Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Father, Son Rescue MOB 40 Miles Offshore

Sascha Scheller is a lucky man. He fell off his fishing boat 40 miles off Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, recently, when he lost his footing while relieving himself. He had been fishing by himself. As he hit the water, he saw his boat going off without him. About two hours later, Scheller was saved by a father-and-son team, who also had been out fishing, found his empty boat, and were able to use GPS tracking to help figure out where Scheller might be. Andrew Sherman, 50, and his son, Jack, 21, are ardent fisherman. They’re from Roanoke, Virginia, but spend…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Lobster Boat Races Return to Maine

The popular lobster boat races are underway again Maine this summer, after some of them were cancelled last year because of the pandemic. So far, the fastest lobster boat, winning races in Boothbay and Rockland, is Blue Eyed Girl; it was clocked at 51 mph, which is a bit faster than it travels on its everyday working life picking up lobster pots in Southport, just west of Boothbay Harbor. Blue Eyed Girl is a Northern Bay 38 with a 900-hp Scania V8 owned by Andrew Taylor (pictured below), who makes his living as a Maine lobsterman. In his spare time,…

Cruising Life
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Florida Passes New Anchoring-Restriction Law

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a new anchoring law that balances the needs of cruising boat owners, including many snowbirds, with the needs of local areas to remove derelict or “at-risk” boats (see the picture above). The bill had passed the Florida Senate by a vote of 39 to 0, and the House by 116 to 1. The new bill protects the ability of active cruisers to access shoreside services and amenities, while letting counties establish anchoring limitation areas next to urban areas that have lots of boating traffic and residential docking facilities. It grandfathers in any areas already…

Cruising Life
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Nemo: World’s Smallest Dive System

Here’s a new way to explore underwater (at least to ten feet underwater) without all the hassle of a scuba tanks. Nemo, from Blu3 (pronounced “blue”), is a ten-pound, battery-operated portable dive system that’s so user-friendly that you can even take it on the plane with you. A U.S. company, Blue3 says that Nemo, with its patent-pending technology, is the world’s smallest dive system. It’s designed particularly for people who are used to snorkeling but want to explore farther underwater. Nemo consists of a buoyant foam rectangle and tube with a custom battery-powered compressor, which pumps air to the diver…

Charter
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Ellis Boat Charters: Cruise Down East This Summer

Even though the Fourth of July is in the rear-view mirror, there’s still plenty of time left for cruising vacations and charters this summer. And it would be hard to find a more appealing or inviting cruising area than Down East in Maine, particularly in the iconic Southwest Harbor area, the gateway to Somes Sound and Acadia National Park. You can enjoy all this on the water, by chartering a Maine-built boat from Ellis Boat Charters, a branch of the Ellis Boat Company in Southwest Harbor. Then you can cruise the area on your own, or with a local captain,…

Boat Reviews
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OTAM Launches 50-Knot, 70HT Luxury Cruiser

OTAM just launched its new 70HT fast luxury cruiser, powered by twin 2,000-hp MTU diesels. The sleek, low-profile, three-stateroom yacht will make its official debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival starting on Sept. 7. For the past 65 years, OTAM  has been making custom cruising yachts, ranging from 45 to 130 feet, in its yard in Liguria, Italy. The new 70HT was built with the same customization, craftsmanship and luxury that have defined the brand. The hull comes from Umberto Tagliavini Marine Design; the rest of the boat from the BG Design Firm, which said that “the design is strongly…

Boat Reviews
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Two Oceans Launches Luxurious 850 Power Cat

Two Oceans Marine, the large catamaran builder in Cape Town, South Africa, recently launched a new 850 E Power Catamaran, an ocean-crossing vessel with all the comforts of home, down to its Ralph Lauren fabrics on the sun beds and cushions. Founded in 1989, Two Oceans specializes in building power and sail catamarans from 23 to 110 feet, for blue-water cruising, fishing and commercial use. The new 82-foot 850E is a custom build, with lines from Du Toit Yacht Design. The Two Oceans 850 E is powered by twin 305-hp Cummins diesels, giving it a top speed of 22 knots.…

Cruising Life
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$1.5 million for Whale Vomit?

The crew of a fishing boat from Yemen just caught $1.5 million worth of whale vomit – actually ambergris, which the Natural History Museum in London says is often called “floating gold” because it’s so rare. Once it’s cleaned up, ambergris is used to make high-end perfume last longer; Chanel and Lanvin are reported to use it to this day. The 35 impoverished Yemeni fishermen were working in the Gulf of Aden when they hauled up a sperm whale carcass. As they towed it back to port, they realized they might have something valuable because it smelled awful. Ambergris is…

Cruising Life
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Orcas Behaving Badly, from Spain to Seattle. Videos

We’ve seen two different stories about Orcas interacting with boats lately. One, about an aggressive pod attack, came off the southern coast of Spain, and the other, a more refined interaction, came off Camano Island north of Seattle. You can see videos of both below. In the first story, a pod of about 30 orca whales circled and attacked the hull of a sailboat for two hours as it neared the Strait of Gibraltar. The three British sailors on board said they were afraid the 25-foot-long orcas would sink the boat. In fact, they damaged the rudder to the point…

Cruising Life
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Gas Burns on Top of Gulf of Mexico. Video

This cauldron of burning gas on top of the Gulf of Mexico looked like a scene out of Dante’s Inferno. Indeed, one eyewitness said it seemed like “the portals of hell.” The fire started after an underwater gas pipeline, 12 inches in diameter, ruptured off Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula. The Pemex pipeline was part of the Ku Maloob Zaap underwater oil field, one of Pemex’s largest. Video of the fire, which you can see below, soon circulated on social media around the world, with commentators calling it “the eye of fire,” because of the circular shape of the burning…

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