iPatch

More on the iPatch later.  For now, can you identify this foto from the bridge of a self-described flagship?  Clues lurk.  I had a tour aboard this morning from G, a biology teacher (among other things) from Brazil.  Notice the glass container below the gauge mounted on the window pillar.

The flag is Tibet, and the globe . . . a gift from the Dalai Lama.

The hull of this repurposed ex-Scottish Fisheries Protection Vessel (FPV) Westra is painted black.  Dimensions are 196′ x 36′ x 14′, capable of 16.5 kts, layover in the sixth boro until Saturday on a voyage that has seen such stops as Pitcairn Island and the Galapagos.

It’s Steve Irwin, flagship of

Sea Shepherd, what Raffi Khatchadourian‘s November 2007 New Yorker article called “Neptune’s Navy.”

Tours run daily from 10 until 3.  Fundraiser Friday night . . . details here.  Here’s the letter of support from the Dalai Lama.  Izod logo just happens to be at the end of the pier, but –hey–maybe they’re supporters too.

Click here for a report on the loss of a portion of the Sea Shepherd fleet–Ady Gil— on January 7, 2010.  A Sea Shepherd hero is Henry Morgan, privateer, who fought fire with fire, or piracy with piracy.

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.

For an update on Captain Bethune of Ady Gil, now called a political prisoner of the Japanese, click here.

iPatch . . .  just a thought, a name I hereby coin.  This is my vision of a new miracle product by the folks who brought us iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad . . .  the iPatch . . . a hightech gadget–a panacea, if you will–that will restore balance between the species, mutual respect among the peoples of the earth, rid the seas of pirates and plastic patches,  . . .  what else . . ..

Disclosure:  Not owning a TV, I’ve never seen an episode of Whale Wars, although I have seen its parody on YouTube.

Uhhh . . . Johnny Depp’s pirate ship?