Last Friday, Crystal River did not live up to its name. It was murky and the crystal clear waters that I remembered had a visibility of only about six feet. In some respects, however, it added an element of mystery, when, as … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
It wasn’t so long ago when the conversation regarding Florida manatees was not whether or not they would become extinct but rather how quickly their extinction would happen. Fortunately, efforts to save the manatee have paid off. In 1991, the … Continue reading
Almost exactly a year ago, we posted, The Return of the Schooner Amistad, about the efforts of the non-profit, Discovering Amistad, to return the schooner to operation. Discovering Amistad has recently announced that it is searching for a Captain/Educator for the replica … Continue reading
Not many lead singers from an 80’s rock and roll band could write a compelling song about ship scrapping, but then Mark Knopfler is not just any singer/songwriter. Knopfler was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the River Clyde, which was … Continue reading
Vaquita, a small porpoise found only in the Gulf of California, is the world’s rarest marine mammal, and is in imminent danger of extinction. Now, US Navy dolphins are being trained to locate vaquita in a last-ditch effort to catch … Continue reading
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is big. Like other Nimitz class carriers, it is over 1000′ long on the waterline, wit a beam of 244′ and is powered by nuclear steam plant which develops a quarter of a … Continue reading
Yesterday we posted about a whale swimming in New York’s East River. It was originally identified by the police as a humpback, but their photograph of the whale’s spout now makes it highly likely that the whales was in fact … Continue reading
#Harbor spotted another whale in the E. River this morning right next to Gracie Mansion. Even the wildlife want to ring in #NYE2017 in #NYC pic.twitter.com/oQNbnGBirm — NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) December 31, 2016 A whale was seen swimming in New York’s … Continue reading
Happy New Year! Every year for more than the last fifty years, brave or foolhardy Dutch men, women, and children have been celebrating New Year’s Day by jumping into the sea. Called the ‘Nieuwjaarsduik‘ (New Year’s dive), an estimated 25,000 or … Continue reading
The Hartford Courant describes the new Thompson Exhibition Building, on the northern end of the 19-acre Mystic Seaport Museum as sitting “like a piece of 21st-century abstract sculpture in the midst of a 19th-century fishing village.” Chad Floyd, one of the architect … Continue reading
There are roughly twenty sail training ships operated by navies around the world, to help prepare their officers for command at sea. Now China is adding to the fleet. China’s first modern sail training ship is an 85 meter long, 1,200 … Continue reading
I love stumbling across bits of history that are completely new to me. The Japanese galleon San Juan Bautista is a good example. The San Juan Bautista was one of the first Western-style sailing ships to be built in Japan. … Continue reading
In a time of major cyber hacks and theft from data breaches, the Navy continues to be rocked by an old fashioned bribery scandal, the worst in Navy history. The scandal that has also revealed a massive national-security leak, which some … Continue reading
The schooner Mary E is coming home to the Bath, Maine on the Kennebec River where she was built in 1906. She is believed to be believed to be the oldest Bath-built wooden vessel still afloat, as well as the oldest … Continue reading
Recently, we posted about two possible water worlds orbiting around Kepler-62. While just slightly drier than these potential distant water worlds, so far, our planet is the only one we know of with a stable ocean. This is not to … Continue reading
It is a brisk Christmas morning on the west bank of the Hudson River and I will admit that I wouldn’t mind being a warmer climate right now. So, in the spirit of the holidays, here is a compilation video … Continue reading
We have posted about lobster pot Christmas trees before, but this one is rather different. On Canada’s Cape Sable Island the lobster pot tree is decorated with pot buoys with the names of fishermen. Some are still going out to … Continue reading
In the end of September, the U.S. Navy announced that it would be eliminating the rating system that they had used for the past 241 years in the ranks of enlisted sailors. The old system, which used 91 ratings, would … Continue reading
Icy images on the first day of winter — the St. Joseph inner and outer lighthouses sit on a pier at the entrance to the St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan. The two lights were built in 1906 and 1907 and … Continue reading
The seas are growing increasingly cluttered. In addition to all the other hazards of the sea, floating objects are a serious threat to sailors. So far, of the original 29 competitors in the Vendee Globe singlehanded around the world race, … Continue reading