So, if you have any interest in sailing whatsoever, you’ll definitely want to be in town two weeks from now for the fifth and final leg of the VELUX 5 OCEANS around-the-world sailboat race that coincides with Harborfest 2011.

The 3,600 nautical mile final leg will be leaving Charleston May 14th, racing to the finish line in La Rochelle, France.

‘Sprint’ really encapsulates what the finale to the VELUX 5 OCEANS will be: an all out adrenaline-fueled race across the North Atlantic and back into the Bay of Biscay, where La Rochelle will celebrate the unique achievements of the skippers in completing The Ultimate Solo Challenge. They are expected to arrive in La Rochelle in early June 2011 with prizes presented June 11.

“I have a lot of incentives to get to Charleston first, my kids are there, my family is there and my home is there. The sooner I get there the longer I get to spend at home. Mentally that is a bit of a liability, and it will be important for me to keep my head straight and not get too excited about sailing home.” – Charleston’s own Brad Van Liew, skipper of Le Pingouin.

Charleston Harborfest 2011 Schedule

Thursday, May 12th

• VELUX 5 OCEANS Vessels and Race Village Open to Public >> 1:00 – 6:00 PM

Friday, May 13th

• Festival Grounds Open to Public >> 1:00 – 6:00 PM
• Skipper Bon Voyage Party >> 5:00 – 8:00 PM

Saturday, May 14th

• Festival Grounds Open to Public >> 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
• VELUX 5 OCEANS Parade of Sail >> 12:30 PM
• VELUX 5 OCEANS Race Restart >> 3:00 PM

Sunday, May 15th

• Festival Grounds Open to Public >> 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

From the Shem Creek blog.

Charleston Harborfest 2011

The Schooner Pride will be departing from the Aquarium Wharf at 360 Concord Street – to the left of the S.C. Aquarium – on July 4th at 7:00 PM and returning at 9:00. If the Patriot’s Point fireworks haven’t started yet, guests will be able to stay on board and watch from the dock – about the best seat you can get for this amazing show!

Tickets are only $42 per person and reservations are strongly recommended. They only have 49 seats available, and like always, it will be sold out!

Tickets can be purchased at www.schoonerpride.com or by calling 843-722-1112 or 800-979-3370.

Happy sailing!

From the Shem Creek blog.

The Schooner Pride continues the Tall Ships legacy July 4th

NO, it’s not an April Fool’s joke in the middle of May, but thanks to PlanetInAction, this amazing FREE Ship Simulator game lets you take the helm of several kinds of ships, including:

1. an airship,
2. a fuel ship,
3. a container ship, and
4. the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship!

What’s really amazing is the realism and visual & sound effects, which are based on Google Earth’s new visualization platform. It looks like the Charleston cruise ship business we’re hearing may come is now one step closer.

Here’s a short video of it in action:

Thanks to Google’s latest Earth API release, it all runs in your browser via a geplugin.exe – which is currently using 23852K of RAM on my system – if you have the goods, it sure is cool!

UPDATE: Celebrity Cruises has announced new sailings to the Caribbean from the Port of Charleston, just as the S.C. State Ports Authority bids adieu to its largest cruise customer, Norwegian Majesty. This fall, Celebrity Cruises marks its return to Charleston, kicking off a series of port calls that will continue through early next year and resume next fall. Norwegian Majesty made its last stop in Charleston on Friday. /via

From the Shem Creek blog.

Cruise ship pulling into Shem Creek

Chris Anthony, co-founder of the company that produces the Aptera 2e electric car, says their Epic Wakeboats 23E burns 50% less fuel and emits 1/2 as much CO2 as a typical wakeboard boat during a four-hour trip on the water.

The 22′ is a series hybrid that uses a small gasoline engine to drive a generator which keeps the lithium-ion batteries going as they empty out – similar to what’s in a Chevrolet Volt. The batteries are mounted along the centerline of the boat, and can be recharged from a common 110/220 volt wall socket.

