This video may be a few weeks old, but I thought it was worth a post considering everyone loves a good heavy surf video.

Here, Coast Guard crew aboard a 42-foot Special Purpose Craft – Near Shore Lifeboat crashes through the surf of the Merrimack River bar located in upper Massachusetts during surf training held this March. Over the course of the two days, the crews dealt with 6-15 foot breaking surf, winds of 15-35 knots, temperatures in the low 20′s, freezing spray and icing conditions with intermittent snow.

In addition to training, Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Perkins received his certification as an SPC-NLB surfman, one are the service’s most highly trained boat handlers.

A new naval weapon has attracted hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube and left most people scratching their heads… is this thing real, or is the whole video a hoax?

Why in the world would you launch a missile by first dunking it in the ocean first?

The only thing I can think of would be to eliminate the hazard of the exhaust gases burning up the ship, which would pretty much allow you to fire this thing from almost anywhere.  Perhaps you could even install this system on Zodiac or small boat?

Hmm…

At one point in the film they are shooting from the Maersk Deliverer’s rig floor at night with the lights reflecting against rain that was coming down through the derrick, then they sequence over to the rotary table as they are putting pipe dope on a new drill bit.   It reminded me of more than a few tours I spent trying to stay warm on the drill floor and to be quite honest, made me realize how lucky I am to have been an operational part of this industry and seen for myself some of the amazing work that happens out there on a daily basis.

This film does not an exaggerate, it’s just the way it is.  Whether it’s pouring down rain, freezing cold, in heavy seas, or in the middle of the night,  offshore exploration operations continue around the world and truly push the envelope of technology.

Check out this video…

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The Southern Ocean is the most challenging place on earth to sail in and for the past quarter century, incredible video gathered from Volvo Ocean and past Whitbread Races through the Roaring 40s and Furious 50s have been the inspiration for millions of sailors, including me.

CAMPER’s skipper Chris Nicholson gives us a unique insight to what it is really like to drive one of these incredible Volvo 70s through big seas and winds in excess of 30 knots, check out the footage from multiple cameras and some awesome Gro Pro footage from Nico.

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Rome Kirby hangs on from the back of the boat while keeping his weight aft. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG during leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Auckland, New Zealand to Itajai, Brazil. Image (c) Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race

The Silver Shadow cruise ship, owned by Silversea Cruises

With a spotlight on cruise passenger safety, a luxury cruise liner owned by Silversea Cruises reportedly collided with a local cargo ship while navigating in dense fog off the coast of Vietnam on March 16th, causing minor damage to the cruise ship and, from the looks of it, rather extensive damage to the bridge of the cargo ship.

Details of the collision are still a bit, er, foggy, yet Silversea cruises acknowledged the collision in a statement obtained by various media outlets, saying that their Silver Shadow cruise ship “was involved in a minor incident on March 16, 2012, at around 4:20 GMT as it was approaching the pilot station in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. There was contact between Silver Shadow and a local commercial vessel. Silver Shadow incurred limited minor dents and guests’ safety was never compromised. The ship was fully operational and continued on its course to Ha Long Bay, where all shore tours operated normally.”

CNN has the story…

“Piracy takes a terrible toll on seafarers and their families,” says the Rev. David M. Rider, SCI’s President and Executive Director. “Many suffer in silence.”

SCI’s goal with the series of videos was to break that silence by asking a group of seafarers that had been held in captivity by Somali pirates to share their experiences and record their first-hand accounts of the pirate attacks. The seafarers relate stories of mental and physical torture, intimidation of both them and their families and drug abuse by pirates while on board.

“Piracy has always captured public imagination—most of which is romanticized,” adds Douglas B. Stevenson, Director of SCI’s Center for Seafarers’ Rights.  “We are trying to show the real human impact of piracy through seafarers’ own words.”

Stevenson adds “By not talking publicly about the effects of piracy, we contribute to the silence. It’s time we speak out.”

