Winter Solstice 2023

Technically, the solstice today is EST 2231, well after dark.  Sunrise today was 0716, and sunset will be 1631.  That’s about nine hours and 15 minutes of daylight.  People call tonight the longest night of the year, but actually, tomorrow night is just as long.

In Prince Edward Island, daylight today lasts only eight hours and 37 minutes.  At the summer solstice, however, NYC has just over fifteen hours of daylight and PEI, nearly sixteen.

And what does that have to do with MV Vaporetto Queen, you’re wondering . . . .  

If you can’t expand the print enough to read it, here are the main points:  the original vessel was the 40′ Expo Service No. 5, one of an unknown number of fiberglass ferries  built to speed up to 60 people at a time into the Expo ’67 grounds, the molds were destroyed after the build to prevent additional boats to be created from them, and in 1970 the Jorgensens purchased Expo Service No. 5  for refurbishing and then using them to do excursions in Charlottetown PEI harbor. How long that service lasted remains an unanswered question.  Then it languished in a New Brunswick shipyard.

Fast forward to 2015, when Ride Solar‘s Steve Arnold purchased the vessel, replaced the half-ton diesel with a 100-pound electric motor powered by topside solar panels, refurbished again, all for use in harbor excursions from May 1 until October 30.  

For all the specs from the naval architects E.Y. E., click here. For a portfolio of E.Y. E.’s other boat projects including the Halifax cross harbor ferries, click here. 

The photo above, any errors, WVD, who would have taken more photos that day, but there was gusting and horizontal rain happening.

For photos of other solar boats Solar Sal and Solaris, click here and here.   Then of course there was Turandor PlanetSolar.  More on PlanetSolar and a list of other solar vessels here. 

Happy solstice!  I hope you get out and get some recharging sunshine today.  That’s my plan.  Previous winter solstice posts can be found here.   If you want to see how many excursion vessels are in Antarctica water today, check AIS.  There’s a traffic jam on the Drake Passage!!

 

Whatzit 13

Here was the 12 in this series.  Type in the word whatzit in the search box upper left to see the others.

Now if you were out this morning walking along the esplanade near the VZ and not fully awake, upon seeing this you might  swear to make lifestyle changes.

?

??  That looks like a Swiss flag

This really did happen . . .

as it raced in at 3.3 kts.

USACE vessel Hudson seemed as appropriate a welcome party as any.

Note the pilot boat and Pouch terminal in the background.

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And . . . what IS it?  Well, it is over 6000 miles from its starting point in Sardinia.  Follow them here.  And, PlanetSolar, welcome to the sixth boro!!  Here are the specs on this 60-passenger vessel that looks like it’s arrived from beyond the galaxy.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  I will try to report from the road today for a few days, but I expect to be back for the fishy invasion on Saturday.