The US Coast Guard in Florida faced an unusual challenge earlier this week. Virtually the entire crew, 19 out of 21, on the 35,362 dwt Korean bulk carrier JS Comet had become seriously ill with symptoms of food poisoning and needed to be rescued. The ship was anchored in the Atlantic three miles off Port Canaveral, Florida while Tropical Storm Arthur raged offshore. The condition of the crew and the 35 knot winds and five to 6-foot seas raised by the tropical storm made evacuation by boat impossible. Despite the deteriorating weather conditions, the Coast Guard successfully evacuate the 19 sick crew members leaving only two crew aboard the ship.
So, what poisoned the crew? The crew told the Coast Guard they believe they got food poisoning from bad sushi. gCaptain reports that an unconfirmed report indicates the crew may have eaten some bad barracuda, which may have been contaminated with ciguatoxin.
Today, Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II christened the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, 
The composite clipper, 
Last December, 
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of whales off New York harbor. In 2011, 
In 2010,
What is the best way to celebrate sailing? My first response is to say, go sailing. Sailing, seems to me, to be its own celebration. There is that moment when everything falls into balance — when the force of the wind on the sails, the lift of water flowing across the keel, the drag of the eddies boiling off the hull — when you can feel the perfect equilibrium of all the forces of the sea and sky in the gentle tug on the tiller or wheel. That instant is, for me at least, the perfect celebration of sailing.
I wish that I had been sent to a summer camp aboard a historic schooner when I was a kid. Growing up in Texas, I remember summer camps notable for scrub mesquite trees, cactus and snakes, only some of which were poisonous. But I digress. This summer the 1928 Delaware Bay Oyster Schooner,