Fuel

Ahoy. I wonder how the sunrise will look this morning when I will near Mission Bay to stop for refueling. While you sip your coffee reading my column, I am on a delivery to Ensenada aboard a gas-powered boat, and I find it best to top off gas boats before crossing the border. I am often asked why, and why Mission Bay. I find that with new boats, no one knows the actual fuel usage, and the stop allows me to calculate our fuel burn. Many smaller gas boats do not hold much fuel, and it is always better to be safe than sorry.

A blue, Nissan X-Trail sport-utility vehicle drove off without a sound after being the first vehicle to fill its tank at the brand new hydrogen fueling station at UC Irvine, where more than 100 project collaborators, government officials and associates gathered to celebrate the facility's grand opening Tuesday morning. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, UCI's National Fuel Cell Research Center and Air Products, an international corporation that distributes gases and chemicals for industrial use, engineered and installed the station at the corner of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive.

-- Greg Risling Small amounts of diesel fuel leaked into harbor waters near the Balboa Pavilion on Wednesday, but the spill was contained by a private cleanup crew. Authorities said between 10 and 15 gallons spilled into the harbor from a gas station at about 11 a.m. The Orange County Sheriff Department's Harbor Patrol cordoned off the area while the fuel was cleaned up. It took several hours before most of the fuel was siphoned from the water. Authorities said small amounts of the fuel will spread throughout the harbor and will probably evaporate from sun rays.

Ahoy. I have finally returned from cruising in the Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, and Desolation Sound of northern Washington and Canada aboard a nice yacht. If you enjoy cruising smoother inner passages not subject to ocean swells plus scenic views, then this is the trip for you. However, I don't recommend it without caution. Unlike cruising in Newport Harbor and most places in Southern California, one must prepare very carefully for a trip in these areas, which have many hazards not found in Newport.

The Newport Beach City Clerk's office is now providing passport services. Hours are Monday until Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Appointments are not required. Adults need proof of U.S. citizenship as well as picture identification, two identical passport photos 2 inches by 2 inches. Photos are available at a number of local businesses listed in the Yellow Pages under Passport Photo and Visa Services. The cost to apply for a passport is $45 payable to Passport Services plus a $15 processing fee paid to the city of Newport Beach.

Deepa Bharath A fully loaded gardening truck towing a wood chipper rolled down and plunged into a ravine Thursday morning, threatening to leak fuel into the bay, officials said. No one was hurt in the incident that occurred at about 11:25 a.m. The Hazardous Materials Team from the Orange County Fire Authority contained the leak, preventing the fuel from going into the bay, said Donna Boston, spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Fire Department. The truck had been parked on Jamboree Road while workers were trimming trees and loading branches into the chipper, she said.

Alex Coolman NEWPORT BEACH -- The riverboat Angela Louise will be making her maiden voyage through Newport Harbor this evening as an electrically powered vessel. The boat is the first of its class to be approved for electric power, said Capt. Joseph Warren. The boat's power was switched to create a boating experience that is quieter for passengers and less harmful to the marine environment. The boat still has diesel engines available for use, Warren said, but they have been "relegated to a minute or two of use during each trip."

EDUCATION UCI now driving with hydrogen Researchers at UC Irvine's National Fuel Cell Research Center took delivery of a new hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Monday. They will use the state-of-the-art SUV, one of only 18 in the world, to study the feasibility of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed "Hydrogen Highways," a plan for a widespread rollout of hydrogen fueling stations. The hydrogen vehicles, built by Toyota, have the same body and chassis as their Highlander SUV. The prototype cars are years away from mass production.

Diesels are loud, smoky and they stink. Right? Wrong. Mercedes-Benz might have the answer to getting the average car buyer thinking much differently about the smog-inducing, black-smoke-puffing diesel era of the 1970s. It might even hold the key to a diesel revolution in North America. OK, maybe evolution. Bluetec, as Mercedes calls its new range of engines, is not your father’s diesel. In a very short time, the technology will find its way into more than just Mercedes vehicles.

Ahoy. Happy birthday America on this Fourth of July. Why not start your nautical festivities with the American Legion's Fourth of July Old Glory Boat Parade in Newport Harbor? This year's theme is "The Freedom to Dream," a salute to the Armed Forces members in Iraq. The Legion will open at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast until 11 a.m. for only $6 a ticket, after which lunch will be available. Also, there will be free harbor tours, live music and a missing man fly-over formation.

