We have posted last March about the replica of the French light frigate l’ Hermione, which has been under construction since 1997 at the historic dockyard in Rochefort, France. The original l’ Hermione carried the 23 year old the Marquis de Lafayette back to America in 1780 carrying news of France support for the revolution.
This weekend, the replica l’ Hermione reached a major milestone. The Hermione is now afloat for the first time. The celebration of the ship’s launching is scheduled for July 6 – 8th.
A 66 feet long, 165 tonne, starfish and barnacle encrusted, steel and concrete floating dock has washed up on Agate beach, south-west of Portland, Oregon. A plaque on the dock identifies it as coming from the port of Misawa in northern Japan, washed free during the tsunami of 2011. The dock has tested negative for radiation. The dock drifted 5,000 miles over 15 months. Debris from the tsunami continues to be a hazard to navigation. Fortunately, no vessel collided with the floating dock at sea. Unfortunately, two other docks from the same port are still missing.
The Normandy landings, on June 6, 1944, was the largest amphibious invasion in world history, with over 160,000 troops and 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships.
On June 5th and 6th, depending on where you are in the world, there will be the last transit of Venus, where the planet Venus visibly passes between the earth and the Sun, until the year 2017. The previous transit of Venus was in 2004. The transit has only been visible eight times since Galileo. NASA will feature a live streaming webcast of the transit from Mauna Kea, Hawaii from its site – 
Seas of Peace