Author George Day

Last week’s On Watch column on the recent report from the World Shipping Organziation on the number of containers lost at sea during the year, noted that some 1478 containers went over the side. This is up markedly fron 2025, large because one ship lost 649 containers in one incident. Our old friend Seibe Nordze of Newport, RI, runs the marine gear and equipment dealership Euro Marine Trading in Newport, RI. In his previous career, he was in the marine shipping business and has run and managed many container ships. Here are his insights into the real hazards provided by…

Lukas Sjoman, a young Finnish inventor, built Helios 11 to prove that an all-electric, solar-powered boat can cruise for extended periods if not indefinitely without burning an ounce of carbon fuel. This spring he left Finland and headed for the European canals. His destination was the island of Ibiza in Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Med. Along the way he posted YouTube videos and has developed a sizeable following. At one point on the way south, the solar panel array that covers the whole boat, was damaged by hooligans throwing stones at him from a bridge as he passed underneath.…

On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that it was suspending its search for three people who were lost when a 50-pontoon boat named Volare capsized and started to sink near Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. One man was fished from the water and given CPR. Clifford Joseph Boisa, 79, year was pronounced dead when his body was delivered to EMTs ashore. Twenty persons, all members of one family, were rescued and several had to be taken to the hospital due to injuries sustained in the capsize. Three of the guests aboard are missing and presumed drowned. “Suspending…

On Friday evening of July 3, American Kelsey Pfendler rowed her 21-foot ocean-going rowboat into Honolulu, Hawaii and completed a remarkable, record-breaking solo adventure across the Pacific Ocean. Pfendler, a veteran Grand Canyon River guide, had the ambition when she departed Monterey, California on May 21 to become the fastest and youngest woman to complete the 2,400-mile course. She did that and more. Rowing 16 hours a day she arrived in Hawaii in 43 days and shattered Lia Ditton’s record of 86 days, 10 hours by  whopping 43 days. But she also crushed the standing men’s record for the course…

This week the Revolution Marine Group and Yacht Sales International, both with offices in Ft. Lauderdale and elsewhere announced that YSI had been named the exclusive dealer for the Revolution and Oceanwalker brands of catamarans for North America and the Caribbean. This partnership will focus initially on the new Oceanwalker S60 and S60e cruising power cats that have been meticulously developed by RMG.  The S60 is a traditional power cat with twin diesel engines while the S60e is an electric hybrid cat with a minimal carbon footprint. The first S60 in North America is lying in Ft. Lauderdale and available…

At the end of the July Fourth celebrations in New York harbor, a New Jersey fire and rescue boat that was returning home had a  “harrowing” encounter with a surfacing whale that sent the crew overboard and sank the boat. The crew was rescued by a nearby vessel. The fire and rescue boat was from Carteret, New Jersey. It had been working the on-the-water security detail near the Statue of Liberty during the day’s parade of tall ships when at 4:40 pm the boat sudden began to shake. A whale was breaching right underneath the boat and struck it at…