The drone that will sail itself around the world
Richard Jenkins is the first to see it — a sailing robot, which has been blowing toward Hawaii for a month.
Jenkins and Dylan Owens are the engineering duo behind Saildrone, which in the words of their website is “a wind-powered autonomous surface vehicle.”
The 19-foot craft was set loose in the San Francisco Bay with a simple command lodged in its electronic brain: Sail to Hawaii. For 2,248 nautical miles the boat did the rest.
