MarineBuzz.com

Spare this weekend to go for online shopping of private islands.

Why do you need private islands ?

• to get out of your day to day monotonous stressful routine
• to relax in the world of peace
• to have a right mix of fun,fantasy and adventure in your life

Where are the private islands available for sale ?

It is very easy to find out. Details are available online. Simply click the map below to get the details.

How to buy private islands ? Is there any online guide available ?

Nothing to worry. Here is the 24 page private islands Buyer’s guide for 2008.

Interesting video clip on private islands is available here.

If you need any more clarifications, visit privateislandsonline.

The all weather,deep water Indian Port Dhamra in Orissa, is progressing as per schedule and is expected to be operational by April 2010. Work on 25 % of phase-I has already been completed. Though the Dhamra project was visualized in late 1990s, the project could commence only in March 2007. One of the reasons for the delay is protests from environmental groups.

Some of the interesting features of Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) are:

• a 50:50 joint venture of Larsen & Toubro and Tata Steel.
• L&T is the EPC contractor and Tata Steel is the provider of cargo for the port.
• on BOOST (Build, Own, Operate, Share and Transfer) basis for a total period of 34 years including a period of 4 years for construction.
• port at Dhamra is situated between Haldia and Paradeep and will be the deepest port of India with a draught of 18 metres
  • By road: Dhamra is connected by road with Bhadrak (82 kms),the nearest major town on the National Highway-5.
  • By rail: A single track broad gauge line between Bhadrak and Dhamra is being laid by DPCL.
  • By air: Nearest airport from Dhamra is Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Orissa.
• can accommodate vessels up to 180,000 DWT
• the master plan provides for 13 berths, capable of handling more than 83 million MT per annum of dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and containerized cargo.
• the port has obtained all necessary clearances including environmental clearance from Indian Government and from Orissa Pollution Control Board.
• the port has also received rail traffic clearance from Indian Railways with whom it has signed an MOU for constructing a 62 km railway line from Bhadrak to Dhamra
• protection of turtles habitat near the port site is being taken in consultation with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A 13 page report from IUCN on ‘Scoping Mission to the Dhamra Port Project’ is available here.

Here are the highlights of Phase-I of DPCL.

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Who are Seafarers ?

Seafarers are those who face loneliness, danger, separation from loved ones. These are just some of the problems seafarers face.

Well. This is not my opinion. This is the view of The Mission to Seafarers, part of the Anglican Church and a charity organization. They are present worldwide and have 100 plus centres to help and support seafarers for the last 150 years.

In addition to land based help centres, there is ‘Flying Angel’ the World’s first floating seafarers’ centre on full time service in the port of Fujairah, Dubai since April 15, 2007. At anytime there are 100 to 150 ships at the east coast anchorage of the UAE. It is the second largest bunkering anchorage in the world. There are as many as 2,000 seafarers from these ships who are unable to go ashore to contact their families. They spend many months on their vessels 3 to 13 miles offshore in an area covering 240 square miles. Flying Angel helps these seafarers to relax and unwind away from their ships and enjoy the ‘home from home” atmosphere found at Mission centres.

Here are some interesting features of Flying Angel:

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Subsequent to a fire onboard nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington on May 22, now Royal Navy’s nuclear powered submarine HMS Superb is presently unsafe to dive after striking an underwater pinnacle on May 26.

The incident happened during a dived passage through the northern Red Sea. HMS Superb, built by Vickers Shipbuilding at Barrow, commissioned in 1976, is the third of the Swiftsure Class Attack Submarines of Royal Navy. In fact Swiftsure Class Attack Submarines are capable of circumnavigating the globe underwater without any need to come to the surface.

Here are some details of HMS Superb available on the incident:

• has hit an underwater pinnacle while 50 miles (80km) south of Suez, after passing through the canal
• displaces 5,200 tonnes while submerged
• 272 ft long and has a complement of 112
• equipped with Spearfish torpedoes
• no casualties and the submarine remains watertight
• is safe to operate on the surface under own power
• nuclear reactor is completely safe
• main sonar damaged
• no other vessel, military or civil, was involved in the incident

An investigation on the grounding is underway and a full Board of Inquiry will be conducted in due course.

