Marine Department endangers marine safety in Hong Kong

My correspondence with the Marine Department, via the letters page of the South China Morning Post is copied below.
My response to MarDep is below, just sent to the South China Morning Post.  Will see if they run it.

I thank the Marine Department (MarDep) for responding to my concerns about safety in Hong Kong's waters. (Department worried about out-of-date navigational charts, 25 November).

Sadly, the response only increases those concerns.

The story so far: Thousands of boaters in Hong Kong have relied on navigational chart-plotting services such as Navionics.

Suddenly, and without explanation, MarDep refused these chart-plotting services the rights to use hydrographic data to which MarDep has intellectual rights. Navionics offered to pay MarDep license fees but was rebuffed. 

My claim: This makes boating in Hong Kong waters less safe. 

MarDep response: We own the intellectual rights and if you want to use them you should buy them as MarDep's Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC). 

I tried to follow MarDep’s advice. This involved the following: 1) go to MarDep website 2) learn that you can't buy ENCs online, but must go to their office in person. 3) go to their office and pay in cash ($902). 4) get a CD of the data. 5) take CD home and discover that the zip files won't open on the Apple desktop. 6) ask MarDep for help and get no response.

The irony is that as people have found out about MarDep's ban, they have decided not to update their chart-plotting Apps because to do so would remove the data they already have. Therefore their information is going to be more and more out of date.  As MarDep noted in their 25 November letter, this is unsafe.

MarDep are selling just one or two of their ENCs per month.  So they are making at most, about $1,800 per month.

If MarDep simply licensed the data to the chart-plotting companies they would make much more money than they do now, and mariners would access it much more quickly and easily.  

MarDep would increase the safety of boating in Hong Kong and make more money.  Win-win.

How about it MarDep?  Please let the chart plotting companies license and update your data.  You must do this if you really care about safety in Hong Kong waters. 

MarDep response to me, 25/11/15

My letter 14/11/15

Yesterday at the demos

Some photos from my iPhone, from the Hong Kong democracy demonstrations, in Central, yesterday. My brief comments below photos:

Straight off the DB ferry, into IFC Mall.  Pretty much business as usual...

... and past Exchange Square, the usual groups of Filipina domestic
helpers on a public holiday...

... hanging out in Central, just like a normal Sunday

And in the walkway to IFC, they gather in groups
based on where in the Philippines they come from.
Chit-chat and  noodles...

... and doing business, as usual.

Lots of visitors -- mainly mainlanders -- get a vantage point up
Connaught Road, Central's Main St, just looking on

Past collection points for food and water, free for all

A talkathon, Main St, Central

My free translation:
"Peacefully protest;
Fight to the end;
Head winds... Only make flying easier".
(The phrase "fight to the end" is a Maoist one...)

Main St Central closed.  Crowds chilling. There were some people
walking along spraying water mist on the people to cool them off (32C)

Looking East to Wanchai, where the crowds were
even bigger, "tens of thousands" by most accounts...

HSBC HQ in the background. (and the WWI cenotaph)

Strollin' and chillin'

Young girls collect rubbish. The roads were also
being cleansed of chalked-on slogans.
Those pads on foreheads are cooling pads (32C)

Yellow brollies have become the symbol of the demos.
More free food and drink

"What next?" people ask.  Here I just record photos.
The commentariat (BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times) has no idea: anything from "wait it out", to "Tiananmen 2.0".
I said to Jing early on that the best may be "Wu Wei", a Taoist concept of "do nothing" (to achieve something).... That seemed to be a strategy till this morning, when Beijing has gone all tough: "the foreign forces behind these illegal demos must be cut down" and "if the demonstrators do not stop these illegal occupations, the consequences will be unimaginable".  These are scary words.  And they've cancelled all Chinese tour groups to Hong Kong (about 75 % of tourists to HK)
Some things for certain: Beijing will not compromise on the election package for 2017; Chief Executive CY Leung will not resign; and Beijing will not hesitate to interfere if it sees any challenge to its one party rule or chance of this "chaos" (Luan) happening on the mainland.
In short, the two main aims of the protesters (Leung to resign and open elections in 2017) are unachievable, and even their leadership acknowledges this.  For an self-admittedly unattainable goal, they risk what Hong Kong already has: freedom of speech and assembly, clean and open government, the rule of law overseen by an independent judiciary..
So, while one hopes for a peaceful outcome, one fears the worst.....
Meantime, effects on business?  Down about 15-20%, when this China Golden Week they usually expect a 20% increase. So that's about a swing of 30+%. And that's the difference between being bottom-line black and bottom-line red.  Rents still have to be paid and they're the highest in the world.
Tomorrow is back to work. Then a weekend.  Alan Zeman, a long-term business man in Hong Kong -- well connected with the government --  is predicting fewer Occupiers next week and gradual return to normal, with maybe some conduit to discussions between the demonstrators and the government. I hope he's right, but I fear he's wishfully thinking.
As the traditional TV pundit sign-off goes, when you really don't know: "Time will tell"....

