Sunday, July 4, 2010

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Issuma: Cape Breton, fog, and weather fax

The good part about fog is it means the air is much warmer than the water.  Richard, Chris, and Gabriela landed in Louisbourg, Cape Breton in search of a repair for the weatherfax.  Hope he found the right socket wrench for the propeller - a Halifix stopover quest, much easier said than done.  (Maybe it's metric vs. British problem?) HERE and Here are Richard's account of the last two Nova Scotia stopovers.




Monday, June 28, 2010

Issuma - Crew for the high latitudes

If you want crew to head for the high latitudes, it might be someone like this for the times when you want somebody to, say, go up the mast.

Oyster Bay Herresoff Regatta at Seawanhaka Corinthinian Yacht Club


The water was a sheet of glass.  But the New York 30's ghosted around the course like it didn't matter.

Issuma - Careening

Careening on purpose that is - to check the hull - while stopping in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Northbound.  Is Newfoundland next?  Answers will appear HERE

Thursday, June 24, 2010

许冰梅小船上来了

NY Times Magazine: Are Blue Fin Tuna on the Brink?



Kenji Aoki for The New York Times


On the morning of June 4, in the international waters south of Malta, the Greenpeace vessels Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise deployed eight inflatable Zodiacs and skiffs into the azure surface of the Mediterranean. Protesters aboard donned helmets and took up DayGlo flags and plywood shields. With the organization’s observation helicopter hovering above, the pilots of the tiny boats hit their throttles, hurtling the fleet forward to stop what they viewed as an egregious environmental crime. It was a high-octane updating of a familiar tableau, one that anyone who has followed Greenpeace’s Save the Whales adventures of the last 35 years would have recognized. But in the waters off Malta there was not a whale to be seen.
Kenji Aoki for The New York Times
The dorsal fin of a Pacific bluefin tuna.

Readers' Comments

What was in the water that day was a congregation of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. It’s also a fish that regularly journeys between America and Europe and whose two populations, or “stocks,” have both been catastrophically overexploited. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of only two known Atlantic bluefin spawning grounds, has only intensified the crisis. By some estimates, there may be only 9,000 of the most ecologically vital megabreeders left in the fish’s North American stock, enough for the entire population of New York to have a final bite (or two) of high-grade otoro sushi. The Mediterranean stock of bluefin, historically a larger population than the North American one, has declined drastically as well......

Monday, June 21, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Issuma: reaches Nova Scotia

Richard Hudson and crew on Issuma have reached Liverpool Bay, Nova Scotia, a lovely large harbor.  It's a long way from Rio Plata, Argentina so I'm sure Richard is happy to be back in Canada.  I expect there will be a stop over at Halifax.  Steel ships need welders and craftsmen who know the material.   Halifax is a likely spot for such things.