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World’s fastest eco-boat arrives in Tortola
The Ferry Dock at Road Town Tortola was a buzz of activities this morning when the world’s fastest eco-boat, Earthrace arrived for a day’s visit.
Earthrace, which runs on 100% biodiesel, is the first boat in the world to use hemp composite. This is visible on the floor of the helm. Hemp is renewable, unlike carbon and Kevlar, and is strong and versatile enough for medium impact protection.
Earthrace has smashed the world speed record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe, completing the journey in 60 days, 23 hours 49 mins, and knocking almost 14 days off the previous record.
"Awesome! " The Ferry Dock at Road Town Tortola was a buzz of activities this morning when the world’s fastest eco-boat, Earthrace arrived for a d... more -
QE2 Passes Forth Bridge on Farewell Tour (photos)
Photographs from Edinburgh, Scotland on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.
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Four Manatees Killed by Boat Propeller
Four endangered manatees have washed up dead within a few miles of the downtown Savannah riverfront in the past week, leading wildlife officials to speculate they may have been killed by a single large ship.
Clay George, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday three of the manatee carcasses pulled from the Savannah River suffered deep propeller wounds. One had been sliced in half.
Examination of the fourth manatee Tuesday, the day after it was found beneath the Talmadge Bridge that spans the river from Savannah into South Carolina, revealed no lacerations. But the carcass had several broken bones that could have been caused by a ship, George said.
The manatees were discovered upstream from the bustling Port of Savannah, which cargo ships reach by navigating about 20 miles of the Savannah River from the Atlantic Ocean. Judging by the size of the cuts, the manatees appear to have been hit by a vessel the size of a tugboat or larger, George said.
"Container ships or some other large vessel would be an obvious place to start," George said. "We're not trying to blame anyone. Most likely it was an accident. I'd be very surprised if anyone on the vessel even knew what happened."
Though most frequently found in Florida, manatees migrate north to Georgia's shoreline waters and rivers each year from April to October.
A 2007 report by the U.S. Geological Survey identified boat collisions as the top long-term threat to manatees, which weigh up to 2,000 pounds and can be 10 feet long. In Florida, watercraft strikes killed 73 manatees in 2007 and have caused 60 deaths through July 31 this year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
It's unusual for multiple manatees to turn up dead in the same place at roughly the same time, said Charles Underwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Jacksonville, Fla. But it can happen, he said, when manatees are trying to mate and may be distracted from approaching vessels.
Underwood said the agency has no recorded case in which a single boat or ship was proven to have killed multiple manatees at once.
Visitors strolling the downtown riverfront, a tourist hotspot packed with bars and souvenir shops, spotted the first two manatee carcasses in the river Friday. A boater spotted another later that day near Elba Island a few miles downriver.
George said the manatees could have been part of a mating herd, in which up to a dozen males pursue a single female. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photographed five manatees together in the river last week, he said.
Georgia Ports Authority spokesman Robert Morris said traffic to and from the port wasn't any heavier than normal last week with ships arriving and departing ahead of the storm. He called the manatee deaths "a tragic event."
"We want to work closely with the DNR to learn more about what caused the deaths of these four manatees and determine ways to alert river traffic in the future when manatees are sighted," Morris said.
Pleasure boats and Coast Guard cutters also frequent the Savannah River, and there's no precise evidence to indicate any particular type of large vessel.
PLEASE NOTE! Propeller Guard Can Help Reduce Manatee Injuries!
Boat Propeller Guards DO NOT elliminate injuries/death. However, they can help reduce manatee & other sea life (as well as humans) when used in conjunction with other precautions. Boat Propeller Guards are only effective when speedzone laws are obeyed.
http://myfwc.com/manatee/prop/
http://myfwc.com/manatee/prop/propguide.htm
Manatee FAQ Links:
http://www.savethemanatee.org/faqprotection.htm
http://www.floridaconservation.org/psm/prop/prop.htm
http://www.myfwc.com/manatee/
http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/aquatic_noise.... Four endangered manatees have washed up dead within a few miles of the downtown Savannah riverfront in the past week, leading wildlife... more -
Great River Race 2008 (photos)
Photos from the River Thames in London, England on September 13, 2008.
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2008 Venice Historical Regatta (photos)
Photos from Venice, Italy on September 7, 2008.
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Eye candy 1 by jeff
Incredible! So this is what an atomic explosion looks like...under water.
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Activists break blockade of Gaza
"Two wooden boats carrying dozens of human rights activists reached the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon after the Israeli navy decided not to hinder the challenge to Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave. Thousands of Palestinians turned out to welcome the group, which brought token humanitarian aid, including hearing aids and balloons.
"It was really amazing -- there were kids swimming out to see us and boats sailing out to meet us," said Jeff Halper, head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the only Israeli Jew on board. "It took us a day and a half to get here, and most of the activists got seasick, but the people here were so happy when we arrived."
