Late post for the Environment

Just caught up with something Tillerman posted on - that yesterday was Blog Action Day for the environment.

We have only one planet and it needs a bit of TLC. The environment is increasingly under pressure as greenhouse gases change the atmosphere and loss of bio diversity due to habitat destruction.

But we can fix it and live our modern lifestyle without giving up the modern world - buy electricity from renewable sources, use high efficiency light bulbs, offsetting flights or use trains, and so on.

Not going to go into this in too much detail - just say there are great resources at the BBC and New Scientist that keep up to date with the latest findings.

So instead will do a quick overview of the four types of fog mentioned under the earlier post on season of mellow mists based upon the summaries from "The Complete Sailing Manual":

Radiation Fog

Radiation fog is formed at night during clear conditions, when rapidly cooling land cools the air above and makes water vapour condense into droplets. The fog forms first as mist in low valleys, and spreads and thickens as the air continues to cool.

Advection Fog

When warm, moisture-laden air passes over cold water, it cools down to its dew point, the water vapour in the air condense, and advection fog forms. Also known as sea fog, advection fog can be persistent, requiring a dry wind to disperse it.

Frontal Fog

Frontal fog develops when warm, moist air at the front of a depression rises over cold air. This causes the temperature of the warm air to fall below its dew point. Frontal fog causes most problems for sailors when it obscures landmarks.

Sea Smoke

Cold air flowing over warm sea absorbs and immediately condenses any water evaporating off the sea, forming fog. The water warms the air, raising the dew point, and dispersing the fog. Higher up, the air cools again and the fog reforms.

Thames in the morning

Nice series of photos of the Thames early in the morning over on the London Daily Photo.

I got up 5ish one day to go hunting for locations for a script a few years ago and was amazed how busy London was even that early - the buses were packed.

It may be horrid to get up at that time but the city looks lovely in the red glow of dawn.

On the Putney Embankment

After Sunday lunch we went for a walk along the Thames river bank. At the Putney embankment there was a hive of water sports activity, with rowers launching for an afternoon's practice, a flock (if thats the word) of canoes battling against the tide, Laser's being rigged for a sail, and the sea cadets out for an explore.

As I mentioned before, all this action made me keen to get a small dinghy like a Laser and sail it on lovely afternoons like this one. I wondered, though, which sailing club would be best out of the:
- Ranelagh
- South Bank
- Corinthians (ok a bit further away but they also cover offshore sailing)

If anyone has any feedback on any of these that would be appreciated.

There was also much of interest ashore, with an art exhibition of river and sailing paintings in one of the rowing clubs.

And at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin an announcement of the opening of what looks like a fascinating exhibition of how Putney helped change the British political system. After the civil war there was held here the "Putney Debates" about structures for a constitution, which was all recorded and can be read here.

Season of mellow mists

Woke up earlier this week to see a thick blanket of fog outside the windows - just the weather to stay in and revise for an exam.

Needless to say only too happy to get distracted from book study to try and remember my meteorology and work out why it is foggy.

My sailing book gives four possible types of fog:
a) radiation fog
b) advection fog
c) frontal fog
d) sea smoke

Which do you think it is?

Answer tomorrow, but in the meantime guess what I saw when it burnt off later in the morning (and that is a big clue as to the fog type)?


Yup, the bubbler was out.

Better keep out of that water, folks!

YW Arc Update

An update on ARC preparations over on the Yachting World web site. Seems like this topic has hit a nerve, with a flood of comments, mostly conflicting.

Just shows there's not just a single solution to an ocean crossing like the ARC. It's also something that everyone who's done it is proud of and has an opinion on.

And it's a great source of sailing stories - so what's your favourite ARC yarn?


ps thanks for the link Elaine!

5 more ARC tips

Five more tips for those doing an Atlantic crossing:

6. Take an astronomy book. The night sky out in the open ocean is stunningly beautiful - stars bright and sharp and shooting stars that make you go wow. In November in the latitudes of the ARC you'll see Orion (above) bright, leading the way as you sail west. Unforgettable.

