Marine volunteers launch new communications room
Volunteer Marine Rescue Whitsunday is holding an open day from 10am this Sunday to coincide with the launch their new radio facility at the Combined Marine Club, Altmann Ave, Cannonvale.
The new communications facility will be officially opened around noon and is just part of the activities that include displays and information stands.
There will be prizes and raffles with some great items to win, including a family trip to Knuckle Reef with Cruise Whitsundays, and an EPIRB.
See you there!
VMR Log
Call outs included tows from Double Cones and Bait Reef. The 17-foot half cabin at the Cones was lucky to get mobile phone reception, as the vessel did not carry a VHF radio.
"Mobile phone coverage in the Whitsundays can be patchy at best and must not be relied upon as a means of communication in an emergency," advises VMR member Mal Priday.
The call out to Bait Reef took almost six hours round trip when a drive shaft failure ended a fishing trip on the stricken vessel.
Liner saves crew
A cruise ship rescued four sailors after their yacht ran aground on a reef 500 nautical miles (926km) off the Queensland coast this week.
The P&O ocean liner Pacific Sun picked up the three men and one woman on Friday, a spokesperson for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
Their 14-metre New Zealand registered yacht, the Sambaluka, was travelling from Noumea to Australia when it ran aground at Middle Boronia Reef in the Coral Sea, east of Whitsunday, shortly before 4am on Friday.
P&O's Pacific Sun, with almost 2,000 passengers and crew aboard, changed course about 4.30am to rescue the sailors.
Oz Popular with Poms
Australia is named in a poll of British travel agents as the top long haul destination. The number of tourists heading Down Under is expected to rise by 17 per cent in the coming year. The research also revealed that half of all Britons who take a gap year head to either Australia or New Zealand.
Life preserver
During World War II, Allied soldiers and sailors called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae West's" partly from Cockney rhyming slang for "life vest" and partly because of the resemblance to actress Mae West's curvaceous torso. A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction, which contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of an extraordinarily large brassiere, presumably one suitable for a woman of Mae West's generous proportions.
Saddam yacht for sale
The Iraqi government trying to sell a luxury yacht that was one of many opulent treasures belonging to former dictator Saddam Hussein, a senior Iraqi official said.
Iraqi government representative Ali al-Dabbagh said the 270-foot pleasure boat, expected to fetch $US30 million and features gold-tap bathrooms, a mini-operating theatre, a helicopter landing pad and a secret escape passageway.
Mr Dabbagh said an ownership dispute over the yacht had concluded in a French court. "The ruling was in favour of Iraq," he said.
However, the yacht is not attracting too many bids brokers say.
US missiles and bombs destroyed another luxurious Saddam yacht, the Al Mansur, in southern Iraq in 2003.
Royal Navy shoot out
Pirates caught red-handed by one of Her Majesty's warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off the lawless East African country of Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.
In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.
By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates' vessel; the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly.
Three sheets to the wind
On a small boat, three sheets control the sails. The Main Sheet controls the mainsail, and two sheets that control the headsail the Windward Sheet and the Leeward Sheet. Therefore, a person that has three sheets to the wind means that the sheets are flying with the wind i.e. they do not have control of the boat. Much like someone who has three sheets to the wind does not have control over themselves.
Fitzalan Pass light out
Mariners are advised that the lighted special mark buoy Fl.Y.2.5s at the northern end of Fitzalan Passage, south of Reef Point, has been reported unlit. Mariners should use caution in the vicinity. AUS charts 252 and 254.
Just a thought
"When rats leave a sinking ship, where exactly do they think they're going?
Fair winds to Ye!
Cap'n Dan
