You can find links to all the previous editions at the bottom of this post. You are encouraged to participate using the comment link/form at the bottom of the post. If you have photos or stories to tell, do email me at [email protected].
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This Week’s Photos:
This week’s photos come from the press release:
NorseBoat 17.5 Completes Arctic Voyage
Royal Marines successfully navigate Northwest Passage in 17.5 ft. open boat
September 9, 2009, Belfast, PEI, Canada – Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Oliver and Major Tony Lancashire of the British Royal Marines sailed, rowed and when necessary dragged their NorseBoat 17.5 across the ice in a historic 1400 mile voyage through the arctic’s Northwest Passage. For centuries the Northwest Passage has been a lure to adventurers and explorers seeking a northern link between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.
The expedition was conceived to support the UK based charity ‘Toe in the Water’, which uses adventure sailing to rehabilitate men and women injured serving their country. Through the expedition the marines were able to raise awareness and significant funding for the charity.
A NorseBoat 17.5 sailing & rowing cruiser was chosen by the marines for its seaworthiness and versatility. Built in the Canadian Maritimes by NorseBoat Limited, this craft blends high performance with classic lines. It can be sailed, rowed by one or two persons, and used as a camp cruiser with its abundant storage and sheltered camping accommodations.
NorseBoat president Kevin Jeffrey performed sea trials with the marines at Quantico Marine base in Virginia early May 2009. The boat was shipped to the arctic in June and the marines began their expedition on July 24, 2009 from the town of Inuvik located on the Mackenzie river 2 degrees above the arctic circle. After reaching the Beaufort Sea they travelled east toward the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It took them 42 days to reach Gjoa Haven on King William Island.
The two adventurers encountered a wide range of conditions – sailing to windward in extreme conditions, rowing on glassy seas, sailing steadily at 6 knots with strong following winds, and being locked in ice floes for days on end. They also encountered charging bears, curious whales, and the warm, friendly people who inhabit the arctic.
At the successful conclusion of the voyage Kevin Oliver and Tony Lancashire gave a glowing report of their NorseBoat:
“Arctic Mariner has been our home for six weeks, and she has been superb. She has been out in big seas…on, into and off the ice, beached on rocks, and there are no dents in her hull, just the odd scratch. Her rig is simple and robust, and she can be rowed at over 3 knots by one person. And everywhere we go, people say how pretty her lines are.”
Kevin Oliver said of the voyage:
“This has not been all plain sailing, we have had 90 per cent more ice than the seasonal norm and as a consequence have had to drag the boat across ice as well as row and sail it.”
“The weather and local wildlife has provided us with a number of heart-stopping moments which rank among the most memorable of the trip, all of which was topped off by the hospitality of the people we met. A great adventure!”
Tony Lancashire added:
“Every one of the 42 days has offered a unique experience, from the Arctic landscape and wildlife to the incredibly hospitable people that we have met in the northern communities.”
To find out more about NorseBoat sailing & rowing cruisers visit http://www.norseboat.com. For more details of the Arctic Mariner Expedition or to make donations to Toe In The Water charity visit http://www.arcticmariner.org.
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Congratulations to the intrepid voyagers and to the beautiful and sturdy boat!
The TITAN Salvage team involved in the dramatic, 12-hour cliff-top rescue of the 25 crewmembers onboard the grounded cargo ship Fedra and one rescue swimmer last year has been nominated for the International Maritime Organization’s 2009 Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea.
The Battleship New Jersey Museum in Camden, New Jersey is suffering from the recession and has taken to finding new and creative ways to raise money. They had even gone so far as to auction off the chance to sit in the fire control chair and fire one of the 5 inch guns.
No word on the target though. Trenton is probably out of range.
Each year recently, according to AIS [Automatic Identification System] records, the Arctic Sea appears to be missing from the logs in the Mediterranean for up to 20 days at a time. In April this year, the Arctic Sea is missing from AIS port-call records between April 1, when it transited the Gibraltar Straits, moving east, and April 11, when it returned through the straits, moving west.
Bryant’s Maritime Blog remembers Maritime Lawyer “Glenn J. Winuk – A Fallen American Hero“. My 2005 post can be found here: “Glenn J. Winuk – One of Many 9/11 Heros“. It is important to remember and it is nice to see that people are searching out information on Mr. Winuk. As of Saturday evening, my post honoring him was the 5th most popular page on my website.
EU Referendum looks at all the hype around the BELUGA transit of the North-East Passage in “A triumph for propaganda“. Making the voyage is not a new feat as the press would like you to believe.