Here are the four videos released in the first installment, each video ending with the text “Piracy affects real people”.

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Above; Held hostage for more than four months, Alex tells of the anxiety and fear he felt on the day his ship’s ransom was paid. Because there was so much money on board, he and his crewmates risked getting caught in a violent dispute among the pirates.

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Above: Captain on an oil tanker, Jerry describes the precautionary measures he and his crew undertake before and during voyages through high-risk piracy areas. Even with many best practice guidelines available, seafarers remain vulnerable to ruthless attacks.

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Above: This ship’s engineer describes the hardships of his kidnapping by Somali pirates. Because the pirates allowed only phone calls related to the hostage negotiation, his family spent seven months unsure whether he was dead or alive.

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Above: Dipendra endured an eight-month hijacking, during which time he experienced first-hand the damaging effects of piracy on the human psyche. When he was finally released, however, he found few opportunities for helpful post-piracy care.

Crew Sticker From The USS Savannah

The USS Savannah (AOR-4), a Wichita-class tanker almost as long as two football fields, was operated by Military Sealift Command to refuel warships in the Mediterranean before she was decommissioned in 1995 and moored at the Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia.  She was eventually laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Virginia.

In 1998 the ship, now streaked with rust and stripped of her most valuable parts, was struck from the Naval Register and transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal. Over 10 years later the Department of Transportation finally signed a fee for service contract worth $515,726 with ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Texas, to scrap ex-Savannah.

The above video is a full HD nitty gritty look at the scrapping of this grey lady as featured on the television show Break It Down. Extensive footage of the ship is featured in the show including removal of the massive propeller and struggles with removing toxic items like asbestos prior to the full carnage of ripped steel.

[Via Jesus Diaz]

Nice work by Andreas Storebø on DOF Subsea’s Skandi Vega.

Background on the Skandi Vega…

The Skandi Vega is an Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessel (AHTS) designed for deepwater anchor handling.  Built to meet future environmental standards, the vessel is fuel efficient and clean design classed, thus having the capability to work in most of the world’s offshore oil and gas precincts. At 109m long, operating capabilities include a working moonpool, “Safe Deck” manipulator crane system, a anchor recovery frame, a main winch capacity of 500 T and secondary of 170 T and a bollard pull of 350 T.

The Skandi Vega has also an integrated ODIM Anchor Recovery Frame (ARF) and a large working deck area of 1,070 m2.
In addition, one Kystdesign ROV is placed inside the hull’s integrated hangar on starboard side.

Main Dimensions

• Overall length 109.5m
• Length between pp 98m
• Breadth 24m
• Depth 9.8m
• Draft 7.8m

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While arctic ice patrols and real-time satellite imagery has made iceberg avoidance routine, some ship captains still seek the thrill of getting close to these ice-cold arctic behemoths. Lucky for us, most of these thrill seekers take video cameras with them.

Labrador

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Filmed by Mike Earle this video shows an iceberg collapses off the National Historic District of Battle Harbour, Labrador. And, sorry Mike, Icebergs aren’t always “attached to the bottom” as you mention in the video.

Too Close For Comfort

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If you think a cruise ship “flyby” is dangerous in the warm waters of the Italian coast then close your eyes for the next video because Captain Francesco Schettino certainly has nothing on the captain of Antarctic Dream. Watch as he wrestles an iceberg with the bow of his ship.

Flying Shrapnel

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Crashing your ship into an iceberg is a dumb way to get your thrills but it’s not half as crazy as these videos of rock hard ice being thrown by claving bergs.

Capsize

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Ice melts in water, so what happens when the bottom of an iceberg melts leaving a massive amount of ice up top? Capsize!

“Tsunami” of Ice

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Filmed by a local resident, this footage shows a massive wave that was generated by the calving of an iceberg into the sea. The wave is small at first, but builds in size crashing into a nearby coast where fishing boats are tossed and broken apart.