Planet School Voyages
Participate in oceanography projects during our seasonal voyages through the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean.
Sail across lakes, rivers, canals, and oceans with us.
After spending the summer on the Great Lakes, each fall we voyage south to the Caribbean. In the spring, we return to Detroit.
Join us on board or from your home in sharpening your skills as an oceanographer, artist, navigator, marine biologist, gardener, or meteorologist and participate in real research projects on climate change (or create your own!).
Welcome aboard!
Voyage Plan 2024
We are currently in the process of acquiring an 82’ schooner that will become the Planet School research and learning sailing vessel. We are looking for ocean-loving adventurers to help us bring our schooner from Florida back to Detroit in June and July 2024.
We do science, sing sea shanties, and learn about the ocean on all of our voyages.
Get involved with our voyages.
You don’t have to be on our boat to come voyaging. We have projects in different subjects that learners of any age can participate in.
Ocean Pi
Run your code aboard Rose
Rose has four Raspberry Pi computers installed on board. If you have not heard of a Raspberry Pi, don’t worry! These awesome little computers are designed to be accessible to anyone, even if you have never written a line of code in your life.
Each of these Raspberry Pis has a unique array of sensors (including cameras) and all of the data is freely accessible for you to use. You can also design a project that we will download and run on one (or more) of our Raspberry Pis.
More Projects
Get more information on all of these projects, including instructions to get started, on the Planet School’s Project Page.
Track our Journey
Every day we will publish our noon and midnight GPS positions. Additionally, we publish challenges that test your navigation knowledge. So grab a paper chart, a set of triangles, and a pencil and follow us on our voyage. We are creating a kit with all the essentials if triangles and charts are not your thing quite yet.
Weather Routing
Maintaining a constant understanding of local and regional weather conditions is an essential task in any long distance voyage. We live stream our weather meetings and invite you to help us color our weather maps to make them more understandable.
Ditty Bag
We are creating a kit to teach essential knots, sail stitches, whipping, splicing, and other skills. You will practice and use all of these skills to create your own traditional sailor ditty bag. Historically, someone called a “bosun” (also spelled “boatswain”) would be responsible for sail repair and maintaining the rigging, which are the skills you will learn in this project.
Data Visualization
Visualize our environmental data by itself or combine with other data sources to create interactive visualizations. This project can accommodate both advanced coders and complete newbies…assuming you have a puzzle-solving, detective mindset.
Flag Design
Submit a design for a flag. Each leg of our journey we will pick our favorites and let them fly from Rose while we are underway. Flags have a long history in the maritime world and, on semester voyages, we have students design flags for their watch groups.
Ocean Motion Art
Use the sensor inputs from Ocean Pi to create your own art project in p5.js, a JavaScript library designed for artists.
What We’ve Done &
What’s Next
Where We Have Already Sailed
During 2020, we sailed Rose several thousand nautical miles from Lake Huron to Key West, FL on her first journey south. Intending to sail to Panama, Rose needed more repairs and upgrades than we had originally budgeted for.
We trucked Rose back to the Great Lakes for repairs in 2022 and to re-evaluate Rose as a component of the Planet School launch strategy. Until we have a vessel large enough for 12-15 students, we will use Rose to support 2-3 student voyages.
Summer 2024
One of the most valuable results of aborting our first voyage is that it allowed us to make an exhaustive list of everything that went wrong. There are several critical non-structural repairs that (e.g. replacing the composting head) that need to happen before we begin voyaging during summer 2024.
Once we have completed projects, we hope to demo our adult voyages with weekend sailing trips to Put-in-Bay and Cedar Point. We will host student interns from the Nueva School in late July and early August and prepare for our inaugural student voyage of 3-4 days.
About the Boat
Rose is a 42 ft. masthead sloop rig sailboat.
Rose was designed by renowned boat designers Sparkman & Stephens and manufactured by Tartan Marine in 1981. One of only 34 Tartan 42’s to be built (hull #007), Rose is designed for comfortable ocean cruising. She has extensive brightwork below deck and spacious cabins for her length.
Length Overall (LOA): 42.00 ft.
Length at Waterline (LWL): 32.00 ft.
Beam: 12.25 ft.
Draft: 5.50 ft.
Keel: Scheel keel, lead.
Displacement: 22,000 lbs.
Sails: Main with 3 reefpoints, 150 Genoa with whisker pole, Spinnaker, Staysail, Storm Jib.
Hull Speed: 7.58 knots
Engine: 40 hp Yanmar 3JH4E
145 gallons of freshwater and 80 gallons of diesel tankage.
