Big n burly!

"We don't know at the moment what it is and that makes it even more concerning."

To declare that these are the strangest of times is a severe understatement. I suppose the thick of the Black Death days, when folk wandered around with dried toads hung from their necks, were also the strangest of times. Australia’s Emu Wars certainly very strange, too, but here at the dawn of 2025 we have Southern California burning, North Korean soldiers wandering around in Ukraine and alien balls washing up on Sydney’s iconic beaches forcing mass shutterings in the heat of summer.

Manly, Dee Why, Long Reef, Queenscliff, Freshwater, North and South Curl Curl, North Steyne and North Narrabeen, each very featuring very fine surf breaks, currently closed to the public.

Six months ago, alien balls washed up on famed Bondi Beach, forcing closure there too, but those ones were black and turned out to be fatty acids, though the Environmental Protection Agency disputed the notion, declaring it, “can’t explain the source of the human waste causing the fatbergs and it can’t assure the public that Sydney’s beaches are safe to use.”

These new ones are white or grey and completely cryptic.

Northern Beaches mayor Sue Heins old the Guardian that they “could be anything,” continuing, “We don’t know at the moment what it is and that makes it even more concerning. There’s something that’s obviously leaking or dropping… floating out there and being tossed around.”

Surfers are encouraged to call the authorities if and when they come across the foreign bits.

"Billionaires are evil."

The wealth gap, growing, is a real issue as America teeters on the brink. Haves having more than ever. Have Nots less. Lessons from history, French Revolutions and Russian Revolutions, going entirely unheeded by the Mark Zuckerbergs, Elon Musks and Jeff Bezoses of this once-great nation.

Real quick, though, did you listen to Kai Lenny’s former BFF on the Joe Rogan podcast, recently, touting his commitment to free speech and whatnot? A ludicrous little man sprouting wild hair and wearing gold chains, these days.

The dictionary definition of “goober.”

Well, in other ostentatious news, a mega-yacht pulled into San Diego’s harbor, over the weekend, and was met with derisive hoots from the city’s many and varied surfers.

The Attessa IV, worth one half of a billion dollars, arrived in America’s Finest City and thereby caused a firestorm of complaint.

“It doesn’t even look good. Sad,’ one surfer declared on Reddit, while another claimed, “Y’all should trash these yachts. Stop letting billionaires pollute the earth.”

“I don’t know the owner, but I already know I don’t like them. The audacity it takes to have a 150 million dollar yacht. Billionaires are evil,” yet another chimed.

The owner, Dennis Washington, made his filthy lucre via marine shipping, railroads and mining. Old school financial rape, I suppose.

Boat International shared details surrounding the refitting of the superyacht:

Washington’s concept for Attessa IV was ambitious: new bow, new stern, new foredeck tender garage, new spa, new superstructure shape, all new helipad, and totally new interior layout, including crew areas. The yacht originally had a large karaoke bar, 15 owner and guest cabins and room for 21 crew in rather packed conditions.

The main deck and above were gutted to the shell, the mains and generators overhauled, virtually every bolt and wire was replaced, engines re-bedded, fuel tanks moved, flume tanks removed and the space stripped, soundproofed and painted. That and reconfiguring the crew areas, extending and widening the bow section, adding the folding mast, a forward tender garage with gull-wing doors, bulwarks that slide down and aft simultaneously to allow the large tenders — an 11.5-metre Novurania Chase and a 10-metre Riva — to be launched over the side, and the huge aluminium stern door that disappears completely from view down and under the aft deck sole.

Washington, as noted, liked the yacht’s size and overall structure, but thought it looked entirely too commercial, like a cruise ship. The puzzle he worked on was how to keep such a large vessel intimate, both inside and out. To control the vastness of the space, he envisioned Attessa IV having a waist at the area of the central ventilation and exhaust trunks amidships, and flares to widen the side decks fore and aft.

But let’s pretend, for one moment, that you were unfathomably wealthy. Would you superyacht?

Or supernot?

The Attessa IV once smacked a fishing boat killing folk.

More as the story develops.