The 34th America’s Cup races will be sailed in San Francisco bay in 2013. San Francisco beat out Newport and an unnamed Italian port city. This will be the first time that America’s Cup races will be hosted by the city by the bay and and the first time in 15 years that the races have been held in the US.
San Francisco picked as venue for 34th edition of America’s Cup
Dropping a Pirate Wench in Key West
In New York City tonight, just on the other side of the Hudson River from where I am now typing, roughly one million people gather in Times Square to watch a crystal ball being dropped on exactly midnight to celebrate the new year. (To be precise, it is actually carefully lowered to coincide with the stroke of midnight.) Another hundred million or so folks will be watching the ball drop on television in the US and an estimated billion people will see the event on video around the world.
In Key West, Florida, the southernmost city in the United States, they do things just a bit differently. They will celebrate the New Year with three different “drops” – a giant conch shell at Sloppy Joe’s Bar on Duval Street, a pirate’s wench from the masthead of a tall ship at Key West’s Historic Seaport, and if conchs and wenches are too tame for you, Sushi, a drag queen, will be dropped at the Bourbon St. Pub also on Duval Street.
New Year’s Eve in Key West: A Wench, A Shell and A Drag Queen
Wherever you may be, we here at at the Old Salt Blog wish you all a most Happy New Year!
Several news agencies are reporting that more than 600 crewmembers are aboard ten vessels trapped in the ice in the Sea of Okhotsk.
More than 600 people aboard ice-trapped vessels in Sea of Okhotsk
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While I don’t normally associate show tunes from “Guys and Dolls” with foul weather and tug boats, Captain Brucato‘s video does a great job of capturing a tug’s-eye view of the recent blizzard that hit the US East coast the day after Christmas.
The 160,000 dwt tanker Aegean Angel was en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Houston, Texas when it encountered heavy weather northeast of Bermuda on Thursday. A large wave is reported to have struck the ship, killing the captain and the chief engineer, who had gone forward to inspect for damage. Several others, including the first officer, were reported to have been injured.
Wave hits tanker in mid-Atlantic, two killed
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A weird dissonance between two cruise stories struck me recently. On one hand, Carnival Cruise Lines is “the official confetti sponsor of the Times Square New Year’s Eve 2011 celebration.” As reported by the the Maritime Executive “the sponsorship includes multiple opportunities to associate the “Fun Ship” brand with the annual excitement.” A You-tube video of Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director is also featured. On the other hand several media sources have been quoting from an excellent and timely post from last March on Jim Walker’s Cruise Law News blog, Ten Years of Cruise Ship Fires – Has the Cruise Industry Learned Anything?
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A lousy time of the year to run aground off Finland. Then again, there aren’t too many good times of the year to run aground. Thanks to Dick Bal for passing the news along.
Dutch freighter “Stadiongracht” aground off Rauma
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The South Street Seaport Museum in New York City is reported to be attempting to sell off the historic schooner, Lettie G. Howard. The Lettie G. Howard is a wooden Fredonia schooner built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts, USA. In past years the museum has often not succeeded in booking revenue generating educational programing on the schooner. Sources are now quoted as saying that the schooner costs too much to maintain given that it has not been sailing frequently.
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Forty seven years ago, passengers on the cruise ship Lakonia were promised “a marvelous Christmas cruise to sunny Madeira and the Canary Islands.” The brochure read – “Have your holiday with all risk eliminated. Enjoy a holiday you will remember for the rest of your life.” When the fire broke out on December 22, 1963, the promise of a risk-free holiday proved tragically ironic, though the promise of a unforgettable holiday, no doubt, became regrettably too true. One hundred twenty eight 128 people died in the Lakonia fire and its aftermath, of which 95 were passengers and 33 were crew members. Given the recent news that the CO2 firefighting system on the Carnival Splendor failed during the fire aboard the ship in November, the story of the Lakonia remains timely. Notably, AMVER, which we posted about recently, coordinated the rescue by directing five merchant ships to the burning ship. The first ship arrived within four hours of the first distress call. As reported by Time magazine on January 3, 1963:
Over one million seafarers keep ships sailing year round. This is a good time to remember the sailors at sea over the holidays. The Sailor’s Society, and other groups like it, do a wonderful job supporting sailors far from home.
Of all the various holiday greeting from shipping ventures this season this has to be my favorite. A Moss Rosenberg design LNG ship transformed to a Christmas ball carrier. From the Maasmond Maritime.
A glimpse at the new Mary Rose museum, hosted by Alan Titchmarch. The museum is intended to open in 2012, the 500th anniversary of the delivery of the Mary Rose.
Alan Titchmarsh explores the Mary Rose Museum and encourages fundraising for the new museum
Sing with me now – “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a Phaeocystis globosa.” OK, it may not be a melodic as “a partridge in a pear tree,” but it may be more interesting. Dr. Richard Kirby, a Royal Society Research Fellow at Plymouth University has come up with the “12 Plankton of Christmas.” To see more of Dr. Kirby’s work check out his book, Ocean Drifters: A Secret World Beneath the Waves.
Thanks to Julian Stockwin for tweeting about the 12 Plankton of Christmas.
Last June, we posted about Jessica Watson’s book and album release. Jessica Watson is the now 17 year old Australian sailor who can rightly claim the title of the “youngest to sail solo and unassisted around the world.” Now Abby Sunderland, who attempted to claim that title as well, but whose boat was dismasted in the Indian Ocean, has teamed up with Lynn Vincent to write a book of her own. Vincent, was the ghost writer for Sarah Palin’s book, “Going Rogue.” Sunderland’s book will be titled, Unsinkable: A Young Woman’s Courageous Battle on the High Seas. It will be available this spring, but can be pre-ordered from Amazon.
The real victims of piracy are invariably the seafarers who are held for ransom often under grim conditions for long periods of time. From a statement relased by the Round Table of international shipping associations – and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF):
500 Seafarers held hostage by pirates at Christmas
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