Blackfish, Backlash and the Bailing of the Bands from SeaWorld

Posted on by December 15, 2013

blackfish-posterThis year, Seaworld Orlando is sponsoring “Bands, Brew and BBQ” during February and early March. There may be fewer bands to go with the BBQ and brew than originally planned. At least seven well known performers and bands have pulled out from performing at the event due to what some are calling the “Blackfish effect.”  So far, REO Speedwagon, Trisha Yearwood, Willie Nelson, Cheap Trick, Heart, Barenaked Ladies and Martina McBride have cancelled SeaWorld concerts. Most of the performers have said that they cancelled after watching the documentary, Blackfish.  Joan Jett, who was not scheduled to perform, has demanded that SeaWorld stop using her signature tune, “I Love Rock and Roll,” as the opening music for its ‘Shamu Rocks’ killer whale show.

At this point it is difficult to say who will be performing at SeaWorld’s “Bands, Brew and BBQ” as SeaWorld has removed the performance schedule from their website.

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Fiona Shaw Performs ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’

Posted on by December 15, 2013

Fiona Shaw, in an excerpt from a new staged reading of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” This scene features the passage that birthed the expression “albatross around your neck.” The show, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, continues through Dec. 22 at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

In Performance: Fiona Shaw

Poon Lim, Surviving a Record 133 Days at Sea — “I hope no one will ever have to break it.”

Posted on by April 3, 2015
Poon Lim

Poon Lim

Robert Redford was recently nominated for a Golden Globe award for his remarkable one man performance in the movie, “All is Lost.” While Redford’s acting was impressive, the movie was marred by an apparent lack of even a basic understand of offshore sailboats and sailing. (See our review here.) In the movie, the unnamed sailor is ready to give up, declaring “all is lost,” after only a few days in a life-raft.  In this context, it seems worthwhile to remember Poon Lim, a Chinese merchant seaman, who survived for 133 days on a wooden life raft in the South Atlantic in 1942, the only survivor of the British steamer, Benlomond, which was torpedoed by German submarine U-172 and sank in minutes.

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Oru – the Amazing Origami Kayak

Posted on by February 20, 2014

When designer Anton Willis moved to San Francisco, he had to put his rigid kayak in storage because it didn’t fit in his small city apartment. After four years of design, Willis and his team developed the Oru kayak, a kayak made of a single sheet of corrugated plastic that folds and unfolds like origami.  The resulting boat is a 12 feet 6 inches long single kayak with a 25″ beam that weighs only 25 pounds and can be assembled, with practice, in about 5 minutes.   When folded, kayak in its case is only 33″ x 29″ x 10″.  Quite impressive.  When the Oru team did a Kickstarter promotion about a year ago, their goal was to raise $80,000 for the first production run.  They met that goal in the first five hours and went on to raise an impressive $443,806 from 730 backers. Here is the Kickstarter video that describes the venture:

Oru Kayak

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Fishlove 2013 — Celebrities Posing Naked with Dead Fish

Posted on by December 12, 2013

Gillian-Anderson---conger-006Overfishing, particularity deep sea trawling, is doing grave damage to the ocean’s fish population. What can be done about it?  A group of celebrities – actors, musicians and artists – are taking off their clothes and posing with dead fish to raise awareness of the problem. It is called Fishlove 2013.  How effective is the campaign? To be completely honest, when I see American actor Gillian Anderson with a dead conger eel draped around her neck, my first thought is not necessarily “we must stop deep ocean trawling.”   Nevertheless, the photography is artistic and interesting. Click here to see a slideshow. Better yet, click here to sign a petition to help protect deep ocean life.

Fishlove 2013 – in pictures

 

Learn to Sail the Star of India

Posted on by December 11, 2013

shipmainstar2On a winter’s day, when the temperature here on the banks of the Hudson River is in the low 30s F, but with the wind off the water feels more like the low 20s, there are many reasons to want to pick up and move to sunny and warm, Southern California.  And now I’ve found one more — a press release, issued today, from the Maritime Museum of San Diego.

Have you ever wanted to learn to sail and maintain a tallship?

