Probably not coming to an island near you

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A white Killer Whale has been spotted off the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. 

White Killer Whale sighted in Russian Arctic waters

Wherzat? you ask. It’s the next step west of the Aleutians. They didn’t report if it’s in the Bering Sea to the east of the Kamchatka Peninsula or west in Sea of Okhotsk. Russian scientists monitoring the area believe it is 15 years old or more as its dorsal is at least 2m tall. It’s slightly ragged, too, so it might be older. This is the first adult white Orca ever observed. Click White Orca to see the original story.

BTW – an increasing number of Orcas have been spotted in our waters, though I’m not one of the lucky spotters. If you see any, please let me know and send pics if you’re fortunate enough. Keep an eye out for humpbacks; I saw a couple of small pods heading north as I drove the PCH.

If you can sail the Channel Islands…

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I frequently — very frequently — hear people opine that if you can sail the Channel Islands, you can sail anywhere.

I usually shrug as I’ve seen a lot of  places that have a much wider variety of really bad conditions than SoCal. The North Sea, the North Atlantic are two I’ve personally enjoyed aboard larger boats (Nimitz). Here’s another great place.

Flare-up day — hands-on training for boaters

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You could do this on your own, but it’ll be safer with adult supervision.

You won’t have to get in the water, but you will get a chance to practice using flares. USCG photo

 

 

Come to Port Hueneme Beach. Bring your old or nearly expired flares. We’ll get some instruction and some very important safety reminders and then we’ll get a chance to fire off our old inventory.

Bring your handheld flares, your flare guns — there’s a prize for the person who brings the biggest pile of stuff.

It’s a great way to reduce your inventory of hazardous material aboard your boat. The event is free; parking is two bucks.

See you at the beach at 0930 21 April.

Sponsored by Advanced Yacht Services, the US Power Squadron and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Call Capt. Richard Ullrich 626.926.5765 for further info or e-mail  for further info.

More big ships in the lane near Channel Islands

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Container-ship-near-channel-island

Big ships once again transiting the Coastwise Traffic Lanes

 Randy Bush explains your perception that there are more ships these days

Many sailors and frequent passengers in the Santa Barbara Channel have noticed and asked about the increased ship traffic in the shipping lanes in recent months. Here is the scoop:

Beginning in July of 2009, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), required all ships operating within 24 nm of the California shoreline to burn only low-sulfur marine fuel oils. As you know, the shipping lanes in the Santa Babara Channel are well within that 24 nm limit. Since the low-sulfur fuel costs more, most operators elected to operate outside the 24 nm limit, which resulted in noticeably less traffic in the shipping lanes.

In December of 2011, the boundary was extended out to 24 nm from the shorelines of all of the channel islands–substantially further than the original boundary. In addition, an exempt zone was created off of Pt. Conception to encourage ships to enter into the existing shipping lanes. And finally, many ships are now equipped with fuel switches that enable them to switch over to the low-sulfur fuel oil when operating off the California coastline. Hence, now it is probably less expensive to burn the low-sulfur oil and transit closer to shore, than to burn the cheaper fuel and travel the extra distance. So–most shipping is using the original lanes again.

Channel Islands Harbor Hazards

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Keep a sharp eye out for numerous crab pots in and near the channel leading into the Channel Islands Harbor

HAZARD 1 Reported by Capt. Rob of R Escape: “Please keep a sharp lookout at both the NW & SE approaches to the harbor. The asshat that has been carpet bombing the area with crab pots can’t read a tide chart! We counted at least 3 markers that were 2 foot or more under the surface…errr, make that 2 … the pic is what I pulled off our prop.”

HAZARD #2: Shoal is growing quickly on the north side of the NW jetty. Harbor Patrol is apparently waiting for someone to go aground before placing a warning buoy. Or maybe it takes two groundings.