Five Years From PacX

More than 5 years have passed since BlueZone supported the recovery of the “Papa Mau” Wave Glider after completion of its historic and record breaking Pacific Crossing.

On 20 November 2012 UVS supported Liquid Robotics in the recovery of the “Papa Mau” Wave Glider at Hervey Bay near Bundaberg, Queensland. Papa Mau was the first of two Wave Gliders to reach Australian waters.  The site was chosen taking in such factors as location, swell, wind combination and shipping traffic. Concluding a 9,000 nautical miles journey that originated in San Francisco, Papa Mau spent more than a year combating gale force storms, rebuffing shark attacks, navigating its way around the Great Barrier Reef and finally surfing the East Australian Current (EAC) to reach its destination.

PacX Wave Glider “Papa Mau”, completed his 9,000 nautical mile (16,668 kilometers) scientific journey across the Pacific Ocean to set a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle. Throughout his journey, Papa Mau navigated along a prescribed route under autonomous control collecting and transmitting unprecedented amounts of high-resolution ocean data never before available over these vast distances or time frames.

Many lessons learned from the PacX have been incorporated into the Wave Glider SV3 Unmanned Surface Vehicle. Wave Glider is operated by the Royal Australian Navy and supported in Australia by BlueZone Group.

The PacX route shown on Google Earth that set a new world record for the 9,000 nautical mile distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle.

Papa Mau leave San Francisco in company with other Wave Gliders at the start of the PacX 9,000 nautical mile.

Papa Mau proudly displayed in Sydney Harbour after completion of the historic and record breaking Pacific Crossing.