We recently posted that Transportation Safety Board of Canada has concluded that poor training played a role in the knockdown and capsizing of SV Concordia. The official Marine Investigation Report examines the events leading up to the capsize in some detail. It … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Laura Dekker has celebrated her 16th birthday and has set sail from Darwin, Australia on a westerly course across the Indian Ocean bound for Africa. Given the concern about piracy in the Indian Ocean, her exact route is being kept … Continue reading
Harold Hackett of Prince Edward Island started throwing bottles with messages inside into the Atlantic Ocean in 1996. Since then he has cast 4,800 bottles into the sea and has received 3,100 responses. He has received letters back from Africa, Russia, … Continue reading
In February 2010, the sail training ship Concordia sank off the coast of Brazil. At the time, the captain said that the ship was hit by a “microburst,” also known as a white squall, a violet storm which struck the … Continue reading
Two hundred and fifty three years ago today, Horatio Nelson was born in in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, the sixth of eleven children. He went to sea at 12 on a ship commanded by a maternal uncle. He would become the … Continue reading
We recently posted about personal submarines. In browsing around in that market, we came across the “Seabreacher” and thought that it deserved a separate look. The Seabreachers by Innerspace are definitely the most brilliant, crazy, or perhaps a bit of both, personal watercraft out … Continue reading
Slate.com recently recently featured and article, You-Boat, Can you buy your own submarine?. They noted that drug smugglers had their own submarines to sneak cocaine and other drugs north. If they had subs why couldn’t we all own a personal … Continue reading
The Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, that Adm. Habibollah Sayari of the Iranian Navy announced that Iran would be sending ships near US waters. Iran is also planning to send ships to the Gulf of Aden to … Continue reading
Just over a week ago we posted about the hijacking of the product tanker 45,000 DWT tanker, Mattheos I, with a crew of 23, off Benin in the Gulf of Guinea. Last Saturday, the ship and crew was released. No ransom … Continue reading
When Diana Nyad was stopped by repeated jellyfish stings in her most recent attempt to swim between Cuba and Florida, it brought to mind two articles, one about the discovery of the “immortal jellyfish” and another which raised the question … Continue reading
Almost three miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic, deeper than the Titanic, Odyssey Marine has located the wreck of the S.S. Gairsoppa, which was torpedoed in February of 1941 by a German U-boat. When she sank, the ship was loaded with silver, … Continue reading
In August, Diana Nyard attempted to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage. She gave up that attempt after 29 hours of swimming when adverse winds blew her off course. … Continue reading
A fascinating look at the research of Denise Herzing, who has been studying dolphins in the Bahamas for 25years. Next year she is beginning an attempt to use technology to engage in two way communication with dolphins. The Wild Dolphin Project [iframe: width=”480″ … Continue reading
Ann Weaver is a researcher who has been studying dolphins in Boca Ciega Bay, with a particular focus on how to to minimize the impact of local construction projects on the dolphins. The Dolphin Lady of John’s Pass … Continue reading
Today, we have three posts about dolphins and humans interacting. I went to high school on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which has some of the largest bottlenose dolphin populations in the world. When I am in Florida visiting family, I … Continue reading
Tommorrow, the Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 sets off from La Rochelle, France bound for Salvador de Bahia, Brazil via Funchal, Madeira. Roughly eighty sailors from sixteen countries will sail the Open/Mini 6.5, a 21 foot long ocean racer, across the Atlantic. … Continue reading
What is interesting about this story is how it has been reported. Here is what we know: The fishing boat, Donets, ran into the Russian nuclear submarine, Svyatoy Georgiy Pobedonosets (St. George the Victor,) in the Avachino Bay on the … Continue reading
Happy autumnal equinox. The first day of Fall. I know of no good sailor’s tradition for the autumnal equinox. It seems to be too busy a time to stop for such foolishness. Everyone is trying to get the last trips … Continue reading
I recently learned a new figure of speech – “like painting the Forth Bridge,” which refers to a job which is never completed. Or at least it used to mean that. The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over … Continue reading
The US military’s previous policy toward gay service members; “don’t ask, don’t tell; officially came to an end yesterday. Naval officer, Lt. Gary Ross, chose the day to marry his partner of eleven years, Dan Swezy, in Duxbury, Vt. In Tulsa, … Continue reading