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Ocean Globe retro sailing race begins, as boats race from the UK to Cape Town
Sep 12, 2023Another retro, low tech sailing race began on Sunday – it’s called the Ocean Globe Race. In this race, like the Golden Globe which started a year ago this month, sailboats will retrace the route of the old sailing Clipper ships.
On Sunday, 14 boats with about 12 crew on each left Southhampton, England, headed for their first stop, Cape Town, South Africa. It should take them about a month to get there.
The race could be dramatic, grueling and dangerous – based on past experience. Historically, lots of boats start, but few make it to the end.
The race is billed as a race for “everyman” because it’s much lower cost to participate than the average high tech yacht race. One boat called, “Maiden,” has an all-female crew.
They’ll be finding their way at sea with no fancy electronic gear, racing like it’s 1988. Sextants, paper charts and lots of adventure.
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Boatlift: a memorable and wonderful moment in the midst of disaster
Sep 11, 2023Today, on September 11, we remember those lost on this day in 2001 in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.
Today we remember Operation Boatlift.
After the towers fell, hundreds of thousands of people were desperate to get off Manhattan Island. But they had nowhere to go, since bridges subways, and tunnels in and out of the city were closed, and the city was in chaos. Then the Coast Guard issued a call to “all available boats” to come and help. The response was immediate and astounding.
Within minutes, hundreds of tug boats, ferries, pleasure boats, vessels of all kinds, started streaming toward the bottom of Manhattan, from all over NY and adjoining harbors. Together, in a miraculous spur of the moment mobilzation of mariners wanting to help – they evacuated 500,00 people to safety.
If you’d like to watch the memorable short film quoted in this podcast, please watch Boatlift (link below). It’ll be among the best 11 minutes you’ll ever spend. Have a box of tissues nearby. If you’re anything like me, you’ll need it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg
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The Pacific Tracker: an odd looking ship with an unusual mission
Sep 08, 2023Today we’ll focus on one of our hometown vessels, ones that are based here but are still very unusual-looking no matter how many times you see them. Today we have the Pacific Tracker on our ship schedule – she’s based in Portland and goes out into the ocean regularly. Her job is to track missiles for the US military.
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A look at today’s abundant ship schedule, and why we may see more ships this time of year
Sep 07, 2023It’s fall on the Columbia, a time when we may see more ships than usual transiting the river. one possible reason has to do with the seasons: it’s harvest time.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
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The amazing true story of the Tonga Castaways
Sep 06, 2023The true and astounding story of how a group of shipwrecked teenagers managed to survive, and thrive, on a deserted South Pacific island for a year until they were rescued – in a stunning example of ingenuity and teamwork.
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It’s clear from the weather that autumn is pretty much here, but when does fall start, exactly?
Sep 05, 2023Today we’ll talk about the two autumns: astronomical fall and meteorological fall. We’ll talk about what the difference is, and why there are two starts to one season.
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The Seafarers Happiness Index for Q2 2023
Sep 01, 2023Today, we’ll take a look at an international survey conducted every quarter of each year since 2015. It’s called the Seafarers Happiness Index, conducted by the London-based Mission to Seafarers organization.
It’s a report that compiles and analyzes survey responses from employees working at sea around the world. The report for the second quarter of 2023 is out, and it’s not particularly good news. Seafarer job satisfaction is down, continuing a trend seen last quarter as well. Industry-wide, ongoing pandemic-related problems remain, and workers are sometimes hard pressed to get paid, or have to pay extra for necessities on board like drinking water.
These workers are vital to our global economy. We’ll look at the survey results.
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Let’s talk about tankers
Aug 31, 2023We see a lot of tanker vessels on the Columbia. Where do they come from and what are they carrying? We’ll talk about tankers and what makes them different from other cargo vessels.
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Tonight’s super blue moon is a rarity
Aug 30, 2023Tonight the moon will be full, close to the earth, and the second full moon in a single month. That makes it a super blue moon. We’ll talk more about this moon and how rare it is, and why it will cause higher than normal tides.
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A look at a proposal for floating offshore windfarms in Oregon, and a new floating wind farm in Norway
Aug 29, 2023This month, a new floating windfarm in the North Sea off Norway was offcially dedicated, after having been in successful production in the North Sea since the fall of 2022. We’ll also take a look at proposed floating wind farms off the Oregon coast.
There is a 60-day comment period underway for the Oregon project. Here’s a link to the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management page about Oregon projects. There’s info on this page and a link to file a comment about the project:
https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/Oregon
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