This is a powerful platform that collects Oceanographic data for scientist and educators.  See how ocean currents vary over time, see the link.

The data only goes back to 2002, so we can't see the conditions when the container ship was hit by the storm January 10th, 1992, however, look and see what happened with the currents in the Northern Pacific just south of Alaska in the months of May, June and July 2004. More friendly Floatees were recovered in Alaska the year of 2004 than any previous year. Did you notice any interesting currents in particular in June 2004? 

MapMaker is a a simple and straightforward resource that shows the warm and cold currents. Clicking on the arrow a window appears that tells the name of the Current, link.

Start with your red pen at the “storm”, look at the way the currents move, and then draw a line to each toy. Hint: pass through the Artic to reach the toys in the Atlantic. Use a red pen for the warm currents and a blue pen for the cold currents.

The next lesson will have a game about the names of the currents so try to learn some of them with MapMaker.

Watch a video from the Nao Victoria foundation, that recreates historical sailing boats to share history events,  link.

The Nao Victoria was part of a fleet of 5 boats that sailed around the world under the command of Ferdinand Magellan. However, the only boat that completed the voyage was the Nao Victoria, also known as just "Victoria". She was built around 1500 and was sailed by a crew of about 40 men from around Europe (mostly Spanish). Together they sailed around the world in 1082 days, which is almost 3 years!

Are you curious to know more about Magellan or the expedition? Here is a website with more information: link.

Look at this trimaran, it is a sailboat with three hulls. The video is in French, and you can turn on the subtitles to see the translation in your language, link. 

How have things changed since the Nao Victoria?

This boat was built in 2006 and was designed to be fast! This was one of the biggest difference from the Nao Victoria that was a merchant ship. The IDEC Sport had a crew of 6 men (mostly French) and in 2017 they broke the world record with the fastest time to sail around the world in just 40 days! 

A particularly interesting side story about the IDEC Sport is that it was captained by Francis Joyon, a very experience French sailor, that previously held the record for the fastest solo sail around the world in 57 days in 2008! With a team of 6 working together they were able to go much faster! 

Why do you think it's faster when working as a team?