The Drunk Guy, the Stolen Skiff, the Ferry Terminal & the Illusion of Security

Posted on by October 24, 2017

Last Thursday evening, a man described as being extremely drunk, stole a skiff in Bayonne, NJ, and drove it across New York harbor to Staten Island. He docked the boat in a slip at the St. George Staten Island Ferry Terminal, walked up the gangway and disappeared. The problem is that the ferry terminal docks are considered to be a “secure area” and the drunken man walked right through several restricted areas to make his escape. Alarms bells, literally and figuratively, have been going off ever since.

The Staten Island Ferry is the single busiest ferry route in the United States with an average daily ridership of around 65,000 passengers. Last year it set a record for carrying almost 24 million people.

How serious was the security breach? Continue reading →

Evening Gray Morning Red — Now Available in Print and as Ebook

Posted on by December 3, 2017

I am pleased to announce that my latest novel Evening Gray Morning Red is now available in print and as an ebook. 

A little about the novel:  In Evening Gray Morning Red, a young American sailor must escape his past and the clutches of the Royal Navy, in the turbulent years just before the American Revolutionary War.

In the spring of 1768, Thom Larkin, a 17-year-old sailor newly arrived in Boston, is caught by a Royal Navy press gang and dragged off to HMS Romney, where he runs afoul of the cruel and corrupt Lieutenant Dudingston. Years later, after escaping the Romney, Thom again crosses paths with his old foe, now in command HMS Gaspee, cruising in Narragansett Bay. Thom Larkin must face the guns of the Royal Navy, with only his wits, an unarmed packet boat, and a sandbar.

Volvo Ocean Race Sets off From Alicante, Spain

Posted on by October 22, 2017

A fleet of seven teams of racers set off this morning from Alicante, Spain bound for Lisbon, on the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018.  The eleven leg race will visit 12 cities in six continents, ending next July in The Hague, Netherlands. The teams will race Volvo Ocean 65 one-designs 45,000 miles around the globe.

The seven teams are Team AkzoNobel, backed by a Dutch paint company; Team Dongfeng, sponsored by a Chinese automobile manufacturer; Team MAPFRE, backed by a Spanish insurance company; Team Vestas, supported by the Dutch wind turbine producer; Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, representing a Hong Kong real estate firm; Team Turn the Tide on Plastic/Clean Seas representing a UN environmental group with the support of the Spanish government; and Team Brunel, backed by a Dutch-based global consultancy. 

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Sultana Downrigging Weekend Tall Ship and Wooden Boat Festival — October 27-29

Posted on by October 21, 2017

The Sultana Downrigging Weekend and Tall Ship and Wooden Boat Festival has grown to be one of the largest annual Tall Ship gatherings on the East Coast. Now in its 17th year, it is held on the Chester River in Chestertown, MD, one of America’s best preserved colonial seaports. It always worth the trip. This year the downrigging weekend is from October 27-29. 

If you are interested in the history of sailing craft, just walking the Chestertown docks at the downrigging is an education in itself. Four centuries of sail will be represented. From the 17th century, the Kalmar Nyckel is a  re-creation of the first colonial Swedish settlement ship to arrive in America in the mid-1600s.  The schooner Sultana, the festival host, is a replica of an 18th-century colonial schooner. The schooners Lynx and Pride of Baltimore II  are replicas of 19th century “Baltimore clippers” from the War of 1812. Also from the 19th century is the Lady Maryland, a replica pungy Chesapeake Bay cargo schooner. Three non-replicas represent the 20th century. The oyster-dredging skipjacks Elsworth and Sigsbee were both built in 1901.  The A.J. Meerwald, launched in 1928, was one of hundreds of oyster schooners built along the South Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore before the Great Depression.

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The Coffee Table and the Nemi Ships — Remembering Caligula’s Great Pleasure Barges

Posted on by October 20, 2017

Part of one of Roman Emperor Caligula‘s ceremonial Nemi ships has been recovered from an unexpected location. The New York Times reports that a four-by-four piece of mosaic flooring from one of the ships has been “sitting in … the Park Avenue apartment of an antiques dealer where it was used as a coffee table often to hold a vase of flowers and, occasionally, someone’s drinking glass. … Last month, prosecutors seized the mosaic, saying they had evidence it had been taken from an Italian museum before World War II. On Thursday evening, the piece was returned to the Italian government at a ceremony, along with two other recently recovered antiquities.” 

