getting Snoopy safely out those extra few yards. We noticed that, an hour or two after our launch, the waves had subsided a little, so we may have been unlucky again. Robin's local friend Dick was there, having hired a wetsuit and kayak from Boscombe, but he'd already discovered it too difficult to get past those big breaking waves.

Much more is in the video, which will show you far more clearly what happened. But I guess this frame gives you a flavour ! :-)

Oh yes ... the video also includes some experiments that were done in using a kayak to help the launch process ...

You can now play the 30th March utube video , or some of you may be able to play the better quality video in PC WMV format. Enjoy ! :-)
See how much smaller the waves were last November, in the family video of Snoopy's launch in 2012. Maybe this can be predicted ? But we need someone to verify the method !
e.g. windfinder.com or magicseaweed.com for expected wave heights in addition to wind and weather. Any locals who can verify those wave heights by wave-watching ?

How might we beat the surf ?

I'll leave these words below, for now, in case anyone has a new idea. For now, we will use the MagicSeaweed link above to choose a good day ! :-)
Do you live near that stretch of coast, between Barton-on-Sea and Bournemouth ? Maybe you have ideas and can test them simply. e.g. predicting if the waves will be big or small - and verifying the prediction ? See above. e.g. simply watching the waves and seeing if there is a "beat pattern", such as a smallest wave, after maybe six or seven building up to the largest ? Some theory is here - but I prefer practical experiments ! :-) e.g. throwing out a tiny toy boat, with a sail, to see if it is washed in by the surf, or is carried out to sea if the wind is behind you ? Do you know someone who sails radio controlled model yachts, who might repeat what we did with success back in the summer of 2012. The picture below shows our little yellow "Snoopy Sloop 6" on old videos, quite happily going over those breaking waves. Then "Snoopy Sloop 8" did it in November 2012. It's "Snoopy Sloop 9" who has failed twice in March of this year. Maybe there's a good spot, like where a river or stream runs out to sea ? Surface rip-tide current ? Someone suggests wading out on the western (sandy) side of a groin (breakwater), preferably at low tide. Maybe you know a local person who has a bright idea - and the means of making it happen. e.g. better sea-kayaking skills ? :-)

useful links ...

See The Design of Snoopy Sloop ... for details of Snoopy's 2012 boat, and that built for the 2013 race.
See Bournmouth live web-cam for the weather and size of waves, just a few miles west of Barton-on-Sea.
See Snoopy's Windmill boat and play the Windmill Boat video - for what may appear in later years ? :-)
See The Search for Snoopy in his Robot Boat for more information such as the map showing coverage of searches done so far.
See Robin's Snoopy Sloop robot boat - progress in 2011 and 2012 for detail removed from this front page.
See Robin's Snoopy Sloop robot boat - the early years, from 2008 to 2010 for how we started.
See Robin's old "on water" page - not updated for over 14 years :-)
See Snoopy's last position on Google Maps : 7:39pm Tuesday 27th, near a military bunker in Alum Bay.
See Snoopy's Track on Google Earth to analyse what happened on 27th November 2012.
See Microtransat Map for Snoopy and the French. This SPOT Track is from the Mail Online. This Map before deletion.
See The Microtransat Challenge for competition details. See www.marinetraffic.com for how busy the shipping lanes are.
See UK Winds , Sailflow Winds , Met Office Rain & Wind, World Sea conditions , Temperatures and Sunshine.
See windfinder.com or magicseaweed.com for expected wave heights in addition to wind and weather. Any locals who can verify ?
See Jasper Coppings article in the Sunday Telegraph the Sunday before launch, and our original Press Release.
Play the video of Snoopy's launch on BBC TV News , Robin getting wet, then our family video of Snoopy's launch with reporters too :-)
Play our 2012 Snoopy-Sloop history video. The underwater TV recce/winch boat used in 2009 is in the 5 minute "Rescue of Snoopy" video
Play the 3 minute Robot Boat Sounds: past, present and future video September 2012 Text-To-Speech and video of Snoopy Sloop for 2013.
Play the 15 minute Snoopy-Sloop 2013 video with latest boat, the 2012 attempt, all boats since 2008 - or the 5 minute version here :-)
Play the 7 minute utube video of Snoopy's Atlantic Attempt on 23rd March or higher quality video off Robin's webspace, as PC WMV video.
Play the new 7 minute utube video of Snoopy's Atlantic Attempt on 30th March or higher quality video off Robin's webspace, as PC WMV video.
Play the 2 minute new video of Snoopy Sloop 9 in June 2013 on Bray Lake

Snoopy's attempt on Saturday 23rd March ...

