Pacific pumice raft
Back in 2012, we posted about a series of photos that were floating around the internet. The photos were taken from a yacht that had encountered what appeared to be a beach, stretching as far as the eye could see in the middle of the South Pacific. It turned out that what they were seeing was floating pumice, the volcanic rock formed when lava erupts underwater. With a bit more investigation, it appeared that the photos dated back to 2006. At around the same time, the New Zealand Navy reported a pumice raft covering an area of roughly 10,000 square miles.
Recently, the New York Times reported that a couple sailing in the Southwest Pacific encountered a similar pumice raft — a floating mass of volcanic rocks, with some boulders as large as basketballs, blanketing the ocean as far as their boat’s spotlight could illuminate.
Imagine a yacht that is almost completely silent, with a close to unlimited range, and that doesn’t pollute. While it may sound too good to be true, this is what 
I recently came across a reference for a “nocturnal for both bears.” It sounded, at first, like a piece of music written by Mussorgsky or perhaps Prokofiev, which it isn’t. It is a device used for telling time at night by the position of Polaris and the stars of the constellation Ursa Major, the “big bear.” 
For the last several days, 
The cruise industry in the Caribbean is donating to help the Bahamian victims of Hurricane Dorian. Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian Caribbean and Disney have all pledged millions in hurricane relief.
The 
A horrific fire broke on the commercial scuba diving vessel, 
On September 7th at 2PM, the 
Recent video of the extremely well-preserved wreck of Franklin’s ship 
Accompanied by a flotilla of well-wishers, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, 
I feel like beginning this post with the old cheer, “The King is dead! Long live the King!” But no. That is hardly apt. How about “the schooner
Given all the economic damage being done by needless trade wars, it seems worthwhile to recall the ship that opened the trade with the United States’ first trading partner, China. The new nation had won the Revolutionary War but had lost much of its foreign trade. The economy slumped. The American banker Robert Morris decided to venture into new markets. If the British wouldn’t sell Americans tea from India, then Americans would buy tea from China. He hired a newly built privateer, renamed the ship the 
Congratulations to 
Last week, the Ellen, the