‘Endurance’ Is Found in the Weddell Sea
“The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust is pleased to confirm that the Endurance22 Expedition has located the wreck of Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship which has not been seen since it was crushed by the ice and sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915.” This is the headline that greeted us this morning as we followed a 3:58 a.m. email link to the Endurance22 Expedition website.
The ship was found within the search area that had been defined based on the records kept by Endurance‘s captain and navigator, Frank Worsley. She lies at a depth of 9,868 feet beneath the surface, and according to reports is perfectly preserved. “This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see ‘Endurance’ arced across the stern, directly below the taffrail,” the expedition’s Director of Exploration Mensun Bound said.
Thank you to the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust for making the following video available.
Learn more at Endurance22.org.
Enjoy Good Jibes Episode #30 With Ron Geiger
Welcome aboard for our 30th episode of Good Jibes! This week our host, Ryan Foland, is joined by Ron Geiger to chat about building your own boat and all things Big Geiger Cove and Catalina. Ron grew up visiting the cove that bears his family name. He’s since traveled over 50,000 nautical miles and has lived on sailboats for over 25 years.
Hear how they improved Big Geiger Cove over the years, what Ron learned through exploring Catalina Island in a dinghy, how to build your own boat, and how to cruise beyond your comfort zone.
Ryan and Ron talk about everything and everywhere from Catalina to Hawaii. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
- What is Big Geiger Cove?
- How did people build their own boats?
- Why was it inappropriate for unmarried couples to go sailing with each other?
- How many boats can fit in Big Geiger Cove?
- What would the title of Ron’s book be?
- How did he build his own boat?
- Is there another Big Geiger Cove rival in the Channel Islands?
- What advice does Ron have for sailing beyond your boundaries?
You can learn more at BlueWaterCruisingClub.org.
Then listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!
Enjoy Downwind Sailing With Walder Boom Brake
The innovative Walder boom brake — active safety at sea www.boom-brake-walder.com
California Dreamin’ San Francisco Stop a Cliffhanger
The California Dreamin’ Series St. Francis Yacht Club Stop took place on March 5-6 under bluebird skies. The standard westerly breeze, fickle in its timing both days, delivered brisk mid- to high teens across the dynamic currents of the race course. Led by principal race officer Becky Ashburn, the race committee completed the scheduled two round robins late Sunday afternoon as the sun sank low over the Golden Gate.
After running the table in her first 12 matches, including beating her top rival Chris Weis in the first round robin, Nicole Breault faced him again in the last match on Sunday. Chris was also undefeated except for his loss to Nicole. It came down to this final face-off as the day drew long and the clock was running out. Chris managed a terrific pre-start and led the entire race. Nicole had chances at the windward mark, but got tangled up with another match and couldn’t cash in. They both finished the regatta with 12-1 scores. According to the rules for breaking a tie, Chris took first place.
“Chris and his team are great. It is really fun to aggressively tango with them around the course,” said Nicole. “Once they got the jump on us by an extra boatlength early on beat two, I felt our chance to pass slipping away.”
Chief umpire Kathy Lindgren noted the high level of competition, even with several newcomers to the field. For instance, high school senior Connor Bennett, sailing with his dad Shawn, finished a strong third. Kathy said, “I was impressed with the level of racing. The matches were close and action-packed.” Nicole agreed that many of her matches were “feisty all the way around the course, and when we took a win, it felt hard earned!”
This was the second stop of three Grade 3 events that make up the California Dreamin’ Series, which started in late January at San Diego YC. Having won in San Diego, Nicole carries her results forward going into the final deciding event in Long Beach two weeks from now. Chris commented, “Our team was super-excited to pick up this victory in a really tough match and look forward to duking it out in the Catalina 37s.”
Click here for the results spreadsheet.
Another Opportunity to View ‘A Tour of Sausalito’s Marinship’
Two weeks ago we attended a screening of the Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition’s documentary A Tour of Sausalito’s Marinship: A Working Waterfront at Risk. The event was held at Spaulding Marine Center, and despite the sudden rain and cold snap that brought snow to parts of Sonoma, more than 100 people showed up. Produced to raise awareness of and support for the battle to prevent the Marinship from succumbing to the same fate as many other Bay Area working-waterfront locations — giving way to large-scale residential, office, retail, mixed-use, and other non-water-dependent developments — the documentary showcased the variety and uniqueness of the Marinship’s businesses and activities. If you missed the film at Spaulding, you have another opportunity to watch it at the Sausalito Library this coming Friday.
The Marinship is a viable hub of industry, innovation and creativity, and the film delved into many of the various businesses and organizations that are the life force of the historic waterfront district. We met creators, inventors, artisans, tradespeople, and long-term business owners, all of whom have put their money, energy and soul into the industries they provide. The film explored the tight-knit community that works together in support of one another and the collective good of the district. The district, by the way, is where, at the height of the pandemic, around 13,000 plastic face shields were produced in 2020. This is also the district that answered the call 80 years ago to produce 93 Liberty ships and tankers for WWII, and was the site of groundbreaking civil rights struggles against union labor discrimination practices. Today the district is setting a standard for innovation and new technologies that are being shared across the globe, as well as bringing scores of visitors to the wartime Industrial Center Building (ICB) that now thrives as the community of artists and creators who throw open their doors to the public.
As we understand, the City of Sausalito is planning to create 720 units of housing somewhere inside its jurisdiction, and it has the Marinship in its sights. The SWWC says, “There are some locations in the Marinship that would not interfere with industrial and waterfront activities, but that [are] nowhere near the boatyards.” However the concern is that the entire district will be engulfed.
We encourage you to take the time to watch A Tour of Sausalito’s Marinship and learn about what really goes on in this vital part of the Bay Area. You might be surprised.
Sign up to see the film. It’s free.
When: Friday, March 11, 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Where: Sausalito Library 420 Litho St., Sausalito.
Get your tickets here.
About Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition:
“We are a coalition of Sausalito’s Maritime Craftsmen, Technology Innovators, Industrial Fabricators, Artisans, Artists and residents advocating for the protection of our livelihoods, our city’s economic heart, and cultural heritage.
“Our vision for the future includes an expanded maritime/artist/industrial economic engine that leverages Marinship’s history of innovation and fabrication. Marinship is poised to become an innovation and incubation hub focused on resilient technologies that can address the realities of a changing environment. This can only be accomplished if we envision Marinship not as a zone whose return on investment is to be maximized, but as an ethos where ideas are welcomed, vetted, fabricated, tested and developed.”
Read more about the discussions over the Marinship’s future in The Debate Over Sausalito’s Marinship Is Not Over, ‘Lectronic Latitude, October 21, 2020.