Updated: Life Ring from Ro/Ro El Faro Located, Ship Still Missing, Search Continues

Posted on by October 4, 2015

liferingelfaroUpdate: From USCG Update 4 — Life jackets, life rings, containers and an oil sheen have been located by Coast Guard aircrews.  The objects have not been confirmed to be from the El Faro at this time.

Yesterday, the US Coast Guard found a life ring from the El Faro, a ro/ro cargo ship bound from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico, which disappeared last Thursday in the path of Hurricane Joaquin. In a statement released last night, Tim Nolan, president of TOTE Maritime, the ship’s operator, said:

“Earlier today, the Coast Guard confirmed that they located a life ring floating at sea which was identified as belonging to the EL Faro. A HC130 plane spotted the ring and a H60 helicopter confirmed it was able to retrieve the ring and the ring was stenciled with markings from the El Faro.

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Ro/Ro Cargo Ship El Faro Still Missing with 33 Crew in Hurricane Joaquin

Posted on by October 3, 2015
El Faro Photo: TOTE Maritime

El Faro Photo: TOTE Maritime

The US Coast Guard has resumed the search for the U.S. flagged ro/ro cargo ship, El Faro, with a crew of 33, still missing after losing power and communications in the path of Hurricane Joaquin. The 735-foot ship was bound for San Juan in Puerto Rico from Jacksonville, Florida. TOTE Maritime lost contact with the ship on Thursday at 7:20 AM EST and notified the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard reported that at approximately 7:30 AM Thursday, the Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, Virginia, received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating that El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin, had lost propulsion and had a 15-degree list. The Coast Guard reported that the ship was believed to be near the worst of the Category 4 hurricane, in up to 150 mph gusts and 30-foot waves.

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What A Well Equipped Bosun Carries on the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry

Posted on by October 2, 2015

bosungearohpThe bosun’s gear on the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry. A nice rig. My only concern would be managing the lanyards. Easy to catch on things while climbing about.

From the Oliver Hazard Perry blog: Being a full time sailor aboard any Tall Ship is a difficult job encompassing an incredible amount of knowledge and tasks. Everything from complex rigging knowledge and how to sail a square rig ship, all the way to woodworking and organization. It’s not an easy job and it goes well beyond the normal 9-5, but most sailors wouldn’t trade it for anything. Here are some of the tools carried around on a day to day basis that make sailors lives easier.

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Clipper RTW Race — LMAX Exchange, From Winner to Hard Aground

Posted on by October 1, 2015

clipperagroundThe Clipper Round the World racer CVA24 LMAX Exchange has suffered an unexpected reversal of fortune. The LMAX Exchange crew handily won the first leg of the race from London to Rio, 100 miles ahead of its closest competitor. Now the boat is hard aground on a sandy beach 42 miles southwest of Marina da Gloria, in Rio de Janeiro.  According to the Clipper Race site, CV24 LMAX Exchange was transferring to another marina to be lifted for the application of new hull branding when the incident occurred around midnight local time last night. There were no injuries.

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World’s Largest Oyster Reef in the Chesapeake and a Planned Billion Oysters in NYC

Posted on by September 30, 2015

oystersWill oysters help to clean up Chesapeake Bay and New York Harbor or will climate change take them out? The question came to mind recently when I read about the world’s largest man-made oyster reef recently finished on Harris Creek on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The 330-acre Harris Creek reef is the first of 10 planned reefs which will be stocked with more than 1 billion oysters.

In New York City, there is a similar project, on a smaller scale but with comparable ambitions. The Billion Oyster Project’s goal is to return 1 billion oysters into the New York harbor over the next twenty years. So far they have restored 16 million, which is not a bad start. The BOP is also actively educating a new generation of students in the science and engineering of ecosystem restoration.

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Our Soggy Solar System — Water on Mars and the Oceans of Ganymede

Posted on by September 29, 2015

watermars1We, residents of a blue marble of which 71% is covered by water, have long assumed that the rest of our solar system was relatively dry. It may be time to change that opinion. Yesterday, NASA  announced strong evidence of liquid water on Mars. “Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters, in a press conference on Monday. Mars apparently has seasonal rivers of flowing briny water.  Mars was once at least partially covered in water. “If we go back 3 billion years and take a look at Mars, Mars was a very different planet. It had what we believe was a huge ocean, perhaps as large as two-thirds of the northern hemisphere,” said Green. “But something happened. Mars suffered a major climate change and lost its surface water.”

