New volcanic activity, global temps, sailing camp—World Cruising news

by David Schmidt, Sail-World Cruising Editor on 22 Jan 2015 If you’ve ever sailed through the Caribbean or the South Pacific-not to mention myriad other cruising grounds-you’ve seen the remnants of volcanoes once tall and mighty, reduced to a cratered-out version of their former glory. Or, if your luck was really good, perhaps you had the opportunity to see a volcano erupt, and to witness the lava, ash and heat that have helped shaped islands big and small. Either way, volcanoes provide important clues about our amazing planet, and they have certainly also helped to shape the course of human history.

Currently, a volcano that’s situated on the uninhabited Tongan island of Hunga Ha'apai is erupting, having 'awakened' on December 20 after a five-year nap. According to reports, the volcano is erupting from two vents, one on the island and the other below the sea’s surface.

Impressively, the eruption has already physically transformed the shape and size of the island, adding considerable amounts of terra firma where just two months ago a visiting cruiser would have found little more than brine. 'The new island is more than one kilometre wide, two kilometres long and about 100 metres high,' said Tonga's lands and natural resources ministry, in a released statement.

While the eruption has caused international air carriers to cancel a number of flights, it also affords any visiting cruisers a rare and dramatic view of the birth of an island. 'During our observations the volcano was erupting about every five minutes to a height of about 400 metres, accompanied by some large rocks,' continued the ministry in their statement. 'The ash is very wet, most is being deposited close to the vent, building up the new island.'

Get the full report, inside this issue.

And speaking of planetary change, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a sobering report that fingers 2014 as the warmest year on record since scientists began recording such metrics. According to NOAA, 2014 was 0.69 degrees Celsius (1.24 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average temperature for the entire 20th century, usurping 2005 and 2010 as the hottest year on record. Worse still, NOAA’s scientists also state that 2014 represented the 38th consecutive year that the yearly global average temp was above normal.

'Much of the record warmth for the globe can be attributed to record warmth in the global oceans,' wrote NOAA in their report, which can be found inside this issue. 'The annually-averaged temperature for ocean surfaces around the world was 0.57°C (1.03°F) higher than the 20th century average, easily breaking the previous records of 1998 and 2003 by 0.05°C (0.09°F)… In 2014, the warmth was due to large regions of record warm and much warmer-than-average temperatures in parts of every major ocean basin.'

Get NOAA’s full multimedia report, inside this issue, and be sure to stay tuned to the website for more environmental news from our warming planet.

Meanwhile, for junior sailors who are based in the northern hemisphere, the 200-foot Sailing School Vessel 'Oliver Hazard Perry' will be offering summer camps for teenagers that teach sail handling, hand-steering and other rules of good seamanship. 'They’ll learn to haul lines, hoist yards, climb the rigging, tie knots, keep lookout, and even steer at the helm, along with other seamanship skills,' says Captain Richard Bailey. 'But most important, they’ll learn to be good shipmates, and good citizens of their greater world.'

The 'Oliver Hazard Perry' is the first vessel of her type to have been built on North American soil in more than a century, and offers a unique program to junior sailors who are interested in (temporarily) forgoing video games and the Internet for new-found skills that are far more intrinsic to human exploration and discovery than computer-generated imagery. Get the full download, inside this issue.

Also inside, learn about the latest efforts of Australia’s Marine Rescue service, get the latest news on piracy in Southeast Asia, and-for anyone planning a summer cruise to the Canadian Maritimes-find out more about cruising the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario.

May the four winds blow you safely home,