Here is a photograph of HMS Superb.

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With the increasing incidents of piracy attacks taking place, it is necessary to have a global picture of these piracy attacks. Here is the live piracy attack map of 2008 from International Maritime Bureau.

Click the map below for more details.

In addition Weekly Piracy Report is available here.

Photo: Don Martin,caycompass

81 year young lady Marge Frisch (seen in picture above) could finally fulfill her desire on May 18, to scuba dive at Grand Cayman islands to explore the underwater world. Here are the tips how she could manage to scuba dive at the age of 81.

• she came to know about Grand Cayman from her daughter
• this young lady from Florida could not visit this island so far due to her husband’s bad health
• she keeps herself always physically fit by swimming, walking and aerobics
• she managed to learn about scuba diving and familiarize with dive equipment at her daughter’s pool at Tampa
• finally she scuba dived for the first time on May 18 through Absolute Divers at Stingray city
• her dive master Mark Sahagian praises her confidence to scuba dive

Here is an interesting video clip of scuba diving in Grand Cayman.

More interesting information about Marge Frisch is available at caycompass.

In an unfortunate development, Second Officer Babu Thomas has lost his life due to fire onboard M.V Oel Aishwarya on May 24. Here are the details:

• the vessel was on her scheduled voyage from Colombo to Chennai
• fire broke out early morning while the ship was off Sri Lanka and it took seven hours to extinguish the fire
• ship is having crew of 23 Indians
• the vessel built in 1982 belongs to Shreyas Shipping & Logistics Limited
• vessel is 127 metres long with a beam of 20.06 metres, 8755 DWT
• the vessel is continuing her voyage to Chennai

Here is the ship’s position during the fire

On arrival to Chennai, an enquiry will be conducted by the principal officer of mercantile marine department and the shipping master, Chennai.

More details are here at timesofindia and thaindian.

Update: May 28

Vessel arrived at Chennai on May 26 and the body of the second officer Babu Thomas (age 41) was handed over to  next of  kin.  The fire took place in the air conditioning unit and the officer died due to suffocation.  Read more from  thehindu.

Discouraging news for vegetarians. Scientists at Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi, India has developed a high protein ice cream using cuttle fish. The interesting features of fish ice cream are:

• uses cuttle fish such as squid
• protein rich
• has no smell of fish
• has a shelf life of one year
• named as ‘Maricream’
• commercial production is yet to start

Here is a video clip of cuttle fish. Also here is a video clip on Nestlé Low Temperature Freezing Ice Cream with reduced fat content.

More information on Maricream is available at dnaindia and newindpress.

Here are the graphical presentations available of market capitalization of shipping industry. Click the respective images below for an interesting interactive display of information.

Shipping companywise graphic display.

Market segmentwise display

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Fire onboard nuclear powered Nimitz class US Aircraft Carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) on May 22 was successfully contained and extinguished by the ships crew without any serious injuries to the crew. Fire was noticed when the carrier was conducting a routine Replenishment At Sea in the Pacific Ocean with USS Crommelin (FFG 37). USS George Washington is now continuing her voyage as scheduled to San Diego.

• fire was detected in the morning near aft air conditioning and refrigeration space and auxiliary boiler room
• fire spread to more places through electrical cable way
• ships crew as a team heroically extinguished the fire after several hours of fire fighting
• 23 crew members were treated for heat stress and one crew was treated for first degree burns
• no damage to propulsion plant and reactor is reported

Here are some photographs of fire fighting.

