January 28, 2012 - Enter our "Find the Missing Link(s)" contest, and you might win a 60lb Boga Grip (a $249.95 retail value)! Click HERE to find out how to enter...

Every now and then, life takes an unexpected turn...Such was the case with our recent software upgrade for Beyond The Breakwater, and our sister site, Ocean Skiff Journal.

As computer geeks know, software upgrades can be fraught with unforeseen problems. The situation gets even worse, of course, if you didn't completely follow the instructions and/or read that pesky little file called "Release Notes".

For the most part, our upgrade went very well, considering how drastic some of the "behind the scenes" changes were. Unfortunately, as part of the upgrade, the software company made one slight unexpected change...

That change essentially "broke" all of the links in our websites that pointed to other places within the website. So, for example, if Beyond The Breakwater Article A had a link to Article B, that link no longer worked after the upgrade.

All that's required to fix the problem is to add a single "/" in the right place. And after a number of hours of checking, we think we got most of the broken links.

HOWEVER between BTBFF and OSJ, there are dozens of articles, and most have links pointing to other articles or places on the Internet (after all, it is the "world-wide WEB"). So the reality is that we know we missed some. The trick is finding the links in the first place.

That's where you, the reader, come in:

$249.95 MSRP of heavy metal

• Go to BeyondTheBreakwater.com (http://btbff.com) and/or Ocean Skiff Journal.com (http://oceanskiffjournal.com), scour the sites, and report broken (missing) links to me using e-mail (see below for instructions). Just to make things a little easier, we intentionally left some broken links in place, just for this contest.
• Each broken/missing link on a page that you report counts as one entry
• At the end of the contest, I will have a random drawing for the 60lb Boga Grip from all of the entries

How to enter:

• Send me e-mail with the address(es) of one or web pages from either btbff.com or oceanskiffjournal.com that have broken links. Identify the broken link(s) on the page as best you can. If you don't know how to do this, click HERE to see some examples.
• For pages with more than one broken link, you get one entry for each broken link on the page.
• Each unique page / broken link combination will be counted only once. Submitting the same page / link combination multiple times will not improve your chances of winning.

CONTEST ENDS Midnight PST, March 1, 2012

Entries must be emailed to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and received before midnight (Pacific Standard Time), March 1, 2012 to be eligible.

The winner will be announced on the Beyond The Breakwater and Ocean Skiff Journal websites by March 8, 2012.

The fine print:

• Contest offer void where prohibited
• A "broken" or "missing" link means a web page hyperlink that does not return the intended page (for example, a photo gallery link that goes back to the home page), or returns a web page indicating a missing page (typically, a "Page not found" error message is displayed).
• The Boga Grip will be mailed to the winner using the United States Postal Service. If the winner resides outside the US, the winner will be responsible for paying applicable import duties and taxes. If the winner prefers a private delivery carrier such as FedEx, UPS, or DHL, the winner will be required to pay for the full cost of using that service.

March, 2010 - The 3rd Annual Ft. Myers Beach Kingfish Shootout has announced that entrants will be required to carry satellite emergency beacons aboard their boats.

The ruling is a result of a highly publicized incident in the Gulf of Mexico, in which three football players died from hyperthermia after their boat capsized. The football players did not have a distress beacon, and were only discovered after a three-day search which covered over 16,000 square miles, and cost an estimated $1.6 million.

Click HERE to visit the tournament website.

March, 2010 - The 3rd Annual Ft. Myers Beach Kingfish Shootout has announced that entrants will be required to carry satellite emergency beacons aboard their boats.

The ruling is a result of a highly publicized incident in the Gulf of Mexico, in which three football players died from hyperthermia after their boat capsized. The football players did not have a distress beacon, and were only discovered after a three-day search which covered over 16,000 square miles, and cost an estimated $1.6 million.

Click HERE to visit the tournament website.

USCG Safety Alert 08-09, issued on Nov. 30, 2009:

Fishing vessel safety staff in the Coast Guard's Seventh District has received at least three reports in the past few months regarding unapproved replacements of 406 EPIRB batteries by servicing companies having no association with the EPIRB manufacturer. These unauthorized battery installations would likely result in a failure of this critical item of lifesaving equipment, and as such are not in compliance with the operational readiness requirements of 46 CFR.

The following is a typical excerpt from an EPIRB manufacturer report:

"The unit was opened and a foreign battery was found inside. The battery was built up using (manufacturer) fuses and wiring salvaged from the original (manufacturer) battery. They then covered their battery with the original (manufacturer) yellow heat shrink, (manufacturer) labels and taped it together. This was then covered with a black heat shrink wrap. The connections were soldered and not spot welded, as is required by the design and is performed in (manufacturer) production. The battery measured 8.7 volts. Our batteries read 9+ volts when they are new. This battery was installed one week prior to it being brought into (manufacturer).

There was also evidence of water intrusion due to the crack in the top cap, which (servicing company) did not recognize as they are not trained in these matters.

The EPIRB was condemned by (manufacturer) and the customer was notified when he came to pick the unit up."

Every approved (i.e., accepted by the FCC) EPIRB is tested during its approval process using a battery, or batteries, specified by the manufacturer. Approved EPIRBs come with a user's manual which describes battery maintenance and replacement procedures. In order for the EPIRB to remain within the conditions of its approval, the manufacturer's instructions in the user's manual must be adhered to. To ensure that replacement batteries are of the same type with which the EPIRB was approved, and are correctly installed, manufacturers typically specify that battery replacements only be done by the manufacturer or a manufacturer-approved shop.

Any modification or changes to an EPIRP must be made in accordance with the manufacturer. The use of alternative replacement parts or batteries is prohibited and may prevent the device from meeting lifesaving requirements. The Coast Guard strongly reminds EPIRB owners and servicing facilities to be aware of the compliance implications and potential for equipment failure stemming from any EPIRB modification or unauthorized battery replacement.

This safety alert is provided for informational purposes only and does not relieve any domestic or international safety, operational or material requirement. Questions regarding the information presented in this alert may be addressed to LCDR Vince Gamma of the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters Lifesaving & Fire Safety Standards Division at 202.372.1396 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

February 8, 2009 - Well...it's been a while, but we have finally finished migrating OSJ to our new platform (Expression Engine, from Ellis Labs). OSJ now shares the same technology base as our sister site, Beyond The Breakwater

Why did we do it? We found we were spending more time working on the infrastructure of OSJ than we were on content. With this change, we can focus on the business of putting together content for this site!

Look for new articles and blogging notes shortly!

Aug. 1, 2007 - We are happy to announce the launch of Beyond The Breakwater, a website/online magazine dedicated to coastal and offshore fly-fishing in Southern California.

If you're a fly-fisherman living in SoCal, or are coming to visit, or are a conventional tackle fisherman looking for a change, be sure to visit. The website address is: http://www.btbff.com.