heavy-weather

Incident Photo of The Week – Tall Ship Capsizes, Students Rescued At Sea

4381256183 e7e59d9486 Incident Photo of The Week Tall Ship Capsizes, Students Rescued At Sea

Shown here, 3 lifeboats carrying some of the 64 students and crew that were rescued after the tall ship Concordia sank 344 miles off the coast of Rio de Janiero Wednesday, February 17th. According to Amver:

The Crystal Pioneer, an Amver participant since November 2008, located the lifeboats early Friday morning February 19th. New reports stated the Crystal Pioneer could not begin rescue operations until first light due to the darkness and rough seas. The Crystal Pioneer, managed by MMS Company Ltd, rescued 20 people while the Hokuetsu Delight, managed by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, rescued the remaining 44 students and crew. The Hokuetsu Delight has been participating in Amver for 10 years.

Amazingly, all 64 students and crew were rescued, unharmed, after approximately 40 hours adrift at sea. More images can be seen on Amver’s flickr page, HERE.

Above photo courtesy of Amver and Mitsui O.S.K Lines, Ltd

The below graphic, provided by The Globe and Mail, demonstrates just what caused the Concordia to go down (click for larger image). [Continue Reading →]

Pasha Bulker – Photo Slideshow

Tags: · AMVER, heavy-weather, Lifesaving Incidents

Casualty Outlook

It’s been a bad week for lifeboats, once termed ‘the Pinto of the seas’. Over at Maritime Accident Casebook three incidents during drills and training have come to light, two on offshore platforms, one at an onshore training facility. All are currently under investigation and therefore sort of subjudice but in one case the lowering of a davit-launched lifeboat was halted due to a problem with the falls. Confused radio communications between those inside the boat and the person lowering the lifeboat apparently made those inside believe they were on the water and that the hydrostatic release had malfunctioned, so they over-rode the hydrostatic release and the boat fell a considerable distance into the water, causing a number of injuries.

Investigators will probably concentrate on three elements: the fouling of the cable, the radio communications problem, and the over-riding of the hydrostatic release. Inadequate training and drills is likely to surface as a root cause.

Cosco Busan, every San Franciscan’s favourite hate-object, is very much in the news. Setting aside the issue of the pilot’s medication, there are lots of lessons worth learning or re-learning. The latest Maritime Accident Casebook podcast, The Case of the Foggy Pilot, looks at bridge team management, how to get information out of a cranky pilot and how to ask and answer questions. After all, if you don’t ask a question right, you’re not asking the right question. [Continue Reading →]

Pasha Bulker – Photo Slideshow

Tags: · allision, anchoring, Cap Blanc, collision, heavy-weather, Marti Princess, Montevideo Maru, Nhat Thuan, Otello, pasha-bulker, Princess of the Seas, Renate Schulte, Staten Island Ferry, storn, typhoon, Waverey

ships in heavy weather – at sea photo slideshow

We found this interesting YouTube video of ships battling heavy seas and rogue waves. These photos have been provided by SplashVision.com. Here at gCaptain.com we would love to see your interesting photos of ships struggling in heavy seas and/or rogue waves. To submit you photos drop us an email at Tips@gCaptain.com. Thanks..

If you like this post you might also like to take a look at some of these other posts.

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Tags: · boats, heavy-weather, hurricane, Photo, photos, rogue-waves, Ships, slideshow, storms, Video, waves, Weather, youtube

Piloting Heavy Seas

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As a young cadet excited about an approaching storm the C/M told me something I find myself repeating; “You can tell the green hands from the old salts by their reaction to an approaching storm. The newbie will say ‘This is going to be fun’ while the old salt is thinking ‘Shit, not another’.

Tags: · heavy-weather, storms, Video, youtube

Surviving Hurricane Ike – Galveston, Texas

While this audience is less likely to be impressed than most, Lou Minatti has video of surviving Hurricane Ike aboard a workboat in Galveston Bay. We know some of you working in the Gulf Of Mexico have more impressive video so if you wish to share please upload it to Vimeo or YouTube and send us the link. Otherwise we invite Lou to see a real storm, maybe Winter North Atlantic?