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Shell Abandons Alaska Arctic Drilling

Posted on by September 28, 2015

For several years, we have followed Shell Oil’s expensive, dangerous and almost farcical attempts to drill for oil in the Chukchi Sea in the Alaska’s Arctic. Shell has faced protests, multiple groundings, technical failures, and citations for safety and pollution violations. Worst of all, while Shell has spent an estimated $7 billion to get to this point, oil prices have plummeted to under $50 per barrel. Most estimates of the break even price of Arctic oil is well above $100 per barrel, that is if they find oil, which so far Shell hasn’t, at least in any quantity. Today, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it would stop exploration off the coast of Alaska “for the foreseeable future.” 

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French “Russian” Mistral Amphibious Assault Ships Bound for Egypt

Posted on by September 27, 2015

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.)

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Is Queen Elizabeth 2 Now a Dead Ship?

Posted on by September 26, 2015

The QE2 may now be a dead ship.  The MS Queen Elizabeth 2 was purchased back in 2008 for conversion to a luxury hotel in Dubai, but a worldwide recession ended those plans.  Since then there are have been a variety of reports, including a more modest hotel conversion in Dubai, a luxury hotel conversation in Asia and even a scheme to bring the ship the the Thames River in London. Nothing came to fruition and last December we posted of the “Queen Elizabeth 2 Rotting Away in Dubai.”

Now reports from Dubai say that the once proud Cunard flagship is “a floating wreck” which has been moved from her berth in Dubai Drydocks World to a holding berth in Port Rashid.  It appears that the Queen Elizabeth 2 is officially dead, along with all plans for her restoration and move to an unnamed city in Asia, according to a source at Drydocks World. Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the news along.

Sunday’s “Super-Blood Moon” Eclipse — Probably Not the End of the World

Posted on by September 25, 2015

On Sunday, September 27th, sailors, as well as landsmen and women who happen to be looking up, will see a total lunar eclipse where the moon will turn a coppery red as it passes through the shadow of the earth. Lunar eclipses are often called “blood moons.” Because the moon is also at this closest point to earth, the moon will also appear to be just slightly larger than normal, often referred to as a “super moon.” This will be the first “Super-Blood” moon since 1982. The next lunar eclipse and super moon together will not happen again until 2033.

The partial lunar eclipse is set to begin at 9:07 p.m. ET and will be visible to most people in the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to EarthSky.org. (For a map of where the eclipse will be visible, click here.) The total lunar eclipse begins at 11:11 p.m. ET.

If you can’t get outside, NASA’s live stream will begin at 8 pm EDT from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and will also feature a live look from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

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Massachusetts Man Yelling at a Fish (NSFW)

Posted on by September 24, 2015

The ocean sunfish or mola is found in most of the world’s oceans and is not unusual in Boston waters. Nevertheless, seeing one was obviously a shock to Michael Bergin and his friend Jason “Jay” Foster who came across one while fishing in Boston harbor. Bergin starts yelling, using colorful (Not Safe for Work) language, to express his amazement at what he identifies variously as a sea turtle, a baby whale, a flounder, a tuna and “Moby Dick.” The video is oddly amusing and has gone viral with roughly a million views so far. The Boston Globe suggests that Bergin is “basking like a sunfish in Internet fame.”

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Update: PortSide New York’s Norwegian Night of History & Bluegrass Now Free

Posted on by September 23, 2015

We recently posted about PortSide NewYork’s Norwegian Water Stories & a Night of Bluegrass, an event being held tomorrow, Thursday, September 24, 2015 from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM at Atelier Roquette, 63 Commerce Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY 11231.  The event is now free. (Those who have purchased tickets will be given refunds.) As we posted previously, PortSide NewYork and the historic tanker Mary A. Whalen are hosting the NYC premier of the Norwegian bluegrass band, the Paradise Mountain Boys, as well as a multimedia presentation of Norwegian WaterStories. Sounds like a great. evening if you are in the area.  Click here to learn more.

Largest, if Not Prettiest, Sailing Yacht with Possibly the Worst Name

Posted on by September 23, 2015
Sailing Ship A on trials

Sailing Ship A on trials

In August we wrote about Dream Symphony, which, for a brief period, looked as if it would be the largest sailing sailing in the world at 463 feet (141m) long. Now a slightly larger sailing yacht at 147 meters has emerged from the Nobiskrug yard in Northern Germany. The yacht, built for Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, has three of the tallest freestanding carbon-fiber masts ever built, each over 100 meters tall and weighing 50 tonnes each.  When completed sometime this year, the yacht will have 8 decks and will feature a glass underwater observation area. The cost of the new yacht is estimated to be more than $400 million.

