Pirates visit Pierre’s classroom

The school kids at Bahia Vista… exploring solar lights with supervision from the pirates

What’s better than having your favorite pirates visit you in person? Having them bring solar lights with them! Captain Kristian and First Mate Sabrina (in full regalia) visited her brother Pierre’s classroom of 3rd graders at Bahia Vista School in San Rafael to share fun facts about the trip and specifically to learn about SOLAR POWER on the boat.

Thanks to Mr. Littée’s initiative, the class has been following the Green Coconut Run video episodes! During our visit, we had to start with a lesson of course… so we explored the question: “How do we make Light on the Boat?”

To help the kids understand, we brought our sweet green solar lights from Unite to Light as Show-and-Tell, which we have been taking to communities in need during our voyage (see our Cruising with a Cause posts).

These pirates brought their booty to share… solar power knowledge

This is Pierre’s, I mean, err… Mr. Littée’s awesome classroom

We did an interactive activity to show how it works.

the sun and the clouds

1) Sunlight goest into the boat’s 4 Solar Panels (when it’s sunny!)

2) Solar Energy gets converted into Electrical Energy by the panel (sunlight becomes 12V dc, which is what your car uses to power the stereo, for example)

the solar panel and battery

3) Electrical energy gets stored in the Battery (like the one under the hood of your car)

4) Power goes to the lights (or the fridge… or navigation equipment… ); the Electrical Energy gets slowly depleted from the battery

the Lights, Navigation Equipment, and Fridge

5) We are only allowed to use 1/2 of the Battery Energy, or else it damages the battery

6) Turn on Engine, if there’s not enough Sunlight or we consume too much power, to recharge the batteries!

the Engine !

7) The Engine can take a few hours to charge the battery, and uses our precious diesel fuel — so it’s best to conserve power as much as possible.

After the solar talk they wanted to see our route on the map and asked how many people had visited us the last two years (almost 30 per year)

Showing off where we are on the Globe– Aldebaran has sailed all the way to Ecuador!

The kids are digging the videos and even know some of the visiting crew member’s names — Michael, Ryan, Eric, Brian, Lianna — as evidenced by their quick answers!

Thanks Pierre for giving us the opportunity to have fun and stoke out the next generation of learners !