(Photo: Andrea Francolini)
Sometimes all you need for a chuckle is a dancing penguin (courtesy of TWC Las Vegas assistant editor Dave Ross)…
“Look at that fool. I bet he’s been watching “Saturday Night Fever” again…”
Start drinking coffee, or reading your VCR manual. Because tonight (Friday) is the night that Nightline plans to air their program on deep cave diver Dave Shaw. The Outside piece–on which the Nightline program is based–is now online here…
Confounded Koppel: “I’m sorry, you’re the editor of the Wetass what?…Hey, Tom, tell whoever booked this guy they’re fired…”
Last week I posted this excellent picture of a Great White shark that got stuck last summer in an inlet of Naushon Island in Buzzard’s Bay. It was Friday, I was burned out, my caption was lame (if you want to see it, go scrolling for it yourself…).
Happily, the cutups over on the WoodenBoat forum came up with some much better ones. Here are the three best (in my humble view):
Numero Tres: “No, I’m not out with another woman… No,Honestly, I’m not. What do you mean you can hear someone in the bath…”
Numero Dos: “Honey, your Mom’s still swimming. We’ll be home soon…”
And, cue drumroll, Numero Uno: “Yes dear, I’m meeting with my lawyer right now….”
Feel free to see if you can do better…
I guess Hurricane Dennis had a deal with Greenpeace. Because the storm which everyone derides as a semi-fizzle did manage one major act of destruction: it took out the $1 billion Thunder Horse oil drilling platform in the Gulf Of Mexico (story here; updates, pics, video here). The rig is jointly owned by BP and Exxon, and was expected to pump out up to 250,000 barrels of oil a day. But you can see from this Coast Guard video and the pictures below that o’l Thunder Horse ain’t going to be pumping anything for quite a while. This is Man versus Nature (Round 4,365,623) and Nature took this one in a unanimous decision…
“Hey, Joe, there’s a guy called Karl Rove on the phone, and he’s babbling about the need to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge…”
Just found this link to a TV report on the F18 world championships on a CatSailor forum. It’s probably really interesting if you speak Dutch, but even if you don’t it has some pretty cool sailing footage, including a nice pitchpole at the windward mark towards the end of the report. Check it out (Warning! You have to suffer through a brief ad. The horror, the horror!)…
“Scheise, I wish Hans would get his lard ass out onto the rail a bit quicker…”
(Photo: Marloes van der Haagen)
Here’s a sometimes pretty amusing compilation of the many things that can surprise and go wrong. Click here…
“I got ’em, I got ’em! Err, hang on. He’s got me! He’s got me…”
(Photo via Horse’s Mouth)
The VOR takes race boats around the bottom of the world. Accordingly, they will be upside down (won’t they?) and must prove they are capable of this unique sailing configuration. Latest Volvo Open 70 to get the treatment is Movistar (the link is http://www.movistar.es/vela/, but it doesn’t seem to be working…). Here’s how it all went:
A large crane was used to turn the 21.5 meter-long VO70 boat by hanging it from its keel bulb until it capsized completely. Four members of the crew – including Skipper Bouwe Bekking and Bowman Pepe Ribes – participated in the manoeuvre from inside the boat to check for possible flooding on the cabin and perform the self-righting of the hull.
The whole capsizing manoeuvre lasted 8 minutes and the boat was upside down for nearly 12 minutes.
To complete the operation successfully, the members of the crew inside the boat activated the pivoting keel system to return the boat to its natural position fully autonomously. The keel movement righted the hull slowly and gradually in just 5 minutes.
Interesting way to spend a few minutes…
With 115 days to the start it’s time to declare TWC’s loyalties. And they go to….Brasil 1. Not because I like Torben Grael (which I do). Not because I like Adrienne Cahalan (which I do). But because…my wife is Brazilian (and loyalty starts at home). Plus, it’s exciting for Brasil to have a crack team in this event, and the boat has recently started sailing (photo gallery here). Check out their website here. And while you are at it, check out Adrienne Chalan’s website. She has a great story, and can usually be found aboard one or another of the world’s fastest, most interesting sailing yachts. Talk about the “Wetass lifestyle”…
This excellent small cat design is staging its world championships at the moment, on the North Sea. And when that’s all over and done with, the class will head to my (sort of) home waters, Hampton, Virginia to be exact, for the North American championships. One of the things I love about cat sailors is that they are always shooting video. And the folks running the F18 NAs are planning to webcast the races live. Yup, live. On the internet. I love technology. For a taste of what is to come check out the NAs website, where you can watch a couple of teaser videos…
F18 Committee Boat Start: “Is this slow? This feels slow…”
The Earthist Chronicles 