Halper, speaking by phone from Gaza, said the U.S.-based Free Gaza movement had worked for two years to arrange and finance the voyage.
He said he was surprised that the Israeli navy did not interfere with the boats, which left Cyprus on Friday. On board were 46 activists from 17 countries, including an 81-year-old Catholic nun and former British prime minister Tony Blair's sister-in-law, Lauren Booth. Blair is currently the envoy for the Quartet, a group of Middle East peace mediators comprising the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Israel continues to control the territorial waters off Gaza and has sharply limited the amount of goods allowed into the strip since the Islamist Hamas movement, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist group, seized power there last year. Israeli officials say that they have allowed food and medicine into the territory but that they hope to encourage residents to overthrow Hamas. Since June 19, Israel and Hamas have observed a cease-fire, although about 40 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel.
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Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said Israel had decided not to stop the boats from landing in Gaza to diminish media attention.
"We took away the drama," Mekel said. "They came, they were welcomed, but what will they do tomorrow? They were hoping for a long confrontation with Israel -- now they won't have it."
Mekel said that the decision did not set a precedent and that future cases will be examined on their merits. But Halper said he believed the Free Gaza movement had in fact broken the siege of Gaza.
"Now that we've come through, what's the excuse to keep the third boat out or the 10th boat or the 100th? We did break the economic siege of Gaza," he said.
Halper said at least one of the boats will sail back to Cyprus in the next few days, adding that activists hope to take with them Palestinian students who have permission to study in U.S. universities but were unable to obtain exit permits from Israel. It is Halper's first visit to Gaza since the summer of 2000, before the beginning of the second Israeli-Palestinian intifada. It is illegal for Israeli citizens to enter Gaza or the West Bank without permission, and he said he is likely to be arrested when he returns to Israel.
Activists on the boat had earlier complained that Israel was jamming the boat's electronic equipment, an assertion Mekel called "a complete lie." Palestinian journalists who set out to meet the boats said they were forced to turn back after the Israeli navy fired warning shots at them. An Israeli army spokeswoman said no shots were fired at the boats.
Halper said that the Palestinians had asked for 9,000 hearing aids but that the group had the money to purchase 200. He said the frequent sonic booms of Israeli aircraft over Gaza had damaged the hearing of many Gazan children."
By Linda Gradstein "Two wooden boats carrying dozens of human rights activists reached the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon after the Israeli navy d... more -
Activist boat reaches the Gaza Strip
Despite numerous threats that the boat would be blown up and its crew murdered, an activist boat has reached the Gaza Strip carrying with it aid for the Gazan's whose borders, airspace and coast lines are controlled by Israel.
"No matter what happens we have already achieved our goal by proving that ordinary citizens with ordinary means can mobilise a defence of human rights for Palestinians," organiser Paul Larudee told the AFP news agency. "We want people to see the Palestinian problem as one of human rights, not feeding them rice,"
One of the activists on board is the sister-in-law of the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Despite numerous threats that the boat would be blown up and its crew murdered, an activist boat has reached the Gaza Strip carrying w... more -
Tall Ship Belem Delivers Wine by Sail and Saves Carbon | greenUPGRADER.com
The story of the barque Belem is filled with romance. Today it is being put to use as a working cargo ship to deliver sustainably produced wines from France. Built in 1896, and named for the Brazilian seaport at the mouth of the Amazon, the Belem originally shipped chocolate in its hold from Brazil to France. At 170ft its first shipment of wine from Languedoc France to Dublin this February carried 60,000 bottles of fine wine saving an estimated 140 grams of carbon per bottle. The story of the barque Belem is filled with romance. Today it is being put to use as a working cargo ship to deliver sustainably prod... more
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A Dwindling Catch: Part 2
Discovery-News.com: The Chesapeake Bay depends on oysters to filter its waters. And nearby communities depend on oysters for jobs. Jorge Ribas reports on the struggles of saving a tradition while looking to the future. Discovery-News.com: The Chesapeake Bay depends on oysters to filter its waters. And nearby communities depend on oysters for jobs. Jor... more
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A Dwindling Catch: Part 1
Discovery-News.com: Oyster fishermen in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay struggle despite a 14-year/$58 million program to save the oyster population. Discovery-News.com: Oyster fishermen in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay struggle despite a 14-year/$58 million program to save the oyst... more
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Ancient Egyptian pharaoh's boat to "sail" once more
Archaeologists will excavate hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian wooden boat entombed in an underground chamber next to Giza's Great Pyramid and try to reassemble the craft, Egyptologists announced Saturday.
The 4,500-year-old vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat removed in pieces from another pit in 1954 and painstakingly reconstructed. Experts believe the boats were meant to ferry the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid in the afterlife.
