RN Officer Denies Steering Yacht Too Close to Tanker — Really?

Posted on by October 10, 2013

Two years ago during Cowes Race Week, the skipper of a 33′ sailboat cut across the bow of the 120,000 dwt tanker, Hanne Knutson, traveling down channel.  It did not end well. The boat was dismasted. Fortunately, no one died, though one of the crew on the sailboat suffered a head injury in the collision.

The case is now in court where the skipper of the sailboat, a Royal Navy lieutenant, Roland Wilson, 32, of Stanley, Perthshire is charged with violating maritime regulations including failing to comply with a “moving prohibited zone” of 1,000m (0.6 miles) in front and 100m (328ft) either side of a vessel greater than 150m (492ft). The Hanne Knutson is 260m (853ft) long. Lt. Wilson denies all charges. Unfortunately for the lieutenant, the collision was caught on video. Take a look and see if you think that the Royal Navy officer maintained a proper distance from the ship.

Cowes Week yacht crash skipper ‘too close’ to tanker

Yacht hit by tanker off Cowes, Isle of Wight

By Boat & Bicycle — Angus Expedition Rowboat with Bicycle & Trailer Aboard

Posted on by October 9, 2013

expeditionrowboatWe recently posted Pedaling on the Water which featured various versions of frames with inflatable pontoons on which one could bolt a bicycle and pedal across the water.   I recently came across a very different take on traveling by boat and bicycle. The Angus Expedition rowboat has enough capacity to allow the rower to carry along a full sized bicycle and a break-apart boat trailer. I love the idea of of pedaling to the water with a  boat in tow, rowing across a wide river or bay and then pedaling off on the other side.  Julie and Colin Angus towed their Expedition rowboats behind bicycles for over 3,000 km across Europe.  The Expedition rowboat can also be loaded with supplies for making long passages. Julie and Colin rowed these boats 7,000 km from Scotland to Syria.  The video, below, shows how it is done.  The Expedition rowboat and other boats Angus boats are available as kits.

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American Eagle For Sale — An Appreciation of a Classic Schooner

Posted on by October 8, 2013

American-Eagle-sailing-in-MThe schooner American Eagle is for sale.  I have long been an admirer of the  American Eagle from afar.   She was the the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester in 1930. After a long career, the old and tired fishing vessel was purchased by Captain John Foss in 1983, who spent two years rebuilding her and who put her in the cruise trade, where she has been delighting guests ever since.  In addition to being beautiful, she is also very fast.  The American Eagle has won the Esperanto Cup at the Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival an amazing ten times since 1986, winning the last two years straight.

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Happy World Octopus Day ! The Marvelous Mind of an Octopus

Posted on by October 8, 2013

According to the folks at the National Aquarium, today is the tenth annual celebration of World Octopus Day.  Strange that I didn’t have it marked on my calendar.  In honor of this auspicious eight-legged holiday we are reposting a a rather amazing video from from a website called “everybody loves cephalopods.”  (I know that I do, usually lightly fried.)  I have to admit that after watching this excerpt from a 30 minute presentation by Maggie Koerth-Baker that I am indeed fascinated by octopus brains.  Definitely worth a look.

Octopus Brains

A New Plan to Save the USS Olympia

Posted on by October 8, 2013

John F. Lehman and Christopher M. Lehman have a new plan to save the historic but endangered USS Olympia in Philadelphia.  John John F. Lehman served as secretary of the Navy and Christopher M. Lehman served as special assistant for national security affairs in the Reagan administration.  Rather than attempting to find a new home for the ship, they are suggesting permanently drydocking her in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, historic Dry Dock No.1.

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Vermont Sail Freight Project’s Ceres Setting Sail

Posted on by October 5, 2013

vermontceresIn April, we posted about the Vermont Sail Freight Project, a plan to build a sailing cargo barge to carry non-perishable produce down Lake Champlain to the Hudson River and onward to markets along the river and in New York City.  They were attempting to raise $15,000 to complete the barge, which was already under construction.  They succeeded in raising $16,754 and now, only six months later,  the sailing barge Ceres is about to set off on her first 330-mile journey downriver. She will be carrying produce from 30 different farms and will be making stops at historic river towns along the way, selling goods at “pop-up” markets along the riverside.  She is expected to arrive in New York harbor toward the end of the month and will be calling at the Navy Yard and South Street Seaport.  Click here to learn more.

