GPS attacks under way in Eastern Mediterranean and Baltic

Interesting.

I would think this wouldn't just be limited to flights but also to shipping.  Chartplotters are an awfully handy thing but paper charts are probably immune to these attacks.

First ships leave port of Baltimore

Still a lot of work to do and restrictions on size and weather conditions, but good news from Baltimore.  

Port of Baltimore has limited reopening

Lots and lots of restrictions, but ships 60,000 tons or less and 30' draft will be able to pass through a new restricted channel into and out of the harbor.

A reconstruction of the Baltimore bridge crash from someone with a nautical background

There are a lot of people talking about this who don't know what they're talking about because they've never set foot on a boat, let alone captained one.  Here's a very interesting breakdown of the incident from a professional captain.  The ship broadcast a Mayday call before the crash and AIS data seem to imply that they ran the engines in reverse as the ship drifted off course.  It looks a lot like a failure in the steering system which is all fly-by-wire computer controlled these days.

He also describes the equipment on board - for example, a black box data recorder like airlines have.  I hadn't known that commercial ships have those, but do now. 

The video does not discuss what I am hearing other places, that there was a power outage on the ship, lasting around a minute.  Power came back on, but then failed again.  The ship is Singapore flagged, and Singapore has a reputation for strict enforcement of nautical regulations.

My suspicion is that this was a single point of failure, or a situation where redundant systems both failed at the same time.

UPDATE 26 MARCH 2024 16:50: It's confirmed, the MV Dali lost power for a considerable time before impact, and when power was restored both ran the engine in full reverse as well as dropped the port side anchor.

UPDATE 26 MARCH 2024 17:03: There is a lot of buzz supposedly from Port of Baltimore personnel that the Dali had repeated power outages at dock during the two says before setting sail.  This is unconfirmed, but interesting.

For sure the ship lost power, as you can see in the second video.  When power came back on and the engine ran hard reverse, the "prop walk" kicked the stern to port, taking the ship's heading starboard towards the bridge.  Dali is single screw, so prop walk is a real thing here.

S.S. United States to be evicted from its pier?

The Queen Of The World sent me this sad story:

The ship's remarkable speed earned it the coveted Blue Riband award from Great Britain upon its maiden voyage in 1952. Partially sponsored by the U.S. government during the Cold War era, it was designed as a potential rapid troop carrier if geopolitical tensions escalated, according to the website for the SS United States Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that has overseen the vessel since 2011.

Despite its high level of regard and rich history, the ship faces an uncertain future as it languishes at Pier 82 in south Philadelphia. Its retirement has been fraught with challenges, including the recent threat of eviction due to a lawsuit from Pier 82's landlord, Penn Warehousing, according to an NPR report on Monday, March 11.

The lawsuit alleges the SS United States Conservancy owes between $700,000 and $800,000 in back rent, Warren Jones, one of the conservancy's board members, told the radio station. He said the organization entered into the agreement more than a decade ago, and during the pandemic, the rent was unjustly doubled.

This story is of interest to TQOTW, since she actually was a passenger on that ship.  Her dad was in the Air Force and posted to the UK in the early 1960s; they returned from PCS on this.  It's sad to see what the ship has become from what it used to be.  TQOTW watched this with me and remembered all sorts of things, like the signal flags at the swimming pool.

That was a different world, and people would rather spend 8 hours on a plane than 5 days on a ship, even one as grand as the United States.

 

Things I did not know, vol MCDXVI

I knew that a sailboat under sail has right of way over powered vessels (technically the sailboat is the "Stand On" vessel and the power boat is the "Give Way" vessel.  The basic Coast Guard Auxiliary course goes over this in decent detail.

What I did not know was that an aircraft carrier launching and recovering aircraft has right of way over a sailboat under sail (i.e. the Carrier now is the Stand On vessel).

This was important a year ago when the French carrier Charles DeGaul collided with a sailboat under sail (another thing I had not known).  Nobody was injured (although I'd think that some egos were damaged).  This video breaks down what happened and what the COLREGS say.

And one last thing I didn't know - don't the French have any escort ships for their Aircraft Carrier?  I'd think a corvette would be excellent for shooing away nearby civilian ships.

Aesop, about the Internets that you just won ...

... you can pick them up in the usual place.

