While many have been focused on the massive die-offs of fish and sea life off the South Florida coastline triggered by a combined outbreak of red tide and blue-green algae, all is not well along the New England coast either. … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Another good news-bad news story. The good news is that the fears of radiation spreading across the Pacific from the Fukushima meltdown following the Japanese tsunami of 2011, have been wildly overstated. Yes, trace elements of radiation traceable to Fukushima have been recorded in Pacific … Continue reading
The aircraft carrier USS Midway is about a 1,000′ long, 130′ wide and around 55′ high. It has been a stationary museum ship since 2004. Put plainly, Midway is really, really big and doesn’t move. It should be a fairly easy object to avoid, and yet … Continue reading
The grand matriarch of the Maine Windjammer fleet, the schooner Victory Chimes, will soon have new owners at the helm. Captain Sam Sikkema will be taking over from Captains Kip Files and Paul DeGaeta, who for the last 29 years, have been in command … Continue reading
The ongoing 2018 Golden Globe Race is a 50th-anniversary homage to the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Yacht Race, the first single-handled nonstop around-the-world sailboat race. In the 1968 race, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was the winner and the only contestant to complete the race. Last June, 18 … Continue reading
On the 21st of January, 1973, the island of Heimaey, four nautical miles off the south coast of Iceland, began to tremble. On the 23rd, a large fissure opened up on the eastern side of the island, barely a kilometer away … Continue reading
There have been several recent encounters between boats and whales. Fortunately, neither whale nor humans appear to have been injured. The most serious took place off the Jersey Shore. Two fishermen in a 20-foot boat were fishing approximately one mile off of Deal, … Continue reading
Hilary Lister has died at the age of 46. She was a quadriplegic from Kent, England who found escape and freedom in solo sailing. In doing so, she set many sailing records and serves as an inspiration to us all. Lister was … Continue reading
The good news is that Hurricane Lane has been downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane. The bad news is that it is still heading straight for the Hawaiian islands. The storm’s outer bands have been pounding parts of Hawaii’s Big … Continue reading
A quick two-question quiz — First question: What do US aircraft carriers have that the newest British carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, lacks? The answer is aircraft. The UK’s new aircraft carrier will be conducting flight trials with two borrowed US planes. Its own … Continue reading
In July we posted about the discovery of the wreck of the Russian armored cruiser, Dmitrii Donskoi, off South Korea. The salvors claimed that the ship may contain 200 tons of gold, which would they said may be worth around $133.4 billion (£102bn) in … Continue reading
Hope your Monday is going well. If not, you are still probably having a better time than one sailing couple had in Narragansett Bay last Friday and Saturday. A husband and wife were sailing their 38-foot sailboat Alegria from Newport, RI to … Continue reading
The HMS Queen Elizabeth set sail yesterday from Portsmouth Naval Base bound for the United States. The 65,000-tonne carrier, the largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy, will embark two US F-35B test aircraft to begin the first flight trials. The BBC reports … Continue reading
Two retired U.S. Navy chief petty officers and one retired captain were charged with bribery and fraud in the multi-year “Fat Leonard” criminal investigation, which has been described as the worst corruption scandal in Navy history. Leonard Glenn Francis, who at 6’3″ tall and … Continue reading
The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is one of the most polluted waterways in the nation. When I went to work for Moore McCormack many, many years ago, their New York terminal was on 23rd Street on the Gowanus. I recall … Continue reading
On Aug. 18, 1943, the destroyer USS Abner Read was on anti-submarine patrol near Kiska Island, in Alaska’s Aleutian chain. The Japanese had just recently evacuated the island but had left behind a minefield. At 1:50 a.m., the destroyer struck … Continue reading
Sometime between last Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, vandals broke into the USS Ling, a World War II-era Balao-class submarine, which has been a museum ship in the Hackensack River since 1973. The vandals stole four bronze plaques, dedicated to the sailors lost … Continue reading
We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Bert Rogers, the long-time Executive Director of Tall Ships America, who died of a heart attack. Our condolences to his family and all those who cared for him. Bert’s seafaring … Continue reading
The southern Caribbean has seen a significant increase in piracy of late, at least partially related to the economic and political turmoil in nearby Venezuela. Commerical ships, local fishermen and visiting yachts have all fallen prey to attacks from pirates. Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP), a … Continue reading
This summer, Canadian lobstermen are complaining of being harassed by US Border Patrol agents in speedboats as they fish in waters claimed by both Canada and the US off Machias Seal Island. Since around 1733, the US and Canada have agreed … Continue reading