Monthly Archives: April 2017

As always, before we recommendand block any rooms at any hotel, we inspect all aspects of that hotel, spend 1 night at that hotel and eat a meal there. Why? Because we don't just book the cruise, we organize every aspect of our events so our passengers get only the best. Not all hotels are biker friendly...those listed below are and all of them will take care of our group as we expect. 2017 Tampa Hotel negotiations have now been completed and contracts signed. However, rooms cannot be booked until Dec. 1, 2016. HSR direct hotel online booking links and phone #'s will be added Dec. 1, 2016 Our Tampa Bay Port Hotel Area for 2017:

So convenient and so much to do:

Unlike the quiet, laid back tropical feel of Port Canaveral,Tampa Bay presents much much more to see and do before you get on the ship. All our designated hotels will all be within just a few hundred feet of each other. Very easy walking or even wheelchair distance between them. The Tampa Bay Lightning Pro hockey arena is just a couple football fields length away, Tampa Bay Bucaneers Pro Football stadium is just a couple miles away and one of these 2 Pro teams will be playing the week-end we are there. The waterfront is as close as a few feet where you can rent boats or take weater taxi's throughout Tampa bay waterfront. All day $5 Trollie to shopping areas and Ybor (there version of Burbon Street in New orleans) right outside your door. . Bars, restaurants, boardwalk, parks and civic center all right there at your hotels. 2 Harley shops less than 6 miles away.The Tampa cruise port itself is less than 1/4 mile away with the Florida state aquarium right beside the port terminal. AND believe it or not, very little car traffic in this area! It's really nice that they seperated the business side of town from the recreational/tourist side of town. So lots to do and see even before you get on the ship and since we're not sailing until Monday..why not come for the week-end and really get to know your crewmates before ya board.! As you can imagine, all these things to do made for a tough time securing these hotels at these great locations. P.S. this is a pirate town with the Bucaneer Pro football team so it fits our logo perfect. "There's a little Pirate in every Biker".

Due to all these activities surrounding these 3 hotels and their perfect location, we could only initially block about 80% of the hotels room space for a total of 653 rooms. At 2 per room thats 1306 of our 2200 passenger group. These hotels have agreed to add a few more rooms should they sell out as quickly as we expect but that still leaves us short nearly 900 people. So be ready when we e-mail you with the link and phone # to book your room. The HSR hotels normally sell out as quick as the balcony cabins on the ship.

Tampa International Airport: (TPA) Just 9 miles away. 15 minute taxi or shuttle to our hotels or port and just 1/4 mile from our hotel to our ships port terminal. Check out our "Travlin Ways" section of this website for more info on air travel recommendations.

Parking at our hotels in Tampa is like most cruise ports. They are very proud of their hotel parking and all valet park. Its a union thing. At least we did get our group discounted from $22 to $18 per night. Of course if you ride your bike, they wont be parking motorcycles. Youll park your own 2 or 3 to a spot under cover for less than half price. We are also working with the local Harley shops for bike storage during the cruise. All cars will have to park at the port parking during the cruise week.

Parking at the Port: Ship port parking is very reasonable and right at the port terminal. When I say right at the port, I mean just about 150 feet from the terminal and they shuttle you and your luggage to and pick you up from the terminal. They even offer valet parking. You unload at the terminal, they park your car. When you return, you call them, they bring your car to you. How much easier can it get?

Car Rentals: 2 of our 3 hotels listed below offer car rental and drop off right at the hotel.

For those unfamiliar with our HSR hotel announcements. If you miss the first day of hotel sales, you'll most likely miss booking a room at our HSR hotels and that means you'll also miss a whole lot of fun with our group even before the ship sails. Please let us know ASAP if you have had an e-mail change since registering for the cruise. All registered 2017 passengers were notified per e-mail newsletter on Nov. 27. Good Luck.

Embassy Suites, Tampa Downtown: "Host Hotel" for HSR Bon Voyage Party

SOLD OUT This will be all we get at our discounted price.