Floating farmers market to revive historic trade route

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Pedaling on the Water – BayCycle, Shuttle-Bike, Akwakat, Hobie Mirage and More

Posted on by October 5, 2013

Recently, a young designer, Judah Schiller, generated considerable attention by riding his bike first across San Francisco Bay and then across the Hudson River in New York City.  He didn’t sink during either trip because his bike was clamped to a frame and two inflatable pontoon hulls.  His design is called BayCycle and the project is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo.

BayCycle

BayCycle may be the first amphibious cycle to pedal across San Francisco Bay and the Hudson River, but it is not the first bike to the boat show.   Continue reading →

An All Too Familiar Tragedy — At Least 130 Dead and 200 Missing Off Lampedusa

Posted on by October 4, 2013

lampedusaAt least 130 African refugees have died and 200 are still missing after an overloaded boat caught fire and sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. More than 150 of the migrants have been rescued. Most of those on board were from Eritrea and Somalia, said the UN.

Italy boat sinking: Hundreds feared dead off Lampedusa

Sadly, this is only the latest such tragedy. In April of 2011 we posted about another overloaded boat bound for Lampedusa which sank with the loss of at least 130 dead  and 250  missing.  Lampedusa is an Italian island in the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa.  It has become a major transit point for immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia wanting to enter Europe.  Overloaded boats bound for Lampedusa have been sinking with significant loss of life for years. Time magazine describes Lampedusa as “the Italian Island Thousands Are Dying to Reach.”

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A Tale of Two Pirate Roberts – Bartholomew Roberts of 1722 & Ross Ulbricht, the Dread Pirate Roberts of 2013

Posted on by October 4, 2013

RobertsThis is the tale of two very different men, from different places and different times. The first was a Welshman named John Roberts, though he took the name Bartholomew when he began his wildly successful but extremely short career as a pirate in 1719. Within three years of turning pirate, Bartholomew Roberts was dead, his throat blown out by Royal Navy grape shot. In his short career, he and his pirate crews took over 470 prizes, making him the most successful pirate captain in what is considered the Great Age of Piracy.

Robert’s crew signed articles which have become known as the “pirate code” which featured a division of prize money, crew voting rights, and guarantees of fair treatment including payments for lost limbs. This good treatment did not apply to Robert’s victims, however. Roberts was notorious for torturing and killing prisoners.

His career ended when his ship Royal Fortune was surprised by HMS Swallow near Ouidah, on the Atlantic coast of Benin. Roberts legend has outlived him. His exploits were described in A General History of the Pyrates, published a few years after his’ death. He was mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and he inspired the Dread Pirate Roberts in Goldman’s novel, The Princess Bride and its film adaptation.

Which brings us to Ross William Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, an untraceable secret Internet marketplace on which criminals traded drugs, laundered money, and even marketed assassinations.  His online nom de web was the Dread Pirate Roberts.  Continue reading →

Phony Poker Chips and the Nuclear Admiral

Posted on by October 3, 2013
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Vice Admiral Timothy M. Giardina

In the beginning of September, Vice Admiral Timothy M. Giardina, was secretly suspended from his job as second in command of the United States Strategic Command or USSTRATCOM, as it is known.  He is being investigated for attempting to pass counterfeit poker chips at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  USSTRATCOM is the military command responsible for US nuclear weapons. Giardina remains Stratcom’s deputy commander, but he is not carrying out the duties associated with the job.  The suspension was kept secret until it was revealed by an article in the Omaha World-Herald.  Yesterday, Iowa authorities decided not to prosecute Admiral Giardina — leaving his fate in the hands of military authorities.

