Hello everyone,

I built Brave Puffin (https://bravepuffin.com) - a small, autonomous, long range, solar powered boat. It is designed to compete in Microtransat challenge i.e. cross the Atlantic. I am planning to launch it on the big trip in the summer of 2025. I also plan to do a test mission this winter, probably a week or two roundtrip in the Gulf of Maine. And, I'd like to equip the boat with at least some basic sensors and have it collect, then share the data.

A question for this community is two part: 1) what sensors should I use and 2) would anyone be interested / care for the data?

Obvious basic sensors would be water temperature and conductivity/salinity - I can do those - but is the data going to be interesting? The boat can save detailed data onboard (SD card) and also transmit some back (Iridium short bursts). The project is self funded... Looking at the field of industrial marine sensors, they can be quite expensive as well as heavy and power hungry. I can afford a single beam echo sounder, but not sure how interesting its data going to be.

Thanks in advance,

Slava