Sailing Archives
November 12, 2009
Tahina Expedition Departing Soon
In a matter of hours - as early as tomorrow evening - my wife and I will be departing on a five year sailing circumnavigation called the Tahina Expedition. I've mentioned the trip on Google Earth Blog several times (for example: here and here) because we are using my favorite application a great deal on the trip. For planning the trip, documenting our route, displaying our track as we travel, displaying our photos, and even contributing content which Google will share with everyone. Not only that, but we just announced today that National Geographic will be following our trip and using our content on their ocean-related sites.
Here's a couple of interesting Google Earth related projects we will be conducting on the Tahina Expedition:
- Kite Aerial Photography - I've got a camera rig that flies from a kite so we can take very high resolution aerial photos. The photos will be processed and sent back to Google so they can include them in the base imagery of Google Earth. See the first example in the post linked here.
- 360 Panoramas - We will also be taking 360 degree panoramas which will be put into Google Earth through the 360Cities.net layer. See the first test example of a photo taken a couple of days ago of Tahina.
- 3D Tahina - for fun, look at a 3D tour of our boat Tahina with the Google Earth plugin.
Make sure you book mark the Tahina Expedition site, and include our blog in your RSS reader. You'll be able to follow along on our five year trip and see all kinds of interesting photos, videos, and Google Earth content. There will also be a layer in Google Earth showing our travels (that will be announced soon).
Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:09 PM | Comments (6)
November 9, 2009
MS Oasis of the Seas heading for Florida
The largest cruise ship in the world, the MS Oasis of the Seas, is on a journey from Finland to Fort Lauderdale, FL. She's expected to arrive in Florida this week, with her maiden voyage from Miami scheduled for December 1.
A user named 'sladys' over at Google Earth Hacks has posted a KML file
to see the journey of the ship. In addition, 'Naruto_fan' has modeled the Oasis of the Seas, along with her soon-to-be sister Allure of the Seas, in the Google 3D Warehouse.

The ship has already had quite an adventure. On November 1, she had to pass under the Great Belt Fixed Link bridge in Denmark. The bridge has a clearance of 213ft above the water, but the ship has a height of 236ft. This obviously posed a problem. By lowering it's telescoping smokestacks, waiting until low tide, and using a full thrust, the ship was able to squeeze under the bridge with about two feet to spare! Check out the video below to see it happen:
Posted by mickmel at 9:37 AM | Comments (0)
November 2, 2009
Caribbean 1500 Rally using Google Earth once again
As they have in years past, the Caribbean 1500 Sailing Rally is doing some cool stuff with Google Earth to help showcase their event, which begins today around noon EST.

They're using Magnatrax.net to help track the position of every boat and they have a variety of boat classes that you can track -- Cruising, "Bahamas Fleet", Rally Class 1/2 and Racing Class 3/4. Choose the one you want, then click the "Google Earth" link in the lower left corner. They show the current position of each boat, but they also take advantage of the Time Slider tool to let you see past locations.
They seem to have removed some of the other folders from previous years (weather and such), but that's ok. Google Earth has some nice built-in weather data, which you can easily use alongside of the race data. That's really the power of Google Earth -- being able to combine data from a variety of sources to help get the most information at one time.
The race begins later today, so keep an eye on it in Google Earth to see who wins.
Posted by mickmel at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2009
Fresh Update to the Ocean Expeditions layer
Google has just updated the Ocean Expeditions layer in Google Earth, and they've added some great content about expeditions around the world. To access this layer, simply check the Ocean Expeditions icon inside of the Ocean folder or you can open this kml file
.

