Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Father and Son Cruise Solar/Electric Boat to Alaska

When we last wrote about the father-son team of David and Alex Borton at the end of May, they had just left Bellingham, Washington, on their 27-foot solar/electric boat Wayward Sun, headed for Alaska. They wanted to be the first to take such a vessel all that way, without using any fossil fuel at all. And they succeeded. Using only the sun for power, the Bortons cruised 1,216 nm from Bellingham to Ketchikan, Alaska, and then up to Glacier Bay and finally to Juneau, in a total of 45 days. They actually were underway for 38 days, averaging 32 nm…

Cruising Life
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Good Samaritans, NOAA, Save Stranded Orca

A group of Good Samaritans, with some help from NOAA, helped rescue a 20-foot-long orca that was stranded on the rocks on Prince of Wales Island, just above Ketchikan in Alaska. They poured water on the 13-year-old orca for about six hours until the tide turned, and the whale, known as TD146D, a member of the West Coast transient orca population, was able to swim out to sea and rejoin its pod. The Coast Guard received the first call about the stranded whale at 9 in the morning.The orca was at least four feet above the waterline then, and the…

Cruising Life
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NOAA Hurricane Update: Not Good News

This year’s Atlantic hurricane season has gotten off to a bad start, and now NOAA says things may get worse. Indeed, in its annual mid-season update, NOAA now says there’s a 65 percent chance that we’ll have above-normal activity for the rest of the season, which ends on Nov. 30. “A mix of competing oceanic and atmospheric conditions generally favors above-average activity for the remainder of the Atlantic season, including the potential return of La Niña in the months ahead,” said Matthew Rosencrans, the lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The center says the chance of a near-normal…

Boat Reviews
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Numarine Launches 37XP with 6,000-nm Range

Numarine, the Turkish builder, just launched the first hull of its 37XP expedition yacht in Istanbul. It’s now on its way to the south of France for its showing at the Cannes Yachting Festival, starting Sept. 7. With a steel, full-displacement hull, the Numarine 37XP is powered by twin 800-hp CAT diesels, giving it a top speed of 14 knots and an ocean-crossing range of 6,000 nm at 8 knots (it holds 13,472 gallons of fuel). The 121-foot yacht is larger than what we usually cover, but I think it’s interesting to see what’s out there in the long-range, expedition…

Cruising Life
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Shipping a Nordhavn 59 from Florida to Mexico: Video

In June, Larry McCullough and his wife, Jamie, shipped their Nordhavn 59, Independence, from North Palm Beach, Florida, to La Paz, Mexico, and McCullough made a first-rate video of the entire experience. He calls it the good, the bad, and the ugly. It deals with the entire experience, including dealing with brokers, preparing the boat for shipment, and the condition of the boat once it arrived in La Paz. He told me he hoped that other owners could learn from his experience. The McCulloughs are experienced boat owners, and they bought Independence, hull number one of the Nordhavn 59 Coastal…

Cruising Life
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Network of Currents in Atlantic Breaking Down

The crucial network of currents in the Atlantic, including the Gulf Stream, is slowing down, and is now the weakest it’s been in more than 1,000 years, according to a new study published in the British journal Nature Climate Change. The slowdown is reaching a tipping point with dramatic consequences, including a more rapid rise in sea levels along the east coast of the United States, colder temperatures in Europe, reduced rainfall in parts of Africa, and even more monsoons in the tropics. The study looked at the circulation patterns of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, the conveyer…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Offloads Record $1.4 Billion in Drugs

The Coast Guard just announced its biggest drug haul in history, offloading more than $1.4 billion worth of cocaine and marijuana from the 418-foot cutter James in Port Everglades, Florida. The James was flanked by the 181-foot Royal Canadian Navy coastal defense vessel Shawinigan at a press conference announcing the offloading. The drugs, 59,700 pounds of cocaine and 1,430 pounds of marijuana, were seized by the James, the Shawinigan and eight other American and Dutch ships in 27 different seizures in the eastern Pacific off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America and in the Caribbean. “Interdicting these drugs…

Boat Reviews
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Vripack Launches Luxury Version of California 52

Vripack, the Dutch yacht design studio that is working with Nordhavn for some of its larger yachts, just launched a semi-custom California 52 XT weekender in Ibiza. Built by Waterdream in the Netherlands, the California 52 XT is bound to turn heads anywhere in the world, and it has a two-tone paint job that matches the colors of a BMW M8. Waterdream, founded by Prince Bernhard van Oranje of the Netherlands, won the Best Innovation Award at the Cannes World Yacht Trophies with the California 52 last year. At that point, the Prince got the idea to make a special…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Boat Sinks in Marlin Tournament. See Rescue Video

The 48th annual White Marlin Open, the world’s largest billfish tournament, started on Monday morning in Ocean City, Maryland, with 421 boats competing for a record $9 million in prize money. At 10:30, Knot Stressin’, a 34-foot Pursuit and one of the competitors, sent out a Mayday call saying its engine room was flooding and all six men on board were abandoning ship. It was about 60 miles offshore. The Coast Guard heard the call and sent out an 87-foot patrol boat and a 47-foot lifeboat. But Bill Chapman, the captain of Fishbone, a 65-foot fishing boat that also was…

Boat Reviews
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Vicem Offers Restyled 65 Classic in Fiberglass

Vicem, the highly regarded Turkish builder, is reintroducing its restyled and re-engineered 65 Classic yacht, but this time owners have a choice of building it in cold-molded wood (per the 2018 original) or in fiberglass. The company says it has moved to the fiberglass option for a faster build time, as well as for lower maintenance costs. It now has three of the new 65 Classics under construction, two in fiberglass and one cold-molded. The latest version of the 65, with its low profile, long sheerline, beautiful tumblehome and timeless Downeast-style looks, has a new full-beam master stateroom amidships. It…

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