Goliath crane under tow to Romania

On March 7 the tug Allie B headed out to sea from Boston with the giant Quincy shipyards crane on a barge called Brooklyn Bridge, bound for Romania.

Tugster has all the details and links to photos.

Images above courtesy of Kreative Licence Art Studio where the entire voyage is tracked here

Volvo: Iceberg at 2 O'Clock

Green Dragon (the Irish/Chinese consortium) is sailing at 50 degrees South - what should be above the ice zone (that's why there are ice gates - to keep boats out of the ice zone.  But the icebergs don't know about the rules.

They saw three last night - and then these during the day.  Here is the video

Volvo: Just for the fun of it

Average boat speed 22.5 knots

Maybe 2,000 miles from the Horn.

Not so much when you are doing 500 nm days

5 day forecast predicts winds 35 - 50 kts at the Cape

Here's some fire hose planing video

Victory - Rich Wilson Finishes Vendee RTW Solo

New York times

PORTS / OTHER SPORTS

Sailor Finishes Ocean Race After 121 Days at Sea

By LYNN ZINSER

Published: March 11, 2009

At age 58, Rich Wilson is the oldest sailor to finish the grueling round-the-world Vendée Globe ocean race and only the second American

And for more details check the Vendee Globe site

Richard Hudson: Issuma Back in the Water

No blog post yet, but this shot from Richard's picasa photostream during a sail on the river from Buenos Aires to La Plata demonstrates virtues common to Richard's summer crews.

Vendee: Downwind for Rich Wilson - Sunday Arrival

Rich Wilson is sailing downwind for Les Sable D'Olonne, France, about to complete the solo, non-stop circumnavigation in 118 days.  The 59 year old American, aboard Great American III has not had an easy go of it, but he is on the verge of finishing in 9th position with two boats behind him.  19 starters retired. Vincent Riou was given redress for the damage he suffered in rescuing Jean Le Cam, whose boat capsized and turtled when the ballast bulb was lost.  Here's the link to the Vendee Globe

Volvo: Half-way to Rio, leader loses forestay

Pity Telefonica Blue and its crew. What can you say when you're 6,000 miles from port with 6,000 miles to go and the forestay fitting snaps in two?  

A jury rig with halyards will keep the mast up so long as the wind is at your back.  But you're crippled upwind.  And half-way between you and Rio is Cape Horn.  Port William in Chile is one possiblity - but that's 3,000 miles.  Heading west to New Zealand for repairs is another - but that's upwind - and the winds are light in that direction.

Other than that all is copacetic in the fleet with only 96 nm separating 1st from 5th place 3 weeks out of Qingdao, as they head east to the two ice gates - mid-Pacific points above which the boats must pass  to stay clear of the iceberg zone.  And points are gained for your position at each gate.

Here's the Race Data Centre. Check the 2D viewer when you get there.

The next step in drug cases: product stewardship

My comments on the landmark preemption decision of the United States Supreme Court in Wyeth v. Levine have been moved to my new blog - Otherwise, Commentaries on Law, Language & Politics 

1A - My Monhegan skiff

I'll tell the full story when I get the facts straight, launch it in Maine, and have some time to tell the tale.  The short of it is I just closed the deal on Sherm's skiff - an 11 foot Monhegan skiff that I bought from the kind folks at Carpenter's Boatshop in Pemaquid.

It will spend summers on the Back River, behind our cottage in Friendship.

The green one is mine - 1A. (story to follow)

The other shot is to demonstrate a Monhegan skiff in action on Monhegan.  Good for two men and a 50 lb barrel of bait.  I won't carry that much bait - but I will carry 60 lbs of Labrador Retriever.

Somebody's gotta do it!

And that may be East River Rigging - when you need a guy (or doll) to scale the walls, looking for leaks and loose cornices.