Destinations

Lyman-Morse Develops Camden Waterfront

By Peter Janssen on March 28, 2022 Destinations

For the past 42 years, Lyman-Morse, based in Thomaston, Maine, has been building boats ranging from carbon-fiber racing sailboats to luxurious Down East powerboats, creating a mix of cutting-edge technology and traditional craftsmanship. Lately, Lyman-Morse has been expanding, building a boutique hotel in Rockland, for example, and edging into custom home design. Now, it’s almost ready to open its redevelopment along the Camden waterfront, with a mix of restaurants, retail shops and gallery spaces for local craftspeople. The Camden redevelopment is almost complete, and is scheduled to open in June. Lyman-Morse actually has owned the Camden waterfront property since 2015…

Heat Stress Hits Coral in Great Barrier Reef

By Peter Janssen on March 21, 2022 Destinations

Coral on the Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, again. Indeed, the Australian agency in charge of managing the reef just said it has been hit by “significant heat stress” over the summer. The Great Barrier Reef, the most extensive coral reef in the world, is listed as a World Heritage Site. Scientists and researchers from the United Nations are visiting the reef this week to determine whether it should be listed as “in danger.” The reef just avoided such a designation last year, after intensive lobbying efforts in Australia led UNESCO to postpone such a decision until now. Meanwhile,…

New, Relaxed, Protocols for Bermuda

By Peter Janssen on March 16, 2022 Destinations

Here’s some good news if you’re thinking about cruising to Bermuda this year. One of the most inviting cruising destinations in the world, Bermuda just relaxed its Covid restrictions, making it much easier to visit there. Over the years, Bermuda has become known as the end of some classic sailboat races, as well as a destination for cruising sailboats. After all, it’s only 635 nm from Newport, Rhode Island. But it’s become a cruising powerboat destination as well. Indeed, it was the first stop on the historic 18-boat 2004 Nordhavn Atlantic Rally from Fort Lauderdale to Gibraltar (second stop was…

CUBAR Rally All Set for Next Fall

By Peter Janssen on March 8, 2022 Destinations

The iconic CUBAR powerboat rally from San Diego to La Paz, Mexico, next fall has already filled up with its 50-boat capacity, and is now just putting names on a waiting list. One of the premiere cruising events on the West Coast, the rally will leave the San Diego Yacht Club on October 30 and arrive in La Paz, 910 nm later, on Nov. 13. CUBAR, standing for Cruise Underway to Baja Rally, is sponsored by the San Diego club, and Nordhavn, which has eight boats in this year’s event, just signed on as another sponsor. Nordhavn set the bar…

Australia Opens Border to Vaccinated Travelers

By Peter Janssen on February 23, 2022 Charter, Destinations

Australia opened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers earlier this week, meaning you now can charter a boat and head for the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsundays or Ningaloo Reef, some of the most beautiful cruising and diving destinations in the world. Or, you can stay in Sydney, charter a day boat to tour the harbor, enjoy the city’s culture, and head for Bondi beach. (I’ve done that – before flying to Perth, across the continent – and it’s fun.) For the past two years, “Fortress Australia” had some of the most strict border controls to combat the spread of…

Good News: The Bitter End Is Back

By Peter Janssen on February 2, 2022 Destinations

The Bitter End Yacht Club, one of the premiere cruising and charter destinations in the world, is open again. The club, on 65 acres on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, was wiped out by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The rebuilding has been difficult. All new building supplies had to be ferried in from other areas of the BVI and the U.S. Virgins that also were hit by the hurricane. And then the worldwide Covid pandemic shut down the islands for a while. But now the BEYC is back. Founded in 1969 at “the end of the line” in…

NOAA: Long Island Sound Estuary Now Protected

By Peter Janssen on January 19, 2022 Cruising Life, Destinations

NOAA just named a Long Island Sound estuary as a protected place, establishing a 52,160-acre National Estuarine Research Reserve. The area includes part of Long Island Sound, part of Fisher’s Island Sound, and portions of the Thames River and the Connecticut River. See NOAA’s announcement, dated January 14, here: Today, NOAA and the State of Connecticut designated a new national estuarine research reserve in Long Island Sound. Research reserves are designated to protect a section of an estuary and provide a living laboratory to explore and understand important areas where rivers meet the sea, thus promoting understanding and informed management…

Top 10 Pictures of the British Virgin Islands

By Peter Janssen on January 5, 2022 Destinations

The new year certainly has gotten off to a rocky start, with snow and ice from the Northeast to Seattle, hundreds of cars stranded for more than a day on I-95 in Virginia, airlines cancelling flights left and right, and schools opened/closed/hybrid in cities and towns across the U.S. It’s time to think of happier (and warmer) days ahead. In a shameless promotion, the British Virgin Islands Tourist Information Center will help us with that, since they just posted their top ten photos from 2021. The BVI, of course, have some of the best cruising and chartering grounds in the…

Largest Yachts in World Gather in St. Barts

By Peter Janssen on December 22, 2021 Destinations

The rich and famous, along with some of the largest and most stunning yachts in the world, are gathering in St. Barts for the holidays, ending with the island’s blowout fireworks on New Year’s Eve. St. Barts, of course, has been a cruising destination for the rest of us for years and years. It’s an island paradise, one of the most alluring in the Caribbean, filled with a combination of French and Swedish history plus a Caribbean-style cosmopolitan charm. The island occupies just eight-square miles in the West Indies, but it has 14 spectacular beaches, and the harbor in the…

A Blowout Winterfest Parade in Fort Lauderdale

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2021 Cruising Life, Destinations

Everybody loves a parade, and it seems that boating people particularly love a boating parade. There are boat parades across the U.S. this holiday season, where owners deck out their vessels with lights, Santas, reindeer and lot of other things to get in the holiday spirit. It’s not surprising that holiday parades are big in Florida; indeed, boat parades started there in the 1920s when owners decorated their boats with candles and cruised the waterways singing Christmas carols. Things have changed a bit since then; the candlepower, and horsepower, have grown. The wattage was most on display last Saturday night…

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