Extreme Sailing Series : A major collision, 4 capsizes, 1 broken mast in one day

Check out this dramatic compilation of the four dramatic capsizes from Act 2 Qingdao, day 3.

The Wave, Muscat (OMAN), Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT), Team GAC Pindar (GBR) and Oman Air (OMAN) .

It was the very gusty conditions that tested some of the world's best sailors to their limits, and beyond, with 3 to 23 knots, and up to 30 knots by the final race.
Never in four years of the Extreme Sailing Series has there been so much drama in one day.

The Rime of the Modern Mariner

An update of Coleridge's epic poem is a beautiful morality tale for our times

From TheGuardian

In Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a wizened seadog meets three gallants on their way to a wedding and detains one of them in order to recount his terrifying story.
You know the rest.
The mariner's tale – out at sea he shot an albatross, causing a terrible curse to fall upon his ship and her crew – is an eerily powerful parable about the reverence a man should have for all God's creatures.


Is it possible to update or recast such a masterpiece?
Hmm. Until last week I would have said almost certainly not.
The chutzpah! But then I read Nick Hayes's The Rime of the Modern Mariner and my doubts fell away.
This is a beautiful book.
The text might not be so rich as the original – Hayes's nylon nets and polythene bags did not work on this reader quite so effectively as Coleridge's "death-fires" and "witch's oils" – but the illustrations more than make up for this.
As a draughtsman, Hayes here places himself firmly in an English romantic tradition that includes Thomas Bewick and Eric Gill, Samuel Palmer and Stanley Spencer.
As a result, holding this exquisite book in your hands (his publisher, Jonathan Cape, has spared no expense) feels akin to a sacramental act.

In Hayes's Rime, the mariner accosts an office worker in a park as he eats his lunchtime sandwich (having casually discarded the plastic box in which he bought it).
The tale he tells is one of environmental disaster. Stranded in the North Pacific Gyre – a swirling and poisonous whirlpool of plastic waste – the mariner comes face to face with the consequences of our unthinking consumption.
As in Coleridge's poem, there are spectral animations, and seemingly wrathful gods, but something more prosaic is at work too: the sea is a confetti of bottle tops, and when the mariner hangs the albatross's body around his neck, he sees that it has been strangled by the fine nylon gauze of a fishing net.
Back on land, cradled by a bower of ancient trees, his pillow a clump of sweet cicely, the mariner finally understands that the earth, too, has a heartbeat and that we ignore it at our peril.
From here on in he will remind everyone he meets of this simple truth.

Does our Blackberry-addicted drone listen?
Of course not.
He mistakes the mariner for a hobo, tosses him a coin and returns to "a world detached of consequence".
On the way back to his shiny office block, he obliviously passes a shop called Humankind, in the window of which hangs a sign.
It says "Closing down sale".
Back on the park bench, our mariner listens to the melodies of the breeze, and wonders again at mankind's blithe disregard for the planet.
The expression on his face combines horror and sagacity quite brilliantly.
Those who know their Old Testament will think nervously of the prophets and tingle pleasurably with guilt.

Links :

• TheForbiddenPlanet blog : Director’s Commentary: Nick Hayes on the Rime of the Modern Mariner
  

Pierre Desceliers' World Map 1550

A stunning visual encyclopaedia fit for a King

From BBC (The Beauty of maps)

This 16th century world map is drawn in the style of a sea chart, with 32 compass directions and navigational lines.
But it is not what it seems.
Presented in the style of a sea-chart with compass-roses, wind-faces and navigation it was clearly a work of art not intended for use at sea.
It is highly unusual in its dual orientation; north of the equator texts and figures are inverted, suggesting that it was specifically designed to be spread out and viewed around a large table.

The map is actually created as a work of art for the French King, Henri II (1519-1559), designed to be displayed in his 'cabinet of curiosities' or laid out on a table in his library.
The map comes from the renowned Dieppe School of Cartography.
It is a large, hand-produced item by Pierre Desceliers, combining knowledge from both French and Portuguese sources -two pioneering nations in the Golden Age of Discovery.

