Overboard Boater

I read this article in today’s New York Times talking about Virgin Mobile’s new MiFi card, which provides you with a personal wireless hotspot, and immediately thought, how great for your boat?

It’s about the size of a credit card so you can take it with you, and not worry about a separate internet connection for your boat at the marina.

The Virgin Mobile MiFi

It has its limitations (the range of the Sprint network), and most cell phone networks lose a signal a few miles offshore, unless you pay for and install a signal booster. Satellite is still the best bet for long distance cruising, but as far as logging on at the dock, it looks to be a cool little device.

Just got this notice in from ACR Electronics:

To read the full announcement, click here for the PDF: Marine Safety Alert

Here’s the map of the affected area:

The decline in the Atlantic menhaden population over the past few decades is staggering: An 88 percent drop in numbers between 1979 and 2009. The population that once measured close to 200 billion is down to less than 200 billion. The fish that some believe to be the most important in the sea is on the verge of collapse. The main culprit? Commercial harvesting.

Recreational anglers up and down the Atlantic seaboard have noticed the increased absence of this essential cog in the food chain. The groups that represent those anglers are joining together to do something about it. A total of 34 organizations, from local chapters of the Coastal Conservation Association to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to Bass Pro Shops–click here for the full list–have signed on to form a grass-roots conservation campaign called The Menhaden Coalition.

Jerry Benson, the Vice President of CCA Virginia, is one of main people responsible for organizing this coalition. His home State still allows commercial harvest of menhaden for reduction in the Chesapeake Bay–the main nursery for striped bass–to the tune of 240 million pounds a year. Where does the commercial harvest go? Into Omega-3 protein for fish oil capsules, and into farmed fish and livestock feed. And fertilizer.

Benson has been fighting to get Virginia to change its menhaden management policies, and hopes this coalition–formed in January 2010–will have an impact up and down the coast.

“We have organizations from New Jersey to North Carolina involved,” he said over the phone. The ultimate goal is to work with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to set restrictions of commercial menhaden harvesting to more sustainable levels to allow the population to recover.

We hope they can make an impact. Otherwise, this graph will continue its downward slope.

Andy Mill is considered by almost everyone who fly fishes to be the world’s best tarpon angler. Mill, a former Olympic skier, spent years channelling his competitive juices into reaching the apex of his new sport.

Now, in his new book A Passion For Tarpon, he is sharing his collected skill and wisdom with the entire world, or whomever’s willing to pay the $100 cover price from Wild River Press.

I received a review copy of the book. The volume is so dense that it’s going to take some time to give it a proper review, but my first impressions are, Wow, pretty awesome.

There’s so much more to this book than just how-to information. Mill includes a chapter on tarpon biology from well-known marine biologist Jerald Ault, as well as a chapter on the history of tarpon fishing from the Florida guide and fishing historian Steve Kantner. Plus, there are pages of interviews with top-flight Keys guides and tarpon interviews to read through, all paying homage to the people who pioneered tarpon fishing and advanced it to Mill, its modern master.

Expect a full review as soon as I get the time to wade through it all.

©John Schwartz, A Kona Blue.

Professional photographer Jon Schwartz was biding his time on the press boat during the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, when something wild happened. The crew of the 36 Hatteras Chiripa, the designated press boat, set out two lines hoping to catch a tuna or mahi while waiting for the tournament boats to hook up. Then a blue marlin hit one of their lines, and charged the boat.

“I was totally stoked,” said Schwartz, “this is what I’m always thinking about.” He grabbed his camera and started shooting as the fish went ballistic. Ironically, he’d rented a high powered fixed lens to shoot boat-to-boat, leaving him scrambling to take close-ups. “This fish was coming right at us,” said Schwartz, “and I was bummed I would lose the shot.” He didn’t.

The picture above is just a sample of some of the marlin shots he got before the fish rammed the boat and swam underneath. Schwartz said he got lucky, but it’s the byproduct of putting hundreds of hours on the water. “This can be stultifyingly boring,” he said, of the time outdoor photographers put in.

Getting blue marlin shots are always difficult because they usually hit far behind the boat and do their dance from afar. “It’s like watching a bullfight from a mile away,” said Schwartz. This time it unfolded up close, and though they took a shot to the hullsides and eventually lost the fish, from a photographer’s point of view it’s a once-in-a-lifetime catch.

You can read Jon Schwartz’s account on his personal blog, Bluewater Jon.

The Coast Guard announced it will be cracking down on the practice of bow riding, meaning you can’t ride in the bow cockpit, as pictured above, while the boat is underway. According to the Coast Guard News website, this will take effect in the 5th District, which covers coastal New Jersey down to North Carolina.

Just saw across the newswire that Brunswick has sold Triton Boats to Fishing Holdings, and the company will relocate from Ashland City, TN, to Flippin, AR. Earl Bentz, who founded the well-known bass and fiberglass saltwater boat company, will still run the operations.

From Noah to the sinking of the whaleship Essex to The Perfect Storm, maritime disaster stories have kept audiences riveted in accounts recorded on the written page. But in the Youtube and reality TV era, and particularly with the immense popularity of Deadliest Catch, the written word has some stiff competition. It is against these outlets that Kalee Thompson’s new book Deadliest Sea must hold up. And it does. In a fast-paced 289 pages, Deadliest Sea delivers the goods its readers will crave.

Thompson originally wrote about the Coast Guard rescue operation launched for the crew of the fishing boat  Alaska Ranger for an article in Popular Mechanics. From there she had the foundations for this book. Thanks to Thompson’s heavy-duty reporting, Deadliest Sea offers a depth of background and information that would be impossible to reproduce in a video or television format. The book brings together the backgrounds of both the Alaska Ranger crew and their rescuers, and how they all intersect in a singular dire situation.

With all the reportorial detail, the book also has the requisite riveting moments that captivate even despite knowing the eventual outcome. A favorite passage:

Ryan’s mind was racing. He was pretty sure he’d heard the ship’s officers talking to the Warrior. The other FCA boat would be on its way, but would they have relayed the message to the Coast Guard? If they did, the Coasties would be coming all the way from Kodiak, Ryan thought. That was so far, hundreds of miles away. It was still dark. Would it be easier to spot him at night, or during the day? he wondered. Maybe at night. His strobe light was still flashing. He thought about how he’d look from the sky. Would they see the suit, the light? Jesus Christ, how long could he stay like this?

The waves were huge: twenty-footers, Ryan guessed. From the deck of the ship, seas this size wouldn’t be any sort of spectacle. It was a different story when you were submerged in the goddamn things. He couldn’t keep the freezing spray out of his nose and eyes, the only parts of his body that weren’t protected by the suit. What if no one was coming?”

It’s a scenario anyone who has taken even a day trip out of sight of land has contemplated, and all the details, and the ensuing Coast Guard rescue, come to life in this book.

Find Deadliest Sea at Amazon.com or at other locations listed on Thompson’s website.

Boat Write

Each has its own merits for spreading the word, and both have devotees that get a little creepy, but after exhaustive trial and error we’re going with Facebook.

Video still from the crash.

Someone captured on film an insane drag boat crash at the 2010 Augusta Southern Nationals drag boat event over the weekend.  A local news station posted the video on its website. The driver was taken to the hospital for a possible broken leg. According to this news report, he was doing about 167 mph when he lost control.

The fastest I’ve ever gone in a boat is 116 mph in a 46′ Cigarette named American Muscle a few years back, and that was a trip. Going 50 miles faster than that on a boat the size of a doormat? Insane.