Plastiki crosses Pacific

Boat made of plastic bottles crosses Pacific - World news - World environment - msnbc.com: "The Plastiki, kept afloat by 12,500 plastic bottles, completes her 8,000-nautical mile voyage from San Francisco as she passes the Sydney Opera House on Monday. Bottles stacked in rows make up the hull, and they are held together with organic glue made from cashew husks and sugarcane. Recycled aluminium irrigation pipe was used for the mast."

The liveaboard life...

Great article on the pros and cons: "If you want to know what it's like to live on a boat, put everything you own into your living room, close all the doors and try to live in a space that small."

14 year old Laura Dekker sails to the start of her solo voyage with dad.

Sail-World.com : Dutch teen solo sailor, 14, begins her voyage: "'Laura Dekker steers her boat, with her father, Dick Dekker, at left, as they depart the harbour of Den Osse (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)'"

Breaching whale crash-lands on sailboat

Breaching whale crash-lands on sailboat - CNN.com: "A sailor has described her 'miraculous' escape after a whale leapt out of the water and crash-landed on the deck of her boat off the coast of South Africa.

Giant Killer whale

Whale named for 'Moby Dick' author: "– This artists' rendering provided by the journal Nature shows a raptorial sperm whale Leviathan melvillei …

LONDON – Scientists have discovered an ancient whale whose bite ripped huge chunks of flesh out of other whales about 12 million years ago — and they've named it after the author of 'Moby Dick.'

The prehistoric sperm whale grew to between 13 and 18 meters (up to 60 feet) long, not unusual by today's standards. But unlike modern sperm whales, Leviathan melvillei, named for Herman Melville, sported vicious, tusk-like teeth some 36 centimeters (14 inches) long."

Take me to the River....

Topock Marina will be replaced this fall � Route 66 News: "The Topock Marina on Old Route 66 in Topock, Ariz., will be replaced with a $14 million, 102-room hotel, spa, nightclub, microbrewery, restaurant, and conference center starting this fall, owner Chet Hitt told the Mojave Daily News."

Rogers riffs on "Row row row your boat."

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood - King Friday's Version

Propel, propel, propel your craft
Gently down liquid solution.
Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically
Existence is but an illusion.

The lonliest whale in the world

Scientists baffled by grey whale sighted off Israel : "Every spring, grey whales head north to the icy Arctic Ocean to feed. But the ice there has been melting at an alarming rate. So the theory is that after the whale left its mating grounds near Mexico, it travelled to the North Pacific, then travelled though the now open Northwest Passage and found itself in the Atlantic.

From there, it must have kept going, turning left when it reached Gibraltar, into the Mediterranean, before finding itself off the shores of Israel.

'If it did in fact go through the Arctic, it would be one of a number of species that are recolonizing the Arctic where they've never been known before in human memory,' says Barrett-Lennard."

Whales, oceans, wildlife rescue

Gray whale is freed from web of nets, swims off: "It took about four hours for a team of marine animal rescue workers to remove the mesh rope knotted around the whale's head and tail, said Tim Sullivan of the Ocean Institute in Dana Point.

Rescue workers freed the whale from a snarl of fishing nets, and it swam back into the Pacific. The whale was docile and calm throughout the rescue operation, rescuers said.

It was a happy ending to a tense, two-day episode that involved some of the nation's top marine biologists and drew hundreds of spectators to the shore. And it was first time in more than a decade that a whale has been successfully freed from nets in Southern California."

Jessica Watson's homecoming

Broadcast LIVE this Saturday: "Sydney planners have put it on the scale of New Year's Eve celebrations, but solo adventurer Jessica Watson's weekend homecoming is now officially a national event with the announcement of a live television broadcast.

Network Ten has set aside two hours of programming on its free-to-air and digital channels for the 16-year-old's arrival in Sydney Harbour on Saturday, enlisting some of its leading lights to officiate."