There are only two things I have to add to the discussion of the Titan/Titanic disaster:

1. OceanGate seems not to have considered that their target customer had enough cash to sue them into oblivion if things went Tango Uniform.

2. OceanGate's investors did not consider what their liability would be if things went Tango Uniform.

The legal proceedings promise to be epic.  And yeah, I don't care that the release that their customers signed mentioned the word "death" three times.  Doesn't release them from liability for reckless endangerment and misrepresentation. 

UPDATE 23 JUNE 2023 19:42:  Big Country gets an honorable mention with this one:

He has more, so get over there.  He's of a similar mind of the legal predicament that OceanGate is in.

UPDATE 23 JUNE2024 20:04:  Miguel has an important pro-tip.

S.S. Minnow still going strong after 60 years

This is cool.

Ransomware shuts down Super Yacht shipyard

Interesting:

German shipbuilder Lürssen, known for making super yachts for the exorbitantly wealthy, experienced a ransomware attack over Easter weekend that has incapacitated operations.

With a high revenue — it has an expected annual revenue of nearly $2.2 billion this year — it's likely that the shipbuilding company has a running roster of exclusive clients, making it a quality candidate for threat actors. And while Lürssen makes luxury yachts, it also builds sea vessels for the German navy, making the current standstill in production and operations due to the attack all the more unfavorable.

Extortion attempts similar to this one have targeted other luxury brands, such as Moncler and Ferrari, where, in the former's case, employee and customer data was stolen and leaked onto the Dark Web. It is currently unknown whether or not sensitive or personally identifiable information (PII) has been stolen from the shipping company; however, a Lürssen spokesperson has stated that they "immediately initiated all necessary protective measures and informed the responsible authorities."

 I expect that anyone who can afford a $100M boat would not be happy having their personal information leaked.

UPDATE 14 APRIL 2023 18:23: Youtube channel eSysman (who seems to cover all things Superyacht) gives his take (from a "Below Decks"/crew perspective).  It's interesting how he plays the "Spot The Yacht" game.  While it's kind of hard to feel too sorry for billionaires, I can't imagine that Lurssen's clients are happy at all.

Dad Joke CCXXXXIII

Four men are on a boat.  They have five cigarettes but nothing to light them with.

They throw one cigarette overboard and the boat becomes a cigarette lighter.

Dad Joke CXXXXV

What are bald sea captains most worried about?

Cap sizes. 

Are U.S. Navy Captains now in charge of Carnival Cruise ships?

2 Carnival Cruise ships collide in Cozumel, Mexico; at least 6 people injured.

On the plus side, it wasn't a Destroyer running into the world's largest container ship.  On the down side, one of the ships was docked, so I'm guessing that at least one Carnival Captain is polishing up resume.doc.

Dang, we were just there three weeks ago.  How come all the fun happens when I'm gone?

Back now

The Queen Of The World and I are back from a week's cruise, celebrating our anniversary.  Some friends on the ship fixed up our cabin:

The cruise was the High Seas Rally - the entire ship was chartered for a motorcycle rally.  It was a blast - formal evening dinner meant wear your leathers.  I'll put up some more pix later, but apologies to all for the light posting (I scheduled some posts but it wasn't as many as usual) and the complete failure to reply to your comments.  We didn't get the phone/Internet plan and so were entirely off-grid for the week.  It was awesome.

The Sunshine Skyway bridge, St. Petersburg FL

German Greens fighting new "green" power projects

Last week I posted about how wind farms are decimating wildlife, from insects to bats to birds to eagles, because environmentalists are ignoring the problem.  It seems that this is not true in Germany, of all places:

The expansion of wind power in the first half of this year collapsed to its lowest level since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in 2000. All in all, just 35 wind turbines were build with an output of 231 megawatts. “This corresponds to a decline of 82 percent compared to the already weak period of the previous year”, according to the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) in Berlin.

“This makes one nearly speechless,” said Matthias Zelinger at the presentation of the data. The managing director of the Power Systems division of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) spoke of a “blow to the guts of the energy turnaround”. This actual development doesn’t match “at all to the current climate protection debate”.

...

The most important cause lies in the legal resistance of wildlife and forest conservationists fighting new wind farms. The BWE President referred to an industry survey of the onshore wind agency. According to its findings, more than 70 percent of the legal objections are based on species conservation, especially the threat to endangered bird species and bats.