Typhoon Kalmaegi puts boats on shore

Typhoon Kalmaegi hit Hong Kong on September 15.  This is a Tayana 55
on the rocks at Nim Shue Wan bay, near us here in DB.  Just needed a
secure mooring line to avoid this hassle...  There were two other boats
driven onto the beach.....

... And this is how they got her off...

The mast walk by Alex Thomson

Alex T, 30 metres up.  Click here for the vid.

This, reminds me we need to do a rig check...
(h/t to Hetho for the link)

Pleasure boat industry is being stifled by government inertia

Kwun Tong typhoon shelter.  Courtesy SCMP

I've written about this before.  The government here is now stuck in a mode of the least done the safer...
Below, a detailed look at the issue of lack of moorings in Hong Kong, by Howard Winn of Lai See column in the South China Morning Post of 24 October.
The link is here ($). [PDF (free)]

There has been increasing concern over the past few years over the shortage of moorings for private pleasure vessels. Indeed, it is apparent that government intransigence is strangling the local boating industry and stifling Hong Kong's potential to be a thriving boating hub. There are about 18,000 local craft of which about half are categorised as pleasure vessels. Of these, nearly 700 are yachts, about 2,500 are motor boats and junks, and about 4,500 are essentially small speed boats. Many of the latter can be kept on land and don't need moorings.

There are about 2,800 recognised private moorings which exist in private boat clubs and typhoon shelters, which falls a good deal short of the demand. Outside these, there are also a number of designated mooring areas around Hong Kong but according to the Marine Department no more moorings can be laid as a result of objections from "villagers" and other curious brotherhood organisations requiring payment for loss of ancestral fishing rights and so on. Increasingly, boats are anchoring in various bays around the city. The mooring shortage has been exacerbated by the department's ban on subletting and sale of moorings.

Life in the Xenaverse

An article about the wonderful Warrior Princess, muse and inspiration for our own boat's name, from the equally wonderful Jennifer Sky:

....  Xena [the show], however, was also special. It was feminism at work, with female lead characters who were unapologetically powerful and sexy. During my time on the show [as the "Amazon Goddess" Amarice], on six episodes from the fourth to the fifth seasons, I kicked butt. Off screen, I was trained in numerous fighting techniques, in archery and horseback riding. On screen, I hung with a Christ figure called Eli; I had a same-sex lover and a boyfriend of a different race than mine; I threw bombs and walked along high wires. I killed so many bad guys that they began to look the same. In fact, they were the same — 20 or so stunt men and women who did the most difficult tricks and falls, making the rest of us look good.

And I did it all in a wig of wild red hair and leather short-shorts.
Xena, which ran for six years before it ended in 2001, was a show that charmed even as it taught its audience a thing or two. It never reached too far beyond its kitschy foundations: in one episode, characters were crucified; in another, we did musical numbers. But it managed to bring home thought-provoking story lines about same-sex love, about religion, about soul mates and manifest destiny. Gender was not relevant in the Xenaverse. There, a girl or a boy could be a warlord or a farmer, a bard or a sad sack needing protection....  

[Read it all. PDF]

"Give HK people a boat policy anchored to real needs"

Many yachts have been moved into dry dock at the Royal Hong Kong
Yacht Club.  Photo: K.Y.Cheng, courtesy: SCMP

In today's South China Morning Post, an article by Paul Zimmerman, maybe some good news on an issue I've written about before: the severe shortage of berthing and mooring facilities in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong government has belatedly acknowledged the need for a fundamental review of policy and management issues relating to vessel berthing space. The review will explore solutions for better management of berthing spaces for local vessels and the challenges faced by the Marine Department.
The marine industry wants this review to include supply, given the dramatic shortfall of over 20,000 berthing facilities for leisure, recreational and sports vessels. A champion is needed within government to ensure waterfront land and seabed is set aside to address this.

Read the rest of the article [pdf]....

Marine Department on the warpath

Live-aboards at Discovery Bay Marina

Unintended consequences of the tragic crash of a ferry with a pleasure boat in October last year, from a couple of sources in the shipping industry:

To Russia with Voxy

The road follows the railway, mostly.  The only difference was that we went
Perm-Kazan, rather than through Kirov (in the NW).  Click to enlarge.

First post here.

For the past three weeks have been sailing across the steppes of Russia -- from the Vladivostok in the Russian Far East to Siberia and the Urals, and thence Moscow -- with sailing mates Gordie, Rob and Joe.  

