For the last five years we have followed the construction of two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships which were built in France under contract to Russia. If the wind named Mistral is said to “drive men and horses mad,” these ships may be a nautical analogue. When they were ordered by the Russians in 2010, France’s NATO allies were openly critical fo providing the ships to Russia. As reportd by the Economist: The Mistral is a mighty, 199-metre-long vessel that carries tanks and helicopters, and can conduct and manage amphibious landings. Kaarel Kaas, of the International Centre for Defence Studies, a think-tank in Tallinn, says that such ships would “transform the power balance” on Russia’s borders.
Following Russia’s annexation Crimea and support of separatists in the Ukraine, France refused to deliver the ships to ships to Russia. After tense negotiations, the French refunded $1 billion to the Russians. Now the two ships have been sold to Egypt, with “significant” financing from Saudi Arabia, for 950 million euro ($US 1.06 billion.)
he QE2 may now be a dead ship. The
We recently posted about 
The coastal cargo ketch 
In the summer of 1995, a group of lovers of the music of the sea got together on the deck of the windjammer 
For several years we have followed; virtually, if not literally; the travels of 
I have a definite love-hate relationship with 
When Matt Brooks and his wife Pam Rorke Levy bought the 52ft yawl 
This morning was overcast and threatening rain on the West bank of the Hudson River. Fourteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, it was a sunny, clear day. A Nor’westerly wind was blowing and the air was cool and crisp. That morning, I got a frantic call from my wife who had left for work not too long before. Something terrible had happened in the World Trade Center. She had been on the mezzanine of One World Trade Center when the first plane hit. I left our house and walked literally around the corner to see an ugly black plume of smoke streaming almost horizontally from the North Tower. A few minutes later, while walking with neighbors toward the waterfront, I saw the second plane hit the South tower followed by a billowing orange plume of flame erupting from the opposite side of the building an instant later.
Last Sunday, a 
In her long and varied career, the historic cutter