In the spring of 2023, Janet Buford’s marine biology students launched Sea Eagle, a miniboat, with the support of Graham Riley ’00, Mrs. Buford’s former student. 

Students decked out the boat with a Jacksonville Jaguar, Florida orange blossoms, and the Episcopal E. Through Educational Passages, an organization that helps students build, launch, and track miniboats for ocean and environmental literacy learning opportunities, Sea Eagle was loaded onto a container ship headed to Suriname on May 20, 2023, and the crew of the container ship launched Sea Eagle safely into the Gulf Stream. 

For more than two years, Sea Eagle continued her adventure in the Atlantic Ocean. On February 4, Sea Eagle was less than two nautical miles from the shore of France, only to veer back out, up, and around, into the English Channel! Sea Eagle circled the Bay of Biscay multiple times. Finally, on September 4, she made landfall on Cap de L’Homy Beach in Lit et Mixe, France. Baptiste, the lifeguard on duty, found her on the morning of September 5 and contacted Educational Passages.

“I built this little boat back in 12th grade and sent it off. Honestly, I figured it would sink in a week, but instead it decided to take the world’s longest trip — 837 days later it shows up in France. Guess it wanted a study abroad program more than I did!” said Caden Davis ’23, who is now a junior at the University of Florida. 

A local radio station covered the story in France, and her story has been shared on French social media accounts by the local government and beach authorities. 

“It is amazing to see the shape that Sea Eagle is in, I think by doing double the amount of sealant and tightening the hatch till it felt to the point it was about to break is the reason it lasted so long,” said Henry Jenks ’24, now a sophomore at Jacksonville University. 

Sea Eagle’s journey was trackable in real time on the Educational Passages website: https://educationalpassages.org/boats/seaeagle/ 

” I am so grateful for my students’ confidence and enthusiasm and Graham’s support. I came into this project with no boat-building knowledge and felt way out of my comfort zone. My students were fearless. I had visions of the boat sinking or washing ashore within a few days after the launch. I never dreamed it would be at sea for 837 days!”

“It’s been a real joy being able to participate in this process with Janet and her students,” Graham Riley ’00 said.