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Dear Friend,
Thank you for your support of the Captain John
Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail! We hope
you enjoy the trail updates provided below. In addition,
visit The Conservation Fund's Spotlight: Chesapeake
Bay, which features the Captain John Smith
Chesapeake National Historic Trail!
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The Adventure Begins!
Last Saturday, twelve modern-day adventurers set sail
from Jamestown Island in a replica of the English
settlers' shallop as part of the 400th Anniversary
celebrations. Led by Captain Ian Bystrom, the 28-foot,
open boat and crew will paddle and sail over 1,500
miles in 121 days, making stops along the way in
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, DC,
before returning to Jamestown.
The voyage captures the sense of adventure and
exploration displayed by Captain John Smith nearly
four centuries ago. With a modern twist, however, the
shallop features a GPS transponder that allows the
public to track their progress via a Google Earth
interface on the Web site www.johns
mith400.org. The
boat travels 2.3 mph when rowed. Raising the sails
doubles the speed.
In addition to the shallop's current location, the virtual
voyage allows the public to track water and weather
conditions as well as video, picture, journal, and blog
entries directly from the crew.
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NOAA Smartbuoy Launch at Jamestown's 400th
The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office deployed its
first "smart buoy", positioned off Jamestown, VA, May
10th in time for America's 400th anniversary weekend.
The first of three buoys to follow the Captain John
Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the buoy will
collect chemical, optical and physical observations,
among others, and transmit them wirelessly in near-
real time. These measurements, as well as historical
and cultural information about the Bay, can be
accessed over the Internet at www.buoyba
y.org and by phone at (877) BUOY-BAY (286-
9229).
To interpret the data available from the buoys, the
NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office is developing
educational and interpretive components, including a
Web-based classroom curriculum that uses data to
teach students about the Bay and its resources.
This year, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office will
launch and activate two additional buoys. The first is
located where the Potomac River meets the Bay and
the second on the Patapsco River at the Bay near
Baltimore. The data from these buoys, displayed with
information from other observation platforms around
the Bay including the Chesapeake Bay Observing
System, also will be available online.
The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System
continues Captain Smith's tradition of observation and
exploration of the Bay's ecosystem into the 21st
century.
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James Earl Jones Reads of Smith's Adventure
Noted actor James Earl Jones read Rosalyn
Schanzer's "John Smith Escapes Again" to a
group of children on the Exploration Stage in
Anniversary Park in Jamestown on May 12, 2007, as
part of the 400th Anniversary Festival. An interactive
game for kids based upon the book is available at http://kids.nationalgeographic.com.
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Press Coverage, Far and Wide
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