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This weekend party going and grill loving seafarers can grill and chill on BBQ Donut on a lake. The interesting features of BBQ Donut are:

• it is a floating grill island
• can accommodate 10 people at a time
• has battery powered, electric outboard motor for noise free and vibration free propulsion
• has cruising duration of 4 hours
• diameter 3.60 metres, height 2.55 metres
• weight 450 kg
• has a low smoke charcoal grill at the centre point of the grill table
• the table has inbuilt safe storage to keep chilled drinks, plates and cutlery
• has ergonomically designed seats for comfort
• highly stable and safe to float
• has waterproof sun shade to protect from light rains and to protect from sun burn in hot weather
• no boating license required to operate

Here is a video clip of BBQ Donut to grill and chill

Source: schmitten, bbqdonut

Here is an amazing transatlantic tunnel telectroscope that links London and New York. The project is nearing completion by artist and inventor Paul St George which was visualized more than a century ago by his great grandfather Alexander Stanhope St George.

The interesting features of telectroscope are:

• telectroscope is actually the product of two high definition cameras connected through a fiberoptic link
• covers a distance of 3,471 miles (5,585 km), through a transatlantic tunnel
• one end of the tunnel emerges next to Tower Bridge on the banks of the Thames in London
• the other end is next to Brooklyn Bridge on the banks of New York’s East River
• provides visual communication of people on both ends in real time, of course no audio. You may have to use your mobile phone for that.

Here is the google map showing the tunnel path

Here are some photographs of telectroscope

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What you see above are programmable smart switch and smart display from NKK Switches.

These gadgets are:

• high resolution programmable modules
• can display graphics for alphanumeric characters, animated sequences
• can display as many as four lines of text with ten characters
• incorporates bitmap display function
• has 64 color capability arrangement
• general brightness of back light is variable in eight steps from dark to bright
• provides wide viewing angle with high contrast and clarity
• epoxy sealed
• has a life of 1,000,000 actuations

These smart switches and smart displays are user friendly and their marine applications are in ships equipment like

• engine controls
• navigational equipment
• communication equipment
• fire alarms

Here are some graphic displays

More details are here at nkksmartswitch.

Image source:Earthrace

Earthrace presently on setting a speed world record to circumnavigate the Earth,

• has sighted plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean to the size of texas before reaching Hawaii.
• the plastic soup is the result of Pacific Ocean Gyre

Here are the photos of Plastic ocean rubbish and Pacific Ocean gyre from powerboat-world.

For more information on Pacific Ocean rubbish dump, read powerboat-world.

Here is an interesting video clip on Plastic Soup.

Russia is presently building the world’s first Floating Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) of 70 MW ‘Academic Lomonosov’. The project was launched in 2007 and is expected to be commissioned in 2011. Five such plants are expected to be operational by 2020. The FNPP under the Russian flag would operate in coastal states that had signed the necessary agreements. The FNPP would drop anchor in a safe place protected from potential natural disasters and operate with the assistance of local engineering services available on shore.

The interesting features of Floating Nuclear Power Plant are:

• under construction at Severodvinsk, Sevmash Shipyard located at northern White Sea which is the main facility of the State Nuclear Shipbuilding Centre.
• to generate 1/15th of the power produced by a standard Russian nuclear power plant.
• to be equipped with two power units using KLT- 40S reactors.
• reactors will be loaded with nuclear fuel once every three years.
• cost of electricity: just 5 or 6 cents per kilowatt.
• the first plant would cost around 10 billion Rubles ($ 0.42 billion).
• the remaining plants would cost around 5 to 6 billion Rubles ($ 0.2 to 0.25 billion) each.
• designed to be protected from the following potential terrorist threats using fingerprint and iris identification technologies.
  • unauthorized access to fissile materials onboard the plant
  • against possible subversive attempts by terrorist divers
  • nothing would destroy the reactor even if an airliner as big as a Boeing crashes on the plant
• will also be able to supply heat and desalinate seawater.
• on desalination mode, will be able to produce 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water a day.
• will save up to 200,000 metric tons of coal and 100,000 tons of fuel oil a year.
• will have a life span of 40 years.
• every 12 years the plant will be taken to Russia for overhaul.

More than 20 countries have shown interest in this project. Cooperation in this project with India,China,Indonesia and many African,Latin American countries are in pipeline. Depending on the agreement it may involve technology transfer or sale of only products of the plant: like electric power, heat and fresh water.

Here is the longitudinal section of a FNPP.

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