Browsing: Cruising Life

Cruising Life
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Endless Summer: YuJet Electric Surfboard

Here’s a new toy that could be a lot of fun for the whole family next summer: The YuJet Surfer, an electric surfboard that doesn’t need surf and that hits a top speed of 24 mph. The YuJet is fun, fast, and easy to ride. You control the speed with a floating wireless hand trigger that has two modes: Beginner, for starting out, and Sport, for full performance, The board, which is just shy of eight feet long, weighs in at 20 pounds with the battery removed, so it’s easy to maneuver from your car or boat to the water.…

Cruising Life
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More Manatee Deaths: Calls for Boater Safety Courses

Manatee deaths were up again in Florida in 2020, and the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has written a draft of new legislation that would require all boat operators to have a boater safety identification card by January 1, 2023. Last year, 593 manatees died in Florida, according to the commission, almost two dozen more than the average number of deaths in the previous five years. The commission estimates that 90 of the 593 were killed by boats. The actual number of boat-related deaths is probably higher, because the state stopped doing autopsies for two months last spring during…

Cruising Life
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Search Ends for Missing Boat with 20 on Board

The Coast Guard has suspended a search for a 29-foot Mako with about 20 people on board that was three days overdue on a trip from Bimini to Lake Worth, Florida. The search, involving planes and boats, lasted 84 hours and covered an area of 17,000 square miles, about twice the size of the state of Massachusetts. The boat was reported missing a day after it was scheduled to arrive in Lake Worth, crossing the Gulf Stream from the Bahamas. The search did not turn up any trace of the boat or its passengers;  there was no record of any…

Cruising Life
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Iridium Launches First World-Wide Marine Distress Service

Iridium just launched the first world-wide, real-time emergency marine distress service. The new Iridium Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) started last week; it is the first immediate response and rescue service that works anywhere in the world, even in the Arctic and Antarctic. At a virtual press conference from its headquarters in McLean, Virginia, Iridium officials said the new service can provide life-saving help to mariners at sea. “This is a historic moment in both the satellite and maritime industries,” said Iridium CEO Matt Desch. “It is not every day that you get to announce the launch of…

Cruising Life
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BoatUS Warns of Documentation Letter Scams

Here’s a new warning from BoatUS that’s important for anyone with a documented boat: SPRINGFIELD, Va., Dec. 15, 2020 – Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) is advising boaters with vessels that have a U.S. Coast Guard Certificate of Documentation to be wary of any letter arriving by U.S. mail offering renewal. BoatUS advises that while the Coast Guard does send official annual renewal notices by U.S. mail, other notices being received by members are not from the Coast Guard, but rather third-party companies whose name or return addresses may appear similar to that of the official U.S.…

Boat Reviews
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Arcadia Launches New Sherpa XL Cruiser

Arcadia Yachts just launched its second Sherpa XL, a creative cruiser with lots of light-filled spaces on all three decks. The Italian builder worked with Hot Lab, the Milan-based design studio, to create a new look for the new 79-foot yacht. Ugo Pellegrino, the sole director of Arcadia, says the new Sherpa “is perfect not just for owners who want to use it for day cruising with all the guests they desire, but also for people who want to experience a long cruise with very high levels of service, embracing the ‘slow yachting’ philosophy that Arcadia itself introduced ten years…

Cruising Life
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Seven Tips for Plotting Your Next Cruise

Here are seven tips from Skipper Tips about how to plot your next cruise in advance to make it safer and easier. One tip: Plot waypoints around hazards along the way. Read on: 1. Get Ready to Navigate Now! Make your piloting preparations in advance to save time and effort underway. Complete 90% of navigation plotting in the comfort of your home or apartment. Plot your base sailing courses onto each chart you will use. Highlight dangers, emergency anchorages, and prominent aids to navigation (i.e. lighted aids or those with sound signals). Plot waypoints at the start and finish of…

Cruising Life
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Navy Combat Ship Makes Big Pacific Drug Bust

The USS Gabrielle Giffords, a Navy littoral combat ship, just seized more than $100 million worth of cocaine from a low-profile smuggling boat in the Pacific. Here’s the story from Seapower, the official publication of the Navy League of the United States: AT SEA — The Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) with embarked U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 407 seized an estimated 2,810 kilograms of suspected cocaine, Dec. 5, the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs Office said in a Dec. 11 release. While on routine patrol, Gabrielle Giffords was diverted to intercept a low-profile vessel…

Boat Reviews
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New Cetera 60: 3 Staterooms on the Main Deck

Here’s a new idea from Cetera Yachts in Italy: A new 60-footer with all three staterooms on the main deck, giving them panoramic views and getting them away from the machinery spaces and waves that slap against the hull. The galley and major indoor social spaces that are usually there, in a main deck salon, have been moved to the upper deck, while the engines and everything that makes the boat work are on the lower deck, along with a two-person crew quarter. Cetera says the new 60, designed by Francesco Guida, is a “multispaces yacht,” and that it has…

Cruising Life
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U.S. Navy Finds New Species of Beaked Whale

The Navy says it has found a new species of beaked whale off the coast of Baja, Mexico. Read the Navy’s story here: From Naval Sea Systems Command Public Affairs Researchers funded by the Naval Sea Systems Command Monitoring Program believe they have discovered a new species of beaked whale in the waters off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. NAVSEA funded the expedition to determine the source of a unique beaked whale vocalization near a Navy test area in Southern California thought to have come from a Perrin’s beaked whale. Researchers from the U.S. Navy and Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected…

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