Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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For a Cruise Off the Beaten Track, Here Are 19 European Islands, from Norway to the Med

Summer seems to be speeding by, but there’s still time for a special cruise this year, and there’s always time to plan for a special cruise in the years ahead. For something different, here’s a look at 19 often-overlooked islands in Europe, from the far north of Norway down to the Med, that could make it to your eventual bucket list, as developed by mydomaine.com. In the north, Denmark’s Faroe Islands (pictured above) are a string of volcanic islands in the North Atlantic between Norway, Iceland and the UK. They’re rocky, with jagged, steep cliffs, lots of hiking trails and…

Cruising Life
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Record Tides, Storms Hit Scituate, Massachusetts. Residents Wonder How Long They Can Hang On

We hear a lot about the fears of climate change and rising sea levels in Miami Beach, say, or the barrier islands of North Carolina. But nowhere are those problems more pressing than in Scituate, Massachusetts, a waterfront community of 18,133 people on the South Shore about 30 miles below Boston, where a series of nor’easters this year caused enormous damage. In three weeks this March, four nor’easters hit the area. Two of the four high tides were strong enough to rank as numbers one and three on Boston’s all-time record tide list. Residents say that after March, Scituate looked…

Boat Reviews
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For a First, Selene Builds a New 19.5-Knot 59 Ocean Clipper, A Pilothouse Trawler with a Touch of Speed

The 59 Ocean Clipper represents a new chapter for Selene, which has a well-earned reputation for building traditional full-displacement trawler yachts. But a Selene repeat owner wanted a faster boat to explore the Med. As a result, Selene built the new 59 Ocean Clipper, which combines all the long-range cruising comfort and space of a trawler with a new semi-displacement hull and twin 715-hp Cummins diesels that produce a top speed of 19.5 knots. For the new 59 Ocean Clipper, Selene worked with the veteran Dutch designer Guido de Groot. The boat is a contemporary, teak-filled pilothouse cruiser, with three…

Cruising Life
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Raymarine Launches New App that Combines a Drone and an Axiom MFD Screen

How would you like to have a real-time aerial view of that gnarly inlet before you have to commit, or of that secluded cove that lies around the next peninsula, or of that anchorage that you hope still has room for you that’s 10 minutes away? Now you can do all that, and much more, with Raymarine’s new app that combines all the navigation attributes of a state-of-the-art MFD with a high-flying unmanned drone. In what Raymarine calls an industry first, it has created an aerial imaging platform that works with Axiom or Axiom Pro displays. It’s a new LightHouse…

Cruising Life
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U.S. Boat Builders Hit Hard By New Tariffs, Trade Wars. MJM Loses $2.2 Million Sale

“NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) – MJM Yachts has already felt the sting of tariffs. “CEO Bob Johnstone was negotiating the sale of a 53-foot, $2.2 million yacht to a buyer in Monaco when the European Union announced a 25 percent tariff on American-made boats as retaliation for the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported aluminum and steel. “The deal is now dead. So is the Rhode Island-based company’s plan to expand sales into Europe. “American boat builders are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit in an escalating trade war. “President Donald Trump’s decision to…

Cruising Life
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Schaefer Yachts Launches New 580 Without a Steering Wheel, Just Volvo IPS Joystick

What’s missing from this picture? Here’s a close-up look at the helm station of a new Schaefer 580 yacht with just a Volvo Penta joystick. There’s no steering wheel at all on this new boat that made its debut at the recent Rio Boat Show in Brazil. The twin 670-hp Volvo IPS800 diesels and pod drives are totally controlled by the joystick. Marcio Schaefer, CEO of Schaefer Yachts, Brazil’s biggest builder, said there was considerable interest in the wheel-less 580 at the show, calling it the biggest nautical event in South America. He said Schaefer will continue to use joystick-only…

Cruising Life
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Good Samaritans Rescue Seven from Sinking Charter Fishing Boat Off Cape May

The website for the Beach Runner, a 32-foot Rampage sport fishing boat based in Wildwood, New Jersey, says, “Whether you want to fish the Delaware Bay or inshore shoals and reefs, the Beach Runner provides a fun, relaxing day for parties of one to six people.” On a recent Saturday, things didn’t work out that way. At 9 a.m. the Beach Runner issued a Mayday call, saying it was taking on water about nine miles off the Cape May reef. Crews from two other boats, Miss Addison 2 and Porgy IV  heard the call and sped to the stricken boat. “As we…

Cruising Life
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After a Strong Start, This Years’s Atlantic Hurricane Season May Be Less Severe than Average

This year’s Atlantic hurricane season started early and it started strong, but it may end up as something of a fizzle. That’s according to the latest report from the experts at Colorado State University, who now are predicting that we’ll have fewer named storms than average for the remainder of this hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30. Now the Colorado State forecast calls for 12 named storms this year, way under last year’s 17. Three have already formed in the Atlantic, and two – Beryl and Chris – became hurricanes. The new forecast calls for only nine more for the…

Cruising Life
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New York Times: An Orca, Her Dead Calf and Us

Here’s a good explanation about why the story of Tahlequah, the mother orca whale who’s been carrying her dead calf on what researchers call a “grief tour” of the San Juan Islands for more than ten days, resonates so clearly with us. The author, Susan Casey, writes: “To learn the orcas’ natural and cultural history is to understand how closely connected a mother and calf are, how tight-knot their bond. Like us, orcas are self-aware, cognitively skilled individuals that communicate using their pod’s signature dialect. Unlike us, their core identity is communal: It encompasses not just themselves, but their family…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Grieving Mother Orca Carries Dead Baby Around the San Juan Islands for More than Nine Days By Peter A. Janssen A grieving mother orca has been carrying her dead calf through the waters north of Puget Sound and around the San Juan Islands for more than nine days, with her orca family staying close to her, taking turns staying at her side. The calf was the first to be born to the endangered pod of orcas, killer whales, in three years. The death was a setback to the orca population; it numbered 98 in 1995, but it’s down to 75…

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