The five 100′ long maxi yachts dominated the 75th sailing of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, each finishing the 630 nautical mile race within the same two-hour window. Commanche took line honors finishing the race in 1 day, 18 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds. She was followed closely by InfoTrack, Wild Oats XI, SHK Scallywag 100, and Black Jack, respectively.
The standings in the race may have been altered by an unfortunate collision by Scallywag and a shark. Continue reading
When Category 4 Hurricane Harvey devastated coastal Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, the US Coast Guard was there to assist in the rescue. Harvey was the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States and is tied as the most destructive. The hurricane’s floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people and prompted more than 17,000 rescues.
Last week in Mobile the Coast Guard awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses and one Air Medial to four of the heroes of rescues in Hurricane Harvey. The Distinguished Flying Crosses were presented to Cmdr. Scott Sanborn, Lt. John Briggs, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Gantt. Petty Officer 1st Class James Yockey was awarded the Air Medal.
Ghost nets — Photo: The Ocean Cleanup
Yahoo recently reported that a group of divers happened upon a gruesome sight in the Cayman Islands — hundreds of decomposing sharks and other sea creatures tangled up in a floating “ghost net.”
Dominick Martin-Mayes, a 27-year-old fisherman and diving instructor, told the Independent that he was with a group of friends when they found the “solid net of dead, decomposing fish and sharks.”
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen and that continue to entangle, trap and kill fish and other sea life long after they have been abandoned or lost.
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate the holiday.
Here is a short video of the rigging crew of Matt Otto, Nick Canzellarini and Alex Peacock at Mystic Seaport Museum installing one of the many mast-top Christmas trees atop the foremast of the Joseph Conrad.
Archaeologists Daniel Matsenius and Philip Tonemar recovering the probable remnants of Samson, a ship built in the 16th century (Arkeologikonsult / Facebook)
Like so many coastal cities, Stockholm has grown larger and its harbor smaller over time as landfill and buildings have replaced waterways and docks. The Local reports that over the past year, work has been going on in the Kungsträdgården area in Stockholm’s city center, to strengthen the foundations of a building belonging to the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. In an excavation under a courtyard, sections of a ship’s hull were discovered. Analysis of the wreckage and the dating of the planking leads archaeologists to believe that the ship was the Samson, commissioned by Charles IX of Sweden in the late 1500s.
We recently posted about the 105th anniversary of the Battle of the Falklands and the discovery of the wreckage of the German armored cruiser, SMS Scharnhorst, which was sunk in the battle. In researching these posts there was one bit of historical trivia which seems worth sharing — the appearance of a sailing ship, which sailed directly between the combatants at the beginning of the battle.
USNI News recently quoted Adm. Tony Radakin, the First Sea Lord and U.K. Chief of Naval Staff suggesting that the U.K. Royal Navy intends the HMS Queen Elizabeth its largest, most advanced warship ever built, to be considered interchangeable with U.S. Navy carriers.
“As she has demonstrated already, we can successfully field a combined U.S., U.K. carrier strike group,” Radakin said. “I look forward to this developing further, moving to the point where we are not only talking about interoperability, but we are looking for interchangeability.”
Queen Elizabeth can deploy with up to 36 F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters. The ship is wrapping up a series of exercises off the Atlantic Coast, in coordination with the U.S. military, he said.
The Galveston Historical Foundation has announced its yearly daysails on the 1877 Barque Elissa. The day sails will be on April 3rd, 4th, and 5th. From the announcement:
Join us for a one of a kind outdoor adventure aboard the 1877 Iron Barque ELISSA! 2020 sees the Official Tall Ship of Texas return to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for her annual daysail series. As one of the oldest, and longest continuously sailed vessels in the world, the annual daysails keep her where she works best, with her sails down, sailing in the Gulf waters.
This morning while maneuvering to come into the dock at Cozumel, Mexico, the cruise ship Carnival Glory, collided with the docked cruise ship, Carnival Legend, and narrowly averted hitting the Royal Caribbean Lines Oasis of the Seas, which was also at the dock. Video, taken by passengers on the Oasis of the Seas, shows that as the Carnival Glory is passing the Carnival Legend, the Glory‘s stern sideswipes the Legend‘s bow. Six people were reported to have sustained minor injuries in the collision which damaged at least two decks on the stern of the Glory.