Well done to the German environmentalists for holding to their principles.  I've been very hard on the environmental movement in the past, mostly because the rampant hypocrisy so often on display.  But not here.  Anyone who loves the outdoors can applaud this victory, whether you believe in man made global warming or not.

And today is a twofer in non-hypocritical environmentalist news:

Greta Thunberg to sail Atlantic for climate conferences

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has accepted a ride across the Atlantic by boat to attend two key climate conferences.

The teenager will make the journey aboard the Malizia II, a high-speed 18-metre (60ft) yacht built to race around the globe.

“We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to New York in mid August,” she tweeted.

Thunberg refuses to fly because of the environmental impact of air travel.

Miss Thunberg is a bit of a social media sensation in Scandinavia.  She and I clearly disagree on whether mankind is causing the heat death of the planet, but good for her sticking to her principles.  She has chosen a very inconvenient (and quite frankly pretty uncomfortable) alternative transportation mode to keep from being a hypocrite on the subject.  In this she is seemingly unique among all the world's climate activists - none of them have given up jet travel to climate conferences.  Thunberg is showing everyone that it really isn't easy being Green, but being Green is exactly what she is being.

And a little child shall lead them.

- Isaiah 11:6

Bravo to Miss Thunberg.  The kids are all right.  Maybe wrong, but all right.

Been busy

May be busy some more.

Made for an outstanding birthday for the Queen Of The World, though.

Climate change ship of fools

The Press has given us 20 years of "hottest year EVAH" stories which, while not convincing governments to tank their economies via a huge carbon tax seemingly has convinced a lot of people that the world is, well, hotter than it's ever been.  The wages of listening to scientists these days is sometimes high indeed:

Ice crushes sailboat trying to navigate the Northwest Passage; two people had to be rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard. (article in German, but Google Translate will give you the gist)

The Northwest Passage is the sea route across the top of North America.  People have tried for centuries to find a reliable way to sail there because it would vastly shorten the distance a ship must go between Europe and east Asia.  Henry Hudson (of Hudson's Bay fame) died in 1611 looking for the Passage, as did the entire crew of the two ship Franklin expedition in the 1840s.  It took until 1906 for Roald Amundsen to successfully navigate it, and remember that he was the first man to get to the South Pole and return alive.

So even with all of these "hottest years EVAH" this latest ship was crushed by the ice and sank, in the middle of summer.

Ya know, if all this Global Warming science were as settled as everyone tells me, you'd think you'd see evidence falling off the trees supporting warming.  Strange how I keep seeing all sorts of evidence that nothing is really changing much.

Interestingly, they went down in the ice a day's sail past Baffin Island.  Schooner Fare did a song about a whaler locked up in the ice off Baffin Island, back in the day.  Libertyman for sure will recognize this.

Weekend!

Time to go out on the boat!

Or not.

Schooner Fare - The Mary Ellen Carter

I wrote yesterday about my misspent youth, and how buddy 2cents and I would hang out in a local pub listening to sea music (it was Maine, after all; think of it as Country music but with boats instead of tractors).  Schooner Fare was famous in New England for this kind of music.  This will give you a feel for the music, but you need to imagine the smoky basement of a pub with glasses of Guinness on the tables to really get the feel.

Sadly, Tom Rowe lost his battle with cancer in the 90s, passing far too young.  The songwriter of this song - Nova Scotia's Stan Rogers - dies in an airplane fire at the shockingly young age of 33.  The song, interestingly, seems to have saved a sailor's life.



The Mary Ellen Carter (Songwriter: Stan Rogers)
She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.

There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash.
We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.

Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to us, they let her rest below.
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.

But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
For she's worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Rise again, rise again,
that her name not be lost
To the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best
and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

All spring, now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.

But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and girded her around.
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain.
And make the Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again.

For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They won't be laughing in another day. . .

And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again
though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you've lost,
be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Bootnote: I posted about a different Schooner Fare song a few years back, about the man who saved Old Ironsides.

Well that's your problem, right there

A ferry seems to have lost power (presumably on the bridge?) and does a hard turn to port, ramming a breakwater.  Yow.



That's something you don't see every day.

Want

Pretty sure this picture was taken in the Sea of Cortez.