Bouwe Bekking, skipper of Telefonica Blue has filed a Request for Redress with the Race Committee over two incidents that occurred at the start of Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Telefonica’s claim is that the start area was set in water that was too shallow for the VOR70’s to navigate safely.
Media reports at the time stated that Telefonica Blue had struck an uncharted rock.
Telefonica Blue hit an bottom of Fuchan Bay, Qingdao just before the start of Leg 5, while sailing in the starting area. She claims the shoal was uncharted.
She then made the decision to return to harbour to check for damage before starting the 12,300nm leg to Rio de Janeiro…. Details
Charles Brigham was 28 when he straddled his bike to embark on an ecological tour of the world but could be 33 by the time he returns home to Madison, in Wisconsin.
“I love bikes and wanted to travel,” he told AFP during a Paris stopover. “I don’t think it’s natural to fly in a plane or even travel by car. People weren’t meant to travel so quickly.”
So Brigham, who studied electrical and computer engineering but hates technology and wound up working in a bike shop, set off in September 2007 with a good bike, 3,000 dollars, a pair of trousers and 30 kilos (66 pounds) of camping, cooking and first aid gear.
“I packed a bunch of stuff, threw a party and rode out of town.”…Â Details
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Rob Robertson recently motored his classic 1939 wooden cruiser up to a dock on Charleston’s wind-swept Cooper River and donated the $145,000 vessel to the South Carolina Maritime Foundation.
It’s the third vessel that the foundation that operates the tall ship Spirit of South Carolina has accepted in recent months, and four more donations are pending. And that success bucks the usual trend of boat donations tapering off in a sluggish economy.
Robertson’s boat, The Frolic, which would cost $748,000 if built today, will help the foundation’s mission of providing education programs on the water for students.
“We had to come up with creative ways to generate cash,” in a tight economy,… Details
Reporting from Popotla, Mexico — Nallely and Heriberto Salgado boarded the Mexican fishing skiff bobbing off the Baja California coast last week and watched warily in the moonlight as 19 other people squeezed onto the vessel designed to carry no more than a dozen.
A smuggler piloting the 25-foot boat promised a short ride before landing on a beach in San Diego.
But 12 hours later, the Salgados were still being lashed with sea spray. The thick fog had burned off, leaving a panorama of brilliant blue, with no land in sight.
“We saw only ocean all around us,” said Nallely Salgado. “And we were running out of gas.”
With tougher enforcement and new barriers rising on land along the U.S.-Mexico border, many would-be immigrants like the ones crowded aboard the Tiburon are taking to the sea…. Details