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* 2017 * - High Seas Rally: Hotels - High Seas Rally Biker ...

Introducing the HI-SEAS IV Crewmembers 365 Day Simulated Mars Mission

4th August 2015

Crew Commander

Hi, Im Carmel Johnston from Whitefish, MT. Ive had a passion for natural resources my whole life and am exploring new ways to use them here on SimMars. In high school, I participated in the Flathead River Educational Effort for Focused Learning in our Watershed (FREEFLOW) where we learned about water quality, stream health, and the influence of humans on water quality in the Flathead Valley.

I wanted to continue studying hydrology so I went to school at Montana State University for a BS in Soil and Water Science. I continued on for a MS in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. This allowed me the opportunity to conduct two summers of field work in Alaska, studying carbon dynamics in permafrost soils. After completing my thesis, I traveled to New Zealand and Australia to learn about livestock management from people that are dealing with climate change right now. And lets be honest, I also did a bunch of hiking while I was there.

When I came home, I spent the summer hiking around Glacier Park and enjoying a beautiful Western Montana summer before working for the NRCS as a soil scientist. This past summer, I worked on the initial soil mapping project in Glacier which married my favorite things: science and the wilderness.

I decided to join the 4th HI-SEAS Mission so I can continue studying food production, this time within the construct of living on Mars. The research we are conducting will hopefully have implications for food production on Mars as well as Earth. How do we feed a population using the resources you have while not destroying the planet youre on? Come on world, we need to start thinking about this now!

My favorite things include being outside (yes its weird that Im spending a year in a dome), climbing mountains, skiing, fishing, running, biking, knitting, baking, and playing with my favorite human my nephew Cash.

Chief Scientific Officer & Crew Physicist

Christiane is a German physicist and engineer. She is interested in anything that moves, be it air flowing over wheat fields or glaciers sliding down mountain valleys. Most recently she has worked on sea ice, but she has also gained experience working with polar lights, metal melts, and simulations of the Earths mantle.

She has received her B.Sc. in Applied Physics from the Ilmenau University of Technology in Germany, and her M.Sc. in Geophysics from Uppsala University in Sweden. After two years abroad, she returned to Ilmenau for her PhD in Engineering during which she also learned how to play the cello.

In a hope to increase her time with snow per year, she then moved to Finland to work with the Aalto University. There, she went camping almost every week before deciding to trade the green forests and plentiful lakes for the vast landscapes of dry rocks at HI-SEAS. Her family did question her sanity, but after spending two weeks at MDRS as a finalist for the Mars Societys MA365 mission she was unchangeably intrigued by the possibility of living like a Mars explorer, and so ended up heading for a life in the dome.

During her freetime there she is planning to coax her fellow crewmembers into dancing, to learn at least one language and one instrument, and to distract from her lousy cooking skills bake a cake from time to time.

Health Science Officer and Habitat Journalist

Sheyna E. Gifford, MA, MSc, MD, started working for NASA in 1997. Her first project was a Mars Spacesuit design proposal for the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Since then, she has worked on a satellite project (HESSI), a cosmology research project (DEEP2), written for Astrobiology Magazine, and, most recently, gotten onboard the mission to simulated Mars. She hopes to use her degrees in Neuroscience, Medicine,Biotechnology and Journalism to do great space science and medicine, and communicate those discoveries to the world.

Chief Engineering Officer

Born in Banbury, England, to a military family, Andrzej Stewart earned a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005, and an SM in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2007. As part of his life-long dream to become an astronaut, Andrzej became an ardent light aircraft pilot. Hes logged over 500 flight hours, earning his instrument and commercial pilot certificates, and he volunteers with Challenge Air and EAA Young Eagles, introducing kids to aviation. Prior to joining the HI-SEAS Mission 4 crew, Andrzej worked at Lockheed Martin as an interplanetary flight controller. Hes worked on console for the Spitzer Space Telescope, Mars Odyssey, MRO, MAVEN, Juno, and GRAIL. Recently, he served as the Flight Engineer for the sixth mission of NASAs Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), simulating a two-week journey to asteroid 1620 Geographos. In his free time, Andrzej is a goalie in a recreational ice hockey league as well as an avid board-gamer. He hasnt played the guitar in a while, but will be brushing off his skills and (hopefully) entertaining the crew during the mission. When not exploring sMars, Andrzej lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife Christy, who also aspires to fly in space someday.Be sure to check out Andezejs blog Surfing with the Aliens