One striking feature is how accurate the coastal lines are for a map at this period.
Desceliers calls on geographical knowledge to paint a kind of visual encyclopaedia.
It is a large piece that is remarkably accurate on details of Europe and America - the discovered world.
It is also a work of extraordinary fantasy and speculation such as the notion that Australia is allegedly evident on the edges of the map 50 years before it was officially discovered.
Was this good luck or bound within real knowledge?

This view of the world is based on a blend of classical sources and direct observation.
It is a world-view from time of nautical discovery, as well a beautiful Renaissance work of art.

It is a fascinating look into the world of the cartographer and the artist, and amazing to consider the expertise that they had to develop to interpret the world that was being gradually unfurled in the 16th century.

Links :

• other world map from Desceliers (1546) : interactive Photosynth
• British Library images online : 1550 world map
• TheGuardian : Desceliers map details I / II / III / IV / V
  

Shipping noise pulps 'ears' of squid and octopuses

Cephalopods such as this cuttlefish can be injured by even short exposure to noise pollution.
Credit: Laboratori d'Aplicacions Bioacústiques, Universitat Politènica de Catalunya

From NewScientist

It's not just dolphins and whales that suffer from the noise of shipping, sonar and oil prospecting.
Experiments on squid, cuttlefish and octopuses show that their balancing organs are so badly damaged by sound similar to submarine noise pollution that they become practically immobile.
The consequences seem permanent.

"For the first time we are seeing the effects of noise pollution on species that apparently have no use for sound," says Michel André of the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain.
"We were shocked by the magnitude of the trauma," he says.

The results of the experiments, in which André's team exposed captive cuttlefish, octopuses and squid to low-frequency sound for 2 hours, seem to confirm that "ear" damage in nine giant squid that unexpectedly washed up on Spanish beaches in 2001 and 2003 was caused by low-frequency sounds from nearby seismic surveys for oil and gas.

"At the time, we couldn't prove the cause of the damage," says Angel González of the Institute of Marine Investigation in Vigo, Spain – a member of the team that reported the fate of the giant squid in 2004. But this new paper confirms for the first time that low-frequency sounds induce acoustic trauma in cephalopods."

Stuck in the middle

In their recent experiments, André and his colleagues were astonished by extensive damage to the statocyst, a bulbous organ in the head of cephalopods that senses gravity and motion, enabling them to balance in the water and direct where and how fast they swim.
Without this organ, cephalopods are practically powerless to move, are unable to hunt, and will become easy prey themselves.

Squid, octopuses and cuttlefish were exposed to sweeps of low-frequency noise ranging from 50 to 400 hertz – an "acoustic smog" similar to that created by oil and gas exploration, and shipping.

Post-mortems showed that the linings of statocysts from cephalopods not exposed to sound retained the fine hairs that sway as the animals move through water, and are essential to the animals' balance and orientation.

Statocysts from the exposed animals, by contrast, had lost huge patches of hair, leaving holes in the membranes of the organ's cells.
The insides of the cells had pushed their way through the holes, and mitochondria – the power plants of cells – had suffered extensive damage.

By killing and examining the animals at intervals up to four days after the single sound exposure, the team showed that the damage got worse with time, long after the sound had been turned off.

Flight and freeze

André's team also observed the behaviour of the animals during and after exposure.
Their first reaction was to try to escape, says André, but they soon stopped moving.
The cuttlefish settled on the bed of the tank and the other cephalopods simply floated at a constant depth.

The team say the unexpected results could mean that human noise affects the entire web of ocean life.
They reinforce the need for regulations to limit noise pollution from marine activities, says André.

His team is planning experiments to determine how the damage happens, and, crucially, what levels of sound would be tolerable to the animals.