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Schooner Lettie G. Howard Returns to New York’s South Street Seaport

Posted on by December 10, 2013
Photo: Will Van Dorp

Photo: Will Van Dorp

OK, we are a week late and it is snowing outside, but we do want to to wish the schooner Lettie G. Howard the warmest of welcomes now that she has returned to her berth at the South Street Seaport. We also would like to congratulate all the fine folks who worked so hard to bring her home.

Lettie G. Howard is a wooden Fredonia schooner built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts.  After a long and productive working life, she was sold to the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968. In February of 2012, the Lettie was drydocked at the Mystic Seaport in CT to repair rot in her keelson. The rot turned out to be far more extensive than originally thought.  Through the generosity and hard work of supporters, volunteers and staff, more than $250,000 was raised to rebuilt and return the historic schooner to the New York waterfront.   This included an amazing benefit concert featuring Rosanne Cash.

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Will Legendary Socotra Rock Be Latest International Flash Point?

Posted on by December 9, 2013
South Korean Aegis destroyer Yulgok YiYi patrols the waters around Socotra Rock, south of Jeju Island, on Dec. 2. Photograph by Yonhap via EPA

South Korean Aegis destroyer Yulgok YiYi patrols the waters around Socotra Rock, south of Jeju Island, on Dec. 2. Photograph by Yonhap via EPA

On Sunday, the government of South Korea announced that it was extending its air defense zone to include Socotra Rock, a submerged pinnacle in the Yellow Sea.  The Korean air defense zone now overlaps with the air defense zones already claimed by both China and Japan and is expected to increase tensions in the region. Both Korea and China had already claimed the rock as part of of each countrys’ “exclusive economic zones,” (EEZ).

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USS Oklahoma — December 7, 1941 And Beyond

Posted on by December 7, 2013

oklahomasinksOn the morning of December 7, 1941, USS Oklahoma was moored at an outside berth in the inner harbor at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor that day, the USS Oklahoma was directly in the flight path of the attacking planes.  USS Oklahoma was struck by nine torpedoes and rolled over in roughly 10 minutes. The diagram above shows the sequence of the capsize and the torpedo strikes that doomed the ship and four hundred and twenty-nine of her crew.

The USS Oklahoma was the last ship to be salvaged at Pearl Harbor.  The ship weighted about 32,000 metric tons and was rolled almost 180 degrees.  To right the ship, the Navy used a salvage technique called parbuckling.  Large A frames were mounted along the length of the hull to provide the leverage necessary to roll the ship.  The process took roughly four months and was finished in June 1943.  The ship was judged too damaged to be repaired. On the tow to a scrap yard in California, the USS Oklahoma sank in a storm in May 1947.

Salvage of the Battleship USS Oklahoma Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor 1942 1942-46

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Canada to Claim North Pole — Status of Santa Uncertain

Posted on by December 6, 2013

338393_Canada-North-PoleReports are that Canada is filing a claim to extend its northern sea boundary to encompass an area of over 1 million square miles of Arctic seafloor which includes the North Pole, under provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Canadian are said to have spent the past 10 years and $200 million dollars to document the claim that they are expected to file with the UN today.  A preliminary assessment by the US Geological Survey suggests the Arctic seabed may hold as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and natural gas reserves.   PressTV reports that “Experts say a decision on the Arctic seafloor is probably 20 years away, with scientific evaluation on Canada’s claim taking roughly five years.”

The Canadians are not alone in their claims. Russia, Denmark, Norway, and the United States all claim overlapping sections of the Arctic seas and sea floor. Of the group, the United States is alone in not having ratified the UNCLOS treaty.

Currently both Russia and Canada are claiming the North Pole.  The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has provisions and clauses for adjudicating conflicting claims.  Disturbingly, however, it does not appear to have a Santa clause. (Sorry.) Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.

Rediscovering the Japanese Aircraft-Carrier Submarine I-400 — Scuttled During the Cold War

Posted on by December 5, 2013

piscesRecently, the crew of the the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory‘s submersible Pisces V  announced finding the hull of the Japanese mega-submarine I-400  at a depth of 2,300 feet on the sea floor off Hawaii.  The huge submarine survived World War II but was scuttled by the United States in the early days of what would become known as the Cold War to prevent the Soviets from gaining access to what was at the time the most advanced submarine technology in the world.