Crew Biologist

Cyprien Verseux is an astrobiologist working on the search for life beyond Earth and an expert in biological life support systems for Mars exploration. Part of his research aims at making human outposts on Mars as independent as possible of Earth, by using living organisms to process Marss resources into products needed for human consumption. In other words, he is figuring out how to live on Mars off the land using biology and what is already there. He currently is a PhD student co-directed by Daniela Billi, at the University of Rome II (Italy) and Lynn Rothschild, at NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, California). Prior to focusing on astrobiology he obtained Masters degrees in Systems and Synthetic Biology from the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology (Evry, France) and in Biotechnology Engineering from SupBiotech Paris (Villejuif, France). On Earth (or close to Earth) and outside the lab he enjoys skydiving, road trips with a tent and a few friends, swimming in lakes and seas, mountaineering, writing, reading a wide range of books and living stimulating new experiences.

Crew Architect

Tristan Bassingthwaighte is currently a doctor of architecture candidate atUHMnoa. He is completing his masters degree in architecture fromTongji University in Shanghai, where he studied abroad for a year looking at human habitation in extreme environments. His doctoral work will involve designing a next generation conceptual Mars habitat, with research focusing on social, psychological, and health impacts of long duration isolation on another world.

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HI-SEAS Introducing the HI-SEAS IV Crewmembers 365 Day ...

BOSTON Two men died following an explosion and fire aboard a 623-foot cargo ship on the Atlantic high seas Monday morning.

At approximately 7 a.m., the captain of the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Tamar contacted watchstanders at the Coast Guard command center reporting an explosion in the ships forward storeroom. He also reported the explosion killed one crewmember andthree suffered massive burns and are in need of immediate medical attention. The ship was located about 1,300 miles east of Cape Cod.

The Coast Guard reached out to the New York Air National Guards 106th Rescue Wing and the Canadian and Portuguese Coast Guards to coordinate the emergency response. The New York Air National Guard launched an HC-130 aircrew with six pararescuers and one combat rescue officer. On Monday, the Tamar's captain notified rescuers that a second crewmember had perished from his injuries.

The fire resulting from the explosion was quickly extinguished and the cause is unknown. The ships engineering plant was unaffected and the crew is continuing on their transit to the Azores, Portugal. Their last port of call was Baltimore.

Before dawn on Wednesday, the two surviving injured crewmembers were medevaced by a Portuguese aircrew along with three New York Air National Guards 106th Rescue Wing pararescuers, who continued medical care. The aircrew arrived in Terceira Island, Azores at about 7 a.m. A Portuguese Air Force jet is scheduled to be waiting along with a medical team to bring the injured to Lisbon, Portugal for medical treatment.

The First Coast Guard District is responsible for 1,300 miles of offshore search and rescue area. After 1,300 miles, the Portuguese Coast Guard assumes coordination authorityfor cases east of the boundary.

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Two Perish In High Seas Ship Explosion - Cape Cod Chronicle

Sacramento Bee

Charged in high seas homicides, elderly suspect dies before facing justice Sacramento Bee In January, the 92-year-old mother of a British tourist allegedly killed on the high seas by a Sacramento man running an excursion boat in Belize wrote an urgent letter. Please bring the accused killer to trial promptly, Audrey Farmer of Oxfordshire ... and more »

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Charged in high seas homicides, elderly suspect dies before facing justice - Sacramento Bee

Fox News reported Wednesday that an Iranian Revolutionary Guards battle ship was approaching a US Navy's destroyer in the Persian Gulf at high speed eventually forcing the Americans to deviate from their course.

