Simon Speirs, a 60 year old sailor from Bristol, UK, has died in the Clipper Round the World Race. On Saturday, Speirs, was washed overboard while handling sails on the foredeck of the Clipper CV30 Great Britain, while sailing in … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
ARA San Juan, an Argentine Navy diesel-electric submarine, was on a routine mission when it went silent on Wednesday. Communications ended while the submarine was en route,with a crew of 44, from Ushuaia naval base, near the southern tip of South America, … Continue reading
François Gabart has set a new solo 24-hour speed record of an extraordinary 851 miles sailed in 24 hours on his 98′ trimaran MACIF. Gabart set the new record sailing in the South Atlantic, averaging 35.4 knots. Gabarts’ record is only about … Continue reading
The wreck of the Chilean steamship, SS Itata, has been located in 650 feet of water off the port of Coquimbo, in Elqui Province, in northern Chile. The ship sank in a storm on August 28, 1922 with an estimated loss of … Continue reading
“The Mercy” is a soon to be released film about Donald Crowhurst‘s attempt to win the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, the first single-handed, non-stop, around-the-world race in 1969. The film stars Colin Firth as Crowhurst and Rachel Weisz as his wife, Clare. Crowhurst was … Continue reading
The Pacific Ocean appears to under attack by a horde of sea-pickles. The bumpy, translucent, pickle-shaped organisms called pyrosomes are filling fishing nets, clogging hooks and washing up on beaches along the coast of the Pacific Northwest of the US and … Continue reading
The US Navy has rightfully been undertaking a considerable review and revaluation of the problems that led to the recent ship collisions between the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain with commercial vessels, resulting in the deaths of 17 sailors. … Continue reading
Like so many other species, Galápagos green sea turtles are unique to the archipelago. Here is a short video of snorkeling with Galápagos green sea turtles off Punto Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos in early November. Galápagos Sea Green … Continue reading
In the US, today is Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who have served in the military. It coincides with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I, on the 11th hour of the … Continue reading
SS Edmund Fitzgerald, an American Great Lakes ore carrier, sank in Lake Superior in a storm on November 10, 1975, 42 years ago today. The crew of 29 were lost when the freighter sank loaded with 26,000 tons of taconite, iron ore pellets, in 530 … Continue reading
There was a joke, of sorts, in the Clipper Round the World Race, that in the over two decades of racing around the world, only one boat has ever sunk. It was the boat least likely to sink, at least … Continue reading
I was recently shocked and disturbed to see photos of a significant quantity of floating plastics and trash in the Caribbean near the Honduran Island of Roatán. Roatán is the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras. It is a beautiful island with incredible diving. My … Continue reading
My wife and I just got back from an incredible trip to the Galapagos. We spent a week on Ecoventura‘s 83’ MY Eric and visited six of the more eastern islands of the archipelago. We saw many of the species of … Continue reading
Here is a fascinating tour of the Volvo Ocean 65Team Brunel, one of seven identical yachts now racing around the world in the Volvo Ocean Race. The Volvo Ocean 65s are high-performance one-design racers created by Farr Yacht Design and … Continue reading
This may be the most bizarre Navy training film yet. The film dates from 1967 and purports to answer the question of “how to succeed with brunettes (or blondes.)” It is directed exclusively at male naval officers. How many female … Continue reading
As we descend into the depths of Autumn, even if has been an unusually warm Autumn, here are two YouTube videos reminiscent of summer, when even blue whales and giant octopus can fly in the clear blue sky. In the … Continue reading
Researchers have identified a 2 million square miles continent hidden beneath the Pacific Ocean. They have named it Zealandia. The highest peaks of the continent which rise above the surface are the islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia. The … Continue reading
An update on a previous post — in August, we posted about Pen Hadow’s latest expedition to the Arctic. Hadow is best known for being the only person to walk solo to the North Pole and back without being resupplied. … Continue reading
How dirty are cruise ships? How much pollution do they really create? It is hard to tell. Several years ago we posted about a claim by the Friends of the Earth which asserted that cruise ships “flushed more than a … Continue reading
At the end of September, we posted about Hywind – the First Full-scale Floating Wind Turbine . Here is a short video that looks at taking the project from an idea to the design and the challenges of fabricating and installing … Continue reading