The Norwegian soft drink Solo produced by Ringnes, Oskar Sylte, Aass, and Mack is extremely popular in Norway but virtually unknown in the United States. To increase visibility in other markets, the firms have had built a 24′ (8M) bottle in which they will place a case of Solo, an orange drink, and a “12 square meter personal letter to the finder.” The bottle is insured and equipped with navigation lights required for a drifting object in international waters, as well as solar panels, satellite-communications, tracking technology and a custom camera which will upload an image every 8 hours. Controversial Norwegian celebrity-adventurer Jarle Andhøy will be on hand to launch the bottle from Tenerife in the Canary Islands, on Wednesday March 13th at 11.30am.
Explorer Launches the World’s Largest Message-in-a-Bottle
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Calling all Sea Goddesses and would-be Sea Goddesses. Applications are now being accepted for the Maine Sea Goddess Pageant. The Pageant is open to 20 young women who are single, a high school (or equivalent GED) graduate, not more than 21 years of age, and a Maine resident. The young woman chosen as Sea Goddess receives a $2,000 cash award and represents the Maine lobster fishing industry at events in Maine and across New England throughout her one-year reign. This year’s Maine Lobster Festival Sea Goddess Coronation will take place on Wednesday evening, July 31, the first day of the 66th annual 
You might call it the greenhouse effect, though it is not directly related to climate change. A dead sperm whale which washed ashore last year in Andalusia, in southern Spain, was found to have died from ingesting plastic sheets used in the construction of greenhouses in that region. The whale had over 17 kilogrammes (37 pounds) of garbage blocking its stomach, including some 30 square metres (36 square yards) of plastic canvas, said Renaud de Stephanis, a marine biologist at the Donana Biological Station, which is run by the Spanish National Research Council. “There were a dozen metres of plastic rope, plastic sheeting used on the outside of greenhouses, and plastic sheeting used inside and even two flower pots.”
A team of archaeologists think that they may have found the first Viking sunstone. Two years ago we posted about Viking sunstones, the legendary, and indeed considered by many to be mythical, devices which allowed Viking navigators to locate the position of the sun even on heavily overcast or cloudy days. See our previous post – 
Today in Japan, 
Two men and a woman brought pizza and beer aboard the 82′ sailing yacht Darlin in the Sausalito Yacht Harbor late Sunday or early Monday and proceeded to take the boat to sea, only to run aground in shallow water near Pacifica State Beach in Sausalito. The owner of the Darlin saw his yacht on the television coverage of the grounding and reported it stolen. The apparent thieves repeatedly declined assistance and refused to leave the grounded boat. A standoff ensued for several hours with the Coast Guard and local authorities. Ultimately, 
There are two wonderful newsletters for keeping up with what is going on in the world of nautical fiction – 
A new report, published in the j
HMS Ambush