10,221 kilometres on the trip-meter, from Vladivostok to Moscow, and we've made it in our trusty Voxy. Now just back in Hong Kong, and some random photos below.... [and for gluttons for punishment, more piccies at Picasa]

Four blokes in a Voxy: Rob, Pete, Joe, Gordie in the hiker's hut, hills of Krasnoyarsk.
We were served tea by the caretaker Viktor who was born and brought up here
and spends all his days in the mountains.  

BTW: I've been asked about "Treacling" (from my last post):  Rob tells me it's the Yorkshire habit of putting the car in neutral going downhill, to save fuel.  Yorkshire folk are renowned for being careful with money, if I can put it like that....  There's also "extreme treacling", which is, in addition to being in neutral, also turning off the engine -- which can, of course, be a bit tricky, what with steering locking up 'n all... if not outright dangerous.
We had to Treacle on the road to Chita, east of Lake Baikal, as there's a bit of road, about 400 km of it, where there's not a single gas station: and the little Voxy only has a range of 410km.  Rob was Treacling like crazy for a whole afternoon's driving...
There are more photos below the fold..

Treacling in Siberia... Sailing lads cruise Russia

Sailing lads on the road...Joe, Rob, Gordie, in Vladivostok, 8 May 2013

[Second part of this trip report is here]

We're now in Krasnoyask, which you can see on the map below, Siberia's third-largest city.

So, we're about half-way on our current drive across Russia: Vladivostok to Moscow.  10,000 km, give or take.

The idea was Rob Bottomley's, a Yorkshire-based sailing buddy of Xena crewmate Gordon  ("Gordie") Ketelbey, with whom I also did the Cape to Cairo Rally in 2011.  Rob is here with his son and fellow sailor Joe.  Yorkshire lads.

We're in a Toyota Voxy that we (Rob and Gordie, that is) bought in Vladivostok, a right-hand drive number imported from Japan, for which the aim is to sell her in Moscow.  She's no Land Cruiser, but a plucky road warrior for all that.

While the Trans-Siberian Railway has been in place for century or more the road through has only recently been completed -- the last bit, the Zilov Gap, driven by Putin in 2009, in one of his he-man stunts.  By the way, and for what it's worth, no Russian in the Far East or Siberia has had a nice thing to say about the he-man... 

Since the road has only recently(ish) been completed, there's very few who have done the trip by car.  In most of the places we've stopped we're the first tourists they've seen, and we ourselves didn't see another tourist till Ulan Ude, 3,800 km west of Vladivostok (in between Irkutsk and Chita on the map below).

And what's this "treacling" business?? Answer later (maybe; I'll see how I feel)...

As always, click on the photos to enlarge.

This map says "Early 20th Century", but nothing much has changed on the
rail since then, other than the new BAM railway north of Lake Baikal.
The Road more or less follows the train's track.
Newby writes about it amusingly in "The Big Red Train Ride" of 1978.

Klaus' fabulous photos

"Sunset Skyline over water"

Some really fabulous photos from Xena crewmate Klaus, here.  Thanks Klaus!

The Xena Blog brings you breaking news: Flying Squid

Oceanic squid flying up to 100 ft, in the Pacific Ocean. Photo: AFP/Getty

 Rather have one of these fellas land in the boat than flying fish....

From The Telegraph:

The mollusc propels itself out of the ocean by shooting a jet of water at high pressure, before opening its fins to glide at up to 11.2 metres per second, Jun Yamamoto of Hokkaido University said.

Olympic Gold medallist Bolt averaged 10.31 metres a second when he bagged gold in London last year.

"There were always witnesses and rumours that said squid were seen flying, and we have proved that it really is true," Yamamoto told AFP.

Yamamoto and his team were tracking a shoal of around 100 oceanic squid in the northwest Pacific 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of Tokyo, in July 2011.

As their boat approached, the 20 centimetre (8-inch) creatures launched themselves into the air with a powerful jet of water that shot out from their funnel-like stems. More...

Happy New Year of the Snake..."patience and steady progress"...

River Snake,  from Lorenzo Duque on the "Foreign Students in China 1973-79"
Facebook page. (I was one, in 1976-77)

Happy New Year of the Snake to all Friends of Xena and motley folk that pass by this site.  A Snake year is characterised by "patience" and "steady progress"....

From regular Xena crew Grant and Iris (aka "Grunta" and "Splash") in New Zealand:

Dear Peter Jing and Families

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Wishing you Guys a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2013  .... year of the Snake.

Enjoying Summer weather down here ..great sailing .. long walks .. Picnics with Family about for Waitangi Day Celebrations.

  

Euroyacht Newsletter this morning quoted:

hark, now hear the sailors cry,

smell the sea, and feel the sky,

let your soul and spirit fly,

Into the Mystic.

(track by - Van Morrison)

Best Wishes As Always

Grunta and Splash!