7. Take the sextant out of its box and use it to take a couple of fixes to estimate your position. After a couple of goes you'll get quite close to GPS: its not just a helpful just in case you get a complete electrical failure, but also rewarding. And you'll appreciate the technical challenges the early sailors had to overcome.

8. Ocean sailings dirty little secret: rubbish. Ok time to come clean, with no marina's rubbish tips what are you going to do with the empty tins and potato peelings? If it sinks (like a tin) or is bio-degradable (like the peelings) we just tipped it over the side. Only remember to do it on the leeward not windward side. And if you do it on the windward side make sure there isn't an open porthole. And if there is open porthole make sure it isn't by the skippers bunk and she is having an afternoon nap in it. She will not be happy.

9. Fishing: by the end you'll be gagging for fresh food so if you're in the cruising division take a rod and try for some doradas. Don't do this if you one of those I'm-doing-20-knots-get-out-of-my-way racers: you'll never be able to land it. And don't let out the line 5 minutes after the start when you're surrounded by 200+ other yachts as you'll only get tangled up in another's spinning generator and it will be embarrasing when you bump into them in St. Lucia. But do take a photograph otherwise no one will believe your it-was-this-big story.

10. Swimming: go for a swim mid way when its 1,000 nautical miles to any bit of land and there is 4km of water underneath you as the experience is amazing. Only don't do it skinny dipping style as there are jelly fish out there and its bad enough to get you're arm stung so protect those more delicate bits.

5 tips for crossing the Atlantic

Over on the Yachting World web site Elaine Bunting has given 10 tips for crossing the Atlantic - probably as part of that magazine's build up for the ARC - the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.

Well I've only done the ARC once and we were safely mid-pack rather than class winners, but here are some suggestions.

1. Parties

Make sure you go to the start and end parties. A lot of the fast boats arrive in St. Lucia and immediately push off somewhere else - I think that's a shame. At least hang around for the prize-giving bash. And turn up to Chay Blythe's speech even if you've heard it all before - the poor man has lost his company in the last year.

2. Bugs

We were told the boat would be crawling with cockroaches and other bugs if you don't wash everything by hand and not take even the cardboard boxes the fruit and veg were delivered in as there could be bug eggs ready to hatch hidden deep inside. So we washed everything, and were happily bug free. If nothing else it will enable you to gossip with your neighbouring boats as they do the same and get a chance to visit to have a nose around.

3. SSB

You probably have Iridium or some other satellite phone for your gribs and wonder about this old fashioned radio, but its worth it to listen in to the net and chat with friends. In particular we got a very good chocolate cake recipe from Happy Spirit for one crew's birthday.

4. Gloves

The one you thing you don't want to get is rope burn mid Atlantic so bring and use your sailing gloves. Yes I know its going to be hot but being unable to use your hands for a week will be a lot worse, especially for the poor sod who has to - er, how to put this - assist in the heads.

5. Practice

You can play it safe and pole out the genoa as Elaine suggests but you will get there quicker if you hoist the biggest spinnaker you've got and do it from day one (wind direction permitting). We didn't as we were a scratch crew learning the ropes and in hindsight this slowed us down.


More tips if I can think of them......

What is this?

Several times I've seen this Thames Water boat go up and down the river and wondered what it is. Now I know, from a program called "Thames: wildlife superhighway" which was broadcast here during the week.

In this week's episode they went on board this interesting boat to find out what it does, why it does it, and how it does it.

It turns out this is a special boat that pumps oxygen into the river at times when levels dissolved in the water gets low. For example if it rains a lot (like it did this summer) it can exceed the ability of the sewage network to get rid of it. This is a legacy of Victorian London, in that the same networks of pipes is used to carry away both rain water and sewage.