Vice Admiral Is Suspended in Gambling Investigation 

US Navy Bribery Scandal Probe Expanding – Navy Captain, NCIS Agent & Contractor Charged, Second Captain Relieved of Command

Posted on by October 3, 2013
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Capt. Daniel Dusek

Last month, the former captain of the destroyer USS Mustin, a Navy special agent and a Singapore-based defense contractor were charged in an alleged bribery scheme to swap classified ship information for luxury travel and prostitutes. Cmdr. Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, a captain-select, who commanded Mustin and later served as deputy operations officer aboard the USS Blue Ridge for the Yokosuka-based U.S. 7th Fleet, is alleged to have steered the aircraft carriers USS George Washington and USS John C. Stennis, the USS Blue Ridge and other ships to ports served by ports chosen by Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA, where the company could overcharge the Navy for millions of dollars in services to the ships.   Naval Criminal Investigative Service supervisory agent John Bertrand Beliveau II and Leonard Glenn Francis, head GDMA, have also been arrested.

The bribery probe appears to be widening.  Yesterday, Navy officials boarded the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard to relieve Capt. Daniel Dusek of his command. Captain Dusek has not been charged with a crime, but is under investigation by the Justice Department in the bribery scandal.  The investigation has focused on an alleged scheme to swap classified ship information for luxury travel and prostitutes.

Jellyfish Invasion Shuts Down Swedish Reactor – A Sign of the Jellyfish Apocalypse?

Posted on by October 2, 2013

giantjellyOver the weekend, a huge swarm of moon jellyfish shut down the 1,400 megawatt Unit 3 reactor at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant on Sweden’s Baltic Sea coast.  The jellyfish clogged the cooling water intakes, located roughly 60′ feet below the surface of the sea.  They have since been cleared away and engineers are preparing to restart the reactor, but there is no guarantee the jellyfish will not return.  “We hope we have solved the problem regarding the jellyfish, but we are not sure because they can come back,” Anders Osterberg, a spokesman for the operator, Oskarshamns Kraftgrupp AB, said Tuesday.

The Oskarshamn nuclear power facility produces about 10% of the electricity needs of Sweden.  The plant uses the same technology as that of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex which experienced the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, following the powerful earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

Jellyfish Invasion Paralyzes Swedish Reactor

Is this incident just another sign that jellyfish are taking over the ocean?  In her recent book, “Stung!: On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean“, Lisa-ann Gershwin writes, “Our oceans are becoming increasingly inhospitable to life—growing toxicity and rising temperatures coupled with overfishing have led many marine species to the brink of collapse. And yet there is one creature that is thriving in this seasick environment: the beautiful, dangerous, and now incredibly numerous jellyfish.”

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New York Vineyard Owner Restoring Gen. Patton’s Schooner, When and If

Posted on by October 2, 2013

wandi1Back in 2010, we posted that “When and If“, a 1939 Alden schooner built for General George Patton, was for sale, as a result of the then current owner’s divorce. The 63’5” schooner was named “When and If” because Patton said that he planned on sailing the world in the schooner, “when the war was over and if I survive.” Ironically, Patton survived the war but died in a traffic accident just as the fighting ended.

The schooner was sold but soon was caught up in bankruptcy proceedings. Recently, New York vineyard owner, Doug Hazlitt, purchased the schooner and is having her rebuilt at Cayuga Wooden Boatworks at the north end of Cayuga Lake. You can follow her restoration on the yacht’s Facebook page.

New York vineyard owner restoring Gen. Patton’s schooner

Historic Clipper City of Adelaide’s Voyage Home in Limbo? Will New Government Write the Check?

Posted on by October 1, 2013
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Photo: Simon Burchett

The clipper ship City of Adelaide is supposed to be transported by heavy-lift ship back to Australia in the near future. Scottish taxpayers have already chipped in $1.2 million.  The City of Adelaide Trust, however, has been unable to book the heavy-lift ship because the government of Australia has not delivered on a promised $850,000 contribution toward the transportation. It is possible that the funds may not be forthcoming at all.  The problem is that Labor Party was voted out in the recent election and a new Coalition is in power.  The new Environment Minister Greg Hunt is now asking for more information about the project’s cost and “heritage values” before making any commitment.   Questioning the “heritage value” of the historic ship at this late date is extremely disturbing.

Historic City of Adelaide clipper ship journey home to SA in limbo over heritage assessment

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