Amundsen's North West Passage - not just a difficult sail

Northwest Passage 2012 dot com: Amundsen's North West Passage - not just a difficult sail: "With the sea ice receding at a rapid rate more and more adventurous cruising sailors are heading for the North West Passage to take their chances. But at least they have GPS and Gore-tex.
First explorer Roald Amundsen's team did not only have to find a way without such technology or charts, they were sailing a 21 metre square-sterned, gaff-rigged sloop, which had once been a herring fishing boat.
They wore woolen clothes which were not water-proof and they were tough men. They were also pretty mean scientists. Science writer Ned Rozell explains.

"

'via Blog this'

Twenty years from now - Mark Twain

'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'
- Mark Twain

Ambrose Lightship back at South Street Seaport

In the good old days lightships marked the shoals from Nantucket to Delaware Bay.  (Well maybe not so good if your were on duty in a short steep chop).  One of them was the Ambrose Lightship which marked the entrance to the Ambrose channel into New York harbor.  The Ambrose has gotten a new coat of paint and is now back on station at South Street Seaport to fascinate tourists and schoolchildren. h/t Save Our Seaport