Daily Archives: May 11, 2017

The Texas State Aquarium opens the Caribbean Journey May 13, one of the highlights is the sea shark exhibit. The 400,000 gallon exhibit features sandbar sharks, barracudas, stingrays and a green sea turtle. Rachel Denny Clow

Hicks Elementary School student Sarah Salinas, 9, gets a sneak peak of the Caribbean Journey expansion at the Texas State Aquarium on Wednesday, May 4, 2017. The expansion, which opens Saturday, May 13, brings Mexico's Sian Ka'an Biosphere and its 300 species of wildlife to the aquarium.(Photo: Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times)Buy Photo

The Texas State Aquarium is world-class and unique to South Texas, but the president has a message for the community.

"Even though we're the Texas State Aquarium, and we serve the entire state and nation, we're also the Corpus Christi aquarium," said Tom Schmid, the president and CEO of the institution. "There's so many opportunities for the community to come in and enjoy this space and work with our team."

Saturday marks a historic day for the aquarium as it opens its $60 million, 71,000 square-foot Caribbean Journey expansion. The aquarium's largest project to date brings the sights and sounds of the Yucatan Peninsula to Corpus Christi's North Beach attraction.

One of the largest parts of the expansion is the 400,000-gallon H-E-B Caribbean Sea Shark exhibit. A 68-foot tunnel display window, the largest in North America, brings visitors face-to-glass with a number of shark species. The exhibit also includes a life-size replica of a shipwreck that hostsbarracudas, stingrays and a green sea turtle or two, according to a news release.

Students at Hicks Elementary School get a sneak peak of the Caribbean Journey expansion at the Texas State Aquarium on Wednesday, May 4, 2017. The expansion opens Saturday, May 13.(Photo: Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times)

Other exhibits in the expansion include the Coral Reef, the Blue Hole Marine Cavern and a Caribbean jungle.

The Coral Reef exhibit features the underwater landscapes of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system, which also is known as the Great Mayan (or Maya) Reef. Dozens of families of fish, including angel, butterfly, and surgeon,can be found in the reef system.

The Blue Hole marine cavern lets visitors experience the feeling of diving hundreds of feet below sea level. A large display window allows glimpses of the creatures that live there, like tarpons, nurse sharks and palometa jacks.

The Caribbean jungle setting grows in the middle of the expansion and features a skylight ceiling that admits natural light. Birds fly free in the exhibit, while crocodiles lurk in a nearby pool. A separate, larger pool that criss-crosses the jungle gives visitors glimpses of darting fish, while the corners of the jungle feature replicas of Mayan ruins, which double as a habitat for vampire bats.

Other highlights of the expansion also includes the new Whataburger 100-seat 4-D theater andthe Citgo Skyline View event venue and a newFlint Hills Resources Center for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education. .

The aquarium's core mission is conservation, Schmid said.

"We engage people with animals here at the aquarium and inspire them in their appreciation for the environment," Schmid said. "Hopefully, they'll take action to protect and conserve the environment."

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Aquarium debuts crown jewel with Caribbean Journey - Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Several years ago there was an initiative by the Caribbean Sailing Association to better synch their racing calendar to be supportive of all events and to maximize participation in multiple events. As Larry Huibers reports for RCR Yachts, that can lead to some serious fun.

Touch2Play Racing had a fantastic winter filled with sun, sand, friends and regattas. Rob Butler figured the best way to have fun was to do a winter in the Caribbean pretty smart guy!

After Quantum Key West Race Week, the J/88 boat and trailer was packed up to be shipped to St Thomas to get rigged and ready for the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, St Thomas International Regatta (STIR), BVI Spring Regatta, and the Les Voiles de Saint-Barth.

These run from early March to early April with enough time to do the deliveries between. They race under their own handicap system called CSA (Caribbean Sailing Association) Rating Rule. Its a measurement rule that is a hybrid of the old CCA, IOR, ORC, and IRC. It is a mystery rating like IRC so you dont know what the key triggers are.

The ratings differ from the other systems as where the J/88 would have been owed time, with CSA we now had a less friendly rating. As Don Finkle of RCR Yachts points out, there are different horses for different courses and this was the case here as it seems to favor displacement boats over planning boats.

Since the J/88 is relatively light and can surf well, it gave us a rating where we owed a fair amount of time to J/105s and were about the same as J/109s, depending on their jib and kite size.

As with any handicap racing, you have to think about getting around the course as fast as possible. Were used to one design racing where tactics are more positional than elapsed time (relatively). We needed to relearn this a few times. Priority areas in descending order were: speed, strategy, boat handling, and tactics.

