Busy Saturday at Sea – Container Ship Aground Off Norway & Tanker Aground off Sicily

Posted on by March 10, 2012

Photo: Celina - Aleksi Lindström, Gelso M - Willem Oldenburg

There are no weekends off at sea and this has been a busy Saturday. Off Sicily, the 18,000 DWT Italian tanker Gelso M ran aground in a storm, with reports of engine room flooding. The crew of 19 was evacuated by helicopter without injury. The tanker was said to be in ballast and no pollution has been reported.  Off Norway’s southwestern coast, near the town of Maaloeya, the container ship Celina also ran aground.  The crew of 14 is reported to be unharmed, but a visible sheen has been reported on the water.   Thanks to Phil Leon for passing along the news.

Cameron Diving to the Bottom of the Mariana Trench

Posted on by March 9, 2012

We posted recently about the “race” to dive to the deepest spot in the ocean, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, almost 36,000 feet below the surface.  The first and last time that anyone ever ventured to the bottom of the trench was over fifty years ago. We posted, “Now three and possibly four teams are preparing to return to the depths of the Mariana Trench….  Hollywood director James Cameron is … understood to be preparing for a descent.”

Rumors of Cameron’s attempt have been confirmed.  Reported to be making an attempt later this month, he may be the first to return to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Miles Under the Pacific, a Director Will Take On His Riskiest Project
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The Battle of the Ironclads – USS Monitor and CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, 150 Years Ago Today

Posted on by March 9, 2012

The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia were not the first iron-clad war ships, but they were the first to face each other in battle. One hundred and fifty years ago today, the two ironclads met in Hampton Roads, VA and fought each other to a draw.  After hours of close range fighting, the CSS Virginia retired, having failed to break the Union blockade.
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Schooner Western Union Designated Florida State Flagship

Posted on by March 9, 2012

The Florida Legislature has designated the schooner Western Union as the state’s official flagship. The schooner was built in 1939 and served for 35 years as as a cable vessel for the Western Union Telegraph Company, repairing and maintaining undersea telegraph cable throughout Key West, Cuba and the Caribbean. The 130′ long schooner is now a sailing museum, operating out of Key West, offering both dockside and sailing tours.

Legislature designates schooner as state flagship

Pascal Vaudé Wins Bouvet Guyane Solo Atlantic Rowing Race 2012 in Record Time

Posted on by March 8, 2012

Pascal Vaudé wins Bouvet Guyane Solo Atlantic Rowing Race 2012 in record time

Pascal Vaudé has won the Bouvet Guyane Solo Atlantic Rowing Race  and has set a new record of 37 days, 10 minutes and 26 seconds.  This morning Julien Besson crossed the finish line taking second place just in front of Henri-George Hidair, in third.   The Bouvet Guyane Solo Atlantic Rowing Race 2012 is a 2,600 mile race between between Senegal and Guyana.  All solo rowers are competing in identical 8 meter long boats.  Of the 23 rowers who began the race, 12 are still rowing while 8 have abandoned the attempt.

Dust Off Your Sextants as the Solar Storm Rages

Posted on by March 8, 2012

No need to shorten sail but putting down the GPS and dusting off the sextant might be a good idea as the largest solar storm in five years strikes the earth today. A massive cloud of charged particles moving at 4 million mph could disrupt satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas.  Power grids are also at risk. A strong solar storm in 1989 knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.  The upside to the storm is that it may result in even more colorful auroras than usual.

NASA | Massive Solar Flare gets HD Close Up
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Omani Women Taking to the Sea

Posted on by March 8, 2012

I will admit to not knowing much about Oman. I know that it is a Sultanate. It exports oil. I can find it on the map on the south-east corner of the Arabian peninsula. One thing that I do know is that it has a rather remarkable sailing program.

The Omani national sail training ship Shabab Oman is highly thought of in the sail training community. Under the command of Captain Christopher Biggins, who died last year, Shabab Oman became well known as an extremely friendly ship, and as a result she won ‘The Cutty Sark Trophy’ a record four times, and its successor ‘The Sail Training International Friendship Trophy‘ another three times.  Last year the Sultanate of Oman began providing funding for up to 100 tall ship sail trainees yearly, with a focus on young people who are who are financially disadvantaged or with a physical disability.

