Eco 60 class boats awaiting the race start in La Rochelle
The Velux 5 Oceans Single Handed Round the World Race will be starting in just over a week on October 17th. The competitors will race from La Rochelle, France to Cape Town, South Africa; then on to Wellington, New Zealand; to to Salvador, Brazil, to Charleston, South Carolina in the USA and returning to La Rochelle, France for a race of almost 30,000 miles. The race will be sailed in Eco 60 class boats, designed to be relatively less expensive than boat is other ocean races.
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For those in Britain, 
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One of the largest port complexes in the US has been shut down since Sunday morning after a barge accident almost knocked a high voltage tower into the Houston Ship Channel. Over thirty ships have been blocked by the shut down of the ship channel. An economic loss of almost $1 billion is estimated to result from the shutdown. The ship channel is not expected to open until at least Tuesday night.
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This week 1,000 Royal Navy Medical Officer Journals were made available to the public at the British National Archives in Kew. The journals are revealing, if often disturbing by modern standards. From drunken mutinies to disease outbreaks to a walrus attack, the journals paint a colorful picture of 18th- and 19th-century ship life.