If you went to elementary school in the 1980s, there’s a good chance that you watched The Voyage of the Mimi while your teacher sipped white zinfandel out of a Shasta can. Sure, it was $12 worth of production values shoved down kids’ throats so that teachers could assign them some busy work based on each episode, but who cares? It taught kids that science has practical uses and that exploring the world on a ship wasn’t just for B-list celebrities on The Love Boat.
The Voyage of the Mimi the thirteen-episode tale of a crew of children and adults exploring the ocean and looking for whales off the coast of Massachusetts. Kids across the United States learned how to desalinate water, use tools to predict the weather and never expect much from Ben Affleck as an actor.
Yep, Ben Affleck was in The Voyage of the Mimi. There’s a reason I didn’t title this new feature Great Moments in Travel Media. The show was produced for PBS and allowed teachers to take a break fromt their standard lesson plans and let kids do what they do best: stare at a television and doodle curse words on their Trapper Keepers.
The crew of the Mimi went in search of whales and mostly found lessons that Mr. Wizard could have taught you without leaving his living room. The boat gets shipwrecked, things get dicey and survival becomes the top priority. Basically, it’s an ad for Princess Cruises.
There are several episodes on YouTube that you can watch in their entirety (often broken up into three videos). It’s best to start at Episode 1: All Aboard, lest you be confused about key plot points.
After watching, you’re sure to be itching to hit the high seas for yourself. It’s inspirational. It’s educational. It’s a Mediocre Moment in Travel Media.
The best part about the segment we did on Voyage of the Mimi (which was in 1996- it was already ancient), was that we got to actually go out sailing on a boat on the Potomac for a day. I think we looked for whales (which dont live in the filthy DC riverways) and like, tested our navigation skills? Very educational stuff.
In 1979-80, my own alcoholic 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Goldstein, used to keep us distracted with filmstrips of pineapple production in Hawaii while she dozed off at the back of class, scratching her belly through her stockings. Our lessons about whales were more…figurative.
Having now sailed on the actual Love Boat this past February (read: the Crown Princess), I can assure you that 1) Ben Affleck wasn’t aboard and 2) no one was harmed. Unless, of course, you count the pain of watching dozens of couples in mini-veils and red satin bow ties renew their vows on Valentine’s Day.