Never Sea Land

As Never Sea Land’s contribution to Tillerman’s Worst Sailing Innovation Ever competition,  I nominate “Land”.

Just as in flying, it is not the medium of transportation that causes most sailing wrecks; it is the abrupt running out of said medium.  And what could be more terrifying than the inexorable approach of a lee shore, in a disabled or simply non-weatherly boat?

Setting aside that, monohull keel-boats have much deeper draft than power boats of similar size, leading to the maxim “There are two kinds of sailors: those who have gone aground, and those who have not gone aground, yet.”   Fortunately, only our wallets and our pride are usually the only things damaged.  And there is the benefit of having plenty of time to contemplate one’s errors while waiting for the tide to lift one out of the mud!

Savage Beauty on the rocks.

© 2010 Peter Lyons / www.lyonsimaging.com

Another Tiger in a trap.

Low tide in the Delta.  Even shoal-draft cats can make mistakes!

photo: Dave Wilson

The above map depicts: 118,226 visits from 27 Jan 2008 to 7 Jan 2009
This map is normally updated daily (latest: 2009-01-07 07:16:19 GMT)

Running total of visits to the above URL since 27 Jan 2008: 123,459
Total since archive, i.e. 27 Jan 2008 – present: 123,459 (not necessarily all displayed – see below).
Visits on previous ‘day’: 379.

NSL uses ClustrMaps (see sidebar on left) to do hit tracking — they reset one’s map and stats once per year, so I thought I’d best archive the stats while I remember.  (Thanks to Richard for the heads up.)  We’ve been getting an average of  358 visitors per day, per the above numbers.

Continue reading ‘ClustrMap’

I tied my first Turk’s Head last night, with the help of my favorite ropework and sailorcraft book, The Arts of the Sailor, by Hervey Garrett Smith.  Everyone should have this book, if only to enjoy its authortative prose style.  And beyond that, it contains an entire chapter on the making of a proper bucket.

7 minutes of underwater scenes and creatures, shot in the  Galapagos September 2008 by Darek Sepiolo, inspired by Hans Zimmer’s   music.

Google has filed a U.S. patent application to put mobile data centers out at sea, either on ships or fixed platforms. The company said the centers could be used to provide Internet services in areas or situations where land-based connections aren’t feasible.

Could be an invitation to a more-literal form of internet piracy?

Full story at NYT

1,500 gallons of gas leak into Carquinez Strait after tug hits pipe

(05-14) 09:42 PDT MARTINEZ — A tugboat struck and ruptured a pipeline near the Tesoro refinery in Martinez early today, spilling as much as 1,500 gallons of gasoline into the Carquinez Strait, the Coast Guard said.

The incident happened at 12:20 a.m. when the tugboat Independence struck three pipelines at the Avon wharf at Tesoro’s Golden Eagle refinery on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait, said Petty Officer Kevin Neff.

One of the pipes, which is a foot in diameter, was damaged and began leaking fuel into the strait, which leads to San Francisco Bay. There were no vessels at the wharf and no activities there at the time of the accident, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

The pipe was not transferring gasoline at the time, and the fuel that spilled was a residual amount that was in the line, Neff said. The Avon wharf is used to load vessels for transporting motor fuels throughout the West Coast.

 link

64,000 gallons of sewage spills into bay off Marin

(05-14) 10:04 PDT TIBURON — About 64,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater spilled into the bay off Tiburon because of an overflow at a treatment plant, the latest in a spate of sewage spills in Marin County, authorities said today.

The sewage from a Tiburon Sanitary District plant at 2001 Paradise Drive spilled into Racoon Strait between midnight and 7 a.m. Tuesday. People have been warned to stay out of the water as a precaution while health officials await the results of tests.

The spill occurred because of a short circuit in a backup system, district manager Robert Lynch said. “I think we rely on technology too much sometimes,” he said.

The sewage had already been partially treated after being chlorinated and dechlorinated, Lynch said. The plant serves Belvedere and parts of Tiburon.

link

Just in time for Bay to Breakers, the Million Pirate March, and the StFYC Stone Cup.

A neat little online game where you can help whale strike back a (Japanese-flagged) whalers.  There is also a place to sign an online petition to ban all whaling.