However the 2000-year old mosaic panel may have traveled from the small volcanic lake south of Rome to aNew York Park Avenue apartment, the transit may have saved it. The two Roman ships in Lake Nemi, dating from the 1st century were destroyed in 1944 during World War II. 

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The Long Strange Voyage of Rimas Meleshyus

Posted on by October 19, 2017

His name is Rimas Meleshyus. He recently showed up adrift on his 30-foot sailboat, Mimsy, off Saipan, where he was towed into port. He had last been reported almost 3,000 nautical miles away on July 31, off Fiji. 

Over the last several years, he has undertaken a series of increasingly bizarre Pacific voyages in three different donated sailboats.Meleshyus is a 60-something Russian immigrant and naturalized US citizen, who set off to sail alone around the world without necessarily knowing much about sailing. Here is a brief recap of his ongoing voyaging, to the extent I can put it together. 

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Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race 2017 — A Great Race

Posted on by December 3, 2017

The 2017 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race turned out to be a great race indeed. The schooner Virginia, which has been absent in recent years due to financial issues, returned to race and was the first across the finish line, breaking her own past record time. At the smaller end of the fleet, schooner Norfolk Rebel, under the command of Steve Briggs, won a respectable third place in the Class C race. Click here for a detailed summary of the race results.

The schooner race began in 1988 when Captain Lane Briggs of the Norfolk Rebel challenged Pride of Baltimore II  to a race from Baltimore to Norfolk. Lane Briggs died in 2005 and his son Steve has stepped in as captain. Norfolk Rebel, a sail assisted tugboat, often referred to as a “tugantine,” consistently places well in her class. 

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Stepping Stones Light & the Devil’s Stepping Stones

Posted on by October 17, 2017

Steppings Stone Light Photo: K. Lorentz

My wife and I were moving our boat last weekend from her summer mooring in Oyster Bay to winter layup in Cheesequake Creek in Raritan Bay and passed Stepping Stones Light as we rushed to catch a favorable current through Hell Gate.

Even on a gray morning, the lighthouse is very attractive. Built in 1876, it is a Victorian design and has been called New York City’s “cutest lighthouse.” (It is technically just outside New York City.) I am not sure that I would describe it as “cute” but then again, I am not sure that “cute” is a wholly appropriate adjective when describing lighthouses. 

The lighthouse marks Stepping Stones Reef, which is part of a group of the twenty nearby islands and rocks referred to as the Devil’s Stepping Stones.

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SSV Oliver Hazard Perry Loses Power in Newport Harbor

Posted on by October 16, 2017

The 200′ long three-masted square-rigger SSV Oliver Hazard Perry was departing from a local dockside festival on Sunday evening when she lost power while maneuvering in very close quarters in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. The steel ship drifted into four boats. No one was injured in the collisions.  

This morning just before 10AM, the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island organization released the following statement:

At approximately 6:15 p.m. on Sunday, October 15, while leaving the Bowen’s Wharf Seafood Festival, the Tall Ship Oliver Hazard Perry’s two propellers became entangled by a dock line, resulting in the loss of engine power. Thanks to the quick actions of the captain, crew, the Newport Harbor Master, Oldport Marine, and the U.S. Coast Guard, the ship was safely secured to the docks at Newport Harbor Hotel and Newport Yacht Club in the northeast corner of Newport Harbor. Continue reading →

MV Yara Birkeland, Autonomous Container Ship — Is This Really a Good Idea?

Posted on by October 15, 2017

The first autonomous container ship, the 120 TEU feeder vessel, MV Yara Birkeland, will be launched in 2018. The ship will also be battery-powered and emissions-free. After a period of testing with a crew, the ship is expected to go into autonomous service in 2020. MV Yara Birkeland will sail on two routes within Norway, between Herøya and Brevik (~7 nautical miles (13 km)) and between Herøya and Larvik (~30 nautical miles (56 km)) carrying chemicals and fertilizer. The ship is being jointly developed by two Norwegian companies — agricultural firm Yara International and Kongsberg Gruppen, which builds guidance systems for both civilian and military use.