Here is the 7 minute utube video of Snoopy's Atlantic Attempt on 23rd March ( or as WMV video ) - which shows clearly what happened ! :-)
Here are two pictures, above and on right: click on them for the higher resolution versions.

In brief: Snoopy tried, but failed to get away from the beach, in waves that were bigger than on his first attempt. He sustained minor damage, easy to fix, but it was decided unwise to try again that day, and he was brought home.

June and Robin left home, with it still snowing, at 1030am, and arrived at the car park at Barton-on-Sea, not long after midday, and in time for the planned 1230pm launch. There was a small "crowd" of one - a local man who had been following Snoopy's progress over the past year. Our local friend Dick arrived as we were carrying Snoopy down to the beach, and his little key ring camera took the wide angle video clip: Snoopy and the three of us trying to cope with the waves.

The waves were bigger than in November: 1.4 metres when we launched, and here is a useful link, which shows local conditions for Barton-on-Sea. Also - maybe more significant - the offshore breeze was much less than the 20mph North wind we had in November: Just half that, at 11 mph from the East-North-East. So conditions were far more "marginal" than for the last attempt. But the real problem was Robin's over-confidence, based on the earlier attempt, and realising too late that Snoopy was going to drift back and hit the beach. Also, Robin's caution, after nearly being swept away during the November attempt, and only wading in up to his knees, instead of his waist. All is clear on the video !

The damage sustained to Snoopy's new boat was minor, and, with hind sight now, we could have re-launched him then. However, it was wise to bring him home, to be absolutely sure. We will use the opportunity to tighten up the jib, that had loosened a bit; to tighten up the lever by which the servo turns the rudder; and to stick a bit of plastic trim back onto the navigation light. We may even have time to put a lick of paint onto the rudder and the bottom of the keel, which had remained unpainted since being mended weeks ago !

room for a camera on board ? ...

Several people have asked if we should put a camera on the boat, to send pictures or even video to the shore.

It is tempting, and if you've watched the recent video, you will see reasonable quality video from this cheap key ring camcorder. Our old videos showed video from cameras like this on Snoopy's boat. More expensive, professional products, like the GoPro Hero, are often used on surf boards - but are approaching the cost of the rest of the boat, and would exceed Robin's "hobby budget". Most important - a simple onboard camera is fine for Bray Lake, because we get the boat back afterwards. But, for Snoopy's Atlantic attempt, we don't want anyone to touch his boat to retrieve a camera - or he might be disqualified.

Some smartphones might have suitable "aps", and enable pictures or video to be sent back to shore, over the normal cellular GSM network. Even our GPS bottles used GSM years ago, sometimes from several miles offshore - even though they were practically at water level - Snoopy's deck is much higher, and we could use the mast, or a shorter pole at the back, where our removable FM transmitter was (see design page). There may even be a smart satellite phone product, using Iridium, Thuraya, or Globalstar communications, which could work far from land, in the middle of the Atlantic. But then we are talking about "throwing away money" when Snoopy is lost at sea - which will always be the probable outcome: the question is how far he gets.

Some solutions are not difficult to design, using off the shelf products, such as an Iridium modem. However, Robin does not have the time to research, assemble, and demonstrate a complete solution, including it's power system. However, he is happy to tell someone sufficiently experienced what might be done (if he doesn't know already). That person would need to fund their own time, and obtain the required products to build the solution. Of course, some product manufacturers might choose to donate sample product. Someone (like a TV network or newspaper?) might decide to fund the few hundred pounds/dollars needed, to pay for the "materials costs" so the solution can be "lost at sea" - but after proving the effort was worthwhile ! Solutions that have already been discussed involve things like use of the Iridium Satellite comms system - which would enable pictures or videos to be sent back from anywhere, including the middle of the Atlantic, or when approaching Snoopy's secret destination in USA ! :-)

Anyone interested in funding or doing the technical work ?

Snoopy's first attempt, in November 2012 .... what happened ?

Where did Snoopy go ?

Whoever snatched Snoopy, released him again in Alum Bay. The question is then "where did Snoopy go next ?"
Robin's best guess: hidden in the corner of Alum Bay, in a cave, or further east along that north coast of the Isle of Wight, with decreasing probability.
70% chance ??? above still true for Snoopy's first two weeks on Isle of Wight while winds were from north ? But the wind changed !
20% chance ??? that new wind has blown Snoopy onto UK mainland: Barton-on-Sea to Hurst Castle, or even to Lee-on-the-Solent ?
10% chance ??? that "wind bending" caused by cliffs, changed north wind to an east wind, and blew Snoopy past Needles ? on the French coast ?
0.1% chance ??? that Snoopy got past Needles, with undamaged rudder and autopilot, and is on his way to annoy the Americans next year ? :-)

Searching for Snoopy ...

