Amid the discarded drink cups, food wrappers and other debris volunteers plucked from South Portland’s parks and beaches Saturday in the annual Earth Day cleanup was a child’s sailboat tangled in some reeds in Pleasantdale Cove.

The handmade ship’s discovery – along with a message asking the finder to phone a number – led to an afternoon mystery about where the seaworthy little craft sailed from and who owned it.

Although the questions were answered shortly, Max and Wyatt Winson – the young boys who made the craft with their grandfather – are still marveling at its journey through Portland Harbor.

The brothers plan to take the craft to show their classmates at Dyer Elementary School on Monday, when classes resume after spring break.

After that, the boys and their grandfather, Danny Hogan, say they may send the little boat on another journey to who-knows-where.

“We kept imagining a big ship in the harbor encountering that little boat with its toy chicken on board,” said Heather Smith, mother of Max, 7, and Wyatt, 5.

“The boys always are launching toy ships with their grandfather, only this time they put their phone number on it.”

The craft – made from driftwood and with a paper sail – was launched on the afternoon of April 18, by Hogan and his grandsons from the shore near E Street, a small residential street in Knightville.

Carol Fanning, the boys’ grandmother, said they had grabbed some binoculars as the tiny craft sailed off, but quickly lost sight of it.

In less than 24 hours, the little boat apparently sailed past South Port Marina, around the tiny point at Waterman Drive, under Casco Bay Bridge and on to Pleasantdale Cove.

Its single passenger – a toy chick – along with a cargo of thorny seed pods and seashells was intact when a volunteer cleanup crew found the boat on April 19.

South Portland resident Kendra Palmer first spotted the handmade wood sailboat, as she and a team of volunteers from Cool South Portland – an environmental club – picked up litter along the shoreline off Broadway during the citywide cleanup.

The group of seven volunteers was working next to the greenbelt, behind the Thomas Banquet Room and Evergreen Credit Union.

The boat was much smaller than the chunks of Styrofoam docks the crew just had plucked from the waters. “It was only about 14 inches long and had this wind-up toy chick affixed to it,” Palmer said.

Added Liz Seidel, another volunteer: “Kendra found it and brought it up to show us. But we were finding all kinds of things in the cove – clothing, tires, wood. You name it. But this little ship was different.

“It was in good shape, especially for the voyage it made.”

The simple wood ship was nailed together and had a mast made from chopsticks. Its sail was a piece of white typing paper. The deck was fitted with a couple pieces of tar paper. Tied to the front of the boat was a toy chicken.

“It looked liked a little Viking sailboat,” Palmer said. “It had a square paper sail affixed to the wooden boat. I saw it floating right there in the reeds.”

Palmer noticed the seed pods on the deck and a message on the sail, obviously written by a child. “Did chicky do it?” was scrawled in crayon, along with a phone number.

Palmer said she could not resist calling to learn more about the whimsical-looking ship and how it wound up in Pleasantdale Cove.

When her group called it quits for the day, she phoned the number and left a message on a recording. Pretty soon, Fanning, the boys’ grandmother, phoned back.

“I was a little flabbergasted by how far it sailed,” Fanning said. “I knew the boys would be thrilled to know that their boat was found by someone.”

Fleming offered to leave the boat on a park bench along the greenbelt for the boys to retrieve.

Ironically, the kids also had been out picking up litter with their family for Earth Day, when the boat was discovered by another volunteer cleanup crew.

“When we made the boat, we thought it would be really cool if someone found it so we left our phone number,” said Max, a second-grader.

Max said his grandfather did most of the work to make the boat, after the three picked up driftwood on the beach.

Max said that he and his brother filled the boat with thorny seed pods to keep sharks away during the voyage. The boys also found the tar paper, and asked their grandfather to tack it to the deck.

Heather Smith said the boys and their grandfather make a boat practically every time the kids visit from their home off Highland Avenue.

“It’s something they do together. These little boats are the funniest things,” she said. “They launch them, usually with some imaginary stuff inside. The boys are sure the boats are headed for some distant destination, like China.

“This time that little boat got sucked right out into Portland Harbor,” Smith said.

The boat’s voyage from the shores of Knightville to the cove behind the Thomas Banquet Room seemed far enough to the Winson brothers.

Now they are eager to bring the boat back to their grandparents’ E Street home and launch it again. This time, Max hopes the boat makes it all the way to Peaks Island.

“That would be really exciting,” he said.