I want to plot ocean current with a GPS in a bottle

Question

Thinking of using a wine bottle with a cork that barely sticks out.

Anyhow, I want to put in a GPS, a battery (that can last 1 month hopefully) and a transmitter and to be able to collect position about every minute or so. I am thinking about the possibility of harnessing the power of the waves to generate electricity.

Off-the-shelf components are preferred. What are my options as far as hardware and software choices?

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: I want to measure current, not wind, so I want the bottle to be as much in the water as possible.

I also want to launch several bottles in order to figure out the degree to which the current is chaotic. This means that I need to control the costs. Also I would need to recreate similar tide conditions. I am curious if objects in the ocean channel move in a zig-zag manner (tide vector would be perpendicular to overall current in this case due to a river), if the tide is strong enough to push it against the current, and whether things stick around or flush out into the open. Thank God for GPS.

This is related to a possible drowning mystery - no body found yet. There is a chance that the person is still in the ocean. The trouble is that it could be anywhere by now; it has been a few weeks. There are many islands on the way to a completely open ocean, so it could be stuck in some particular location.

I wish I have thought of this earlier. I did not know the person myself, so do not worry about expressing sympathy. I am approaching this cold-headed; I just find it very intriguing.

Answer 1

Thinking of using a wine bottle with a cork that barely sticks out.

(thinking to myself) ... uuu, this is gonna be good :-)

Anyhow, I want to put in a GPS, a battery (that can last 1 month hopefully) and a transmitter and to be able to collect position about every minute or so. I am thinking about the possibility of harnessing the power of the waves to generate electricity.

The upper part, by my opinion has a few (too) optimistic drawbacks:
- a battery which can power a GPS unit for one month (my GPS rarely makes it through the day)
- transmiter (unless we're talking about a small lake, or a canal) means: more power needed, more space needed (in a bottle), an antenna needed ...
- dimensions of the transmitter depend on the range, but a bottle seems to small for any of them
- also, would you mind sharing some thoughts about how do you plan to generate el. by waves ... I know a few methods, but none comes close to this ... unless, we're talking about generating power through some kind of kinetic motion ... in which case the power generated is negligeable to power any of the above

Off-the-shelf components are preferred. What are my options as far as hardware and software choices?

Personally, (I'm serious), I'd go with the Admiralty charts which already have currents displayed. Don't take this the wrong way, or as a mockery but the idea seems somewhat unrealistic to me, at this point.

Thank you in advance!

EDIT: I want to measure current, not wind, so I want the bottle to be as much in the water as possible.

I also want to launch several bottles in order to figure out the degree to which the current is chaotic. This means that I need to control the costs. Also I would need to recreate similar tide conditions.

And weather conditions since the behaviour of the ocean floor strongly depends on them also.
~~~

Edit: Have you tried getting a wave atlas ?