One question needs to be asked — are autonomous ships really a good idea?  Continue reading →

Picton Castle’s Seventh World Voyage

Posted on by October 13, 2017

In March of 2018, the barque Picton Castle will set off on its seventh world voyage — an epic year-long voyage under sail.  Berths are available for trainees for the full year-long voyage or for individual voyage legs.

Beginning in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, Picton Castle will sail south to the Caribbean, then through the Panama Canal, to the Galapagos Islands, islands in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands including Rarotonga and Palmerston Atoll, Vava’u in the Kingdom of Tonga, a number of islands in Vanuatu, Bali, Rodrigues, Reunion, South Africa, Namibia, St. Helena, a number of Caribbean islands and Bermuda before returning to Lunenburg in May 2019.  

This voyage is open to men and women ages 18+ of all nationalities. No sailing experience is required, just good health and the desire to be a working part of the crew.  Click here to learn more.

Sacré’ Bleu — Flavoured Oysters from France?

Posted on by October 13, 2017

As one who is very fond of oyster-flavored oysters, I am not sure that a raspberry, ginger, shallot or muscat flavored oyster is necessarily a good idea.  Nevertheless, French oyster farmer Joffrey Dubault, 29, is working to bring these flavored oysters to the world. To achieve this culinary alchemy, Dubault places oysters in 400-litre trays which contain water infused with the chosen flavor. 

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Will the Tallship Providence Sail to Alexandria?

Posted on by October 12, 2017

I had kind of lost track of the replica Revolutionary War sloop Providence. In January 2015, she was blown off her jackstands by blizzard winds while on the hard in Newport, RI, incurring significant damage to her hull and rigging. In August 2016, there were reports that repairs were underway.  There are now reports that the Providence may be moving to Alexandria, VA. Toward the end of September, Scott Shaw, principal of Alexandria Restaurant Partners, presented a plan to permanently dock the Providence at Waterfront Park in Alexandria.  

The sloop Providence is a 1976 built fiberglass replica of a Continental Navy sloop of the same name.  Originally built as the merchant sloop Katy in 1768 by the Brown family of Providence RI, the sloop was outfitted with guns in 1774 to cruise against the British in Narraganset Bay.

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Offshore Wind Energy to Power the Globe — First Floating Offshore Wind Farm off Scotland

Posted on by October 11, 2017

A new study released this week suggests that offshore floating wind farms could generate enough energy to power the entire world. The study is not referring to the existing offshore wind farms in shallower waters but to deep-sea wind farms where the full power of the ocean’s winds can be utilized.  It is an interesting analysis although somewhat theoretical as until very recently deeper-water floating wind turbines were either only on the drawing board or operating as small demonstration projects. 

This summer, however, twenty-five kilometers off the coast of Peterhead in north-east Scotland, five floating wind turbines are being installed in depths of water of 95-120 meters. Known as Hywind, the facility will be the world’s first floating wind farm. Each turbine is 78-meters-tall and is held upright by underwater ballast and by three mooring lines. The project is being developed by Norway’s Statoil, which is seeking to diversify away from carbon-based fuels. The five turbines, each designed to generate six megawatts of electricity, are expected to power 20,000 households and are expected to go online within the month. 

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Fridtjof Nansen, Exploring the Arctic and Saving Refugees

Posted on by October 10, 2017

Today’s Google Doodle commemorates the 156th birthday of Fridtjof Nansen — arctic explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nansen seems particularly relevant in these times as the polar ice cap continues to melt and as refugee crises grow across the globe. 

Nansen once wrote, “I demolish my bridges behind me – then there is no choice but forward.”  In 1893, Nansen set off in command of an expedition to attempt to drift in the ice across the North Pole. He sailed on a specially built ship with a round hull designed to resist being crushed by the ice. The ship was built by the famous Norwegian-Scottish shipbuilder Colin Archer and named appropriately, Fram, or in Norwegian, Forward.    

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