I know when I am away at a regatta - especially at an ocean venue - I love to partake in the local fish. But there may be reason to think twice about the petite filet or the chicken kabobs next time. Recent nationwide studies have raised new worries about the level of mercury in fish.
One of the recent studies was conducted by Oceana, a marine conservation group. Researchers tested 94 samples of tuna and other forms of sushi purchased from grocery stores and restaurants in 23 cities. The fish was shipped to an independent certified lab in Michigan for testing.
“We found very high levels of mercury in nearly half the samples,” says Kimberly Warner, a marine scientist with Oceana.
One sample of sushi tuna had a mercury content of 2.2 parts per million, which is more than twice the “action level” established by the Food and Drug Administration. That’s the point at which the FDA can take food off the market. To hear the full story CLICK HERE. And for a downloadable card that can help you make smart and sustainable fish choices, CLICK HERE.
How can sailors do more for the environment? We are users of the environment and no one really wants to sail in dirty water - although many of us do. So what can we as sailors do about it?
Over the next few weeks I will be developing ideas of how sailors can do our part to protect and improve the environments we use for recreation.
To start with…have some fun while learning a bit more about the oceans.
The 5th Annual San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, the first of its kind in North America, kicks off Friday and runs through the weekend. Filmmakers from around the world submitted their work in an effort to encourage awareness and conservation of our oceans. The following are some of the West Coast-focused films on the schedule:
- The Jurassic Journey — Just where do leatherback turtles go when they set off from the West Coast?
- What’s Killing the Sea Otters? — Find out why the California sea otter’s recently revived population has stalled out.
- The Science of Big Waves — Spectacular footage of Mavericks waves and where they’re born.
- 19 Arrests, No Convictions — San Francisco bar owner George Farnsworth was, at 71, the oldest person to swim from Alcatraz on New Year’s Day.
- Returning Home: Bringing the Common Murre back to Devil’s Slide Rock — Devastated by the ‘86 oil spill, birds are once again breeding in their ancestral Bay Area home.
- Restoring Balance: Removing the Black Rat from Anacapa Island — See how the destruction of one human-introduced species — the black rat — saved other native species on this Channel Island.
Check out www.oceanfilmfest.org for the full schedule and ticket information.The $60 weekend pass is a bargain, especially considering that individual programs are $10.
If we are lucky, in the future there will be some great sailing/conservation films. Imagine a Warren Miller meets Roy Disney’s Morning Light Project meets Cousteau kind of film. I know I’d go.
Since Sunday afternoon, the 110-foot maxi-catamaran Gitana 13 has taken advantage of a sustained southeasterly wind to once again chalk up boat speeds Monday afternoon that permited a 600+ day. Still cruising along the Uruguayan coast and nearing Argentina—the route chosen to keep a good distance from the Saint Helena high-pressure system—Lionel Lemonchois and his nine-man crew are preparing to enter another zone of unstable winds. The clear sailing along the Latin American coast will be interrupted on Tuesday when the team encounters a stormy low-pressure system, however, they hope to catch another set of solid high-pressure system winds in the evening to help carry them toward Cape Horn. The goal of the crew is to set a time benchmark for a maxi multihull on the 14,000-mile New York to San Francisco route, and improve Yves Parlier’s record (Route de l’Or 1998, on 60-foot Aquitaine Innovation multihull). The record dates back to 1998, when Yves Parlier and his crew finished the Route de l’Or in 57 days, 3 hours and 21 minutes. — More Here!
