New ultralight ultrastrong inflatable boat you can propel with swim fins, click my pics for Dave Scadden's website:
A Cutty Sark whisky bottle bearing the inscriptions "The Spirit of Adventure" "Our actions define who we are"
landed on a Queensland beach amongst pumice from the Havre Seamount.
Dr Scott Bryan, a world expert in pumice rafts from the Queensland University of Technology, said the pumice was the result of an eruption by the Havre Seamount in July 2012 in the Kermadac Islands, north of New Zealand. The underwater volcano spewed out a large amount of pumice, creating a raft estimated to be more than 20,000 square kilometres in size.
"Pumice rafts are the only process in evolutionary history that can transport species fairly rapidly - up to 30 kilometres per day - across deep oceans that would normally act as geographic barriers," Dr Bryan said.
"Species such as goose and acorn barnacles, molluscs, anemones, bristle worms, hydroids and crabs are just some of the creatures floating along on this volcanic rock. In the past, we've seen rafts become home to microcommunities of more than 80 species including corals, and sometimes the weight of the hitchhikers is so great that it causes the pumice to sink."
Tweet: @evzulu . . . email: bob @ tovmail.com . . . link to ABB AZIPOD
The Atlantic Cartier was transporting around 9 tons of uranium hexafluoride, a radioactive highly toxic compound most commonly used as an intermediate material in the production of nuclear fuel and 4 tons of explosives at the time the fire broke out in the port city of Hamburg, Germany.
For her new voyage starting in 2013
the most significant optimization of Turanor Planetsolar was a change to
the propulsion system, you guessed it:
The surface propellers were replaced by a completely immersed system!!!
PLANETSOLAR BEATS HER OWN SOLAR POWERED BOAT RECORD ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN TO SAINT MARTIN FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS:
(Photo by Birger Alnes from Google Earth)
Turanor PlanetSolar negotiates the bar into Bouregreg Marina, Morocco, North Africa at the start of her voyage to Miami, USA.
Thank G-d for the new propulsion system!!!
. . Photos by Michael Engelhardt and Bouregreg Marina.
Notice how the PlanetSolar team edited out surfing down the swells coming across the bar into Bouregreg Marina,
we just get the sanitized smooth version, that does not bode well for future info from the latest voyage?
Reminds me of when PlanetSolar arrived in Miami on her first voyage, the only people on the pontoon to greet
this historic arrival were a few connected with the project and a local news lady Kelly Butler (Hi sunshine!).
So the team motored out of Miami and came back in when there were plenty of curious people on the dock after Kelly's news cast
and presented that video as their first arrival?
Show the reality, the population of Miami could care less about solar power, they've got coal seam gas and tar sands oil!
Below the new propulsion system:
Below are a few of my comments on the original surface propellers on Turanor Planetsolar:
The 102 feet hulls of Turanor PlanetSolar should be easily pushed along at 10, even 12 knots. But they are only achieving 4 or 5 on average.
Greg Kolodziejzyk even pedaled a propeller driven Kayak at just over 5.5 knots for 24 hours!
132.3 nm per day!
It seems like a lot of the solar energy being collected is wasted by Turanor's inefficient propulsion system:
Surface propellers only display their benefits at extreme speeds, as on the Itama 60 below ...
Above: surface propellers + MAN 1550 MHP engines + fossil fuel + 48 knots + 60ft = decadent luxury ... thanks to all those prehistoric plants that gave us
the basis for a fuel with such a high energy density:)
TURANOR PLANETSOLAR'S SURFACE PROPELLERS:
In any kind of a sea the props would be out of the water half the time, probably why they are going so slowly on their voyage? Ever passed an unloaded cargo ship in a bit of a sea, the propellers thresh uselessly out of the water when the stern is in the air. Having the props at the extremity of the hulls doesn't help, as anyone with an outboard on a cruising tri/cat will know. So much for experts at testing tank facilities in Europe. They probably did it to stop the props getting fouled by trash in the ocean, and make them easy to clean and replace blades. Also a shaft straight out of the stern with the exit on the waterline is less likely to leak, and the boat can sit on the bottom without damaging the props.
Earthrace, also designed by Craig Loomes, hit a submerged object while leaving Palau and had to limp to Singapore on one engine to have major repairs.
So perhaps Craig was super cautious about prop damage when designing Turanor PlanetSolar, at the expense of not converting all the power from the electric motors into thrust except on a flat calm ocean.
Good thing the guy below is not powered by propellers on the sterns of his rowing cat like Turanor PlanetSolar above!
If you were converting the rowing cat to a pedal cat would you put the props on the sterns?
A cross section of friends I asked thought that would be an incredibly stupid place to put the propellers.
The general consensus was that only a certifiable moron would put a propeller on the transom of an ocean going displacement boat.
Rainbow Warrior 3 and her crew arrive in Bowen under sail:
Rainbow Warrior 3 and her crew in a decent breeze on a shakedown cruise in the Bay of Biscay:
The French Government in ordering the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by their secret service in Auckland harbour in 1985 were responsible for the callous murder of 8 year old Marelle Pereira's dad Fernando.
The death toll could have been much higher. Laurent Fabius (Photo on a morning plane to Rome March 2013) was Prime Minister of France at the time. He denied French complicity in the operation
until the evidence provided by New Zealand was so overwhelming that he had to admit that it was French operatives who carried out the operation. He cast the blame on those surrounding him.
Laurent Fabius is now Foreign Minister of France many years later, and is supporting the death and destruction being wreaked on kids, mums and dads in Syria by foreign backed terrorists. The leopard hasn't
changed his spots?
Laurent Fabius is working on some papers on the right in the photo above right.
BLOWING UP PARADISE
Ben Lewis who made the movie "Blowing Up Paradise" for the BBC should be persuaded to release it into the public domain.
It is too important to be gathering dust on unseen shelves, how about it Ben, lets get the information you gathered out there where it can make a difference!!!
Greenpeace ship Esperanza bridgecam pics, click pics for live mastcam:
Before Josh Fox's new movie Gasland Part II is released at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21 - click here for facebook page -
You should watch "Unearthed: The Fracking Facade" and "The Sky is Pink" which dispel some of the frenzied disinformation being spread by desperate Big Oil and Gas
players to keep their windfall revenue streams from drying up:
2013 World Record Holder - Solo Atlantic E-W Tradewinds I, Soma of Essex amazing radically improved design ocean rowing boat for sale! (scroll down boat listings)
Built and launched in late 2012 for Charlie Pitcher, this boat has had no expense spared in its construction and equipment and is considered the most advanced and optimized ocean rowing boat in the world:
(click here for details)
Just add riggers, oars and sliding seats and you too can go "not sailing"!
Corporate food kills: (all episodes of "the skinny on obesity" will play in sequence)