In times of really heavy rain it becomes necessary to let raw sewage enter the river (sorry about this theme, but at least you now know why there is a very good reason NOT to drink it). As it decays it sucks oxygen out, which can kill thousands of fish.

Hence the boat: at times of such stress to the wildlife the boat is despatched out to pump life back into the river.

It may look expensive to have such a dedicated vessel, but the alternative would be creating a whole new network of pipes (we're talking billions) or have the river life be killed off at regular intervals.

I'm glad its there - but now I know what it does I'll be wondering each time I see it why exactly its out there!

Dangerous to eat

Another Karachi story about Ramadam - but you have to read this article from the BBC first.

I was warned that eating during the day outside of the hotel might be difficult - but not that dangerous!

Seriously, I had more respect for their traditions than to eat or drink in public, but it was amazing how everyone was fasting at the same time. 95% of the population all following the same rituals together was impressive and rather alien to this westerner. The not drinking anything part must be the hardest and in sympathy I left the cold water bottle they put out for me untouched during my presentations.

However I must disagree with one comment in that BBC article - that the obsession with food was not reflected on TV. For on the widescreen 42 TV in my hotel there was channel after channel of cooking with recipes for Iftar and in between programs advert after advert for food and drink.

I pointed this out to one of my clients who just smiled and said that they know all you can think of is food and play on that.

There was one other thing on everyone's mind apart from food. On the TV in the evening on most channels was overlaid two windows of text and numbers: the first counted down the minutes and seconds to the ending of the fast. The second had equally important numbers - the crickets scores!

Oh, and I also was woken at 3.30 am but not by an over enthusiastic hotel wake-up call: instead by the sounds from the many minarets echoing across central Karachi. I felt lucky to be allowed to roll over and go to sleep, and wondered how many out there wished they could do the same.

Autumn Moon

Pakistan, the USA and the news

Some final thoughts from my Karachi trip. While reading the local paper and surfing the channels on the hotel's 42 inch TV two thoughts came to me:

1) Divergence of the USA and the world

I noticed that there were a lot more channels on TV: from about 8 of which half were state run and the rest the likes of CNN there were now about 90. Of course that was partly because the it was a better hotel, but my local agent said it was also a more general trend. The interesting point was how many were local or from other countries in south-east Asia such as India and also how parochial US TV looked in comparison.

There is much talk about the danger that the US might become more isolationist and withdraw from the world post the next election. From the view point of Karachi it has already happened: the US is going its own way wrapped up in its own thing and the rest of the world doesn't mind as it has a thriving local culture. India can already see itself in a few years with GDP greater than America, pushing that country from first place down to fourth (after China, India and Europe).

The multi-polar world is already here but the US doesn't want to know, which leads me to.....

2) The poverty of American MSM news

Its not a new topic, but the US's main stream media is unable to tell Americans the truth about the world and what America does. Essential and important topics like the occupation of Palestine and oppression of the Palestinians simply are not accurately or honestly reported in the US: the same narrow viewpoint on this subject is echoed from all sides of the political debate from Jon Stewart to Bill O'Reilly, and from all parts of the country from Washington DC to Washington State.

When the local Karachi paper had a diversity of views from a State Department spokewoman to Palestinian writers, Fox News (yes they have it in Karachi) was diverting its viewers from the truth by endless speculation about OJ Simpson.

It reminded me of a State Department report into why the US was hated that concluded that the solution was more information to explain what the US did -which just showed how they failed to understand the problem. For overwhelmingly the group that is ignorant of US foreign policy is not those in the Middle East, but those in the USA itself.

Karachi Photos

I only had a very short time to see some sights but here is a selection.

Firstly fishermen off Clifton Beach - the name one of many clues to the passage of the English through this historic land. The beach was almost totally deserted as it was Ramadan, but I'm told in the evening it gets packed with Iftar picnickers.

And where you have fishermen you must have nets that must be mended.