Two US officials told Fox News that the Iranian ship, whose personnel were manning firing positions, approached to within a kilometer of the American destroyer Mahan. The Americans fired warning flares, blared warning sirens, and even manned the firing positions, and eventually strayed to avoid collision.

US destroyer Mahan (Photo: Reuters)

About four months ago, an American destroyer was involved in a similar incident in the Strait of Hormuz and fired three warning shots after Iranian ships did not adhere to the warnings and continued to approach them.

"Such high-speed approaches and manning of the firing positions, despite warnings from the destroyer, are clearly provocative behavior," one of the officials said of the Iranians. The Iranian ship did not fire warning shots.

According to the US military, Iranian ships were involved in 35 incidents of "unprofessional" behavior last year a 50 percent leap from the previous year.

(Translated and edited by N. Elias)

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Tension on the high seas: Iranian ship speeding toward US destroyer - Ynetnews

There are 130 Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) firefighters here trained to fight marine fires.

This after the SCDF took over such duties from the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) in April 2012.

Lieutenant Keave Soh, 30, is one of them. The rotation (Rota) commander is stationed at the West Coast Marine Fire Station (WCMFS). He now wears an orange fire-fighting suit instead of a yellow one.

The New Paper spent a day with WCMFS officers for an exclusive look at their capabilities.

Lt Soh said: "When there is an incident out at sea, the environment you're in is so different.

"Imagine being in the dark, with the choppy waves and having to fight a fire using only limited manpower."

With only 18 officers in each Rota, the WCMFS has less manpower compared to other stations. Its commander, Major Neo Jia Qi, 34, said this means there is greater emphasis on training.

"Once we cast off from the jetty, we really are on our own. So, our guys need to be trained in a wide variety of skills and have them at their fingertips," he said.

He added that the marine fire station places heavy emphasis on height and confined space rescue operations during training, as these incidents could occur on vessels.

The station has two marine vessels: a Marine Fire Vessel (MFV) and a Marine Command Vessel. It also has a Red Rhino to respond to land incidents nearby.

When the SCDF took over MPA's marine emergency duties, the it inherited two boats, which they converted into MFVs. The other MFV is deployed at the Brani Marine Fire Station.

These boats, which have a maximum speed of 15 knots, have three fire monitors - one water monitor that can shoot 20,000 litres of water per minute and another two monitors capable of shooting 10,000 litres per minute of either foam or water.

They also have height rescue equipment, including pulley systems, frames and safety harnesses for extricating trapped casualties on ships.

After their basic courses as firefighters, marine firefighters have to undergo a five-week marine course.

Two weeks are spent at the Singapore Maritime Academy, while the rest are spent at the Civil Defence Academy and the ship simulator at the Home Team Tactical Centre (HTTC).

TNP visited the HTTC to observe the ship simulator, also known as Orca.

It is a realistic replication of a cargo ship where officers get to practise marine fire-fighting and rescue skills with different ship fire scenarios.

They must also be able to pilot various vessels.

Said Major Neo: "You really never know what can happen.

"Our officers may need to use cranes to transport logistics items from vessel to vessel or they need to know how to troubleshoot when vessels break down."

Operationally-ready national serviceman, Lt Kyaw Thet Tin, 26, works as a harbour pilot with PSA Corp and helps to map out the path the MFV takes during an incident.

Lt Tin, who received his Singapore citizenship two years ago, said: "It's important to get to the incident site as quickly and as safely as possible.

"I look at the charts and plot the best way to get from Point A to Point B."

Singapore was recently named the top maritime capital in the world for the third consecutive time, and the port remains one of the world's busiest and most important.

Major Neo added: "It's been exciting for us to expand our services to marine firefighting and rescue.

"No matter what happens out there, people and ships will be well taken care of."

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Firefighting on the high seas - The New Paper