A little over a month ago I was approached by Ryan Skinner of 59° 56′ N blog about participating in an interesting project called the Portfire40.
Ryan does a great job explaining it on his blog as well as on James Tweed’s Coracle Online Shipping Podcasts which you listen to here:
The USCG podstar Ben Strong from AMVER did a great short video introducing the concept too.
Other founding contributors to the Portfire 40 include my former Messing About In Ships cohost and CEO of gCaptain.com, Captain John Konrad; the always interesting Kennebec Captain; Bob Couttie’s “tell it like it is” Maritime Accident Casebook and the “help-full” After Office Hours. I’m sure there will be more along the journey.
Most Sea-Fever readers know that I am also the founder and editor of Weekly Leader, a website and podcast dedicated to the latest leadership news, views and best practices and consistently one of the top PostRank leadership and management websites. I also used to contribute a leadership column to MarineNews; here are a couple old articles I was able to locate quickly: Leadership and the Sea (PDF) and Assuming a New Leadership Role.
So what interested me about the Portfire40 project is that it’s actually about leadership and not necessarily about authority or power. It’s the people who are passionate about and driven to making a difference, not for money or prestige, but because it’s the right thing to do. To me, it’s reaches back to the best of the old maritime tradition of taking care of the ship and your shipmates, which I also believe is a good foundation on which to build your own leadership, even if you never intend to go to sea.
So I’m looking forward to meeting some new maritime leaders and hearing their sea stories. Maybe we can even get a few of them onto the Weekly Leader podcast. It should be fun.
Filed under: Oceans, photography | Tags: Go Pro video camera, great white shark, kayaking
You buy this cool new HD waterproof sports video camera and you head out on your kayak to test it out. Here’s what you see. How do you act?
In case your interested, here the website for the cool Go Pro HD video camera.
Filed under: FotoFriday, maritime, photography | Tags: FotoFriday, photography, The Big Picture, Pictory
Bonus FotoFriday!
There are two photo website that I believe stand out from the rest. They are the Boston Globe’s Big Picture and the great visual storytelling Pictory.
Every week, Pictory exhibits a different theme and this week it’s titled In Deep. Here’s what they have to say:
Bodies of water bring us comfort, euphoria, life.
Most of my happiest memories involve water. Water is the fundamental precursor of life and one of our most valuable resources, but most of us don’t think of it that way. We think of failed attempts to water ski and boiling hot days. Days at the beach or floats down the river. Water and heat work together to give us excuses to detach, relax, and forget. Soak it up.
Check out the images and short captions. They are always awesome. The cool thing about Pictory is that you can contribute to it too! So check out their upcoming themes and join in the fun. Who knows, your image and story might make it in. Good luck!
Here’s a video of an amazing rescue undertaken by a highly trained US Navy helicopter team lead by Lt. Brandon Sheets. Watch to the very end to get the leadership lesson.
Here’s the full story via King5.com: Whidbey crew talks about amazing Skokomish River bridge rescue
Forget Hawaii, Australia and Southern Cali!
We’ve already taken you to the Amazon, Munich, Portland and the UK.
Now, surfs up in Wyoming! Catch the wave!
Filed under: maritime heritage | Tags: PortSide New York, Pim Van Hemmen, marine photography, admiralty law, Betancourt, Van Hemen, Greco & Kenyon, KPI Bridge Oil
Way back in September 2007, I wrote about PortSide New York hosting Opera on the High Seas. Funny that yesterday it came back on my radar screen twice.
First, I had the pleasure of playing in a foursome with Jeanne-Marie and Pim Van Hemmen in the KPI Bridge Oil Annual Golf Outing. Jeanne-Marie is an admiralty attorney and partner at Betancourt, Van Hemen, Greco & Kenyon; she is also a board member of PortSide New York, an exciting nonprofit located in Red Hook, Brooklyn which celebrates our rich maritime heritage. Her husband, Pim, is a marine photographer with an incredible body of work which you have to check out. (marine/other). It was great to learn all of the exciting programs underway and plans for the future at PortSide New York.
Also, yesterday, the New York Times featured PortSide New York in an article by Isolde Rafferty for their Red Hook Journal titled A Retired Tanker, a Home and a Summertime Stage. If you are in or around New York, get over there this summer and experience one of New York’s hidden treasures.
Staying on the photography theme, here’s a good way to keep your Charlie the Tuna camera safe.
The great Instructables shows us how to make a buoy for your digicam. Follow the step by step process for fun and safety!
Flag dip to Petapixel on Twitter.
I love photography.
I love the sea.
This is the camera for me.
Jettisoning my horrible haiku, this is a cool camera.
From the great photography blog PetaPixel:
Back in 1971, StarKist tuna sold promotional cameras in the shape of StarKist mascot Charlie the Tuna for $4.95 and three StarKist can labels. The camera, manufactured by Whitehouse Products, takes 126 cartridge film and accepts flashcubes on top of its head.
If you’re a collector, KEH Camera is selling a used Charlie Tuna camera for $79.
I’m hooked!
Filed under: Moby-Monday, maritime, maritime heritage | Tags: Mystic Seaport
Okay we missed Herman Melville’s birthday (August 1st); yesterday was his 191st. We were actually on a family roadtrip to Mystic Seaport where they were celebrating Melville’s birthday with a marathon reading of Moby-Dick.
It had been a few years since we visited Mystic and the first time with the kids. It’s a great destination with lots and lots of things to do for “youth of all ages.” We started our visit with a showing of the outdoor play, A Tale of a Whaler which is highly recommended if you have kids. It’s engaging and answers, in a fun way, some of those difficult historical questions kids always have.
Some of the other highlights included a visit to the Charles W. Morgan which is currently in the middle of a MAJOR restoration project. You can actually climb aboard her and go below to see first hand how whalers lived and how restorers do their work. This experience should not be missed.
It’s a bit of a climb, especially with small children, but it’s definitely worth it!
Here are a few “artsy” shots taken with my iPhone of other favorite spots in the Seaport.
This is from the Shipyard Gallery looking down into the work area. The gallery has an interesting exhibit about the Morgan restoration project.
I love scale models of villages and this one is a must see. Even though it’s Mystic, it’s great to imagine what our town, Mattapoisett, was like back in the mid 1800′s when activity was buzzing at the six shipyards located on the harborfront.
No visit is complete without hopping aboard a real living tall ship like the Joseph Conrad. Well, she might not leave the dock but in the summer time she serves as living quarters for the young campers in the Seaport’s sailing program. How cool is that!
