HALIFAX -- An unmanned solar-powered kayak that spent the last week alone and adrift off the Atlantic coast has been rescued by the Canadian Navy.
Navy officials say HMCS St. John's was able to track down the hapless kayak early Wednesday and plucked it from the water.
"St. John's, which is on its way to a namesake port visit in Newfoundland, was slightly diverted since it was passing close by to Solar Voyager and picked it up," said Sub.-Lt. Blair Gilmore in an interview.
The Solar Voyager set off from Gloucester, Mass., on June 1 in a bid to become the first autonomous boat to make the transatlantic voyage.
But according to its Twitter feed, the sleek four-metre-long aluminum boat, which has two solar panels as its main power source, stopped responding on June 23. The project team reported one motor and the rudder were not working, speculating it had been snarled in fishing gear.
The team, made up of two engineers now working in Singapore, had issued a request for fishermen on the Grand Banks to find the Solar Voyager and free it from the nets.
Gilmore said the request also made its way to the navy.
"Since then...through the Coast Guard and our regional joint operations centre, we were also exploring whether or not we'd have any vessels close by," said Gilmore.
He said the navy is in contact with the project team to determine how to get the Solar Voyager back to them.
