Category: Uncategorized

1 November 2023       #18 MERCHANT FLEET             The Maritime Administration (MARAD) is responsible for all American waterborne transportation including ports, infrastructure, shipping, security, safety, vessel operations, and environment. This significant element of the Department of Transportation is currently headed by a Chief Administrator, Ann Phillips, a retired Navy RADM who spent 31 years in the Navy as Read more

1 September 2023                              #15 INLAND WATERWAYS             Blakely BoatWorks in Mobile, Alabama, is building a new Tier 4 Z-drive tugboat for Crescent Towing. Tier 4 engines are the preeminent environmentally safe motors for non-road machinery that meet all the current EPA standards, and hopefully, future regulations. The Z-drive, like a bow thruster, is a propulsion unit capable Read more

1 September 2023                              #15 INLAND WATERWAYS             Blakely BoatWorks in Mobile, Alabama, is building a new Tier 4 Z-drive tugboat for Crescent Towing. Tier 4 engines are the preeminent environmentally safe motors for non-road machinery that meet all the current EPA standards, and hopefully, future regulations. The Z-drive, like a bow thruster, is a propulsion unit capable Read more

1 September 2023                              #15 INLAND WATERWAYS             Blakely BoatWorks in Mobile, Alabama, is building a new Tier 4 Z-drive tugboat for Crescent Towing. Tier 4 engines are the preeminent environmentally safe motors for non-road machinery that meet all the current EPA standards, and hopefully, future regulations. Like a bow thruster, the Z-drive is a propulsion unit capable Read more

#13       1 August 2023 MEA CULPA             I apologize to many of my loyal readers who suddenly could not get my blog. Due to a technical error (read that: I messed up), the rantings and ravings were unavailable on many browsers. Exactly how this happened is a good question, but I think it is solved. Thanks Read more

15 July 2023. #12 GRAY FLEET             Huntington Ingles turned the new destroyer, JACK H LUCAS (DDG-125), over to the Navy after she completed her trials in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first of the new Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that comes with the newest edition of the Aegis Combat systems that include an AN-SPY Read more

1-July-2023               #11 ENVIRONMENT             In an interesting tidbit of environmental news, during one of the myriad round-the-world sailing races, a boat teamed up with scientists testing water samples all over the globe, especially the Southern Seas around Antarctica. Sadly, each and every test tube of water showed microplastics. As mentioned in an earlier blog, Minnesota issued a Read more

SPECIAL EDITION July 2023          #10 Due to an extraordinary amount of news, I decided to add a Middle of the Month blog. Another will be posted 1 July 2023. CONTEST   A few months ago, I held a contest for a book; but in the fashion of the World’s Worst Sailor, I forgot to mention the Read more

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BEYOND THE HORIZON S.D. “Doc” Regan June 2023                 #  10 ENVIRONMENT              Supreme Beef, the company that desires to have an 11,600 cattle farm along Bloody Run Creek, a protected trout stream, lost a battle in court but a win in the legislature. The courts sent back a decision on the farm to the DNR that has been Read more