Sailing ships

"Sail"ing has come full circle. I am so excited about this cargo ship with a ginormous kite that I can hardly stand it. There is so much potential for cool things like this in our progress towards lower carbon footprint lifestyles.

Don't laugh at the kite idea--I taught a meteorology lab class last summer that involved a kite--I hadn't flown one since I was a child, and I have to admit the parafoil kite we got actually frightened me. Those things pull hard and I was worried I'd be lifted off the ground! That fear comes from having worked atop Mount Washington, home of the world record wind speed (231 mph). My own "personal best" while working there was a mere 140 mph. But that's windy enough. I can't count how many times I was bodily picked up and thrown several feet by the wind, or hit on the head with giant chunks of ice (giant, like a foot across) flying through the air. The worst was being up on the top of the tower in sustained 100mph winds--one tiny slip up there and a person would be thrown hundreds of feet and likely land on rocks. That job was fun (someone actually paid me to sit around and watch the clouds), but I don't miss the danger!!! There has got to be a middle ground between the mind-numbing boredom of sitting at a computer all day and being hurled from mountaintops by gusts of wind.