Ultimate sail training far from home

Whether you want to sail your own yacht around the Capes, or just be more proficient in your home waters, Xplore Expeditions introduces the ultimate sail training program, promising, “everything you have always wanted to know about sailing, but never had the chance to pursue.”

Or never had the chance to pursue in conditions as challenging as this. Xplore Expeditions begins this unique hands-on course Sept. 6 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and travels south through the Straits of Magellan to the Chilean port of Punta Arenas.

“Sailing in the south is safe and enjoyable if you are well-prepared,” says skipper/ expedition leader Stephen Wilkins. “This training is aimed at giving you all the inside knowledge on how to handle yourself and a yacht in this raw and tough part of the world.”

Yacht and systems preparation, maintenance, repairs, provisioning, seamanship, charting, navigation, and weather forecasting are some of the topics studied on the initial three-week passage. Wilkins promises excellent ocean and coastal sailing along with a healthy dose of heavy weather sailing, plus instruction on safety, survival, dealing with emergencies and “what ifs.”

Then, the program culminates with a 14-day sail through the remote reaches of Tierra del Fuego — with the students at the helm: testing and practicing the skills learned and discussed along the way, in a “two-week unforgettable voyage of discovery” through the land of fire.

“Whether you are a yacht owner with dreams and desires to sail the world, or simply a sailor who wants to develop your skills in the most incredible — and at times most demanding — conditions in the world; this is it,” says Wilkins.

The course takes place on a 67-foot steel hulled sloop Xplore designed and built specifically for extreme sailing conditions. Comfortable accommodations include a full galley, heaters, and semiprivate cabins.

Click here for details.

Fishing vessel owner pays $500,000 fine

Earlier this month, the owner of a foreign-flagged fishing vessel paid a $500,000 fine for fishing illegally within U.S. waters of a remote central Pacific territory, settling a nearly three-year-old case that involved a chase on the high seas.

The owner of the Marshalls 201, a Republic of the Marshall Islands-flagged "purse seine" fishing vessel, has agreed to pay the penalty for violating the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act for fishing illegally in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States adjacent to Howland and Baker Islands.

The case began Sept. 9, 2006, when the Coast Guard and NOAA conducted a joint fisheries patrol of the remote EEZ adjacent to the U.S. National Wildlife Refuges at Howland and Baker.

A Coast Guard air crew aboard a C-130 long-range search plane based at Air Station Barbers Point in Honolulu, sighted the crew of the Marshalls 201 with the vessel’s fishing gear in the water approximately two miles inside the EEZ.

The air crew immediately contacted the crew of the Honolulu-based 225-foot Coast Guard buoy tender Walnut, which changed course and intercepted the Marshalls 201 with the intent to board the fishing vessel at sea.

After a chase at sea for more than four hours, the master of the Marshalls 201 finally 'heaved to' or slowed down enough for the buoy tender to come alongside. Walnut’s crew boarded the Marshalls 201 and confirmed that it had been fishing illegally in a U.S. EEZ.

The boarding team and the Walnut ultimately escorted it more than 1,200 miles to Guam to face federal court proceedings. It was later determined the Marshalls 201 caught, on that one day, 110 metric tons of tuna while fishing illegally in the U.S. EEZ.

On Oct. 4, 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Guam filed a forfeiture complaint against the Marshalls 201 based on two violations of the Magnuson Act.

Under a consent decree, the vessel owner paid the $500,000 fine based on one violation of the Magnuson Act.  In addition, the vessel owner, in cooperation with the flag state – or country in which it’s registered, the Republic of the Marshall Islands – will allow U.S. authorities to monitor the activities of the vessel through a vessel monitoring system (VMS) for the next three years.

The vessel owner also agreed to participate in NOAA’s “Global Drifter Program” by deploying drifter data buoys in remote areas of the Central Pacific Ocean on each of its fishing trips for the next five years.
Howland and Baker Islands are uninhabited coral atolls located just north of the equator approximately 1,700 miles (or 3,100 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu. The islands lie almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia in an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the U.S.

Geographically, the islands are part of the Phoenix Islands and are grouped together with Johnston Atoll, Palmyra Reef, Wake Island, Midway Island and Jarvis Island as the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.
Video and still photos taken by the Coast Guard C-130 air crew are available for download at www.uscghawaii.com.