In more modern sailing, Omani men have been increasingly active in international competitions. As of October, the state sponsored Oman Sail enrolled 40 women in a sailing program. Omani women are now competing in international sailboat races and may soon be competing in Olympic sailing events.
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Sarah Hebert, Suffering From Anemia, Suspends Atlantic Windsurf Crossing

Posted on by March 7, 2012

On Monday we posted about Sarah Hebert’s bold attempt to cross the Atlantic by windsurfer.  She has been battling 3-to-5 metre swells and constant 25-knot winds.  Now, suffering from extreme dizziness, diagnosed to be caused by anemia, she has suspended her attempt but vows to return to try again. Thanks for Buck for the update.

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor ? Breathalyzers on Navy Ships & a Couple of Drunken Captains

Posted on by March 7, 2012

From 1655 to 1970, the Royal Navy issued daily rations of rum to their sailors.  In the US Navy, alcohol was prohibited in 1913.  Now almost 100 years later, the US Navy is going one step farther.  Ray Mabus, the Secretary of the Navy, has ordered the installation of breath-test machines on all ships and submarines, as well as on Marine Corps bases.

Navy to place breath-test machines on all its ships
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Matt Rutherford – Resupplied off Recife, Sailing North

Posted on by March 7, 2012

We recently posted about Matt Rutherford needing to be resupplied to continue his attempt to sail single-handed entirely around the Americas in the St. Brendan, a 27′ Albin Vega.  Last week, Matt rendezvoused with a small boat, two miles off the coast of Recife, Brazil, which supplied him with a handheld VHF radio for communication, putty to fix a leak, two small solar panels to power his electronics, a hand crank for starting his engine, 15 gallons of diesel fuel, 20 gallons of drinking water, and some fresh food.  With luck, these supplies should allow him to complete the last on the last 3,000 mile leg of remarkable voyage.  Matt has now been sailing for 268 days and has logged 23,433 miles.

Thanks to Gillian Pommerehn for passing along photos of the resupply at sea. For more photos click here – Matt Rutherford Resupply.   To follow Matt’s progress and/ to donate to support his efforts, go to Solo Around the Americas.

Titanic and the “Supermoon” – Did the Moon Sink the Titanic? The Answer is No.

Posted on by March 7, 2012

The headline writers have been having fun.  The Daily Beast headline reads – Moon to Blame for Titanic Sinking?  Reuters asks and answers its own question – “What sank the Titanic? Scientists point to the moon.”  The Times of India gets alliterative – “Cosmic curse: Did the moon sink Titanic?”  National Geographic introduces the “supermoon” but hedges their bet with a question mark – “Titanic Sunk by “Supermoon” and Celestial Alignment?”  The Telegraph reverts to a simple declarative statement, “Titanic disaster blamed on Moon.”  And on and on.

Did the moon sink the Titanic? The answer is no. And no one is actually claiming that it did, worldwide headlines notwithstanding.
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Faces of the USS Monitor – Using Forensic Reconstruction to Identify Unknown Civil War Sailors

Posted on by March 7, 2012

Lost Sailors from the USS Monitor - Samuel A. Lewis & Robert Williams?

When the revolutionary ironclad warship USS Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, NC during the Civil War, in December of 1862, 16 of her crew of 62 were lost.  One hundred and forty years later, in August of 2002, when the turret of the ship was raised from the bottom, divers found the skeletons of two sailors. Despite DNA and other testing, all attempts to identify the two sailors were unsuccessful.  Now using forensic reconstruction techniques, Eileen Barrow, an imaging specialist  from Louisiana State University has literally given faces to dead. The reconstructed faces were revealed today.  Lisa Stansbury, a genealogist working with NOAA, may have also put names to the reconstructed faces.

Names and Faces Suggested for Monitor Sailors
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Why PortSide New York & the Tanker Mary A. Whalen Must be Saved

Posted on by March 6, 2012

Portside New York, based on the historic tanker Mary A. Whalen, has been putting on fantastic educational, cultural and and community programs and events on the Brooklyn waterfront front for the the last six years, without ever having a permanent berth.  Now PortSide is in crisis. It needs to find a permanent, publicly accessible berth or else it is likely to be shut down and the Mary A. Whalen scrapped.  Here is a short video that demonstrates what the New York waterfront would lose if we lost the PortSide New York & the tanker Mary A. Whalen.