Nearby is the sailing centre complete with its two dinghies, launching ramp and flag poles, which as noted is right next door to a rubbish tip:


Also nearby is the 1400 year old Ziarat to the Sufi Abdullah Shah Ghazi, patron saint of Karachi and great-grandson to the Prophet Muhammad.

All around Karachi you could see these colourful buses:

And on the subject of travel, this is the City Railway station:

And here is a train full of very patient passengers: it was meant to leave at 2.30pm and was still sitting there at 5 pm: it was clearly going to be a tough journey. Some of the boxes on the platform to the right were clearly marked as coming from the port of Felixstowe.

Its a part of the world with a fascinating history and was sorry to not to see, hear, and discover more. The BBC has recently shown a great series of the history of Pakistan and India, and clips can be found here.

Karachi Security

I took the Independent to read on the flight to Karachi thinking an article about Angelina Jolie surely must distract me in a good way. Big mistake - as it described the background to her latest film, A Mighty Heart, which is all about the kidnap and murder of an American reporter in Pakistan.

No worries, I thought, he must have gone into the wild northern territories. But no - he was kidnapped and killed in Karachi, his body found in the city's outskirts.

Karachi is not an easy city to visit - in the flight there (and also back) I was the only westerner, and except for a few Americans at the hotel I saw no other during my stay. You have to be prepared to be stared at a lot.

The west is not that popular - traditionally Pakistan's number one enemy was India: recently this has changed, and now the USA is hated more.

Politics are in a state of flux, with President Musharraf in power after a military led coup (though elections are planned early in October) and despite that - or maybe because of it - fully supported by the USA.

He has become increasingly unpopular - to the extent that Bin Laden is now more popular than Washington's man.

Karachi has a history of violence and the Marriott I stayed in has suffered a number of car bombs. So to get in all cars must be searched by armed guards and visitors must pass through a metal detector at the front door.

So how safe is Karachi? There was one attempted suicide bombing during my stay near the Karachi Club which was about a block away. Maybe that's why Angelina never went to Karachi - the security fears meant her scenes were shot (in a film sense) in neighbouring India.

I wasn't too surprised to find that the driver my local fixer had arranged was armed "just in case". And on visiting the client's second office in a rather run down and to be honest rather dodgy part of the city we were met and escorted the last mile by an army jeep.

But ultimately when travelling to these places you are not relying on guns but on the people - I trusted my local agents and the driver they hired on my behalf.

Its a country on the edge in many ways - and it felt more risky than my trip in 2004, when Musharraf was much more popular.

I had a long think about this one day when in bed with a lurgy - but my conclusions might be controversial to some readers - something I've tried to avoid on this blog. So I'll leave those for another day.

But to conclude - the people I met, and knew from previous trips and meetings, my agent, his Karachi representative and family, the client and his team, were all very welcoming and helpful, and I hope they remain safe in what looks like being a turbulent time in Pakistan's history.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is a really rich city. Some of those 2 million barrels of oil a day have been used to build what must be the world's most expensive hotel - the Dhs 14 billion (about 2 billion pounds) Emirates Palace.

But it's hard to feel at home here. Outside the heat and humidity chokes all life from the soulless streets, while indoors the bone cold air conditioning no doubt encouraged the bug that has lain me low all week.

It's not a place that practices low emission living - energy and water are consumed as if global warming were just a dream. Which is a shame as it could lead the world by planting its deserts with solar power stations to become the first CO2 neutral country.

The bit I liked best was the old Dhow harbour (above). Here a whole fleet of old wooden boats were moored and their crews did chores like mending nets (below). Apparently they go as far as Bangladesh in what must be epic journeys.

Though they have a sail they are mostly motor powered - and you might have seen Michael Palin in one when he went around the world in 80 days.

Back Again

It's good to be back after a tough business trip to Karachi - you can see a dusty sunset over the central area above. Full of impressions from the experience so more on this latter.

But no, didn't get to go sailing in the end.

Not Sailing in Karachi

Ok so had to try to get a sail here in Karachi.