See The Search for Snoopy in his Robot Boat - for more information to those helping, such as the map showing coverage of searches done since Snoopy hit the rocks.

Who caught Snoopy and carried him into Alum Bay ? :-)

An important message to the sailor who "snatched" Snoopy : Don't worry - you must know from these pages, that I do have a sense of humour ! :-)
Robin's open letter to "Mr Snoopy-Snatcher" is here :-)

Robin noticed, rather late, that his tidal current data did not match up with the movement of Snoopy.
Why is this so important ? There were two reasons:
1. the next launch of Snoopy should be at a time when "the tide is right". It WAS right on the 27th !
2. if Robin's data was correct, then Snoopy was "stolen" by a passing boat that Tuesday afternoon ! :-)

Even if Snoopy is now lost, it would be good to know for sure, what happened. Unexplained things might delay Snoopy's next boat being dropped into the sea again soon. Robin is very grateful to Chris at the UKHO, who sent him detailed tidal current data by email. The result was so dramatic that Robin had to 'phone Chris back immediately, to make sure he'd not misunderstood it. THE TIDE WAS FLOWING TOWARDS THE WEST when Snoopy appeared to be dragged to the east, onto the Needles. There are many good implications for this latest information. e.g. that Snoopy was not "confused" by the tide.

The GPS track shows that, after being "caught", Snoopy was carried at about 1.5 knots into Alum Bay. What sails at 1.5 knots ? A sea kayak with Snoopy ? :-) It would only have taken 30 minutes from Alum Bay or Freshwater, with the tide, to reach Snoopy - but bringing him back must have been something else !

If you know who it was, please show them this page. Whatever they did, will not be a problem for them - in fact quite the reverse ! :-)

an alternative explanation to Snoopy having been "snatched" ? :-)

Snoopy appears to have been "snatched" at about 1:45pm Tuesday afternoon. This was after over two hours sailing in a perfectly straight line, direction 190 degrees. This is shown clearly on Snoopy's Track on Google Earth. This was about 3.1 miles / 2.6 NM / 4.9km from the shore, if a few minutes after his 13:34 GPS position report.

Please tell me of any other explanation you can think of - but please look at the evidence here first. Here are some suggestions:

• That the UKHO ( UK Hydrographic Office ) tidal data is wrong. i.e. tide was flowing to the east ?
  Hardly likely - I've tested it against our GPS Bottle tests in 2011. The UKHO would have very red faces :-)
• That Snoopy had "weather helm" (turning him towards wind). e.g. if his jib broke and he became "unbalanced".
  Hardly likely - the few hours in wind of 20mph was far less than the many weeks of 24/7 tests in winds of up to 50mph.
• "Wind Bending" caused by waves ? The North wind bent 90 degrees towards east, along bottom of wave trough ?
  Sounds plausible - but does anyone know of an article that confirms and quantifies this effect - if it exists ?

But please keep the ideas coming :-)

recognition of shipping using photographs and AIS data...

Suppose you have a photo: maybe taken near the beach that Tuesday afternoon, and in the background there is the sea, with perhaps a blurred speck that might be a kayak or small sailing dingy - skippered by " Mr Snoopy-Snatcher " .... we might be able to match that speck with where Snoopy was at that time, from Snoopy's known GPS track. We will also need the time of the photo (e.g. from the file name or PC properties of the digital picture), and where the camera was (e.g. by looking on google maps and doing a right click, then "What's Here?" to get the lat/lon. e.g. 50.7344,-1.6577.

This picture below, taken at 1142, is obviously not directly relevant to photos that may show the boat that "caught" Snoopy at about 1:45pm that Tuesday afternoon. Here, Snoopy was only about 300 yards from the shore, having only been launched 12 minutes earlier. Maybe ships, like those on the horizon, can be used as mobile "landmarks", to get direction information on your photo, in a similar way to static landmarks like The Needles ?