Not quite two weeks out of New York, the 110-ft maxi-cat Gitana 13 is humming along under a waning moon and what can only be described as a ‘mixed bag’ of weather off Brazil. The 10-man crew under skipper Lionel Lemonchois is in shorts and T-shirts for a while longer as they line up to round the one mark in their 14,000-mile sprint to San Francsico later this week: Cape Horn. According to a recent report, they were on a heading of 240° as they rode the western edge of a high-pressure system. “The Southern Cross is where it should be, to port” wrote crewman Nicholas Reynaud in the online log.Since they left New York in January 16, the Gitana crew have never stopped moving — although it wasn’t always fast or in the right direction. Exiting the doldrums to the south, they were detoured by a stormy depression that cost them 500 miles — their only ‘pit stop’ so far. On Saturday morning, they jibed for the first time. On Saturday night, light winds had the big cat down to 4 knots and the crew a bit sleep-deprived after multiple sail changes. Despite the delays, they are still ahead of the record pace for the Route de l’Or (route of gold) set by Yves Parlier in 1989. His New York-San Francisco record, set aboard the Open 60 Aquitaine Innovations, was 57 days, 3 hours, 21 minutes.
At last report this morning, Gitana 13 was finally getting back to cruising speed in steady southeasterly wind. “The wind is back and Gitana 13 is cruising along at 25-30 knots. It’s great to get back up to these speeds and be able to again tap into the boat’s potential,” reports skipper Lemonchois. The plan for the next few days is to keep up the pace by skirting around the west side of the Saint Helena high—which is very broad in the southern summer—by sailing along the coast of Uruguay and Argentina.
For more, including video updates from on board, log onto www.gitana-team.com/en.
Key West Race week has finished up and people are returning to their desks, their offices, and their lives.
Key West Race Week 2008, put on by Premier Racing, was another wild ride. The weather cooperated in many ways for the sailors and sponsors by providing exciting action and a couple of postponed days.
Monday started with too much wind, Wednesday didn’t have enough. Thursday was a challenging day and Friday was the sort of thing that dreams are made of…just enough fun to make everyone want to come back again next year.
While Key West Race week pulls plenty of international talent, it is a great place to see local heroes do well. It is an expensive and overwhelmingly challenging event on the water and off. The logistics alone of getting the boat and crew there and not allowing the little things to distract you can overwhelm some teams (Call us…we can help *wink*).
But one local Annapolis team continues to show off how well it can be done. Team Tenacious, owned by Carl and Scott Gitchell, is a team that travels far, sails hard, and does well - and they do it all on their own (with the help of VERY capable crew of course).
From 2001 to 2004 I had the pleasure of sailing with this great group (funny - they do better now that I’m not on the boat??), and it makes me extremely happy to see them do so well. This year they were the only Annapolis J105 to crack the Key West top 10. Well done Team Tenacious!
Note: Check that first picture out. Tenacious screaming towards the finish. If you notice that is the bow pulpit of what I assume is the committee boat. Never scared to cut it close - must be an Army thing. For some classic pictures of Team Tenacious check out the Gale Force Photos page.
Fifty-one year old French skipper Francis JOYON reclaimed the title of fastest singlehanded sailor around the world, knocking an incredible 14 days off the existing record. Saturday night he completed his singlehanded round non-stop round the world voyage in a new record time of 57 days 13 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds (subject to ratifications by the World Sailing Speed Record Council).
Having set off at 10:05:52GMT on 23 November, the 51 year old Frenchman crossed the finish line off the mouth of the Rade de Brest in northwest France at 00:39:58
local time or 23:39:58 GMT.
In the process he has demolished Ellen MacArthur’s record of 71 days 14 hours and 18 minutes, set three years ago, by 14 days 44 minutes and 27 seconds. In the process Joyon has sailed around the world almost 20% faster than Ellen, an incredible leap considering only three years have passed since the girl wonder’s attempt.
Impressively Joyon’s time around the world single-handed is the fastest EVER non-stop circumnavigation, fully crewed or otherwise barring just one - the current Jules Verne Trophy record belonging to Bruno Peyron and the crew of Orange II, who set a time of 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds in March 2005. To give some comparison the year before Orange II’s attempt, Steve Fossett and the crew of Cheyenne took 58 days 9 hours and 32 minutes while Olivier de Kersauson and Geronimo, again fully crewed, took 63 days 13 hours and 59 minutes.
