10 Maritime Blogs- Plus 1 For Good Luck!

Just so you know, I haven’t been purposely neglecting my blog and my faithful followers. 😉

I’ve been hard at work on the DSV Mystic Viking and my access to the internet has been extremely limited.

After my experience on the tuna boats, I promised myself I would never take another job offshore where I didn’t have internet access. Even the IMO recently came out with the ‘news’ that internet access offshore is “important for attracting and retaining crew”!

I meant to write this post a few days ago, to get into the spirit of ‘Maritime Awareness Week’. I’ve been working in the maritime industry almost my entire life; in commercial fishing, party boats, yachts, oil & gas, tankers, research. I still haven’t even really broken the surface of all the different aspects. I think most people are pretty unaware of how important the maritime industry is.

Yeah, I guess most people know about the oil and gas sector. That is where I’ve been most involved in the last few years. The transport sector is one part I’ve never really been involved in, other than tankers. There’s a good book about that part of the field. It’s called Ninety Percent of Everything. Check it out if you can, it’s really pretty interesting and I bet you’ll learn something!

In an effort to promote Maritime Awareness Week here on Captain Jills Journeys, I want to share a few of my favorite maritime related blogs. I want to try and show the huge variety of what goes on out here at sea where most people today never venture. I hope you’ll take a look and enjoy these blogs too.

Here’s one that’s just about everyday life on the water. The writer lives on a longboat along the canals of Great Britain. She writes about living aboard with her husband and their cute little dog.

Here’s one from Lisa, she sails around the world and has the most amazing adventures. All on OPB’s (other peoples boats). 🙂

Here’s one from Paul B. A guy who’s basically just starting out on the journey I started more than 30 years ago. Yes, I am also a hawsepiper. 😉

Another hawsepiper at Blue Ocean Mariner has a different perspective on the journey.

Here’s one from Augustin, another mariner. He’s sailed some really cool ships, including a couple of tall ships (which is how I got sucked into this too!). He writes mostly in Portuguese, so I can’t really understand all of it, just enough to get the general idea.

Here’s the Captains Log from the barque Picton Castle. Another tall ship (where I actually sailed with their captain back when I was a cadet and he was a mate). 🙂

Here’s an interesting blog if you like the scientific side of things. Southern Fried Science always has something new to see.

Here’s one from Ben at New England Waterman. He writes about working various vessels working around the harbors in the Northeast of the US among other things.

Here’s a link to Barista Uno’s Maritime Café Blog. He always comes up with some good stuff. Lots of art lately. 🙂

Here’s another all around interesting blog with lots of good art. Bowsprite is one of the first blogs I found when I started my own blog here.

Don’t think those are a complete roundup of good maritime blogs online. The few I posted are just a few I could come up with and link to from here. There are SO many more of them out there and (I think) they’re all pretty interesting. The world is covered in water and there are people all over the world who spend their lives working out there.

Not to forget, here’s one for the families we leave behind when we go to work. Thanks Callie!

The Vermont Sail Freight Project: Alternative Sail

The Vermont Sail Freight Project.

I think it’s really wonderful that this group is trying to bring back commercial sail in the US. They’re also working in another area I like which is good food. The sailing barge Ceres is working with a great project bringing farm fresh food down to New York City.

I think there is a definite place for sailing ships even in these modern times. With all the attention being focused now on the environment, climate change, the high price of fossil fuels, etc., we should be taking a new look at sail (traditional or new improved models).

I’ve been keeping my eye on the Tres Hombres (Netherlands) which has been sailing since 2009. She’s a beautiful brigantine and sails between Europe and the Caribbean. She carries cargo that is not as dependent on a fast delivery time. She only carries about 35 tons so she makes it count with high value cargo such as rum and chocolate (yum). 😉

She can also carry trainees who will pay a fee in return for the adventure of a lifetime and a certificate to boot! With just a quick look at their website, I see that they will give you certificates all the way up from ordinary seaman to captain! Too bad they’re not recognized by any government. 🙁

Sailing General Cargo Schoenerbrik Tres Hombres

Even so, I’m sure the training you would get on board a ship like that would serve you well in any other. You’ll be better off then just going to work on any power vessel. You’ll also get an interesting, fun adventure, which is all but eliminated from the merchant fleet these days (at least in America). 🙁

I’d love to make a voyage on her myself. Or any of the other similar ships around the world. There are a few of them now, the Bessy Ellen and the Tres Hombres (both with Fairtransport) which are truly cargo ships along with the Ceres of Vermont Sail Freight Project.

The barque Picton Castle (home port Nova Scotia) is primarily a sail training vessel but also does some cargo work. She sails worldwide and is presently making her way across the Pacific.

New designs show promise as not only for pure sailing vessels, but as additions to the usual container and other modern ship types. The addition of sails or kites should help fuel consumption at least. Here’s a link to the Skysails website where you can learn more about that idea and how it works…

 http://www.skysails.info/english/skysails-marine/skysails-propulsion-for-cargo-ships/.

Others are working on more new designs to take advantage of the wind. I posted previously about one of them, the ‘Vind’…

 http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/blowing-in-the-vind

I’m really looking forward to seeing more of these ships in the future. I hope one day I will be able to take the time to sail on one of them again. There really is nothing like sailing on a real tall ship. Spending a day is just a small taste of what it’s really like. Get that taste and you WILL want more! 🙂