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The largest maritime exercise Northstar VI is ready to commence at Singapore on May 23. The aim of Northstar VI is to evaluate the operational readiness to carry out mass evacuations at sea in case of fire in ships. The interesting features of the exercise are:

• 13 agencies from public and private sector are going to participate.
• simulated fire exercise is planned to be conducted on board the luxury cruise liner SuperStar Aquarius of Star Cruises.
• to be conducted three kilo metres offshore.
• about 1,000 passengers will be evacuated on 40 vessels of the Navy and Coast Guard.
• Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and Marina South Pier will be used to land survivors and casualties.
• Changi General Hospital will be used to meet medical emergencies.
• air lifting of severely injured passengers will be done by Super Puma helicopter.

Here is the map showing the locations.

More details are here at channelnewsasia, yahoo.

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Yoga synchronizes body, mind and soul. Baba Ramdev is planning to conduct Yoga at Sea for a week. The program is organized by Patanjali Yogpeeth, Hardwar of Baba Ramdev and Vishwa Jagriti Mission Trust, Kolkata. The interesting features of Yoga at Sea are:

• to be conducted from May 31 to June 07, 2008
• to be conducted on cruise liner SuperStar Virgo of Star Cruises
• about 1000 yoga learners have already enrolled
• tour costs vary from Rupees 1,40,000 to 58,900 for an adult and Rupees 32,000 to 14,500 for an infant

Here is the route map and the ship

Here are video clips of SuperStar Virgo and Baba Ramdev.

More information about Yoga at Sea are available here.

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Speedboat ‘The Final Fling’ got airborne on May 12 due to waves from another vessel and landed in Loch Lomond Golf course at Dunbartonshire. The skipper abandoned the speedboat and was finally spotted by Clyde coastguard. Luckily no one was hurt.

Here is the photograph from dailymail.

More photos and more information are here at dailymail and telegraph.

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What can not be seen clearly with naked eyes, can be easily seen with thermal imaging systems. Thermal Imaging Systems are very useful for seafarers. One such system by Flir is having wide range of marine applications. Also Earthrace presently circumnavigating the globe is fitted with Flir system. The interesting marine applications are:

• Safe navigation
• Port security
• Man Over Board
• Threat detection like anti-piracy
• Marine surveyors:
  • for hull inspection
  • to identify moisture accumulation in FRP/core laminate
  • to identify loose and corroded electrical connections and overheating of electrical cables
  • to measure skin temperatures of boilers,storage tanks

Here is a sample photograph which shows vision through naked eyes and through Flir Thermal Imaging System.

Here is a pdf document that explains Applications of Infrared Imaging Techniques to Marine Surveying.

Here is a video clip which explains marine applications of Flir Thermal Imaging System.

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In an unusual incident of mistaken identity, a Pelican wrongly landed on a woman who was swimming off Florida coast.

• 50 year old Debbie Shoemaker was swimming near St. Petersburg on May 08
• suddenly she realized that something has hit her face violently
• a Pelican on a diving course to catch a fish wrongly landed on the cheek of the woman with its large beak
• the woman was hospitalized and was given 25 stitches to close three inch gash on her face
• the pelican died

Here is the photograph of the woman and more details from myfoxtampabay.

Continue Reading…

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Photo Source:Stewart Allen, news

On Mother’s Day today, it is nice to know about Joanne Lucas who has saved a stranger from shark attack on May 10 at Middleton Beach, Australia.

• 37 year old Jason Cull, school teacher was swimming with dolphins about 80 metres from shore in the morning on May 10.
• He was attacked by a four metre white pointer shark while swimming and chunks of leg muscle was eaten by the shark.
• On hearing the cries for help from Jason Cull, 50 year old Joanne Lucas mother of three who came there for surfboat rowing practice jumped into the sea risking her life. She swam and physically pulled Jason Cull back to shore.
• Thereafter Jason Cull was taken to hospital for treatment and he is now safe.

Read more from theage.

OldSailor salutes this great mother on Mother’s Day.

Update: May 12

Here is some more information and a video clip at news.

Update: May 14

WA Premier Alan Carpenter plans to nominate Ms Joanne Lucas for an Australian Bravery Decorations Council award. Read more from theaustralian.

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Duck Boat travels on land like an automobile and in water as a boat. Duck Boats are widely used to promote tourism. Duck Boat has originated from DUKW (widely pronounced as “duck”) and is a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck, designed by General Motors Corporation for use during World War II having a speed of 50 mph on road and 6 mph in water.

What is DUKW ?

• D indicates a vehicle designed in 1942
• U meant utility (amphibious)
• K indicated all-wheel drive
• W indicated two powered rear axles

Here is an interesting video clip of Liverpool Duck Tour.

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Underwater Hockey is a thrilling underwater sports popular in United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Netherlands and France. The world championships are held every two years. Rules regarding the game are available here.

Here is an interesting video clip underwater hockey.

Another video clip of European club championship UWH, held in Czech republic on January 26, 2008 is here.