Links :

• BBC : the cephalopods can hear you
• ESA : Low-frequency sounds induce acoustic trauma in cephalopods
• Discovery : Ocean noise pollution blowing holes in squids' heads
  

Open ocean rower Roz Savage talks sunsets and pirates

From TakePart (Jon Bowemaster)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the ill-advised risks private boats take by venturing into pirate-heavy parts of the Indian Ocean.
Every new killing and hostage-taking puts more people at risk, and not for reasons of national security or economic necessity.
It’s a big world … why not stay out of “the most dangerous waters on the planet,” unless sailing them is absolutely necessary?

A quick response came from my friend Roz Savage, who is about to set off by 21-foot rowboat to cross a section of … the Indian Ocean.
This is the fourth leg—out of five—of a seven-year adventure that will take Savage around the globe solo and self-propelled.

“The pirates are ranging up to 1,300 miles from the Somali coast, which covers a large swath of the Indian Ocean, but by no means all of it,” she wrote.

“About 75 percent of the Indian Ocean is as yet untouched by piracy. I am all in favour of mitigating the risks involved in adventuring, but we need to get the right balance between sensible caution and over-reaction. These opportunistic pirates are already causing enough trouble. Let's not give them more power than they merit.”

Fair point. But when Savage departs from Freemantle, Australia, Tuesday, April 12, her destination will be kept hush-hush, out of respect for the pirates.

Initially, her goal was to cross the entirety of the Indian Ocean, east to west, landing somewhere along the coast of Africa.
To avoid ramped-up pirate activity, the end-point was switched to Mumbai.
Now, she won't say where she’s intending to make port.
Unlike previous rows, global satellite tracking will not be posting daily locations at her website.

Here’s what she wrote to me a week ago: “I had an interesting meeting with the Australian maritime authorities yesterday. A pirate attack was reported further out into the Indian Ocean, closer to their territory, just a day or so ago. So you are quite right to urge caution.

“I just hope that NOT having a big white sail advertising my presence will stand me in good stead....”

To date, the former management consultant has covered about 11,000 miles of ocean by oar, crossing the Atlantic in 2005-2006 in 103 days, then across the Pacific in two stints (San Francisco to Hawaii in 99 days and Hawaii to Kiribati in 104 days)
Once successful across part of the Indian Ocean, the final leg—New York City to London—is scheduled for 2012.

Some highlights from recent Q&As with Roz as she prepared her boat, the Sedna, in Freemantle:

What fuels you when you're all alone out on a big ocean with just your boat and oars?

I can’t lie—I find it very challenging being out on the ocean.
It’s not my natural habitat.
It has its moments of beauty—the stars, the sea creatures, the sunrises and sunsets, and of course the moments of accomplishment—but generally it’s uncomfortable at best, and terrifying at worst.

But the ocean has been an incredible teacher. I’ve discovered resources within myself I never would have known existed if I hadn’t taken this leap of faith.

What is the single strongest lesson the open ocean offers an individual soul?

I am all too aware that I get no special privileges just because I am a human. Out there, I am just another animal, and subject to the laws of nature.

When I was rowing my first ocean, the Atlantic, I kept wondering why it was being so mean to me.
I was (I thought) a good person doing the right thing for the right reasons.
So why was it making my life so difficult?
That year, 2005, was officially the worst year ever for weather in the Atlantic, including Hurricane Katrina
In the rough conditions, all four of my oars broke, I got tendinitis in my shoulders, and the 103 days of the crossing were mostly uncomfortable, and sometimes downright dangerous.

Ultimately, I learned not to take it personally.
Nature does not make moral judgments—on me individually or on all of us collectively.
Our continued existence as a species does not depend on whether we “deserve” to survive in a moral sense, but rather a practical, scientific sense.
Given what we have done to our only planet, is human life sustainable in the long term?
Time will tell, but big brains and opposing thumbs won’t help us much if we have poisoned our ecosphere beyond what our bodies can adapt to.

Links :

• MarineGeoGarage blog : Rowing across endangered ocean