Cruising
(Pro-Jo) PROVIDENCE — A bill to allow a state agency to insure the mortgages of sailing vessels, and most immediately, the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, has won the unanimous endorsement of a key Senate committee.
Now headed to the full Senate for a vote, the bill sponsored by Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Middletown, would allow the Rhode Island Industrial Recreational Building Authority, for the first time, to insure the payment of mortgage loans secured for “sailing vessel(s),” such as the Oliver Hazard Perry, which are at least 150 feet long, and have their hailing port in Rhode Island.
(Cape Cod Times) BARNSTABLE — It was a long three-day trip for one
sailor who endured torn sails and rough seas only to end up becalmed in
thick fog in Cape Cod Bay on Monday afternoon, with no fuel remaining
to power his auxiliary motor.
After the man
used a cell phone to call for help, a boat from the Barnstable Fire
Department and the harbor master's office found the 25-foot sailboat Sea
Salsa off Barnstable Harbor. The U.S. Coast Guard also sent a vessel
from Station Cape Cod Canal to help escort the vessel into the harbor. READ MORE
(BBC) A helicopter rescue crew
from Shetland has braved the volcanic ash cloud to come to the aid of a
stricken yacht 25 miles off the coast of Orkney.
The emergency happened after the 25ft (7.6m) yacht - the
Black Sheep - got into difficulty in 50mph winds and high seas in the
early hours of Tuesday.
A personal locator used by the yacht's skipper was picked up by Shetland Coastguard at about 0400 BST. READ MORE
(USCG) The Coast Guard rescued two people May 10, 120 miles southeast of
Nantucket, Mass., after their sailboat lost its mast and began taking on
water.
The two-man crew of the sailing vessel Eva contacted the Coast Guard
Command Center in Boston via satellite telephone at 1:45 p.m. stating
that their 45-foot sailboat had lost its mast and was taking on water. READ MORE
(MSNBC) An 85-year-old British sailor who dreamed of crossing the
Atlantic on a raft as a young boy has completed the journey in 66 days
with three friends. The 2,800-mile crossing to this Caribbean island, led by Anthony
Smith of London, took about two months and was generally smooth except
for damage to two rudders on the large, sail-powered raft."Some people say it was mad," he told The Associated Press when he
arrived in St. Maarten Wednesday. "But it wasn't mad. What else do you
do when you get on in years?" READ MORE
(Boston.com) This week, workers at the stricken Japanese
nuclear plant dumped radioactive water into the ocean to make room for
storing even more highly contaminated water on the site. The water
dumping came after earlier leaks of radioactive water that had already
raised concerns about its effects in the ocean, raising questions about
health and safety. Here are answers to some of those questions. READ MORE
(USCG) The U.S. Coast Guard strongly advises against all operation of and
travel by U.S. yachts and sailing craft, or by U.S. citizens on foreign
registered yachts and sailing craft, on the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea,
Somali Basin and the western parts of the Indian Ocean. A U.S.
registered sailing vessel was hijacked by pirates in February 2011 off
the southern coast of Oman in the northern Arabian Sea and all of its
crew were tragically killed. This case is a stark reminder of the grave
dangers of operating in these high risk waters, especially by
recreational vessels.
(Daily Mail) A Somali pirate has warned that if
any attempt is made to rescue seven Danish hostages then the gang
responsible for their capture will kill them. The family have been named as Jan Quist Johansen, his wife Birgit
Marie Johansen, their sons Rune and Hjalte and their daughter Naja. They
are from Kalundborg, 75 miles west of Copenhagen. The
pirate who made the threat, Abdullahi Mohamed, said that he has ties
with those holding the Danish crew, which also includes two other
adults.
(CNN) A Danish family, including three children ages 13, 15 and 17, was hijacked by Somali pirates last week, according to a report in the Copenhagen Post. The teens, along with their parents and two deckhands, were sailing
from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea as part of an
around-the-world voyage when they were abducted, the post reported,
citing Denmark's Foreign Ministry. READ MORE
(Boston.com) THE TRAGIC deaths of four American yachters at the hands of Somali
pirates should reinvigorate the world’s attempt to quench piracy off
the shores of East Africa. Fortunately, tried and true methods for
thwarting pirates are available, despite the vast 2.5
million-square-mile Indian Ocean basin across which the intrepid
pirates act and allied naval vessels attempt to patrol. READ MORE
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