Here is an AIS map which shows you what is available. Historical AIS ( Automatic Identification System ) might help us. If you look at this wider AIS map you can see ships such as ABIS Belfast , 27 miles out. This ship is 89m long. But how much would we have seen above the horizon at 27 miles ? Maybe not ! :-)

Can you do better than Robin with these links ? Right now he's not managed to find ships that match this picture in apparent size according to their distance away.
If we can, then maybe AIS data can be used to help calibrate any photos that come in which may show Snoopy being carried to Alum Bay by kayak :-)

But maybe the shape of the ship is more useful. Suppose that ship in the middle was a Royal Marine LCU with the AIS off ? For those into arithmetic: there are quite a few calculations that can easily be done from that picture. e.g. Snoopy's sail is roughly 3 metres below the horizon - which matches where we stood with our camcorder on the beach. On the cliff, it would have been very different. Those apparent sizes of ships on the horizon should match each other and Snoopy's sail. e.g. if that ship in the middle was a RM LCU of length 30m, then it would appear about that size if it were about 3 miles out, where Snoopy was snatched: a good time and place to drop off a kayak ? Pity that the return trip is such a long paddle ;-)

What the Papers say ... Don't believe all you read in the papers :-)

Read Jasper Coppings article in the Sunday Telegraph the Sunday before launch.
Read BBC News report of "crash landing" here or Nice pictures and amusing words in The Mail Online here :-)
The news about Snoopy even got as far as New Zealand, in the Wellington,NZ Dom-Post article :-)
First paper: Snoopy prepared for self-navigating Atlantic voyage by Paul Miles in Maidenhead Advertiser on 5th September 2012.
Journalists may have started with our Press Release and video, but editors need to edit : the meaning may not remain the same :-)
Robin says to Tim Robinson of BBC Radio Solent , "This is the guy who lost one of my GPS bottles last year !" :-)
Higher resolution pictures for the Press ... Snoopy, Mug, Boat, Robin, BenTV, Launch, TimRobin, Cat, NewBoat

Robin thanks his friends ...

• All staff at Bray Lake Watersports for use of the lake, numerous rescue missions and coffees. Here they say bye-bye to Snoopy.
• local friend John who started Robin off, provided the team name, and has supplied numerous original ideas. See Team-Joker.
• local friend Eric, for supply of Snoopy Sloop 4, and our best videos. See Eric's other videos here.
• local friend Gary, the Master Car Mechanic , for donating Snoopy Sloops 1 and 2, when Robin started all this in 2008.
• my old friend Klaus in Germany, who in 2008, suggested use of SPOT to me and Microtransat Teams. Also for his interfacing card.
• the Intelligent Robotics Group at Aberystwyth University, Wales, for organising Microtransat and their own heroic attempts.
• the French Teams for first suggesting The Microtransat Challenge years ago, and their repeated heroic attempts. See below!
• Peter Facey for his own time and expense, searching for Snoopy and those pictures to help others. www.geograph.org.uk
• Those in the Press who've gone "beyond the call of duty" including for last year's BBC GPS Bottles project.
• The nice chap at the National Trust who called back with information about the military bunker where Snoopy landed.
• The nice lady who is Custodian of the Needles Battery . She has tweeted this, after checking with Robin:
  "Can you help Robin find Robot boat Snoopy? See www.gpss.co.uk/autop.htm if you can help. Last seen near The Needles."
  Robin, despite his name, cannot Tweet. Please take care what you tweet, so as not to encourage others to take risks.
• Chris at the UKHO UKHO ( UK Hydrographic Office ) for detailed tidal data, confirming that Snoopy was "snatched" :-)
• My long-suffering wife, June, and all those that I've yet to thank here :-)

from the earlier introduction at the top of this page ...

Simple rules for this robot boat race: get past 60W, off Bahamas; wind power only; autonomous (GPS self guidance); must report position (GPS/Satcomms). See The Microtransat Challenge.

The Welsh Team tried in 2010 and the boat sailed a few days before it was lost. The old track of the boat is here.

The French Team made an attempt in 2011 and it sailed for a few days in heavy seas before a sail broke. They recovered the boat and tried again in 2012.

For my business partners who visit these pages... OK - I confess! I DO spend much of my time on this hobby project :-)

Do not be confused by the picture of Snoopy sailing the bottle: that was from the GPS bottles in the sea projects :-)

the French ENSTA-Bretagne boat, braving the Atlantic waves !

Snoopy's Bray Lake Test ... sail 530 metres automatically, through 5 waypoints ...

Snoopy's preparation for the Atlantic crossing - the first taste of salt water ! ...

See Robin's Snoopy Sloop robot boat - progress in 2011 and 2012 for an earlier copy of this front page, with more detail and links.

visits to this page counted by Web Counter