“We must apply the lessons learned from the crew of the Maersk Alabama. We are urging mariners to take defensive measures and not surrender at the first sign of a threat”, says Acting Maritime Administrator David Matsuda.
The advisory not only warns vessels to avoid routes where attacks have taken place, but also recommends that mariners “demonstrate a willingness” to defend themselves”. [Note by Fred: Gee, how about giving them some weapons as an aid in demonstrating a willingness to defend the ship…]
CargoLaw has a handling error at Helsinki’s Finnsteve in “Just Out of Reach“. (Note: I am a former FinnSteve employee and I am pretty sure that I learned on that machine. So I am in even more amazement that the driver managed to create the mess that they did.)
SAIDA BAY: The reactor compartments from the five nuclear powered submarines decommissioned with Norwegian financial assistance are now safely stored onshore in the Saida bay on the Kola Peninsula.
Last week, a Norwegian delegation led by State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elisabeth Walaas, visited the Saida bay. The Norwegian representatives could see the five reactor compartments lined up on the storage pad, each marked with the submarine’s serial number.
All in all, 33 reactor compartments are currently stored at the German-financed newly constructed storage pad. This first stage of the facility was commissioned in 2006 at a cost of more than 150 million Euros.
Many more than today’s 33 compartments are waiting to be taken onshore. In the water just outside the new onshore storage site, several tens of reactor compartments from scrapped submarines are floating. Other countries are also providing financial grants for scrapping older submarines from the Russian Northern fleet. In addition to Norway, they are South Korea, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, France and others.
How about Russia ponying up some more money to clean up their own mess???
Injuries whether it be large or small have been a common occurrence by most crewmembers, and at some point will eventually happen during the trip. Each one of us has had something which needs attention, medically. The Second Mate is the designated officer, and each time some scrape, sprain, or injury such as a cut occurs, the crewmember is directed to visit the Second Mate. Well, during this trip, it’s been a revolving ,door. Not so much are they major injuries, but the tediousness behind all the treatments, follow through (plural) and detailed write-ups are what’s making the Second Mate running around like the proverbial chicken-with-his-head-cut-off, routine.
On signing off my last ship, the Captain commented that I was the only member of the crew not to report to him with an injury. That was no small feat given that I was working about 100 hours a week for 6 months. I guess being paranoid about safety was a good thing.
A secret shipwreck found off Italy’s southern coast has set alarm bells ringing.
Far from containing hidden treasure, the cargo on board the vessel is thought to consist of toxic, possibly nuclear material. And the suspicion is that it may have been sunk by the local Mafia, paid by authorities to take waste off their hands.
While we compete furiously on the field of play our graduates are shipmates in insuring our maritime transportation system is safe, secure, effective, and efficient. In fact, last year a record number of Kings Point graduates became Coast Guard officers or civilian employees. This year I met with a number of midshipmen seeking to join the Coast Guard upon graduation.
The game was the most competitive and hard fought in the history of the match up. Several lead changes occurred and Coast Guard drove to score the final touchdown of regulation play and sent the game into overtime with a two point conversion. After trading field goals on the first overtime possession, Kings Point prevailed in the second overtime. Final score 33-27.
“Most Americans have no clue that hoki is often what they’re eating in fried-fish sandwiches,” SeaFood Business, an industry magazine, reported in April 2001. It said chain restaurants using hoki included McDonald’s, Denny’s and Long John Silver’s.
Ominous signs of overfishing — mainly drops in hoki spawns — came soon thereafter. Criticism from ecological groups soared. The stewardship council promotes hoki as sustainable “in spite of falling fish stocks and the annual killing of hundreds of protected seals, albatross and petrels,” the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand said in May 2004.
The United States is signing onto an international plan to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia, committing itself to a leadership role to protect one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
The so-called “New York Declaration” being signed by US Deputy Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo and her counterparts from China, Britain, France and other powers is an attempt to pool resources and agree on the best ways of deterring the Somali pirates who prey on vessels passing between Europe and Asia.
Though it is a non-binding political document, proponents say it will commit ship registry nations to adopt “best management practices” for ship security such as increased lookouts, raised ladders and emergency fire pumps readied to repel boarders.
It was first proposed in May by Panama, the Bahamas, Liberia and the Marshall Islands, four of the world’s biggest ship registries.
The Navigation Rules indicate that flashing blue light is an Inland Rule, part of Annex V, below. The issue is that here in the Salish Sea we are required to follow the 72 ColRegs (International Rules.) A flashing blue light just isn’t a part of the of the ColRegs.