Boating couple arrested, charged as secret agents for Cuba

Walter Kendall and Gwen Myers were preparing to sail their 37-foot sloop in a 10-day cruising rally around Chesapeake Bay when FBI agents arrested them last week on charges of having spied for the Cuban government for 30 years.

A neighbor at Hartge Yacht Yard in Galesville echoed the sentiments of others that knew the congenial boating couple, saying, "I felt they had arrested Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny."

The arrests happened June 4 at a Washington, D.C. hotel. By the weekend, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had weighed in, questioning why the U.S. had waited so long to make the arrests. Noting that the federal indictment alleged that the couple had spied for idealistic reasons and not for money, Castro said, "People like that deserve every honor in this world ... I can't help but admire their disinterested and courageous conduct on behalf of Cuba."

To colleagues and fellow boaters, the husband and wife were gracious and intelligent conversationalists. To the Cubans, Kendall, 72, was known as Agent 202; while Gwen, 71, was Agent 123.

As investigators worked to uncover the extent of secrets passed to Havana, the FBI sent other agents to Galesville, Md., to search Helene, the Myers' 2006 Malö 37 Classic. Their marina neighbors reported seeing men with bolt cutters and "strange bulges under their shirts" going aboard Helene.

Michael Locatell of Discovery Yachts in Seattle, the importer who sold the Myers their Malö 37, said he had not heard from the FBI, and he had not made the connection between news accounts of Cuban spies and two people he described as "wonderful to work with."

"I am flabbergasted because I have a totally close, more than a normal, business relationship with them," Locatell said. "We had many dinners together and shared a lot of conversations about his background and what he did. And I just find this to be flabbergasting. I had political conversations with them and he shared his views with me ... He never ever said anything derogatory about U.S. policy toward Cuba, never, not once."

According to arrest records, Walter Kendall Myers began spying for Cuba in the late 1970s, having been recruited from academia by a Cuban talent scout. Myers had served as a communications specialist in the U.S. Army Security Agency in the 1950s. He earned a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He went on to perform contract work for the State Department and was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins.

According to the FBI, Myers was recruited by Cuban intelligence in the late 1970s and tasked with getting a full-time job at either the CIA or State Department. For the next 30 years, he and his wife passed secrets to Cuban operatives using tradecraft techniques right out of spy literature. The Cuban government would instruct him on what information it sought via coded messages that Myers received over a shortwave radio set. Using his top-secret clearance at State, he would then research the topic, and he or his wife would deliver the information by swapping supermarket shopping carts with their Cuban handlers and other covert techniques.

Myers retired from State in 2007, apparently under a cloud of suspicion. But it was not until April 15, 2009, that the FBI initiated an undercover operation that would lead to the Myers' arrest. An FBI agent made contact with the couple, pretending to be a Cuban intelligence operative. The couple opened up to their new contact during three face-to-face meetings and made the incriminating admissions that led to their arrests, according to the FBI.

The couple recounted to the undercover FBI agent how they had spent an entire evening with Fidel Castro during a surreptitious visit to Havana in 1995. They also talked about how Helene would facilitate their escape from the U.S. if need be. Here's how the FBI described those exchanges in a sworn statement to a federal judge:

"In responding to a question regarding how they might escape 'from the States,' Kendall Myers stated that they did not need false travel documents to cross the border because 'we're sailing there.'

"Gwendolyn added, 'We've always said we'll just come on a boat ... We'll, then we have our place to live (on the sailboat). Nobody has to put us up ..."

Locatell said the Myers paid about $350,000 for their Malö, having entered into the deal after a visit to the factory in Sweden.

The Myers face up to 35 years in prison for espionage but also because Kendall Myers allegedly defrauded the U.S. government whenever he took his State Department salary. According to court papers, the Feds plan to seize "any and all interest that (the Myers) have in property derived from proceeds obtained directly or indirectly from a wire fraud scheme."

Click here for the affidavit and here for the indictment

— Peter Swanson

'Perfect Storm' skipper fined for illegal fishing

Maine fisherman and author Linda Greenlaw, who survived the nor'easter that was the basis for the book and movie "The Perfect Storm," has been fined more than $30,000 for fishing illegally in Canadian waters.

Click here to read an AP report.