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                                         COMMODORE’S COLUMN

Hello Sailors,

O.K. I admit it ! I’m not the sharpest pencil in the box, but I am confused by two recent ‘weather’ reports. One of them said that, due to winter warming, it is possible for vessels to sail through the North West passage for more of the year than has been the case for the last few decades. At the same time the Shackleton Epic expedition has been called into doubt because there is more Antarctic pack ice this year. The expedition had planned to sail a replica of Shackleton’s lifeboat  - a 22’ 6” open ketch - across the same bit of the Antarctic Ocean as Shackleton did in 1914. They intended to complete the 900 mile journey in this open boat without the aid of any 21st century navigation aids or equipment. The expedition’s support vessel, the tall ship ‘Pelican’, was due to offer communications and safety support, but it was decided that because the pack ice had ‘reached its greatest maximum extent since satellite tracking began’ it would not be safe to continue. If ‘global warming’ means that the Arctic is having less ice and the Antarctic is getting more ice at the same time as Australia is experiencing unusually hot weather I’m beginning to feel sorry for the weather forecasters who try to give us a clue about what will happen tomorrow.

 Last month I passed comment about the demise of lighthouses so I’m delighted that on June 22nd there will be a ‘Foghorn Requiem’. Everyone with a boat is being encouraged to join the celebration in the North Sea are of Souter Lighthouse at Lizard Point. It seems that a small armada of vessels will be sounding their ships horns while brass bands will play on the shore and the Souter Lighthouse will take part in ‘an ambitious musical performance’ to mark the decommissioning of the foghorns in the U.K. before they actually disappear. Doesn’t it make you proud to be British !!

 Perhaps it is the anti-establishment streak in the French that persuaded Marc Guillemot to try to beat the record for the fastest sail around Britain and Ireland. Unfortunately he decided to do it against the traffic in the Dover Straits and in the Traffic Separation Scheme. He sailed 28 in miles in the wrong direction and several merchant ships changed course to avoid a collision. I suppose a fine and costs totaling £16,000 might have been deemed worth it if he had succeeded, but he didn’t. (Isn’t Guillemot an interesting name for a sailor?)