After a voyage lasting 28 days and covering an estimated 2,250 nautical miles, an uncrewed, autonomous vessel mostly powered by wind and solar energy is arriving at the dock in Honolulu, Hawaii this afternoon, July 8. The Saildrone Surveyor, a 14 ton vessel promoted as the world’s largest and most advanced autonomous ocean mapping drone, completes its trans-Pacific maiden voyage having sailed from San Francisco.
While it is not the first ocean crossing for one of Saildrone’s autonomous surface vehicles, the Saildrone Surveyor is a new, much larger class of vehicle optimized for deep-ocean mapping. Measuring 72 feet in length, the Saildrone Surveyor carries a sophisticated array of acoustic instruments, normally carried by large, manned survey ships. The Surveyor’s sensors interrogate the water column looking at underwater ecosystems and map the seafloor in high resolution to a depth of 23,000 feet.
For the full story go to The Maritime Executive: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/autonomous-vessel-completes-pacific-crossing-to-hawaii-mapping-ocean
