An Australian sailor and his loyal dog were recently rescued after surviving two months adrift in the Pacific Ocean by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater.

54-year-old Tim Shaddock and his dog Bella left Mexico for French Polynesia back in April, but a few weeks into their 6,000 km journey, Tim’s catamaran was severely damaged in a storm, and they were left with no way to sail. The storm also knocked out all the electronics, so the Sydney-based man had no way of contacting anyone for help, or even cooking his supplies. The last time Shaddock saw dry land was in early May as he sailed out of the Sea of Cortez and into the Pacific during a full moon. He and his canine have been drifting in the Pacific ever since, taking shelter from the sun under a canopy, eating raw fish, and drinking rainwater.

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As its name (sort of) suggests, the Spacruzzi is a unique floating jacuzzi that allows you to comfortably cruise around on water you don’t actually want to make contact with.

A jacuzzi on a boat isn’t the craziest concept in the world. Lots of luxury yachts have them, but the Spacruzzi is something else entirely. Nearly its entire teardrop-shaped body is filled with water, so it’s literally a floating hot tub powered by a small motor capable of propelling it at cruising speed for about five hours. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, this thing comes with its own functional gas-powered fireplace, because why not? If any of this sounds remotely interesting, know that the Spacruzzi can be yours for just $50,000.

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Prism Courage, a 134,000-tonne commercial tanker, recently sailed from the Gulf of Mexico to South Korea while controlled mostly by an artificial intelligence system called HiNAS 2.0.

Avikus, a subsidiary of South Korean technology giant Hyundai, recently announced that Prism Courage, a tanker designed to transport natural gas, had become the first large ship to make an ocean passage of over 10,000 km (6,210 miles) autonomously. The key to this incredible achievement was HiNAS 2.0, an AI-powered system capable of analyzing different kinds of sensor readings in real-time and responding to them swiftly, efficiently, and, most importantly, in accordance with the rules of maritime laws.

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Mohammed Aisha, a Syrian sailor working on a Bahraini cargo ship stranded off the Egyptian coast, was forced to spend four years as a castaway after a court made him the ship’s legal guardian.

The sailor’s troubles began in July 2017, when the ship he was working on, the MV Aman, was detained at the Egyptian port of Adabiya, because its safety equipment and classification certificates had expired. Usually, this sort of issues are easily resolvable, but the ship’s owners in Bahrain were experiencing financial difficulties, and its Lebanese contractors. As the ship’s Egyptian captain had gone ashore after the MV Aman was technically abandoned at sea, Mohammed, the ship’s chief officer, was named its legal guardian by a local court. When Aisha signed the document, he had no idea he would be sentencing himself to four years of self-isolation on the ship…

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A young couple who quit their jobs and sold everything they owned in order to buy a boat and go on an epic sailing adventure had to put their bold dream on hiatus after their sailboat sank just two days into their voyage.

Tanner Broadwell and Nikki Walsh had been planning their once-in-a-lifetime adventure for over two years. They both had jobs they didn’t really enjoy and felt that there had to be more to life than constantly being involved in a rat race. Tanner, who had grown up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, convinced Nikki that sailing around the Gulf of Mexico, maybe even the world, was the escape they were both looking for, and they started working harder to make their dream a reality. They started saving money, he Ubered on the side, and last year they took the plunge. The couple quit their jobs, sold everything they owned and bought a 49-year-old sailboat in Alabama. The boat cost $5,000, but they had so spend that much more fixing it up.

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A retired British businessman with the lifelong dream of building a majestic yacht has almost achieved his goal. Mike Ludgrove, 63, is putting the finishing touches on the 60ft boat that he has spent the past 12 years painstakingly crafting by hand. He has spent £1.3 million ($1.8 million) and several thousands of hours on the classic sailing yacht that he has named ‘Helena’.

Ludgrove, who trained at Lyme Regis Boatbuilding Academy, originally estimated that he could complete his dream yacht in just three years, at a cost of around £500,000. He soon realized, however, that both the timeline and budget were overly ambitious. To raise more funds, Ludgrove and his amazingly supportive wife Elaine sold their London flat, their primary home in Exeter, Devon, and now live in a rented ex-council house. Five years ago, the couple sold their health food business to raise additional money for the boat. Ludgrove also enlisted the help of his son and some friends to work alongside him to make his dream a reality. Ed Burnett, the naval architect who designed the Queen’s Jubilee barge, provided the plans for Ludgrove’s yacht.

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Thousands of people gathered on the banks of the Odet River, in Quimper, western France, to see seven chocolate boats competing in the sweetest regatta ever.

Georges Larnicol first made headlines last year, when he managed to sail in a 1.2-tonne-heavy chocolate boat, in Concarneau port. Now the 56-year-old master chocolatier, who owns a dozen shops throughout western France, has taken his passion to a whole new level by creating seven functional chocolate boats and showing them off to the world during a race. All of the boats were made of melted unsold chocolate, measured two-meters-long and weighed around 450 kilograms, each. The boats only had room for one sailor, who had to use chocolate oars to steer it to the finish line.

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Many said she would never make it, but teenager Jessica Watson shut them all up when she completed her months long journey, and sailed into Sydney Harbor, on May 15, 2010.

The Australian sailor took off on her daring trip around the world, on October 18, 2009, all by herself. For over 200 days and 23,000 nautical miles, Jessica was all alone on her 30-foot-long pink yacht, “Ella’s Pink Boat”. She had to overcome strong winds, waves as high as mountains, and loneliness, in order to prove young people can accomplish their dreams, whatever they might be.

Ms. Watson said the toughest times were when bad weather was forecast, and she had to fight against monster storms. But she managed to keep her cool, kept her boat afloat, and against all odds, complete her journey around the world.

Having become the world’s youngest person to sail around the world, non-stop and unassisted, Jessica Watson captured the attention and admiration of the whole world, and become rich and famous, in consequence. While she was away at sea, her team managed to secure deals estimated at around $1 million, with several companies, including one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers. She also has a nationwide book tour coming up, for her “True Spirit: The Aussie Girl Who Took on the World” book, due to come out in July, as well as other souvenir sales.

But saying Jessica Watson did it all for media attention and profit just wouldn’t be fair. She is clearly in love with the ocean, and she said that even after seven lonely months at sea, she was reluctant to leave the pink yacht that had become “more than a home”.

Photos via CourrierMail

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