Now you can explore the remains of the Civil War ironclad Monitor, built for the Union Navy, and lots of other underwater wrecks and reefs, courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The Monitor’s bow, resting on the North Carolina seafloor, is pictured above.)  Here’s NOAA’s announcement: Beginning May 15, the public can join NOAA scientists and partner researchers as they explore the shipwreck of the USS Monitor, natural reefs and the maritime cultural landscape off the North Carolina coast. The two week mission — titled “Valor in the Atlantic” — will use state-of-the-art, remotely-piloted submersibles and other technologies to…

This is sad. The Gentry Eagle, the 112-foot, 11,460-hp speedster that set a transatlantic record in 1989 and then also won the Motor Boating & Sailing Chapman Trophy for the fastest time from Miami to New York, is no more. It was just demolished for scrap in a yard in Ventura, California. The Gentry Eagle is the product of Tom Gentry, a Hawaiian builder and a serial world offshore boat racing champion. Gentry himself died four years after his 40-foot Skater cat crashed during the Key West World Offshore Championship race in 1994. The Skater flipped and Gentry was trapped…