NAVY'S NEW TOY

 22 March2026:  Here we are again; Mother Nature is proving her fickleness (is that a word?) by alternating hot (west coast) and cold (east coast), huge storms and sunny days, and keeping us all guessing... they tell us it will settle down and give the weather-guessers a fighting chance at getting it right! 

In the interest of avoiding "wreck reporting" (we've been accused of that) and disaster stories, here's something about some new tech the Navy has developed which will possibly report actual weather (even though that's not the focus) -among other things. From Slashgear.com.

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The U.S. Navy is fully on board the autonomous surface vessel (ASV) wagon as it moves toward having half of its surface fleet be unmanned by 2045 [ed: certainly solves a recruitment issue!]. In 2025, it launched an autonomous 180-foot warship, known as the USX-1 Defiant. In February 2026, its new Lightfish drone hit the open ocean. The unmanned solar-powered Lightfish is built by Seasats, a private company based in San Diego, California.

Not a pretty vessel

 Seasat's Lightfish is a 305-pound drone designed for general-purpose activities such as surveying, research, and security patrols. With the U.S. Navy, it will be used in missions to constantly gather intelligence through surveillance and reconnaissance along shorelines, in harbors, and even in the open ocean. With a top speed of 5 knots (5.75 mph), [ed: makes it a perfect target, at that speed] it can conduct a wide range of maritime domain awareness missions, including port and coastal security, drug trafficking, illegal fishing, and other threats.

The Lightfish, which measures just 11.4 feet x 3.4 feet, can survive up to six months or 8,000 nautical miles at sea without human intervention. It has a payload of 66 pounds and can be deployed at a moment's notice by one or two people. Additionally, it can be easily hauled in the back of a truck or placed aboard almost any aircraft. The Lightfish joins other sea-faring drones, including an unmanned underwater drone that the German Navy tested in 2025

a more flattering view

 Lightfish is equipped with a bevy of high-tech equipment (including collision avoidance, onboard Artificial Intelligence, and GPS-denied navigation), five high-definition cameras, and redundant communication systems including LTE, Iridium SBD, Iridium Certus, and Starlink.[ed: probably no problem in connecting to the internet - unlike ashore!]  The drone's solar-electric power system has a supplemental built-in methanol fuel cell that can supply 11 or 28kWh of power. The ASV has an Electric Drive Torqeedo 1103 with a weedless propeller equal to a 3-hp outboard motor. Additionally, its weighted keel allows it to right itself in conditions up to Sea State 6, where waves can reach heights of 20 feet.

Lightfish is meant strictly for surveillance and recon, unlike other privately-built USVs like the Cardona Marine Group, Inc.'s Sea-Predator-7, which is equipped with an array of munitions to deal lethal damage. The drone has a modular construction for easier maintenance and better customization, and most payloads can be swapped in minutes. With such a technologically advanced unit, one might think it would take a specialist to operate it. Not so. Seasats claims that its browser-based controls allow anyone to learn to navigate this ASV within five days.

Seasats' other two ASVs are the Quickfish and Heavyfish. The former has a top speed over 35 knots (40.28 mph), making it ideal for fast-response tactical operations. But it can only last a month without intervention, and its 1,450-pound weight (and 450-pound payload) requires a trailer to move and launch. Heavyfish weighs 9,000 pounds (with a 1,000-pound payload) and requires an even larger vehicle to move and a crane to get into the water. It too can last six months at sea, and has a top speed of 12 knots (13.81 mph).

In June 2024, a Lightfish drone traveled some 2,500 miles from San Diego to Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Hawaii. The 73-day trip was so successful that the team decided to send it on to Japan, but it was put out of commission by a typhoon [ed:oops] along the way when water got into the hull.

Lightfish performed the same run a second time to prove itself, again starting at the company's headquarters in San Diego. After a stopover in Hawaii for a demonstration, it continued past Wake Island and Guam, and took part in another demo in Okinawa. It finally arrived in Japan on July 30, 2025, with the successful trans-Pacific trip covering 7,500 miles in 150 days.

In early February 2026, the U.S. Sixth Fleet — specifically, Commander Task Force (CTF) 66 — successfully tested Lightfish during Exercise Cutlass Express 2026 in the Western Indian Ocean. It was launched from the Seychelles Navy's SCG auxiliary Saya De Malha (A605). Combined with upcoming drones like Lockheed Martin's Lamprey multi-mission autonomous undersea vehicle, the Lightfish could make the seas much safer for the U.S. and its allies.

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So, unmanned in '45! There's  worthy goal (and slogan)! While I won't be around to collect, I would be wiling to wager a fair amount it won't happen! 

By the way, further to a previous post on the America's Cup debacle, there's more news on that front: conflict in England. Apparently INEOS (the company who has sponsored the British entries, wants their boat back, and Sir Ben Ainlsey doesn't want to give it up as the campaign will be using the same boats again next year that they used in the last competition. So... we'll see how that plays out! 

Until next time, stay safe!               

