Thursday, July 3

Browsing: Cruising Life

Mexico is limiting boating activities in its ports due to the coronavirus pandemic. The country’s Maritime Authority recently issued a directive, #13, to all port captains spelling out the restrictions. The directive told the port captains they could not authorize the clearance or departure of passenger vessels for-hire, whether they carried Mexican flags or those from other countries. They also had to shut down all boats operating with Nautical Tourism permits – including charter boats, dive boats, sportfishing boats, sunset-cruise boats and whale-watching boats. For other recreational boats, the directive said that “ports in Mexico are not closed to navigation.”…

The Coast Guard rescued four people after their boat turned over about eight miles off Sarasota. The two men and two women on board were not injured in the accident. The Coast Guard says it received a Mayday call on Channel 16 about 3:30 on Sunday afternoon. The caller said his 24-foot powerboat boat was taking on water and he needed help. The Coast Guard told the caller to make sure everyone put on life jackets, and to await a rescue. It then sent a 45-foot response boat to rescue them. All four people were rescued and taken to the…

Here’s something you probably haven’t seen before: A pair of adventurers cruising through the icy fjords of Norway on electric jetboards. Boards on the fjords. Take a look at the video below, it’s terrific. The electric-powered jetboards are made by Radinn, a Swedish company that was started in 2013. The name says it all: Radical Innovation. To promote its boards, the company has tested them on the canals in Amsterdam and off the beaches of the Dominican Republic. It went to Norway, in March, because that’s where they could find the highest-latitude body of water that wasn’t iced in. The…

The new WB40’ is an example of what a world-class designer and builder can do for a client who knows just what he wants. The new lightweight day cruiser uses cutting-edge technology, with a combination of wood and advanced carbon composites, to deliver a fuel-efficient, 40-knot performance. The WB40’ was built by Wooden Boats, which was founded eight years ago in Viareggio, Italy, by Marco Arnaboldi. Earlier, he had founded AB Yachts with his father to build high-end, custom tenders for such builders at Benetti, Pershing and Baglietto, among others. Studio Arnaboldi is known for designing elegant, fast superyachts. The…

Garmin just launched the newest model in its quatix marine smartwatch series, and it’s designed specifically for cruising, fishing and watersports activities. You can use it control your autopilot, and you can load it with coastal charts so it serves as a navigation tool on your wrist. The new Garmin quatix 6 represents the next generation of smartwatches, according to Garmin. It connects to Garmin chartplotters and other marine electronics to control the autopilot, as well as onboard Fusion-Link entertainment offerings. It also displays boat speed, depth, temperature and wind. And it has preloaded activity for other sports, including paddle…

A nighttime fire sank eight boats and severely damaged one more at a Seattle marina recently. The fire raged for more than two hours before 75 firefighters were able to put it out. The fire was at the Jim Clark Marina on Harbor Island under the West Seattle Bridge. The first alarm came from the marina manager, who called 911 about 9:30 last Friday night. It spread quickly, from boat to boat, and caused some explosions. The lower portion of the bridge was closed temporarily because of smoke. The firefighters faced some unusual problems; the one floating dock that provided…

In recent years, bow thrusters have become ubiquitous; most new cruising powerboats have them either already installed or as options. There is no question that they make docking easier (and I say that as the former owner of a Grand Banks 36 that did not have one), but they also can introduce problems of their own, particularly in an era of pod drives and joystick controls. They introduce new electrical or hydraulic systems on the boat; they require some degree of care and maintenance, and they can (in my experience, at least) occasionally not provide enough power to move the…

Many, many years ago, I lived in Mill Valley, California, and commuted to work as an editor of Saturday Review in San Francisco. It was the best commute I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot – in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York). I rode my bike on a bike path from downtown Mill Valley past the Sausalito waterfront and then took the ferry to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, where it was just a short walk to the office. The views from the ferry, of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island, The City (as San…

AccuWeather just issued its forecast for this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s not particularly reassuring. The company’s meteorologists say they expect another busy year in the Atlantic Basic, following what they called a busy season last year. “It’s going to be an above-normal season,” said Dan Kottlowski, AccuWeather’s hurricane expert. “On a normal year, we have around 12 storms, six hurricanes and roughly three major hurricanes.” For this hurricane season, starting June 1 and ending Nov. 30, AccuWeather is predicting 14 to 18 named storms, seven to nine hurricanes, and two to four major hurricanes. From two to four…

NOAA just released its first report on its progress in mapping U.S. waters, and the results are startling: About 54 per cent of the U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes water are still not mapped. The report is called Unmapped U.S. Waters and it includes the colorful graphics above, showing areas that have been mapped – and those that haven’t. It created the report from an analysis of publicly available bathymetry. The percentage of unmapped U.S. waters as of 2019: U.S. total: 54 per cent. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico: 43 per cent. Great Lakes: 95 per cent. Caribbean: 42…

1 179 180 181 182 183 336