HMS Bounty caught in Hurricane Sandy

Crew forced to abandon ship while trying to skirt storm

Very sad news this morning to hear about the plight HMS Bounty. Ship lost, 14 rescued 1 lost 1 missing at this point.

Article Updated: Oct 30th 1600h more news reports added

---

Bosunsmate.org is Back Online

After going dark for 12h participating in the global #SOPAstrike

On January 18th at 8am PST we intentionally replaced the BosunsMate.org website with a redirect to the #SOPAstrike site effectively disabling our web site for the first time since 1992. This extraordinary action was taken to show support for the thousands of web sites and millions of people who spent the day rallying against this flawed proposed legislation.

---

Mapping Enhancements

The vessel tracker mapping system has been updated again

The vessel tracking system has been updated to include several enhancements that make it both easier to use and faster.As always, we have more in store but finding the time to fit it in around the ´day job´ can be a real challenge!

---

Colregs Lights & Shapes

using HTML Canvas to dynamically visualize lights

For some time now I have wanted to improve the lights and shapes section of bosunsmate.org to include a more interactive experience with more light configurations. The HTML Canvas element that allows direct drawing in a web page should finally allow this

---

SV Concordia Lost - All Hand Safe

The West Island College Class Afloat´s tall ship sinks off the coast of Brazil

Just starting to get news articles about the loss of a vessel I can best describe as one on which I always wanted to sail but never did. It is always sad to hear of the loss of any vessel, tall ships make that loss feel closer to home. All initial reports indicate that all hands are safe and accounted for - that is the silver lining.

---

Killing a Virus on a Friend´s Machine

killing the dswave32.dll and it´s associated garbage

I spent the last 2 days working on a friend´s computer to remove a nasty little virus that the anti-virus software didn´t seem to do much about apart from detecting it. To help, I reported my findings over on my technical blog - but I thought it might be good to cross post that here for your reference.

---

Inhibeo Egrotatio

Calling in sick for work? Throw a good latin name at them...

For those times when you really need to call in sick from work - you might as well have a good illness to use for the big "phone call" Seeing as Latin is frequently the language of choice for things medical... here is a good one "Inhibeo Egrotatio"

---

Positions Rolling In

Great to see the tracks from Swift and Grace as they sail through the summer

It´s great to see the positions coming in from the summer program as the Pacific Swift and Pacific Grace ply our local waters. For the armchair sailor like me, this is about as close as we can get to be back out on the water...

---

2009 Minor Softball Team

A fun way to help out in the community

Back in 2007 I started sponsoring a minor softball team in Sechelt. This year they sent a little bag of goodies after the season had ended. It contained a photo, ball cap, and card of thanks.

---

Clarks Maritime Online

A new web site for some old friends

I´m pleased to announce the launch of the Clarks Maritime web site, a home for the various nautical endeavours of Martyn and Margaret Clark (who will be familiar to many of you by name) This site was a joy to design and produce.

---

Which OS - My MS Muddle

XP64, Vista, or wait for Windows 7 - trying to unravel the OS arena

In my ongoing quest to get more performance out of my system, and thus more productivity for my day-to-day existence I´m starting to bat around what will be my next operating system choice. As much as I complain about Micro$oft I know it will be some form of windows - the only question now is... which one!

---

Getting over a cold

not with much help from these pills...

Spent the last 2 days getting over a bit of a cold - but it seems a good excuse to post these funny "pills" my parents gave me for my birthday. In reality they are just mints but I love the idea as a great joke.

---

Robertson II - Two Years Later

Looking back, 2 years after we lost the Robby

Strangely I received an email about the Robertson II just yesterday - exactly two years after the tragic night that she ran aground and left us forever. It reminded me that so many who will be touched (wounded) by learning of her fate, probably still don´t even know it.

---

Firefox 3.5 Launch

The fastest Firefox launching today

As promised I´m going to keep this blog going - but talk about whatever I´m currently thinking about and not necessarily try to make it relate to nautical happenings - so here we go with that... Today marks the launch of the latest version of Firefox (my favorite web browser) and I simply must rattle on about it.

---

SALTS 2009 Summer Program Starts

... and I return from being the ghost of blogging past

Today marks both the start of the SALTS 2009 Summer program, and my return to trying to keep this site up to date with some news of happenings around my world. I Was a bit reluctant to return to blogging here because my nautical endeavors have been reduced of late - but - probably better to continue and be less nautical then not to continue at all.

---

Google Chrome -

Just when you thought it you knew the browser contenders - along comes Google Chrome to rock the boat. I feel like the proverbial bowl of petunias saying "Oh no, not again..." but here we are - released in a unique Google way - comic-book style...

---

Oh My Gotcha!

For anyone considering an upgrade to MySQL 5.1 BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE I just spent the morning working with a web host who also spent the night after what should have been a simple upgrade completely fried several databases! We did find the workaround though...

---

More on AIS

Over the weekend I finally got my Java based AIS decoder software working and have started to post technical details on my AIS information pages for the benefit of others looking to accomplish similar tasks.

---

Are they done yet?

I know that a lot of people love them but for those that don´t, myself included, I think it´s about time to turn off the Olympics and get on with real life...

---

My First Computer

I just found a photo online of my very first computer (now I feel old) it was called the Heathkit H89 (kit because you build it yourself) and was given to us by a friend of my father who built it.

---

Street Level Maps Ready

After a little over a week of work I finally have the entire Sunshine Coast road network mapped out, including ferry routes and some of the major routes to get here.

---

Fun With Street Maps

Now that the new mapping interface is running well, it seems many of my customers want street level data - only problem is that that data is very expensive (roughly $25,000.00 per year!!!) so I needed to find an alternative...

---

Log of the Pacific Grace (2007-2008)

Throughout the voyage of the Pacific Grace 2007-2008 during the "Pacific Odyssey" offshore voyage Bonice Anderson kept a meticulous log of what transpired. A bound copy was presented to her upon their return. You can download a copy of it here.

---

Power Failures, Wind Storms, and Forest Fires

Some days are mundane, yesterday was anything but. It started in the morning with an unseasonable wind storm - gusting about 40kn plus all morning. Then, for obvious reasons the power flickered off rendering my work day basically over. On going outside to find something "powerless" to do, I first sighted the water bombers descending over Sechelt...

---

New Tracking Map Interface

I have mentioned this quite some time ago - but it´s finally online and running for the 2008 summer SALTS trips. New and Improved interface for vessel tracking that uses an advanced open-source mapping engine along with custom chart data for coastlines around the world.

---