New Instant Slideshows!

I’ve upgraded ShipWatcher so you can view slideshows of recent images for any ship.

If you have a look under each image, you’ll see a new green arrow that looks like this:

The new "Play Slideshow" but for all ships
The new "Play Slideshow" but for all ships

Click on that arrow, and you’ll see slideshow of recent images from the database.

ShipWatcher keeps a photo archive of interesting photos from each webcam, but it doesn’t record ALL photos.  So if some of the photos you see in the slideshow are older than you expect, that’s because it’s been a while since ShipWatcher automatically captured any photos from it.  The best way to make sure there are more photos in the archive is to click on the Camera button () and manually take some photos.

You can run slideshows for several ships at once, but the more ships you select, the longer it will take to display a new picture.

While the SlideShow is running, the green arrow will change to a “Stop” button that looks like this:

Click on the Stop button to stop the SlideShow.  The most recent image from the camera will then be displayed.

It took me a while to work out how to do this, so if you use it, please let me know.  If I know that people are using some of these new things, I’ll add more fun toys!

Why don’t you try it out now?

Using Kites to Reduce Shipping Costs

The “MV Beluga Skysails” is a ship with a difference.
It sports a huge kite that can be unfurled upto 300 metre above the ship, helping it to reduce fuel bills by 20 percent.
The kite’s manufacutrers, Skysails (http://www.skysails.info/) claim that the kite system can pay for itself in about three to five years, and is easily installed on any cargo ship.
The 135 metre long Beluga Skysails was launched on Saturday from Hamburg, and will be making a trans-atlantic crossing in early January.

Something old, Something new.

This is a mosaic photo of Pacific Star anchored off Lifou, New Caledonia.

Look closely and you will see thousands of little tiles.

The tiles in the photo are actual photos taken from the Cruise Cam of Pacific Star and Regal Princess.

Pacific Star will soon be retired from the P&O Australia fleet.

Regal Princess is a new addition, and will shortly be renamed “Pacific Dawn”.

This is a tribute to the old and the new – they’re both beautiful ladies of the sea for different reasons.