Here’s some video of what might have happened to Lou if they hadn’t been careful.

While I have seen enough storms to know I’d rather not see another, a man who has plenty of heavy weather experience, our favorite maritime photographer Houston Pilot OneEighteen, shares photos of his house. The sign reads: “A waterfront view is not a matter of life or death. It is much more important than that.”

While being thousands of miles from the nearest Coast Guard Station may have it’s dangers, with some guidance (Lee Chesneau’s new site is a great start) you can navigate to avoid the worst of conditions. We can only imagine the frustration OneEighteen faced in not being able to steer clear of this one!

Waterfront View pre-Ike; by OneEighteen

Many thanks to Fred Fry and the excellent work he’s doing to bring us stories like these every monday!

Tags: · heavy-weather, hurricane, rescue at sea, USCG, Video

Surviving Heavy Weather On A Rowboat – Roz Savage

In 1896 the first ever row across a major body of water was marked in the record books. Since that day when Samuelson and Harbo completed their voyage over 200 people have rowed across the Atlantic and seven women have done it solo including Roz Savage. Today she is looking to one up herself in an attempt to travel unsupported and alone (in a rowboat remember) from San Francisco to Sydney Australia.

Their is a glitch however. She has encountered a Force 10 gale, flooded her watermaker and is feeling the fear creep in. For those who have been a thousand miles out at sea and experianced a storm of this magnitude the image is indelibly marked in your brain, for the rest I refer you to the Beufort Scale chart.

Now I speak from experienced in saying Force 10 is not a “fun” weather condition aboard a 500+ foot ship, I can imaging it’s downright unpleasant on a 23 foot rowboat. Despite the trouble her spirits remain high as was apparent on a live podcast done with the help of our favorite podcaster (after Peter of course) Leo Laporte on TWiT Live (Subscribe to the Podcast HERE). She does have some linguring worries though. In today’s blog entry titled “Day 11: Feel The Fear” she writes:

“Wind and sea conditions likely to increase to gale force (Force late on Jun 4th or early June 5th. Winds to 40kts and seas steadily building to Force 10 conditions (for seas) on Jun 7th.”

The prospect sounded terrifying. My insides knotted and Fear started running around inside my head like a madman, waving his arms wildly and wailing, “We’re all doomed!” in a high-pitched cry.

The Voice of Reason stood off to one side, waiting for Fear to quieten down enough so he could make himself heard. Eventually Fear got tired of doing laps of the inside of my head and started to wind down like a clockwork toy. Reason managed to get a word in.

“Look,” he said in his calm, strong voice, “this weather isn’t even happening yet, and you’re already in a tizz about it. Let’s look at this objectively.

“OK, so we’ve never been in a Force 10 before, but we’ve been in some pretty bad weather and we know this boat is seaworthy. If we just stay in the cabin most of the time, and clip on to the boat when we have to go outside to go to the bathroom, we’ve got a good chance of coming through this in one piece.

“And besides, we have no choice. We’re out here now. There’s nowhere we can go, and no way we can avoid this weather. We’re just going to have to tough it out. But we can do it if we keep our head and stay calm. Just DON’T PANIC!!!” Continue Reading…

Excellent advice Roz! From fires to severe weather remaining calm is the only way to survive at sea. We wish you fair seas and following winds (eventually) and if you ever need a hand at sea, gCaptain readers are on the Pacific and willing to help. Till you reach land we will be following you on the amazing Marine Tracker and remembering the times we have faced challege at sea.

-Captain John Konrad

Coast Guard Morro Bay – Surfboat Training

The following happen so close to gCaptain Headquarters here in Morro Bay California that our CEO called from his ship to make sure the building was secure and relatives were safe. The future gCaptain was a little close for comfort but all ended well.

Morro Bay isn’t a friendly inlet so our hats off to the guardsmen on duty that day. Give us a call (805-456-8644) and we’ll walk down some free gCaptain t-shirts for you guys.

More video from Station Morro Bay can be found HERE.

Tags: · gCaptain, heavy-weather, heavy_seas, morro bay, rogue-waves, surfing, USCG, youtube