                        Fair Winds,

                            Old Salt 

MYSTERIES OF THE SEA: SOLVED

 7 March 2026: Spring looms! Snow is melting in the north country and gentle breezes (sometimes) foretell warm and promising sailing weather! We received more than a few positive comments on the previous post (America's Cup) and it would seem than many of you agree with the concept of getting the competition back to a sailing race and leave the high speed foiling boats for someone else to play with; we want our displacement, nationally crewed yachts back with proper triangular courses that test seamanship and tactical skill. That said, it probably won't happen because the competition has devolved into a money chase..... so on to this week' subject of maritime mysteries - solved. From MentalFloss:

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The Bloop Sound 

In 1997, scientists recorded a strange sound in the South Pacific Ocean. It was very low frequency but was also very loud, and was picked up by underwater microphones more than 3,000 miles apart. “If it’s a ship, or a whale, when it makes a sound in the ocean, it isn’t big enough to be recorded all the way across the Pacific,” explained Bob Dziak, the acoustics program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “But this sound was recorded on many hydrophones so it stood out in our mind as being something unique.”

Dubbed the Bloop, the possibility of the sound being manmade was soon ruled out, but it was far louder than any aquatic animal ever recorded, leading to speculation that it was an unidentified—and absolutely massive—sea creature. But the theories that it was a Kraken or Cthulhu were disproven in 2005, when scientists realized that it was actually the sound of an icequake (a.k.a. ice calving)—which occurs when chunks break away from a glacier or iceberg—in the sea around Antarctica. 

[Ed: OK - we've not heard of that and not very exciting. Try this one!] 

 

The Legend of the Flying Dutchman 

 

[ed: we've all heard of this one] Spooky tales of ghost ships sailing the high seas are plentiful, but the Flying Dutchman remains the most famous phantom vessel. Thought to have originated during the 17th century, legends of the Flying Dutchman claim this ship is doomed to endlessly sail the oceans. But while this ghost story may have captivated the minds of sailors and landlubbers alike, science tells a different tale.

Reports of the ghostly ship may have been the result of a Fata Morgana—a type of mirage caused by light refracting through a band of cold air sitting directly below significantly warmer air. The inversion layer between the two distinct temperatures sometimes causes objects to appear visually distorted. Objects might take on a luminous sheen, appear as upside-down mirror images, or even look like they’re floating above the waves.

 

Underwater Crop Circles

a puffer fish

 [ed: ok - a bit out of the ordinary] In 1995, divers off the southern coast of Japan noticed strange shapes on the seabed. Large geometric circles—around seven feet (two meters) in diameter—had been etched into the sand, but by what was a mystery. The intricate circles were essentially the underwater version of crop circles, but while we’ve long known the culprits behind the formations on land (it’s humans, not aliens), the artist behind the aquatic circles was a mystery. 

It wasn’t until around 2012 that cameras caught the creator of the circles in the act. Male white-spotted pufferfish were using their fins to shape the circles, which serve a dual purpose as a mating ritual and a nest. Because the pufferfish are only around five inches (12 centimeters) long, it takes them seven to nine days to create the intricate circles, which they decoratively line with seashell fragments. If a female pufferfish likes the look of the finished product, she lays her eggs in the fine sediment at the center of the circle. The male then fertilizes and guards the eggs until they hatch, after which he abandons his artistic nest. 

 

The Titanic Blip

[ed: a surprise here!] The sinking of the Titanic is a nautical tragedy that has been pored over since the ship went down in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. In 1996, diver and submersible pilot P. H. Nargeolet was exploring the wreck when his echo sounding equipment picked up a large sonar blip nearby. The Titanic lies on an abyssal plain—a relatively flat and largely featureless seabed at a depth of between 10,000 and 20,000 feet (3,000 to 6,000 meters)—so Nargeolet thought that the blip must have been another shipwreck.

In 2022, a team of researchers—including Nargeolet—went on an exploratory mission to find the mysterious underwater object. But instead of the remains of another ship, they found a huge rocky reef teeming with marine life—including lobsters, fish, sponges, and coral. “It is biologically fascinating. The animals that live there are very different to the animals that are found otherwise living in the abyssal ocean,” Murray Roberts, a marine biology and ecology professor and one of the expedition’s researchers, said in an interview with CNN. He described the find as “even more amazing than a shipwreck,” because it indicates that deep-sea life-sustaining reefs may be more common than previously thought.

 The Bermuda Triangle

Over the years, many planes and ships have disappeared in the area of ocean famously known as the Bermuda Triangle, which stretches between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. There have been numerous theories—some scientific, some rather more outlandish—put forward to explain the many mysterious disappearances there, including aliens, methane gas eruptions, a wormhole, and the lost city of Atlantis.

Not only do none of these theories hold water, but there’s actually no need for theories in the first place. “There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean,” reports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As for the disappearances that have occurred in the area, they’re easily explained by things such as bad weather and human error. [ed: how disappointing!]

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Well, I'm sure that many of you have spent countless hours and sleepless nights worrying about these topics and trying, in your own mind, to come up with solutions that satisfy. Your worries are over; problem(s) solved. Go back to sleep!

See you next time. Stay safe!

                           Fair Winds,

                                    Old Salt 

 

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