[Source: Volvo Ocean Race] Under the gaze of a huge spectator fleet, and a clutch of helicopters buzzing in the sky, the 4,450 nautical mile leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town to Cochin in India got underway today at 1120GMT (1320 local time) in beautiful, classic Cape Town conditions. Andreas Hanakamp, skipper of Team Russia summed up the atmosphere among the crews on the dock this morning when he said, You can never come to this place for long enough, but lets set the horses loose. We are here to race, so lets race. As the eight crews gathered onboard, saying their goodbyes and spending a few precious minutes with their families, under the blazing South African sunshine the fleet was blessed by the Reverend Rowan Smith. After a short postponement to allow the wind to stabilise, the gun echoed out across Table Bay signalling the start of leg two, which, for the first time in the history of the race, will finish in Cochin, India in December.  read more »

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Posted by: BlueWater Boat Brokerage
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Off the coast of Africa, the ocean liner American Star lies beached in Playa de Garcey, an isolated cove on the western side of Fuerteventura, the oldest and the second largest of the Canary islands.
Once the biggest single class liner in the world under the name Uss Australis, it had been berthed for twelve years at Pier 92, at the foot of New York’s West 52nd Street, and in Perama bay, when it was bougth by Chaophraya Development Transport Company which planned to tow it to Thailand and convert it into a floating luxury hotel at Phuket. Renamed American Star, she entered dry dock for a period of 68 days to allow workmen to fully prepare her for the long tow, which at an average speed of 5.5 knots, was expected to take 100 days. The Ukranian flag tug, Neftegaz 67, was contracted to make the giant tow. The propellers were removed and stored on the deck to prevent drag, and late in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, 1993, the two vessels left the Piraeus. Less than 24 hours after departure, due to very bad weather, American Star was yawing side to side and sometimes, overpassing the tug. The vessel returned the day after in the early afternoon, to wait for the weather to calm down and for adjustments to be made to the towing rig.  read more »

Everyone who sails can tie or wishes they could tie a bowline without using the rabbit-tree-fox trick. It's true that with much practice even the internal thinking, "Ok, the rabbit comes out of the hole and goes around the tree..." will go away. The point is, the bowline becomes the knot for every purpose - dock lines, anchor rodes, combining lines, tying genoa clews, and so forth.

That's fine, but where a permanent loop is required, a splice is far more professional and proper. The new braided lines take a lot of work to splice and requires special tools in the form of hollow fids. But three strand nylon line - that of the most common dock, anchor, and snubber lines - is spectacularly easy to splice. Eye, end, and long/short splices are quite easy to do and once one is known, the rest are easily mastered.  read more »

Dick has commissioned a kayak from Lodro Dawa of Monkcraft Kayaks. This isn't just any old Greenland skin-on-frame though. The design is really going to be unique. Lodro happens to be the only builder Dick approached who was willing to...aelizaga