It would be interesting to see if the argument, “I didn’t recognize the flashing blue light,” would stand a legal challenge.
Firehouse.com has “FDNY’s New Fire Boat to Honor 343 Bravest” noting that ‘The new boat is 140 feet long and 500 tons, making it the country’s largest fire boat.’ Click on the image for the NYFD Fireboat website. Video of the Sept 11th launching here. (Bagpipes and all.)
The Chronicle Herald (Canada) has “Shipyards get into shape” with Government work booked until 2017.
215-922-2562 – Write this number down and put it in your logbook for reference, if you work a tugboat in the Philadelphia area from Marcus Hook to Philly, the Seamen’s Church will provide a van to pick your guys up, take them to the market, bring them back and all it costs is what you would consider a fair donation.
But the big EU heroes here are Monaco, the world’s first bluefin-free country, who came up with the proposal in the first place – moving bluefin tuna from the incompetent hands of fisheries managers, and into the same protected status as similarly endangered animals like tigers or rhinos on land.
But there is still a long way to go before bluefin are in the clear. Other countries are not so keen on a ban in trade, and we know that Japan is already trying to fight a CITES listing with intensive lobbying. And we have still to hear from other countries like the US and Brazil, who hold a lot of influence.
Turkey says it cannot give drought-stricken Iraq and Syria any more water from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, claiming it’s short of water itself as it forges ahead with a mammoth dam-building program.
Next Sunday, September 13th, sees the launch of the 2009 Mini Transat. For those of you not familiar with this event, it’s a singlehanded bash across the Atlantic from France to Brazil in diminutive 21′ high tech racing craft known as the Mini 650(for 6.5 m). First held in 1977, the race was conceived by an Englishman but is administered and dominated by the French and is considered to be one of the most physically and mentally challenging sailing events ever.
A landmark decision has seen Danish fishermen announce that they plan to adhere to internationally recognised standards for marine stewardship – thus ending years of wrongful catches and over fishing.
A spokesperson from that Danish Fishermen’s Association has declared that by 2012 all fish from its resources will meet certified standards as laid down by the Marine Stewardship Council.
YouTube has a great overhead video giving you an idea of just how big some of today’s containerships are in “SF Summer Fog, big ship“.
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Fairplay Daily News has:
Stranded crew pledged help – THIRTEEN Ukrainian seafarers stranded in Piraeus on an arrested box ship were promised help today.
Captain Valentin K, the vessel, has been detained since 22 July by the creditors of its manager, Chester Shipping of Piraeus.
Food and water for 13 people are running low, and there has been no fuel for the ship’s generators since 1 September, when it was marked as a hazard to navigation because it has no power for its anchorage lights.
In response to a plea for help by seafarers unions, Piraeus prefect Yannis Michas and a group of medical and hygiene staff visited the ship today in Piraeus.
Michas called conditions on board “appalling” and offered to cover the expenses of putting the crew in a hotel. But the captain and 12 crewmen refused to leave, fearing they would forfeit the wages owed to them.
The prefect promised to press the administration for their repatriation, and in the meantime he will keep them supplied with food water and fuel. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)
AND:
Complacency behind Croat’s death – THE DEATH of a Croatian officer in January aboard a CMA CGM box ship was related to complacency over safety, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch said today.
Luis Sokota died as a result of an 8m fall inside the water ballast tank of UK-flagged Ville de Mars off Oman on 28 January, Sokota’s birthday.
According to MAIB, Sokota probably slipped off an unguarded stringer – covered by a layer of sludge up to 3cm thick – after stepping off a ladder. He was not wearing a fall arrestor. Sokota died three hours after his fall as he was being flown to a Muscat hospital by helicopter.
“The precautions taken in preparation for his entry into the tank did no comply with the requirements of company procedures or industry practice,” the MAIB report said. It added that no permit to enter into an enclosed space or work at height had been issued.
Before the Sokota accident, complacency within the CMA CGM permit-to-work system had been identified as an issue during an internal audit but, according to MAIB, nothing had been done to resolve that.
The MAIB has asked CMA CGM to tackle complacency, which it says is behind “an increasing number of accidents”. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)
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Submissions for future editions:
Please submit articles for inclusion in next week’s edition using the following submit form at Blog Carnival. You are also welcome to email stories and photos to [email protected] for inclusion in future editions as well as suggest areas of coverage.
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Previous Editions: As linked below or click on the tag ‘Maritime Monday’ for all gCaptain editions.
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