The new America’s Cup AC75 monohulls flying across the water on foils look like other-worldly beasts to a traditionalist’s eye. How does one sail those things? Very carefully, apparently.
The other day, Emirates Team New Zealand was testing their boat, Te Aihe, in Aukland’s Waitemata Harbour when they had what was described as a “little whoopsie.” While performing a foiling gybe – described as a particularly tricky maneuver – they became unbalanced, their bow reared up and their foils lost contact with the water. Te Aihe lost speed and slowly rolled on to its side. No one was injured and no damage was done to the boat, which was righted with the help of a support boat.
This is likely not to be the last AC75 capsize. Recently, Grant Simmer, eleven-time America’s Cup veteran and CEO of the INEOS Team UK, warned of possible disaster with the new high-tech boats. In an interview on the team website he noted, “You can easily capsize these boats, a big focus will be the safety of the crew – followed by trying to protect our physical assets.”
Then Ensign Harvey Milk
At NASSCO in San Diego, they have begun cutting steel for a new Navy oiler, T-AO-206, to be named the USNS Harvey Milk. When completed it will be the second of the John Lewis class of underway replenishment oilers, operated by the Military Sealift Command to support ships of the United States Navy.
Raised in a Navy family, Harvey Milk joined the US Navy in 1951 during the Korean War. He served aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) as a diving officer. He was later transferred to San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. Then in 1955, he was forced to resign from the Navy for being a homosexual. He held the rank of lieutenant, junior grade.
Milk would go on to become the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. On November 27, 1978, Supervisor Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall by an ex-supervisor. When Milk was shot he was wearing his U.S. Navy diver’s belt buckle.
If our post yesterday about the North Pacific Blob sounded like something from 1950s sci-fi, then our post today – Invasion of the Penis Fish – must sound like 1960s porn. In fact, thousands of worms looking considerably like penises washed up recently on Drakes’s Beach, in California about 50 miles north of San Francisco. The worms go by various names, including fat innkeeper worm and spoonworm, but appear to be best known as penis fish. Neither penises nor fish, they are Urechis caupo — plump, unsegmented, cylindrical pink worms growing to a length of up 20 inches, with 8 inches being about average.
In the 1958 sci-fi/horror film, the Blob is a gooey mass from outer space which eventually grows the size of a small building while devouring everyone it encounters. The Blob cannot stand cold and is finally stopped by being airlifted to the Arctic. (The movie is notable primarily as Steve McQueen’s debut in a leading role.)
There is now a very real monster in the northern Pacific also referred to as the Blob. It is a mass of unusually ocean hot water that is having a disastrous impact on sea life. Codfish have been particularly hard hit. Because of historically low numbers of Pacific cod, the federal cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska is closing for the 2020 season. This is the first time this fishery has been closed due to low fish stock.
International yacht racing is incredibly expensive. That is unquestionably true of the America’s Cup races. Recently, the Financial Times spoke to British sailing champion Ben Ainslie about his concerns that the race is too expensive to remain viable. The cost of the new boats creates a barrier to entry for new competition.
In March 2021, Sir Ben hopes to bring the trophy back to the UK for the first time in 170 years, backed by £110m from Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of the Ineos chemicals group who topped The Sunday Times’ UK rich list in 2018.
Australian researchers using a genetic ‘clock’ to predict animals’ lifespans have determined that bowhead whales may live for an average of 268 years. They came to this conclusion from studying 42 genes and a chemical process they undergo called methylation that can be used to predict life expectancy. The new research suggests that there may be bowheads swimming in icy northern waters today that were alive when Nelson fought the Battle of Trafalgar.
Bowhead whales have long been considered the longest living mammals. While no bowheads have been found as old as that predicted by the researchers, one bowhead was found to be 211 years old based on levels of aspartic acid in the whale’s eye. In a number of cases, stone and steel harpoons dating from the 18th century have been dug from the carcasses of bowhead whales. In 2007, a bowhead was found with a fragment of a patented exploding lance that was manufactured in the 1880s.