Once opened, a variety of ship icons will appear in the ocean. Ships with a yellow shaded background represent live or recent expeditions (such as the National Geographic expedition to Cocos Island), while ships with a blue shaded background represent expeditions older than six months (such as various expeditions by the Cousteau Society). As you zoom in, more details will appear. Also, if you select a placemark for a particular expedition, it will load tracks and other placemarks for more details on that expedition.
Hopefully you'll find the Tahina Expedition in this layer in the not too distant future. :-)
Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:11 PM | Comments (1)
September 2, 2009
Preparing for the Big Trip
Those of you who are regular readers of GEB are probably familiar that last year I announced a plan to depart on a 5-year sailing circumnavigation. I've spun the Google Earth globe many times, but never managed to go around the real Earth myself. For most of my life, I've held the dream of circumnavigating by sailboat. Google Earth has definitely helped already in planning our destinations, but my plan is to help share our experience with GE in many unique ways. Google has even partnered with our expedition, which we call the Tahina Expedition. You'll not only be able to use GE to follow our path, see our route, and check our position, but you will also be able see our geotagged photos and videos. Some of the photos and video will be unique perspectives such as aerial photos taken with a kite, and underwater video taken with a remote operated vehicle (ROV) from VideoRay.
We are in the midst of final preparations for our planned departure after hurricane season (hopefully around the end of October or early November). We're hoping our house will sell before we leave - and that has kept us extremely busy.
There may be days when I miss making blog posts in the next few weeks. Once we leave, I won't be able to post every day. However, I'm in the process of arranging for someone to keep GEB posts coming. If you're interested in keeping track of our preparations and our trip, make sure to bookmark/save the RSS feed for the Tahina Expedition Blog. Also, expect a few progress reports leading to Tahina's departure, as well as more partnership announcements.
Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:52 PM | Comments (5)
More entries for this category:
- Kaisei Project - Researching the Plastic Vortex - August 5, 2009
- Watch the LongPac Yacht Race - July 31, 2009
- New Google Earth Imagery - July 2009 - Good and Bad Part 2 - July 11, 2009
- World Oceans Day, 3D Design Competition, Britain Archeological Site, New Imagery Tour Idea - June 8, 2009
- Where 2.0 - Day 1 - Workshops and Ignite - May 20, 2009
- Current Positions of 10,000+ Ships World-wide in Google Earth - May 8, 2009
- Henry Hudson 400th Anniversary in Google Earth/Maps - May 4, 2009
- Two Collections: US Coast Guard and Right Whales - April 28, 2009
- Links: Ocean Now, Michigan Earth Day, Goldman Prize, Convention Center, Queen Mary - April 21, 2009
- 3D Tour of Tahina Expedition Catamaran - April 20, 2009
- Submarine Sim for Google Ocean - April 14, 2009
- Announcing TahinaExpedition.com - April 9, 2009
- Endangered Right Whales Off Florida - February 20, 2009
- Rowing Around the World with Google Earth - February 11, 2009
- Google Earth 5 Released - 3D Ocean and More! - February 2, 2009
- New View of Ocean Floor in Google Earth - January 17, 2009
- Les Saintes Got Some Terrain in Google Earth - January 14, 2009
- December Sailing Passage in Google Earth - December 30, 2008
- Links: Santa Tracker Popular, Volvo Ocean Race, Lost World Discovered, Cold War KML - December 26, 2008
- Links: Going Sailing, Mumbai Attacks, Street View, South Africa Award - December 11, 2008
- Vendee Globe in Google Earth - December 2, 2008
- Somalia Piracy Map in Google Earth - November 20, 2008
- Links: Where 2.0, Weather Buoys, Argentina, Earthscape, MapMyPage, and more - November 19, 2008
- Carolina Beach Inlet in Google Earth - November 4, 2008
- WikiSailing - Flying/Sailing Sightseeing Tours in Google Earth - October 29, 2008
- Using Google Earth at 90 MPH on a Boat - October 14, 2008
- Introducing Our First Sailing Partner: Google - October 2, 2008
- The Boat Story Continues - Boatyard, Name, Moving - September 21, 2008
- Sailing Update - Arrgh! - September 19, 2008
- Storm Preparations - September 4, 2008
- Sailing Passage From Exuma to North Carolina - August 25, 2008
- Circumnavigation: The Boat - Part I - August 24, 2008
- Spinning the Globe - August 21, 2008
- Links: Joshua Slocum, Chemical Brothers, Other Links - August 6, 2008
- Links: Talks, boat slips, Trails.com, Featured - July 28, 2008
- Links: Walking, Havana, Eclipse, Oil, Follow the Boat - July 23, 2008
- Notes from the Bahamas: GE in Education, AGE More KML, Disney 3D - June 26, 2008
- Clipper Yacht Race in Google Earth - June 1, 2008
- Links: NBA Destination, EarthNC 2.0, Geo Education - May 7, 2008
- Links: Games, KML, Data, and more - March 4, 2008
- Miami Post - Links: Mapper Tool, GE Game, KML Wishlist - February 15, 2008
- Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
- Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2007 - December 26, 2007
- Links: GE on Phones?, PhotoOverlay Tutorial, EarthNC Update, Time Embedder Tool - November 6, 2007
- Caribbean 1500 Sailing Cup in Google Earth - November 5, 2007
- Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 5, 2007
- News Roundup: Flight Simulator Goodies, PhotoViewer Stuff, Video tourism - September 4, 2007
- Scientific Ocean Drilling Database in Google Earth - August 14, 2007
- Our Sailing Holiday in Google Earth - August 10, 2007
- Sailing with Google Earth for Navigation - August 6, 2007
- Sailing in the Virgin Islands - with Google Earth - July 23, 2007
- Encompassing the Globe - July 16, 2007
- OgleEarth Roundup: Illegal Fishing Caught, Picasa Web Albums Review, Geo-Ads Patent, HeyWhatsThat - June 28, 2007
- Watch Weekend Boating Live in Google Earth - May 18, 2007
- EarthNC Releases Browser-based Google Earth Content - April 26, 2007
- 677 US Marine Charts for Google Earth on 1 CD - March 31, 2007
- Majesty of the Seas - February 9, 2007
- Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Google Earth - December 27, 2006
- Route du Rhum - Live Sailing Race in Google Earth - November 1, 2006
- Shipwrecks Around the Google Earth - September 2, 2006
- Sailing Adventures and Anchorages of the Caribbean - July 1, 2006
- Pete Goss in 2006 Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race - June 18, 2006
- Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 in Google Earth - May 18, 2006
- Multicup 60 - Live Sailboat Race in Google Earth - May 10, 2006
- The Aviva Challenge - Sailing Record Attempt - May 3, 2006
- Mini-news Roundup - April 10, 2006
- Sailblogs.com Supports Google Earth - April 8, 2006
- Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - April 3, 2006
- Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Google Earth - March 29, 2006
- Maldives Island Group in High Res - March 24, 2006
- Bermuda Treasure Shipwrecks Map - March 7, 2006
- Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 in Google Earth - February 19, 2006
- Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3 in Google Earth - February 12, 2006
- Transatlantic Sailing Adventure Using Google Earth - January 18, 2006
- Volvo Ocean Race Leg 2 - January 6, 2006
- Back on Land - December 19, 2005
- Gone Sailing! Passage Plan in Google Earth - December 13, 2005
- Transat Jacques Vabre 2005 Race in Google Earth - November 16, 2005
- And They're Off! - November 13, 2005
- Volvo Ocean Race in Google Earth - November 11, 2005
- Another Sailor Documents Trips Using Google Earth - November 9, 2005
- Watching Sports with Google Earth - September 27, 2005
- Sailing the Seven Seas - September 10, 2005