The boat is expected to cost around $150,000 come July, but they hope to produce a $70,000 model by 2012.

If you’re still interested, the closest dealer right now is Southern Ski Boats up north in Virginia.

From the Shem Creek blog.

The world’s first electric hybrid sports boat

Like a million other people today, I played around with the newest version of Google Earth, that voyeuristic fantasy ride of an application that any wanna-be adventurer could easily get lost in for hours.

The first thing I checked with their new ‘Ocean’ layer is whether or not the excavation site for the H.L. Hunley was marked or not – unfortunately NOT. Then I figured I’d pull the lat. & long. coords. up and at least get an idea of exactly where it was, so I went to National Geographic because they were out there flying their helicopter the day the sub was pulled up – yea, I was there, and it was awesome!

Anyway, from the map they had in the article (see below), I saw that the U.S.S. Hunley was pretty much right next to the U.S.S. Housatonic, a wreck that WAS marked in GE (in the bottom right corner above Google’s 1st ‘G’ in the image above). So now you can at least see how shallow the water is there (40′ if I remember correctly) and then it starts dropping off big time a little further out.

About that excavation – I left Goat Island before dawn that morning with my buddy Steve Prescott and his two kids. We slipped through the inlet out to the excavation site, imagining what the submariners were feeling while lurking under those same waters back in 1864. There were hardly any other boats there at first, but then they started coming in droves. There were even people kayaking all the way out there! When the sub was finally raised, it was incredible, a real parade of boats on the water – kayakers, jon-boats, small boats, large boats, party boats, you name it! On the way in, people lined up on Sullivans Island, Patriots Point, everywhere they could, to get a glimpse at the H.L. Hunley finally raised from the ocean floor. Most of us followed the sub’s barge from the excavation site all the way to the lab where it sat for months being examined. We hung out there with about 30-40 other boats partying for a couple of hours, and wound up being one of the last ones to leave. Definitely a day I’ll never forget!

I’m sure over time, the H.L. Hunley and many other shipwrecks, hazards to navigation, and the like will be marked up in GE, ’cause it’s just awesome! I’ve even heard of scuba divers marking their trails and I bet it’s a cool toy for treasure hunters and salvage guys too.

Nice job Google! I can’t wait ’til the day we have underwater video!

1864 U.S.S. Hunley shipwreck off Charleston, S.C.
(Credit: National Geographic)

* UPDATE: 2/4/9 – The world’s 1st deep water webcam, looks like that’s a done deal!

From the Shem Creek blog.

Discover shipwrecks at home with GE’s new Ocean layer

This doesn’t apply to emergency situations, but the boat or watercraft is expected to be recovered if such an event occurs. An abandoned watercraft is one that has been moored, stranded, wrecked, is sinking, or sunk, and has been left unattended for more than 45 days.

The State’s new abandoned boat law stipulates that all expenses for the removal of any abandoned watercraft will be provided by the owner. Fines upon conviction of this misdemeanor are between $1000 and $5000 and/or imprisonment up to 30 days.

* UPDATE 2/26/09: The City of Charleston has approved a new law prohibiting abandoned boats and outboard motors in public waters within city limits also. Here’s a short video about the abandoned boat problem.

* UPDATE 4/1/9: Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines

“I am overinsured on this boat. If I make it go away so no one will find it, the insurance company will give me enough to cover the debt and I’ll make something on the deal as well.”

From the Shem Creek blog.

Abandoned boat law means fine and/or jail time

From the Shem Creek blog.

‘Thriller Charleston’: speed boat excitement for the masses

It was also cool to see some turtles – or were they tortoises? – and some slithery snake bracelets brought in by local animal lovers.

Unfortunately, all the money being spent here isn’t gonna be much help for Shem Creek’s shrimping boats if these gas prices stay so high and the amount of shrimp out there keeps dwindling.

Of course I took a bunch of pictures while I was there, click the clown to see a gallery of 27 of them.

From the Shem Creek blog.

Mt. Pleasant ‘Blessing of the Fleet’ 2008