Adria Australis: another blast from the past

Back in September 2011 I posted a piece on the Clipper Race, and made a passing reference to Adria Australis, an Alan Buchanan 49' steel sloop built in 1966 on which I'd made a passage delivery from Hobart to Adelaide, via the SW Cape of Tasmania.  That led to contact from Tim Simpson from Adelaide, who'd sailed on Adria in the 80s.  So I posted about that, with some piccies from 1983, here.
Then, just last week, an email from Mark Jones, who had been with us on Adria on that very trip, when we sailed into a major storm, with winds of over 70knots, were knocked down, fell off a wave which dented the forward port side of the boat, damaged the engine, and, in retrospect, nearly did for us, on that savage lee shore, with "many uncharted black rocks" as the Pilot says....
A bit of to-and-froing of emails with Mark, are added to comments section of the earlier post here.
Mark asked for some more photos from that voyage, and I'm doing that below....
First, Mark's email of 18th Jan:

Hi Peter,

As another year started I got to thinking about what I was doing 30 years ago.  Sue, my partner at the time, and I were on board Adria Australis with Lachlan, Ant, Jan and you from Hobart to Strahan.  I Googled a bit and found an ad from when Adria was for sale and read your “Big Waves Tip Yacht” blog – in fact I think that’s me in one of the photos.  The whole trip is still pretty clear in my memory.  If you fancy a bit of a catch up it might be fun.

Xena looks pretty impressive.  There must be a story or two there!

All the best,

Mark

Mark Jones
Welsh Produce Manager/Rheolwr Cynnyrch Cymru
Rural Regeneration Unit/Uned Adfywio Gwledig

Mark then...., January 1983, somewhere off Tasmania....

... and now, Welsh Produce Manager at the RRU.

Sue, at SW Cape. We're about to head into the storm. Nothing in the pictures
I have can give a true idea of the fury we met round the corner.

Being towed into Macquarie Harbour, Strahan, about four days later.
The entrance is really narrow and we'd had no engine for the four days
up the west coast after the knowdown off Port Davey, SW Cape.

Sue drying out the gear in Strahan

"Cowboy", one the fisherfolk who met us, all kindly and friendly.
Here he steers us up the Gordon River on a look-see

"Cowboy's" fishing boat.

Cowboy, Jan, Skipper Ant Harry and ??..

Fanging round a different kind of racetrack

These are V10 beasts boasting 580+ BHP...

As well as being keen on boats, some of our crew are also very keen on racing cars.

Here's a report on some interesting racing and fast-car driving in China.

The contact in China is here.

Anyone like to join me in a little jaunt to drive super fast cars in China?

Print out of the SCMP article below the fold...

"Harbour watchdog backs yacht club's proposal for racing facilities"

Quotes our Roger Eastham: 

Roger Eastham, the [Royal Hong Kong Yacht] club's marine services manager, said: "Our concern is the development will be made without consideration of these facilities."
Eastham said international organisations were genuinely interested in holding yacht races in the city but were discouraged by the lack of basic waterfront facilities, such as space for a viewing arena, a stage and electricity.
The club would take this opportunity to dispel the perception that sailing is only for the rich. "We just want to improve the waterfront from cultural, leisure and sport perspectives. It's not something we want to own or operate," Eastham said.....

Article below the fold...

New 3Di Main

From Stevo this morning, two piccies of the new North's 3Di Mainsail at its NZ loft.

Wow, those numbers sure pop!

Yum...
(Bit of roach there... will keep MC Danger busy waggling the backstay...)

Xena lying third in Asian Yachting Grand Prix Championship(!)

This is a Screenshot. It'll change over time, so I thought I'd
cement the placings as of today.  The site is here.

I didn't even know we were in this Championship....  And here we are just one point off equal first!
Hat-tip to Stevo for bringing to our attention.... The other regattas that count to the championship are King's Cup, San Fernando, Boracay and Samui.

Link here.

You know how you can never find a cab when you want one?...

New York, post Hurricane Sandy.  More photos      Photo: Charles Sykes, AP. 

A Day on the Water...

Some photos from Heiko and Cron, who came out with us on cruise Sunday 23rd September.  I met Heiko on the Cape to Cairo car trip in 2011, and Cron his mate and colleague, both of South Africa.  Also joining us was Adrienne Loeffler, who I recently met at the Club Siena pool, a nice place to meet folk....
Easy breezes, no swell, beautiful sunset.  And a swim while drifting off Big Wave Bay.
Thanks to Heiko and Cron for the photos..

Adrienne and Jing

Yours truly, sleek in black...

PF and Cron

Cron, Adrienne, Noel and Jing

Heiko mans the Bow

A beautiful Hong Kong sunset....

... and more sunsetting....

And so to bed... Xena lies happy alongside the pontoon at the Royal
Hong Kong Yacht Club.  In the background, Qingdao, a Class 40
that is going to be sailed round the world by Gao Chuan.
Report of that attempt here.