Ballast

Tim Mullady peers into a microscope in a darkened room at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater. He is counting cells from a sample of ballast water taken from a ship, looking for vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes human cholera - and sometimes is discharged from that ballast into local waters along with scores of other "foreign" organisms. Mullady is part of the National Marine Invasion Research Program, which provides the Coast Guard and Congress with information from the forefront of the research community on this issue.

MIAMI -- Before the restart of the Volvo Ocean Race, skippers and crew talked about the tricky conditions that awaited them up the East Coast and the Chesapeake Bay. They were jumping the gun -- literally. In a bizarre start off the coast of Miami Beach yesterday afternoon, six of the eight boats dashed across the start line ahead of the gun and had to circle back to try again. Only Amer Sports Too, the all-woman boat, and ASSA ABLOY managed to get away cleanly on the three-day, 875-mile run up to Baltimore.

ATLANTA -- When John Chaney met the press at the Georgia Dome on Thursday, he never shed his full-length, hooded windbreaker and sunglasses. College basketball's Obi-Wan Kenobi talks like a man from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away, and yesterday Chaney was asked if a "mystique" surrounds his zone defense, which is to Temple what the "Force" is to Star Wars. "Many of us," Chaney said, "have a tendency to make a mystery out of B. S." That was Chaney's acknowledgement that his program's success in March is founded in fundamentals, and that the zone's reputation is as important as its execution.

IN THE ABSENCE of a shining light, I had to depend on a dim bulb for illumination. I am not talking about the analysis of this week's presidential election. I am talking about my go-round with the light fixture in the laundry room. This fixture has a history as a troublemaker. Two months earlier it had misbehaved, going dark as soon as I left town on a business trip. When I returned home I restored it to working order by replacing its two fluorescent tubes. This time, instead of superficial trouble, the problem seemed to reside deep in the innards.

The ballast water that keeps merchant vessels entering Chesapeake Bay stable -long known to carry exotic plankton, shellfish and fin fish - also carries potentially dangerous microorganisms from around the world, a new study says. The study by a group of bay scientists, which appears today in the British journal Nature, found high concentrations of microbes in the ballast water of ships arriving from foreign ports. Greg Ruiz, the lead researcher, said there have been no reports of disease tied to the foreign organisms but the findings show a need for more research.

The rain was relentless, and the prospect of an overnight 70-mile sail from Annapolis to St. Mary's City was becoming a dubious pleasure. Taking shelter under the Spa Creek bridge, my shorts soaked, my shoes waterlogged, the rain pouring down my neck, I looked over the pontoons of the Annapolis Yacht Club's annex toward the 73-foot dark green hull and 91-foot raked black, carbon mast of the sloop Donnybrook. There was no sign of life aboard. Then a similarly drenched figure in red weather gear dashed toward the boat.

FRIENDS YOU CAN'T forget are those with whom you've shared the most exciting times of your life. Conrad Sigmon of Manchester has four such friends and has a quest to find six others, all of whom served on an 11-man Navy armed guard unit aboard the USS George Westinghouse, a merchant ship that convoyed supplies to troops in Europe during World War II. "I feel like they're still around and it's just a matter of finding them," Sigmon says of the "gold-star boys,"...

To the list of species that don't belong in Chesapeake Bay and probably will harm its delicate balance, add the veined rapa whelk, a snail with an appetite for shellfish that has been feasting on clams and oysters near Hampton Roads, Va.Watermen working around the mouths of the James and York rivers say they've seen these creatures that vaguely resemble the native conch for several years, but only recently did they know what they were and how much damage...

ONE OF THE advantages of living in a house for a long time is that when something breaks, it usually is a repeat performance. The mystery of "what is that terrible noise?" is gone.Over the years, for instance, I have learned that a "chirp" coming from the refrigerator freezer means the fan motor has gone kaput. I now know that a growl from underneath the kitchen sink means the garbage disposal is gummed up, probably with potato peels, and that the problem can be remedied with a wrench that fits into the disposal's belly.

The Southern Ocean has taken its toll on the fleet in the Whitbread Round the World Race, dismasting two yachts and forcing Maryland entry Chessie Racing to head for a remote port in Argentina to pick up parts for its broken water ballast system and freshwater maker.EF Education, the women's team from Sweden that had been sailing since Feb. 7 with a jury-rigged mast, was dismasted yesterday afternoon in 35-knot winds and big seas.Reports from EF Education and race headquarters indicate no one was seriously injured when the mast broke in two places between the first and second spreaders.