Why PortSide NewYork should be saved
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Thieves Steal Lord Nelson’s Personal Items from Norwich Castle

Posted on by March 5, 2012

Personal items owned by Lord Nelson, valued at £37,800, were stolen from a display case at Norwich Castle in a daylight robbery.

Plundered! £37,800 worth of Lord Nelson’s personal artefacts stolen from Norwich Castle

The items stolen, which have been on display at the museum because of Lord Nelson’s numerous links with the area, include a £25,000 mourning ring and a £10,000 saucer.  The ring, believed to have been made between 1803 and 1806, is enamelled and bears the letters N and B. The box, dated 1805, the ring was kept in was also taken. The saucer was from an 1802 tea service which was part of the inventory at Lord Nelson’s home.
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Decommissioned Staten Island Ferry Herbert H. Lehman Sinks in Hudson River

Posted on by March 5, 2012

The Staten Island ferry Herbert H. Lehman was decommissioned in 2007 and put up for sale last year on EBay for $500,000.  The 297′ foot Kennedy class ferry boat apparently sprang a leak on Friday at her berth in Newburg, N.Y. and is now listing and partially flooded, sitting on the Hudson River bottom.

Decommissioned Staten Island Ferry Herbert H. Lehman sinking in Hudson River

Sarah Hebert – Sailing Across the Atlantic by Windsurfer?

Posted on by March 5, 2012

Sarah Hebert, a young French athlete with a heart condition, is now in her 12th day of attempting to sail across the Atlantic Ocean on a stock “off the beach” windsurfer.   Fortunately, this is not quite as crazy as it sounds.  Ms. Hebert is being accompanied by a 15 meter sailing catamaran.  She windsurfs all day and them sleeps on board at night.  She restarts her sailing the next day at the same GPS coordinates at which she ended the night before.   She began her voyage in Dakar, Senegal and hopes to finish in Saint-Francois, Guadeloupe.

Windsurf TransAtlantic 2012

Sarah Hebert is a world class windsurfer whose titles include, four French championship, 2006 European championship, and the 2007 Vice-World championship.  She also has a heart condition which required the installation of a  defibrillator in 2006.  One of the stated goals of her attempted crossing is to ‘be the subject of scientific study in cardiology on the theme of “extreme sport with a defibrillator”.’   Boston Medical, who built her defibrillator, is one of her major sponsors.

Sarah’s motto is “with the heart, everything is possible.”
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The Really, Really Ancient Mariners – Solutreans, Neanderthals & Hobbits

Posted on by March 4, 2012

For most, a river or an ocean is a boundary. For a sailor, each is a highway.  But, when did the first sailor set out across the water? Recent research suggests that the early man may have gone to sea, and indeed, crossed oceans, much earlier than previously thought.  European Solutreans may have crossed the Atlantic over 20,000 years ago, while Neanderthals may have been crisscrossing the Mediterranean by boat over 100,000 years in the past.  The earliest record of human, or near human, ocean voyaging may be the arrival of Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the ‘hobbits’  on the island of Flores in Indonesia around 1,000,000 years ago.
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Costa Concordia Pre-Trial Hearings Begin – Has Anything Changed in Cruise Operations?

Posted on by March 3, 2012

In a hearing today in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, Italian Judge Valeria Montesarchio will ask court appointed experts to examine the “black box,” which contains digital recordings of the night of the grounding and sinking of the Costa Concordia off Giglio Island on January 13, 2011.  Just as the salvage of the ship could take up to a year, the court proceedings are expected to be lengthy.  The analysis of the data recorder itself could take three months, according to an Italian prosecutor. Captain Francesco Schettino and eight others, including three executives from ship owner Costa Crociere, are under investigation disaster although no-one has yet been charged.
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No Aircraft Carrier for Post-Apocalypse Wyoming

Posted on by March 3, 2012

This is not really a nautical story, which is why it is amusing. The Billings Gazette reports that “the Wyoming House of Representatives on Monday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States. Before passing House Bill 85 by a voice vote on second reading, lawmakers struck out language directing the task force to study Wyoming acquiring strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.” (Emphasis added.)
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