IRVINE - The fleeting scent of a UC Irvine men's basketball victory Thursday night was rendered even more fragrant with the advent of Derrick Flowers in bloom. The Anteaters' junior point guard had a career-high nine assists and, combined with a solid performance at UCLA on Tuesday, appears to be making the most of an opening in the starting lineup created by freshman Aaron Wright's right-knee injury four games ago. Flowers was one of a few bright spots for the Anteaters (3-9)

As General Motors, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and other major automobile manufacturers prepare to bring hydrogen cars to market by 2015, the availability and sustainability of the hydrogen fuel to power them remains an issue. Later this month, what is believed to be the world's first sewage-powered hydrogen fuel station will open in Fountain Valley, offering a renewable-energy solution to one piece of the sustainability puzzle. "This is a paradigm shift," said Scott Samuelsen, director of the UC Irvine National Fuel Research Center that engineered the system.

NEWPORT BEACH — Mr. Irrelevant met the Nigerian Nightmare for the first time. Cheta Ozougwu was just happy to hear his name pronounced correctly by someone other than his Nigerian parents. Christian Okoye said "oh-ZOO-goo" just once. To the former running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, Ozougwu was still Mr. Irrelevant, the last player picked in the NFL Draft. As for any advice for Ozougwu, who will try to make the Houston Texans, Okoye chuckled at first. The laughs started well before a roast of Ozougwu at the All-Star Lowsman Banquet at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa on Wednesday.

A car jumped the curb at Baker Street, drove through a chain-link fence and crashed into a plane at John Wayne Airport on Friday night, authorities said Luis Perez, 56, was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk after Orange County Sheriff's deputies said he tore a 30- to 40-foot hole in the fence on the west side of the airport and smashed into a small plane about 10:35 p.m. That plane then hit another plane, causing one of the two to start leaking...

Editor's note: This corrects the amount the school district expects to save in energy costs. Thanks to fuel cells, students at University and Woodbridge high schools may be swimming in a sustainable pool next year. The technology was approved last month during an Irvine Unified School District school board meeting. Over the next 20 years, the fuel cells could save the district as much as $567,698 at each school. "We set up an effort about two years ago to go after renewable energy sources to help the district save money in the long run," said school board member Mike Parham.

IRVINE — Having cut his coaching teeth in big-time programs at Wake Forest and Stanford, as well as the NBA, first-year UC Irvine men's basketball coach Russell Turner knows the swell of emotion that can stir in an arena. And while the biggest Bren Events Center crowd in nearly four years (4,070) helped heighten the euphoria surrounding the Anteaters' 86-76 upset of Big West Conference-leading Long Beach State on Saturday, Turner wanted to make sure he did everything he could to accentuate the groundswell of support.

While private flying at John Wayne Airport plummeted during the recession, the decline has begun to taper off. Data released Tuesday showed that 7% fewer "general aviation" planes took off or landed at JWA in 2010 compared with 2009, a marked improvement over double-digit drops in the previous two years. JWA became especially unaffordable during the recession because of its comparably high fuel costs, local pilots said. At more than $6 per gallon for jet fuel and gasoline, JWA is more expensive than airports in Fullerton, Long Beach, Torrance and others nearby.

Federal investigators found that the small plane that crashed in Newport Beach's Back Bay and killed three people in November ran out of fuel, confirming earlier speculation. The private pilot, who was flying home from a surf trip in Baja, refueled in San Felipe and later in Calexico, a border town south of the Salton Sea, according to a preliminary report released Monday. National Transportation Safety Board investigators talked with ground crew members and another pilot at those airports.

A small private plane crashed into the Back Bay Sunday night, killing at least three people on board. Newport Beach police received a call about 5:45 p.m. that the single-engine plane was in distress and that the pilot wanted to land on Newport Center Drive, according to Sgt. Steve Burdette.  As police personnel were clearing cars and people, they received another call that the plane had crashed into the Back Bay, Burdette said.  The 1968 Beechcraft Muskateer landed upside down on a mudflat.

Newport Beach opened its first natural gas fueling station Wednesday. The $1-million facility at the General Services Corporation Yard, 592 Superior Ave., allows the city to power its fleet of vehicles with cleaner-burning compressed natural gas, officials said. The station, which will be open to the public and operate at all hours, was made possible through a partnership between Newport Beach and Clean Energy, an alternative energy transportation company. Newport Beach let Clean Energy build the gas station on city land, rent free.