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The Intelligent First Aid Talking Kit is now available. The interesting features of this kit are:

• designed by medical and educational experts
• combines supplies, visual instruction cards
• has an audio module for verbal guidance to manage the most common injuries
• the kit is separated into individually labeled and color-coded injury packs so the user has all the supplies
• has easy to follow instructions for managing a specific injury
• on pressing a button, the audio module in each injury card narrates step-by-step instructions to manage the injury, pausing and repeating when necessary for accurate response
• the case includes a guidebook, with first aid instructions for additional medical emergencies, such as choking, frost bite, heatstroke, asthma
• also included is a product manual with audio instructions
• a book light/flashlight and a shoulder strap

Here is an audio sample from the bleeding pack of the Intelligent First Aid Talking Kit.

Click the icon to listen.

This Intelligent First Aid Talking Kit will be very useful in the ships where timely First Aid is very important.

More details are here at intelligentfirstaid.

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BBC reports fatigue among seafarers as a reason for accidents and near misses at sea. DNV study says 51% of marine accidents are caused by only 25% of all the ships worldwide. One of the reasons for these accidents is fatigue experienced by seafarers.

What is fatigue ?

Fatigue is experienced by us as physical fatigue and mental fatigue. Early stages of fatigue lead to loss of productivity whereas advanced stages of fatigue lead to accidents within the ship or cause groundings, collisions even to the extent of sinking of ships.

Signs of a seafarer suffering from fatigue.

• looking dull with frequent yawns
• half closed eyes
• loss of concentration in work
• unable to listen, understand and act
• non synchronization of body and mind

What causes fatigue to seafarers ?

Continue Reading…

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Cyclone Nargis which was initially centred 390 miles east of Chennai on April 27 has missed Orissa, Bangaladesh and finally battered Myanamar on May 02 and 03. On April 28th itself it was predicted that the cyclone was heading towards Myanmar coast. It is not clear why Myanmar has failed to take preventive actions to face the cyclone. Unimaginable damages caused by the cyclone are being reported now. The last damage due to cyclone in the region was in Bangaladesh by Cyclone Sidr in November 2007.

Rough estimates of cyclone damage:

• loss of lives are reported as more than 10,000
• 100,000 are homeless
• a state of emergency has been declared in cyclone ravaged area
• detailed estimates on damages are yet to come

Cyclone relief work:

• International Aid agencies have commenced relief work.
• The U.S. has approved $250,000 for Myanmar’s relief and Myanmar is yet to accept the aid.
• In some areas Buddhist monks, who revolted against the government earlier this year, were cleaning up debris and pulling away fallen trees.
• Two Indian Navy ships with relief material are proceeding to Myanmar for relief work.

Here is the map showing location of Cyclone Nargis from April 27 to May 02

Continue Reading…

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A comparison of United Kingdom Seafarers (both for Officers and Ratings) for the year 2005 and 2006 is done here.

Click here to view the above graph in interactive mode.

Full report of United Kingdom Seafarer Analysis prepared by The Centre for International Transport Management, London Metropolitan University for the year 2005 is here and for 2006 is available here.

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Photo:Ion Boyle, simplonpc

Luxury cruise liner Mona Lisa has run aground in the Baltic Sea’s Irben Starit off Latvian coast on May 04.

• 984 passengers onboard, mostly Germans are safe
• ship was en-route from Poland’s Gdansk to Latvia’s Riga
• ship was built in 1966, 173 metres in length
• no damage to the ships hull or fuel tanks is reported
• Latvian coast guard is monitoring the situation

The vessel has a track record of running aground nine times in the past. More photos of Mona Lisa are here at simplonpc. More details are here at topix.

Update: May 05

Efforts to refloat the vessel have failed. Passengers have been evacuated to port of Ventspils. More details are at newstin.

Update: May 06

Evacuated passengers head to their homeland. Read more from earthtimes. A video clip of the grounded ship and the passengers evacuation is here at rian.

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Enjoy your weekend with free marine video games. Click the image below to go to the games.

Shooting Fish

Boat Rush 3D

Franky the Fish2

Sub Wars

Boat Race

More games are at flashgames247.

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The 20th Triennial International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) on Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Restoration is ready to begin. Over 2,000 people from 50 countries are expected to attend the technical sessions and view more than 250 exhibits. The Conference theme for 2008 is: “Creating a Culture of Preparedness”

The interesting part of IOSC:

• to showcase on-water demonstrations of state of the art spill response technologies on Monday May 5th at the Convention Center’s riverfront.
• demonstrations are scheduled to showcase aerial, on-water, dockside, and static displays from the US Coast Guard, US Navy, and local, regional, as well as national response companies.
• an exciting opportunity to see real response crews and equipment in use on the Savannah River.

When ?

May 04 - 08, 2008

Where ?

At Savannah International Trade & Convention Center, Savannah, Georgia, USA

The IOSC Conference schedule is available here. More details are here at iosc.

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