Today dropped in on the National Sailing Centre and met the Secretary General of the Pakistan Sailing Federation. Commander (R) Q Navaid Usmani was very welcoming and tried his hardest to help, but alas I hadn't given him much warning (none actually) and it was Ramadan (so people were tired and many things were closed), and worst of all it was low tide.

It was the last that did it. We walked out to admire their Enterprise, ready on its trailer to go into the nearby "boating basin", but alas the water was so low "you could wade across it".

As well as sailing in Enterprise he was also a keen Laser sailing and nearly got into the national Olympic team coming second in try outs in the seventies. That must have been so frustrating!

Their sailing lake is next door (literally) to a dump that smolders continually while children dig for scrap to sell: the water is not surprisingly polluted. It put Tillerman's complaints on bad sailing clubs into context!

I wish there was someway to help but how? Its not like you could buy and donate a second hand Laser from www.ebay.pk (there is no such site). And there are so many other problems here. I'll ask my local agent for some advice, but what do you think?

So instead did a tour of the beach, visited a Ziarat of a revered Sufi saint and the old railway station.

Off again

Tillerman has asked about our best boating location. Thats a tricky one as not only have I not found the perfect place but not sure its possible.

I like the Hamble a lot but remember rather too clearly when the shower block we were meant to use broke down (ok, so we just crashed our way into the other one).

I like Cascais but remember also the pounding music that kept us awake.

Maybe continuing the bad-posts-are-good theme I should ask which boating locations you think are the worst.

Ok, admit to feeling a bit grumpy this morning as having to go on a business trip I don't want to - to the UAE and Pakistan.

Would much rather be going to this

Holy Eco-boat Batman!

I took the river bus again home, which was fun, like this (only more fun, this was a slow bit):

Up by Chelsea Harbour saw what looked like Batman's speed boat: This was Earthrace - in London for the Thames Festival (which very very unfortunately I will miss due to a business trip). As you can read here, she is a biofuel powered boat designed to race around the world. While this sounds very eco friendly, I am very skeptical about current biofuels. They rely too much on primary crops such as grain or palm which dramatically increases humanity's need for land, leading to huge habit loss and likelihood of wide scale extinction (as described here).

If you want an eco-friendly race around the world there is really only one answer - use a sail!

Bird Watching Sunday

Sunday I had to work on an assignment on financial risk, so there was of course lots of gazing out of the window dreaming of better things I could be doing, and I kept on being distracted by these birds (*).

First up was the mother and family above. I have no idea what they are but the mum almost stepped on one of the youngsters and she was very noisy making a honking sort of sounds to keep them in line.

Next there were this diving black bird - a coot? Once it dived and the water was calm so you could clearly see the wave expanding from the point it disappeared. Then it reappeared outside the ring - so it was swimming faster than the wave was travelling.

Then I watched a swan: it was directly below so could see its feet under the water and they seemed to be going half the rate expected. What it actually was doing was left foot - pause - right foot - pause - etc so each leg was only doing every other push.

Finally there was this elegant bird from the M&S Oakham range which made a very nice dinner for me and two friends who came over for dinner:


(*) tut tut, did you think non-ornithological thoughts? Ok, there was this rowing boat with eight pretty young women, but, er, anyhow, yes, what was my point?

Weekend Plans

What are your weekend plans?

What I would like to do is:
- go for a run or a swim
- look for some side tables for my flat
- go for a bike ride along the Thames Path, maybe finding some blackberries
- explore the local sailing clubs so can go afloat like in the picture above
- having friends or family round for a meal

What I will actually be doing is:
- having a meeting with a business adviser to go through some spreadsheets
- answering questions on forex, futures, and risk for my OU course

Actually its not all bad as doing one of the first list - having friends round for dinner Sunday evening, roast chicken with all the trimmings on the menu.

And its a lot better than next weekend, when have to do a business trip have been putting off for many months. But trying not to think about that yet!