Hey all,

After 164 days at sea, covering a total of 3,940 km, Silbo is now safely on board ship on his way back to shore in the Azores.

In the middle of last week, Silbo aborted due to a low voltage reading in his batteries, meaning that we did not have much time left on this mission.  Our team sprung into action and we were able to get out to the Azores in just a few days.  We then lucked out with a nice window of clear skies for this past weekend that allowed for us to plan to leave port.

On Saturday, as the team prepared to leave, the ship that was to take our team out on the recovery mission suffered some mechanical failures resulting in the need to find a new vessel.  Soon after, the team boarded the Shanghai and left port.  Then at 23:47 GMT (6:47pm local), “undercover of darkness,” Silbo was pulled from the water where they are now on their way back to Ponta Delgada where Silbo will take a long deserved rest.  In the meantime, new battery packs will be shipped to the Azores and after a few weeks rest Silbo will be back on his way continuing the legendary Challenger Mission.

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Ben Allsup, Lauren Cooney, Antonio Ramos & Nilsen Strandskov