Category: Uncategorized

Ahh, I’ve really been enjoying the break. But lots of stuff is happening, so I guess I’ll have to put down my fishing rod and return to the computer. Besides, my ass is really, really cold. Back next Monday, January 9. Until then…

I’ve got a ton of work to finish this week, and then I’m off to sunnier climes until the end of the year. So enjoy the holiday season and I’ll see you in January. In the meantime, click here to check out some videos of the Archipelago Raid (if they don’t stream well, just open the link, and let the video load while you do something else, then watch from the beginning)…

Approaching harbor is a bad time for a helmsman to fall asleep, or an officer of the watch to be in the head, or drunk, or whatever. In fact, here’s what can happen:

A vessel was due to arrive at a port in Spain at 0800 local time (LT). It would appear that at about 0600 LT the vessel contacted the Pilot Station confirming the ETA and was instructed to contact again some 20 minutes before arrival.

At 07.59 hours LT, and despite the calls from the Traffic Control, the vessel grounded at full speed on the breakwater at the entrance to the port.

A video, taken by surveillance cameras, shows “live” the sequence of the grounding, and needs no comments.

Watch it–and cringe–here. And click here to read what the denizens at Sailing Anarchy had to say about it all (and to read the other crazy accident reports they dug up). Now you know why, when you are sea yourself, you can never assume that a commercial crew sees you or is even on the bridge…

“Heh-heh. That anti-tanker torpedo system I installed really works well…”

Last installment of Sir Robin’s attempt to get you out there. Click here…

Kip Stone And Artforms: “I’ll be there, as long as I don’t get run down in the next 10 minutes…”

So let’s go. Click here. Ahhh, that’s better…

“Uh-oh. I think I’m gonna need a snorkel…”
(Photo: Via Surfer Magazine)

What’s it like to be the first boat into port on a Volvo Ocean Race leg? This video from ABN Amro 1 gives you just an inkling. Note the green beverages that get passed onboard even before the dock lines are secured–with the tops already removed! What a shore crew…

“Wow, these things really do ride low in the water…”
(Photo: Jon Nash/Team ABN Amro)

All I can really say is that it’s another sweet one, featuring the crazies who race beach cats in a little thing called the RAID 500 Xtreme. Check it out here…

“What the hell is Tim talking about? This doesn’t seem crazy at all…”

If you don’t have enough tie-dyed or “Save The Whales” t-shirts for Greenpeace (see below), or if you like to wear your hair really short, then maybe you have imagined yourself as a Coast Guard Surf Boat driver. This is a pretty tempting Wetass career, particularly after you check out the action in this video (found on the always entertaining Mr. Boat Blog). Cowabunga…

“I’d like to see those Greenpeace mopes and their little boats in the middle of this wave action…”

I’m just guessing, but if any of you are like me, at some point in your life you fantasized about becoming a Greenpeace warrior, heading out onto the high seas in a RIB to zip around and confound the whale hunters (and Seinfeld lovers will remember when Russell, the head of NBC programming and Elaine stalker, became a Greenpeacer because Elaine said she admired them). Well, in recent years Greenpeace has been mostly out of the news. But I’m glad to report that the Greenpeace navy, such as it is, is back on the prowl. And one of their ship’s is out to confront the Japanese whale hunt. Even better, they’re blogging from onboard (go here). And of course it all has a certain Greenpeacean, granola-crunchy, saving-the-earth, feel to it. Here’s one excerpt:

This morning while Jetske and I were sorting and stomping cans for recycling (she’s our on-board “garbologist” – I’ll explain that some other time) we sliced hard into a wave. I was heading into the ‘wetroom’ (the room just off the poop deck that serves as a workshop and portal between the dry areas and the deck) when I heard her yelp in surprise and looked back to see a wall of water and the can bucket in mid-flight. At first I was deeply concerned she might have got swept over board (under captain’s orders no one is allowed to work out on any deck alone due to sea conditions), but the water cleared and there she stood, one hand on a tight line, fully doused from head to toe in near-freezing seawater, among a constellation of smashed aluminum. We ran around and chased up the loose cans like a hockey team down by a point in the final minute, saving them from being swept overboard, just managing to wrangle them into the bin before she went in for a change of clothes.

Phew. It’s dangerous out there on the front lines. And here are some pics of the RIBsters fighting ocean dumping. Go Greenepace…!

“Hmm. I’m not sure this tactic is going to work out very well..”

“Yup, that’s about what I thought…”