Brothers launch model boats to sail round Antarctica in 'world first'
Ollie and Harry Ferguson are adding to their list of 500 adventures
Two Aberdeenshire brothers are on a mission to become the first people to circumnavigate Antarctica with model boats.
Ollie and Harry Ferguson from Turriff were inspired by the Ross scientific expedition in 1839-43 when the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror discovered the Ross Ice Shelf.
The pair have built two one metre long replicas of the vessels to take on a journey of more than 12,500 miles, which could take as long as two years.
During the journey, the boats will transmit back scientific data including air temperature, ocean temperature and ocean pH which can be markers of climate change.
The boats where launched from near South Georgia in the Southern Ocean.
Harry, 11, told the PA news agency: "It feels awesome, we've been trying to do it for two years now and we've finally got them in and it feels amazing.
"We're interested to collect data about climate change and also just trying to see what happens to the boats and the end result and - though there is a very low chance - to see if we will ever see them again."
During the journey, the boats will transmit back scientific data including air temperature, ocean temperature and ocean pH which can be markers of climate change.
The boats have been crafted from elm wood and are fitted with bespoke tracking and monitoring devices developed by Icoteq, with a battery life of more than six years.
They are also fitted with cameras which will be able to send around one image a month.
The boys are trying to beat their own record for the furthest distance a model boat has travelled.
They sailed their Playmobil pirate ship Adventure more than 3,700 miles across the Atlantic to the Caribbean as part of a list of 500 adventures.
The boys' father, MacNeill Ferguson, said that this has been one of their biggest challenges so far.
He said: "The boys are absolutely over the moon that we've finally achieved this. It's probably one of our hardest adventures.
"This was by a long way the most involved and hardest adventure that we've had to do.
After the boats were completed, they were shipped to family friends in the Falkland Islands until the family received official approval from authorities that they could be launched into the Southern Ocean.
The Pharos SG, a South Georgia fisheries patrol vessel, then transported them out and launched them into the circumpolar current on Tuesday July 11.
Ollie, 13, said it is "probably one of our most challenging and ambitious adventures yet" and is delighted that the boats are now underway on their journey.
He said: "It's amazing because it's taken over two years and the scientific data that could be collected as markers of climate change is going to be amazing, hopefully."
Anyone wanting to see where the boats are, and find out more about the project, can do so on the ICOTEQ website.