There are always iconic objects that are almost irresistible in contemplation. They represent ideas which are far too easy to fall in love with. I really wanted to own an old style Volkswagen “bug” and then I owned one and understood my mistake. The old bug had a nearly indestructible engine but the body of the car had almost entirely rusted away. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Likewise, I had friends who were in love with the idea of converting an almost free surplus lifeboat into an oceangoing yacht. That didn’t work out too well either.
Another iconic structure, perhaps the most iconic, is a lighthouse. Every year the government puts decommissioned lighthouses up for sale, often for very little money. Some lighthouses have sold for as little as $10,000! A few have been given away for free! How cool is that? A lighthouse for less than the cost of a new car! If only that was all the lighthouses really cost.
The New York Times recently published an article, “True Cost of Buying a Cheap Lighthouse? That Should Be Visible a Mile Away” which looks at the real cost of owning a “cheap lighthouse.”
Among the fleet of ships and boats that make up the fleet at the 
Following the recent collisions between US Navy destroyers and merchant ships, various internet sites posted the AIS tracks of the collisions. Well, they posted half the AIS tracks anyway. The merchant ships used AIS while the Navy did not. While US Navy ships have AIS transponders onboard they do not transmit their positions nor apparently do Navy crews regularly consult the receivers showing the location and course of other ships. It was possible to track merchant ships’ courses but not the destroyers’. That now appears to be about to change. The Navy appears ready to finally switch their AIS transmitters on.
I will be participating in Jersey City’s 
The fallout continues from the recent collisions with merchant ships in the Pacific involving the destroyers 
My latest novel, 
Not all oil pollution is petroleum. Recently, there have been reports of strange yellow blobs washing up on the beaches of France’s Opal Coast. The blobs described variously as 
The UK’s latest and greatest new aircraft carrier, HMS 
Hurricane Irma absolutely devastated many islands in the Caribbean. Now, in the aftermath of the catastrophic storm, aid is being sent by a small armada of ships and boats from governments, corporations and private citizens.
Two Scottish brothers, eight-year-old, Ollie and five-year-old, Harry Ferguson, are too young to go to sea themselves, so instead, they sent their toy pirate sailing ship on a voyage from the fine old port of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire earlier this year. The toy was a plastic Playmobil ship, named suitably Adventure. With the help of their father, the boys modified Adventure to make more a seaworthy craft. They added ballast and polystyrene foam to help it stay afloat. They also included a note asking anyone who finds the boat to send them a picture and launch Adventure back into the sea.