While the vessel may be the largest sailing yacht ever built, it is by no means the most attractive and may just possibly have the worst name. While under construction the code name used was White Pearl.  It appears that the actual name will be Sailing Yacht A.  Melnichenko’s current 394 foot long motor yacht was originally named simply A, but is now designated Motor Yacht A.  The name is said to be from the initials of its owner Andrey and his wife Aleksandra.

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Slavery at Sea — Shrimp, Pet Food, & Human Trafficking

Posted on by September 22, 2015

thaislaveMyint Naing, a Burmese man, recently made it home 22 years after being taken aboard a Thai fishing trawler, where he worked as little more than a slave. In the last six months an estimated 2,000 enslaved fishermen have been freed from captivity from Thai-Indonesian fishing ventures.

The trawlers fished for low value fish, often called “trash fish” that are used as feed stock for aquaculture, such as pond-raised shrimp. The trash fish are also used in pet foods.

As reported by the New York Times: Every year, thousands of migrant workers like Myint are tricked or sold into the seafood industry’s gritty underworld. It’s a brutal trade that has operated for decades as an open secret in Southeast Asia’s waters, where unscrupulous companies rely on slaves to supply fish to major supermarkets and stores worldwide.

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PortSide NewYork’s Norwegian Water Stories & a Night of Bluegrass

Posted on by September 20, 2015

paradisemountainboysThis is one of those great “only in New York” events. Next Thursday, PortSide NewYork and the historic tanker Mary A. Whalen are hosting the NYC premier of the Norwegian bluegrass band, the Paradise Mountain Boys, as well as a multimedia presentation of Norwegian WaterStories.

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JPK Dominates Fastnet — the New Generation of Performance Crusiers

Posted on by September 19, 2015
jpk1080

JPK 10.80 Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

JPK Composites, a boat builder from Brittany, is helping to redefine performance cruising sailboats. In 2013, the father and son team of Pascal and Alexis Loison won the biannual Fastnet Race on corrected time, sailing their 33′ Night and Day, a JPK 10.10 double-handed in a fleet of of 336 starters in the 611-mile race. It was the first time in 88 years that the race had been won by a double-handed crew. They were not, however, the only JPK 10.10s in the race.  Crews sailing JPK 10.10s also placed second, eight, ninth, tenth and eleventh.

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Nordlys — the Oldest/Newest Sailing Cargo Vessel in the World

Posted on by September 18, 2015

nordlysThe coastal cargo ketch Nordlys is making ready to sail. She is either the newest sailing cargo venture or the oldest sailing cargo ship depending on how you look at it. Built in 1873 in the Isle of Wight, this 141 year old fishing ketch is the oldest sailing cargo ship in the world, while also being the newest addition to the Fairtransport sailing cargo fleet. Nordlys – meaning “Northern Lights,” will move up to 30 tonnes of cargo around Europe, the UK and Scandinavia.

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Sea Shanty Sessions 20th Anniversary Celebration at the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor

Posted on by September 17, 2015

shantysessionIn the summer of 1995, a group of lovers of the music of the sea got together on the deck of the windjammer Peking at the South Street Seaport Museum on the East River in New York to sing sea shanties.  Now 20 years later, many of the same singers along with a whole new crew will be celebrating the anniversary of that shanty sing this Sunday between 2PM and 5PM at their new home at the the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island.  If you are anywhere near New York harbor, it should be a special afternoon. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend, but will be there in spirit. From the Noble Maritime press release:

Sponsored by the Folk Music Society of New York, whose members organize monthly sessions at the Noble Maritime Collection, the singing begins at 2 PM and continues until 5 PM.  The museum is open by donation, and visitors are welcome to come and listen or sing along with the group.

Liverpudlian Hughie Jones, founder of the group The Spinners, will join the session this month.  He was present at the first sea chantey session held aboard the Peking at South Street Seaport Museum in the summer of 1995.

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Pinky, the Albino Dolphin of the Calcasieu

Posted on by September 16, 2015

pinkyd1For several years we have followed; virtually, if not literally; the travels of Migaloo, an albino humpback whale that has migrated off Australia’s Queensland’s coast since at least 1991. In August we posted about a new young albino humpback which some are calling “son of Migaloo.”  Migaloo is an aboriginal term meaning “white fellow.”

Now, an albino dolphin, nicknamed “Pinky,” has been attracting attention in Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana. Scientists believe that Pinky is an albino because of her distinctive red eyes and blood vessels, which show through her pale skin.  First spotted in 2007 in the Calcasieu River by charter boat captain Erik Rue, Pinky has been seen mating this year and there is speculation that she may be pregnant. If, so the odds that her offspring will be also be albino are quite slim.

While not being nearly as well known as Migaloo, Pinky does have her own Facebook page.