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Displaying items by tag: Irma

The unprecedented damage wreaked by Hurricane Irma in recent days in the Caribbean, and now in Florida, has been a wake-up call for Irish sailors writes W M Nixon. While we may just have experience a breezy early-Autumn weekend here at home, the winds have only been at speeds which are only tiny fractions of those experienced on the other side of the Atlantic, where in many islands devastation has often been total ashore and afloat, even in the most sheltered “hurricane hole” harbours and formerly safe creeks.

Obviously the most immediate requirement is for humanitarian aid. But the long-term economic and social future of the islands and coastal communities on the mainland will be something needing continuous aid and tangible support over the months and years ahead. Many organisations are marshalling their resources and members to join this relief effort in whatever way they can, and the Ocean Cruising Club is one of them, as revealed in this bulletin here from Clew Bay-based Daria Blackwell of the much-travelled 57ft ketch Aleria, who is PRO to the Ocean Cruising Club.

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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.