Many can argue the reality of this but we won and lost races by seconds elapsed and even tied on a race so a quicker set, later drop, better start, etc, would have changed the result, likely as much as how much leverage you had on another boat.

In the final evaluation, I think the rating was fair but it required us to sail exceptionally well, which was the whole purpose of going anyway right? Waterline played a key role since in the 10-18 knot breeze it determined how fast you could go.

The old saying about regattas its never like this here seemed to ring true with each event having an uncharacteristic light (sub-10 knots) day (or two). We didnt complain since those days seemed to play into our sweet spot. There were the idyllic trade wind days and it was fantastic!

It was everything all the print and social media say it was. The packing list of shorts, shoes, sunglasses and sun tan lotion covered the crew off since we all sported the Touch2Play Racing pink shirts.

Each event had its strong points and all are worth doing. I didnt do STIR but the other three all had the right blend of high caliber racing in pretty tight rating bands and amazing shore side events.

The party area for the Heineken was off the charts with UB40 as the closing act plus cheap beer and fun race courses. The highlight was the around the island race that was a great way to see the beaches since getting close to shore seemed to be helpful for current relief.

This regatta had the largest charter boat fleet and they raced on a different course so we didnt see much of them. Dealing with the bridge at Simpson Bay is fun and teams go to a lot of energy to impress the gallery drinking at the yacht club bar right beside the bridge. Somehow we managed a second in class very pleased with that.

Ive been to BVI enough that it feels like an old shoe comfortable and reliable. The Spring Regatta was no different. Nanny Cay puts on a great event and the local food vendors serve amazing cuisine. The course selection was a blend of around islands (Peter, Norman and Salt) and dropped marks for W/L races. This one had a larger rating range and we were against some 40-foot boats.

The local boat Pipe Dream with some people Ive sailed there with managed a fabulous start to finish lead for the final race to claw their way into first. We managed to sneak into third another good performance given the fleet.

St Barths is everything you read about. Very high brow. The title sponsor is Richard Mille, they make watches .and not normal watches. Google them if curious. If you won the event you got a watch, which some rich guy won to match his yachts.

Getting passed to leeward (thankfully) by VO70s, Rambler 88, 100+ footers and on and on was surreal. The beach party was amazing as was the lay day. We rented ATVs and toured the island, great way to see the sights. There too we managed a third which was very special.

I didnt do STIR and the boat was most competitive there (Im not taking it personal). They came second and if not for losing one race by 1 second would have won it was that close!

This doesnt happen without a huge commitment by Rob, many thanks to him! Matching personal time commitment by numerous others made the logistics easier. We were very fortunate to have the likes of Jeff Johnstone, Kerry Klingler, Evert McLaughlin, Jim Pearson, Keven Piper, Hillary Noble, and many more. All said and done we rotated through 18 people to do the four events.

We are already planning for next year and are adding two more events Grenada Race Week and Antigua Race Week. So if you dont see the pink boat on the water this summer youll know why.

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Some Serious Fun in the Caribbean - Scuttlebutt Sailing News

Miami Herald

Royal Caribbean will be sailing year-round to Cuba in 2018 Miami Herald With demand to see Cuba still hot, Royal Caribbean International is extending its commitment to sail to the island through 2019. The Miami-based cruise line announced Wednesday that it is initiating a year-long Cuba program that includes 58 four- and ... Royal Caribbean continuing Cuba sailings from Tampa in 2018Travel Weekly Royal Caribbean puts Cuba itineraries on saleTravel Weekly UK all 11 news articles »

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Royal Caribbean will be sailing year-round to Cuba in 2018 - Miami Herald

Though global military spending rose over the last year, Latin America saw a big drop. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released 2016 data last month showing that, after the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbeans military spending fell the most: 7.9 percent from 2015 to 2016. The regions $5 billion drop was largely affected by the overall downward trend among oil-exporting countries, which registered 13 of the largest 15 reductions in military spending around the world.

Leading the pack is Venezuela, with a 56 percent cut to its military expenditures. Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru were also among the 15 countries with the greatest drops, though to a smaller extent. Similarly, Latin Americas biggest spender, Brazil, cut back military expenses some $1.8 billion.

Colombia and Argentina, on the other hand, upped spending by $803 million and $681 million, respectively. Since 1995, Colombia has spent the greatest portion of its GDP on the military in Latin America. Last year, the countrys military spending hit 3.4 percent of GDP, surpassing the U.S. level of 3.3 percent. Colombia is set to increase its 2017 military budget again to support the peace deal reached with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC.

AS/COA Online looks at the latest trends in Latin Americas military spending, with a spotlight on Venezuela.

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Weekly Chart: Military Spending in Latin America and the Caribbean - AS/COA Online