Georgia Improves Reefer Capacity

Georgia Ports Authority’s (GPA) Executive Director Curtis J. Foltz announced that a new set of electrified refrigerated container racks were completed and came online in Container Berth Five (CB-5) last week. With the ten new racks, Garden City Terminal now has a total of 44 racks, which accommodate 1,056 containers.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Director of Prevention Policy announced Thursday publication in the Federal Register of plans to cease broadcasting the North American Loran-C signal Feb. 8.

As a result of technological advancements during the last 20 years and the emergence of the U.S. Global Positioning System, Loran-C is no longer required by the armed forces, the transportation sector or the nation’s security interests, and is used by only a small segment of the population.

President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget supported the termination of outdated systems and specifically cited the terrestrial-based North American Loran-C system as such an example. The president did not seek funding for the Loran-C system in fiscal year 2010. Termination was also supported through the enactment of the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.

The decision to terminate transmission of the Loran-C signal reflects the president’s pledge to eliminate unnecessary federal programs.

The Loran-C system was not established as, nor was it intended to be, a viable systemic backup for GPS. If a single, domestic national system to back up GPS is identified as being necessary, the Department of Homeland Security will complete an analysis of potential backups to GPS. The continued active operation of Loran-C is not necessary to advance this evaluation.

The notice may be viewed online at www.regulations.gov, docket number: USCG-2009-0299. for more information on terminations, reductions and savings contained in the fiscal year 2010 budget, including Loran-C, visit: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/TRS/

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November 18 2009, Times Live

Pirates off Somalia attacked a Danish container ship, already hijacked once, but were scared off by a security contingent aboard. The US-flagged Maersk Alabama came under attack from automatic weapons early on Wednesday morning some 350 nautical miles east off the Somali coast but the security team returned fire, the EUNAVFOR mission said in a statement.

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Great Lakes Storm of 1913

In early November, 1913, a blizzard struck the U.S. Midwest and the Canadian province of Ontario. The Great Lakes storm of 1913 reached its highest intensity on November 9. A total of 19 ships were sunk and another 19 were stranded on Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Cargo losses were in excess of 68,300 tons and were valued at over a million dollars. More than 280 mariners lost their lives in the most destructive natural disaster to ever strike the Great Lakes.

Let us not forget the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975:

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
— H. L. Mencken

Arrr! Here be some pirate links:

• Piracy Attack Map
• Weekly Piracy Report
• The Pirate Wars – Peter Earle
• Arrrrrr! This just be too horrible!
• Pirate Pickup Lines

Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers – all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen.

They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia’s rural Johor state, 50 miles east of Singapore harbour.

One may want to hold off on investing in ship building for now…

Climate change is making it more practical to traverse the Northwest Passage in something like a Nordhavn 57:

With this route:

one could attempt a circumnavigation of the North American continent. Something I’d be willing to try if someone would sponsor the cruise (hint hint).

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Here’s an interesting article about the Great Harbour N47: The Good Life: Great Harbour N47

Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines (soul stealing registration may be required)

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Boat owners are abandoning ship. They often sandpaper over the names and file off the registry numbers, doing their best to render the boats, and themselves, untraceable. Then they casually ditch the vessels in the middle of busy harbors, beach them at low tide on the banks of creeks or occasionally scuttle them outright.

The bad economy is creating a flotilla of forsaken boats. While there is no national census of abandoned boats, officials in coastal states are worried the problem will only grow worse as unemployment and financial stress continue to rise. Several states are even drafting laws against derelicts and say they are aggressively starting to pursue delinquent owners.

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