Chatter - Ocean Navigator

Pacific Cup seminars underway

A participant in the 2018 Pacific Cup outbound through the Golden Gate. Race organizers are currently offering a series of seminars to prepare racers for the 2022 race. The Pacific Cup (Ocean Navigator is a co-sponsor) will start on July 4, 2022, sailing from San Francisco to Kaneohe, Hawaii. The race has 80 entries at press time. One of the distinctive aspects of the race is the extent that race organizers offer participants a range of opportunities to learn as they get ready for offshore sailing. This includes a slate of seminars — dubbed “The Pacific Offshore Academy” — and…

Hurricane seminar from the experts

It’s not often you can get a briefing from world experts on a subject, but voyagers will have an excellent chance to do just that when the National Hurricane Center in Miami hosts the 2022 Mariner’s Weather Hazards Workshop on March 15 to 17. The Seven Seas Cruising Association is actively promoting the session to its members and you can find out more on its website (SSCA.org). The virtual event will cover a wide variety of topics related to extreme weather. Subject matter scheduled for coverage includes: a 2021 Hurricane Season Recap; NHC tropical cyclone forecast products and uncertainties; 40-minute…

Coral disease spreads in Caribbean

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), is now seen in Caribbean reef areas and in nearshore reef areas. First identified in Florida in 2014, SCTLD has become prevalent across the Caribbean tropics, affecting more than 30 varieties of corals. One problem is confusion with coral bleaching, a process caused by water temperature/UV sunlight damage. The white patches on corals look similar, but one is a stress response while the other is an infection. There are several papers to assist in coral disease identification, such as the Atlantic Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) presentation at www.agrra.org (click on “Coral disease outbreak” and…

Sun sets on NOAA paper charts

In November 2019, NOAA announced a five-year program to end paper nautical chart production and convert entirely to electronic navigational charts, or ENCs. This process, which NOAA calls sunsetting, means the big paper charts that hang on people’s walls and require large chart tables on ship bridges and nav stations on cruising boats, will in another few years be unavailable from print-on-demand certified NOAA agents. It also, and more seriously for the recreational boater, means the cancellation of its RNCs, or raster navigational charts, which are electronic images created by scanning printed paper charts and recreating them in raster picture…