The I-400 was the largest submarine of its day.  At 400′ long, the I-400 and its sister vessels would remain the largest submarines ever constructed until the advent of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s.  The I-400 was also an aircraft carrier, capable of carrying up to three Aichi M6A Seiran bombers in water-tight hangers.  The submarines were intended to attack the Panama Canal among other targets. Thee of the huge submarines were built while two others were under construction at the end of the war.  All five were brought to Pearl Harbor following Japan’s surrender.

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Nigerian Tug Cook Survives Three Days in Sunken Tug 100 Feet Below the Atlantic

Posted on by December 4, 2013

At the end of last May, the Jascon 4 sank in about 100 feet of water off the coast of Nigeria.  All twelve of the crew were believed to have drowned.  Three days later, divers were sent into the sunken tug to retrieve the bodies.  They had recovered four bodies when one diver saw a hand and reached for it, only to be shocked when the hand reached back. Harrison Odjegba Okene, the tug’s cook, had miraculously survived in an air pocket for close to three days. The video of the moment when Okene was found has recently been released.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.

Raw: Divers Find Man Alive in Sunken Tugboat

MV Cape Ray to Destroy Syria’s Most Dangerous Chemical Weapons at Sea

Posted on by December 3, 2013

caperaceWhen it came to destroying Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons, there was a problem. No nation wanted to take the weapons and face the risks associated with destroying them on their soil.  Under an international agreement brokered by the US, Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons have to be out of the country by a December 31 deadline.  The apparent answer is to put the chemical weapons on a ship and destroy the chemicals at sea. The roll-on/roll-off ship MV Cape Ray (T-AKR-9679) is now being outfitting with the  U.S. Army’s Field Deployable Hydrolysis System (FDHS). The FDHS was rolled out only this June and is a mobile chemical weapons disposal facility designed to destroy or make inert lethal chemicals and gases.

US prepares ship to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons

The MV Cape Ray, part of the U.S. Maritime Administration’s (MARAD)Ready Reserve Force, will be leased to the Navy.  The roll-on/roll-off ship was built in 1977 in Japan for Saudi Arabia’s National Ship Co. as MV Seaspeed  Asia. She is one of three sister-ships purchased by the Maritime Administration in 1993 and converted for military use.

Taking the 132′ Victoria Clipper Passenger Ferry for a Joy Ride

Posted on by December 3, 2013

victoria clipperWhat could be nicer than a boat ride on your birthday? Last Sunday, on his 33rd birthday, Samuel Kenneth McDonough allegedly took the Victoria Clipper, a 132′ high speed passenger ferry, for a several hour joy-ride in Seattle’s Elliot Bay.  He apparently either climbed over or squeezed through an opening in a fence to reach the $8 million ferry. Once aboard, he found an operating manual and a set of keys and figured out how to start the engines, which apparently is not easy to do.  Reuters quotes Darrell Bryan, CEO of Clipper Navigation, the ferry’s owner, “He’s not stupid.  We had engineers who have had challenges with starting these engines.”  Fortunately, McDonoughdid not master the ferry’s steering, so he apparently drove the ferry in slow circles. At one point the ferry was perilously close to going aground on rocks near the Elliot Bay Marina and also nearly collided with a Washington State Ferries vessel, according to police reports..  The ferry is capable of a top speed of 30 knots and had enough fuel aboard to travel roughly 65 miles, so it is fortunate that McDonough didn’t get the steering figured out.  On Monday, a judge set McDonough’s bail at $200,000.

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Bon Voyage to Captain Stanley Paris and the Kiwi Spirit

Posted on by December 3, 2013

A few hours ago, Stanley Paris, 76, at the helm of the 63′ custom yacht, Kiwi Spirit, sailed from the sea-buoy at St. Augustine, Florida, bound out on a solo, non-stop un-assisted voyage around the globe.  Paris will be attempting to beat American yachtsman Dodge Morgan’s 1986 solo-circumnavigation record of 150 days. If he succeeds, he will also be the oldest person to circumnavigate. The voyage, which Paris has planned for the last 4 years, is intended to be completely green, using no hydrocarbons. The Kiwi Spirit does have an engine but will be used only in case of emergencies. We wish you fair winds, Dr. Paris.  To track the Kiwi Spirit’s voyage, click here.

At 76, St. Augustine’s Stanley Paris to sail around the world

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