Starting Saturday, tourists were allowed to view images of the inside of the second boat pit from a camera inserted through the a hole in the chamber's limestone ceiling. The video image, transmitted onto a small TV monitor at the site, showed layers of crisscrossing beams and planks on the floor of the dark pit.
"You can smell the past," said Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Experts will begin removing around 600 pieces of timber in November, said professor Sakuji Yoshimura of Japan's Waseda University, who is helping lead the restoration effort with the antiquities council.
The discovery of the boat pits more than 50 years ago by workmen clearing a large mound of wind-blown debris from the south side of the Great Pyramid is considered one of the most significant finds on the plateau. They are the oldest vessels to have survived from antiquity.
The reconstructed ship is on display in a museum built above the pit where it was discovered. It is a narrow vessel measuring 142 feet with a rectangular deckhouse and long, interlocking oars that soar overhead.
The cedar timbers of its curved hull are lashed together with hemp rope in a technique used until recent times by traditional shipbuilders along the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
The unexcavated boat, made from Lebanese cedar and Egyptian acacia trees, is thought to be of similar design, but smaller and less well preserved.
John Darnell, an Egyptologist at Yale University, said new research into the second boat could fill in some blanks about the significance of the vessels and help determine whether they ever actually plied Nile River waterways or were of purely spiritual import.
"In Egypt, almost everything real had its counterpart meaning or significance in the spiritual world. But there's a lot of debate as to whether these vessels ever were used or not," Darnell said.
Those who argue the vessels may have touched water point to rope marks on the wood that could have been caused by the rope becoming wet and then shrinking as it dried.
But Hawass believes these were symbolic vessels, not funerary boats used to bring the pharaoh Khufu's embalmed remains up the Nile from the ancient capital of Memphis for burial in the Great Pyramid, the oldest and largest of Giza's pyramids.
He said solar symbols found inside the second pit offer more evidence that those who disassembled and buried the boats believed Khufu's soul would travel from his tomb in the pyramid through a connecting air shaft to the boat chambers and that he would use the boats to circle the heavens, like the sun god, taking one boat by day and the other by night. Archaeologists will excavate hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian wooden boat entombed in an underground chamber next to Giza&... more -
15 dead as migrants attempt to reach Spain
Fifteen Africans died while trying to reach Spain's southern coast in a small, overcrowded boat, Spanish officials told CNN.
Thousands of African migrants risk their lives each year, trying to reach mainland Europe in small, overcrowded boats.
Rescue teams located the craft late Wednesday off the coast of Almeria province and helped it ashore. Aboard were 33 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and a dead woman.
They told authorities that 14 others, including nine young children, had died en route and were dropped overboard.
The survivors included men, women and a months-old baby. It was the second incident in a week involving African migrants. Fifteen Africans died while trying to reach Spain's southern coast in a small, overcrowded boat, Spanish officials told CNN. ... more -
Are Women Bad Luck?
Captain Sig Hansen and his "greenhorn" Jake Anderson of "Deadliest Catch" fess up to their true feelings about women on fishing boats. Captain Sig Hansen and his "greenhorn" Jake Anderson of "Deadliest Catch" fess up to their true feelings about wom... more
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Green protest: raft of plastic bottles en route to Hawaii
To create awareness of sea pollution created by plastic bottles, a group of adventurers are sailing from LA to Hawaii on a raft made from plastic, and they are blogging about their journey ... To create awareness of sea pollution created by plastic bottles, a group of adventurers are sailing from LA to Hawaii on a raft made f... more
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First ever snake boat made of steel sets world record in India
The boat, a design wonder crafted by Aries Marine and Engineering Services, performed the amazing feat on May 1 with a crew of 141 rowers in the Punnamada Lake in Alapuzha, The existing record was held by traditional snake boat for accommodating a crew of 118. The annual snake boat race in Alapuzha is a major tourist attraction.
For full stories and Photo visit http://www.worldamazingrecords.com The boat, a design wonder crafted by Aries Marine and Engineering Services, performed the amazing feat on May 1 with a crew of 141 row... more -
Green as a Greenhorn
What exactly is a "greenhorn"?
"Deadliest Catch" star Captain Sig Hansen and his very own greenhorn, Jake, explain it to us.
"Deadliest Catch" is on Discovery Channel. What exactly is a "greenhorn"? ... more -
Boat capsizes in the Amazon
A boat, carrying at least 80 home from a party, capsized in the Amazon early Sunday. At least 15 are dead, dozens more missing.
:( Not a good way to end a party night :( A boat, carrying at least 80 home from a party, capsized in the Amazon early Sunday. At least 15 are dead, dozens more missing. ... more -
Hot Commercial Fishing Action
Alaska Commercial Fishermen compete against each other during the Annual Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery in Alaska. For more information and Alaska video visit: http://sitkapodshow.blogspot.com. Be sure to thank the Old duffer! Alaska Commercial Fishermen compete against each other during the Annual Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery in Alaska. For more infor... more
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