Category Archives: Worldwide

A Nice Lighthouse Hotel in Subic Bay

The Lighthouse Marina Resort
The Lighthouse Marina Resort – photo retlkpr

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In early 2010 I made my third trip to the Philippines, alone, and for six (6) weeks. One of my first stops, besides Manila, was Subic Bay. A friend I had never met, Dave Starr picked me up at my hotel in Manila and drove me to my hotel in Subic Bay – not the one mentioned here. Continue reading A Nice Lighthouse Hotel in Subic Bay

Mise Tales Twenty-Nine

 

For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.

A beautiful view of the Nazare lighthouse at Praia do Norte outside the Portuguese fishing village of Nazare, Portugal. It is back dropped by what may be the world’s highest surfing wave.Article and photos on the National Post Sports page.

Nazare Lighthouse at Praia do Norte outside the Portuguese fishing village of Nazare
Nazare Lighthouse at Praia do Norte outside the Portuguese fishing village of Nazare

 *************************** Continue reading Mise Tales Twenty-Nine

Film Media and the Lighthouse

After my comment in Misc Tales Twenty-Eight about a movie with a lighthouse reference in it, I wondered aloud “How many more media sources have lighthouses in them?”

Well, off to Google and I started looking. There are many. I am going to list them by date, and if you know of more, please let me know.

As you will see, not much of the media uses a real lighthouse – mostly movie props.

Continue reading Film Media and the Lighthouse

Now You Have to Cook Them!

After posting the story Then You’ve Got to Clean Them! I obtained permission from Pacific Wild to use some photos showing the cooking of the salmon by the people in Bella Bella, British Columbia (BC). These pictures just made me drool. The people were cooking planked salmon which has to be one of the tastiest ways of cooking salmon over an open fire. See the photo and gallery below:

Planked Salmon - Bella Bella - Pacific Wild
photo courtesy of Pacific Wild

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The photos above are in no set order – just as I downloaded them. On the lighthouse we used to cook the salmon many ways but this was the most fun, and the tastiest. Continue reading Now You Have to Cook Them!

Mise Tales Twenty-Eight

 

For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.

The Lovely Bones   IMDb

The Lovely Bones   IMDb2

Has anyone seen the movie released in 2009 entitled The Lovely Bones? It features a fictitious lighthouse marking the entrance way to heaven in a thoroughly entertaining film.

“Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family – and her killer – from purgatory. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.” – IMDb

There is one strange thing about this lighthouse – the light in the lantern revolves counter-clockwise (CCW)! This is most unusual and there are only a few lighthouses in the world that revolve CCW, the majority revolving clockwise (CW).

A couple I found were in Australia. Does anyone know the whys and wherefores of CW vs CCW rotation of the lamp? I think this deserves further investigation and maybe a future article. Thanks for any help you can contribute. Continue reading Mise Tales Twenty-Eight

World’s Ugliest Ship

I know this website is about lighthouses, but I do not plan these things! After posting the story on FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) doing oceanographic research I was alerted to this story on the World’s Ugliest Ship which also does research of sorts. It is too interesting to ignore. Hey, it’s also red and white like the Canadian Coast Guard ships!

ramformtitanPGS   Image   Digital JournalA seismic vessel, the Ramform Titan, has sometimes been dubbed “the world’s ugliest ship” as it has a 70 meter wide stern, making it one of the widest boats in the world. It is owned by Norway’s Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS). – more

Launch of the Ramform Titan from the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan (below):

[private] 

The ship was launched on April 26 from the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan (see video at the end of this article).
The giant oil-services vessel has docked in Bergen, Norway for the first time on Saturday morning and will remain in port until the weekend, when it sails off to the South Atlantic to shoot seismic in the Falkland Islands.
The ship’s captain, Cato Grasdal told Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian), “The ship has tremendous power and is therefore okay to manoeuvre.”
“The most unusual thing is that she is so short compared to the width, which makes her difficult to get onto the pier.”

On the Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) website a statement reads: “The new Ramform Titan Class puts PGS further ahead as the leader in safe, productive and efficient 3D seismic acquisition.”
The boat’s wide stern is designed to drag up to 24 seismic cables, capable of shooting seismic over a 12 km² area. The boat is powered by the ship’s own on-board 18 megawatt power station.

The vessel provides an enhancement of many established features, all incorporated for one single purpose – “to collect maximum amounts of seismic data: quickly, safely and reliably.”
As can be seen in the videos, on board there is comfortable space for an 80-man crew, and offers them a 225m² sports arena, a swimming pool, sauna, fitness room, 3 television lounges and an auditorium. [/private]

 

 

Wildlife and Spirit Bear Adventures

When I wrote the story A Wolf At McInnes I never really explained how the wolf got on to McInnes Island, so today I am going to combine two stories into one. Firstly, the wolf swam from nearby Price Island over two (2) kilometers away, probably island hopping to catch its breath. Pictured below and in the album are photos of wolves swimming taken by photographer Leanne Reandy, a staff member of Spirit Bear Adventures, on a trip back to Klemtu from Bella Bella, BC. 

wolf swimming - by Leanne Reandy

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Who Says Lighthouses Are Old Fashioned?

Boston_and_Graves_Lights
Boston_and_Graves_Lights

 

Can you imagine a lighthouse being used as an aeronautical beacon? Well there is one. It is in the United States at Boston’s Logan Airport and it uses the Boston Lighthouse as a visual marker for Visual Flight Rule (VFR) landings. See the copy of the aeronautical chart below:

Boston Logan Airport aeronautical chart
Boston Logan Airport aeronautical chart (not for navigation)

Continue reading Who Says Lighthouses Are Old Fashioned?

Tar Sands SOS: Save Our Shore

Tar Sands SOS  Keep Our West Coast Tar Sands Free

The photo above is a screen capture of part of the Tar Sands SOS webpage. Click the photo above to go to the webpage and you can track the tar sands tankers on the interactive map, scroll down the webpage and learn more why the tar sands tankers are a bad idea. One thing I learned is that tar sands oil sinks to the ocean bed rather than floating up on the beaches. This lengthens the time the oil can pollute British Columbia waters!

I have seen an oil spill personally – it is not a pretty sight!

Inside Passage Ferry Trip to Visit Some of the Lighthouses

The idea for this story came from an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. I asked for permission to reprint it here for all to see, and they said I would have to pay them. This was an article about the Inside Passage ferry trip with mention of a couple of lighthouses – very few actually. I am not even going to mention the title of the story – how can they turn down free advertising.  😉

manned lighthouses
manned lighthouses

 When you visit Canada do you plan on seeing some lighthouses? We have twenty-seven (27) manned lighthouses on the west coast of British Columbia (BC); Canada. There are other unmanned lighthouses that are available for viewing also. You can see some of them if you wish with the BC Ferries, plus enjoy wonderful trips through BC waters.

 

The Inside Passage

Let us start with the longest trip first. How about fifteen (15) hours on a luxurious ferry in daylight so that you can make many photos. Fifteen hours may seem like a long time, but there is so much to see that time flies by, especially if the weather is fine.

Northern Expedition
Northern Expedition – BC Ferries photo

 

Northern Adventure
Northern Adventure – BC Ferries photo

There are two ferries on the route (2013) – the Northern Expedition and the Northern Adventure. You can actually follow them live on this website.

Continue reading Inside Passage Ferry Trip to Visit Some of the Lighthouses