Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Hit Hard by Maria, Laid-Back but Beautiful St. Croix Has Almost Fully Recovered

St. Croix, the largest, and arguably the most laid-back of the U.S. Virgin Islands, has mostly recovered from Hurricanes Irma and Maria last September. As it turned out, Irma wasn’t too bad, but Maria was devasting. But that was then. Now 90 percent of the island’s businesses have reopened, power is restored, and the island’s oldest hotel, the Buccaneer, which housed relief workers for many months, is open for visitors. For visiting boaters, the St. Croix Marine Center in Gallows Bay next to Christiansted Harbor is fully functioning. It’s a full-service marina with 44 slips for boats up to 150…

Boat Reviews
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New 80 Sunreef Power: Elegant, Light-Filled Cruising Catamaran

Sunreef has just introduced an elegant new 80-foot catamaran which it says is “the universal multihull yacht for long cruises in ultimate comfort.” The new 80 Sunreef Power is indeed a combination of luxury, space and cruising efficiency, and it’s filled with living, relaxing and entertaining areas spread throughout the boat. The 80 Sunreef Power is distinguished by its dynamic and contemporary multihull design. The basic design calls for four guest cabins, but the interior can be customized to suit an individual owner’s wishes. It features classic stainless steel portlights, teak decks and high bulwarks for safety. But the overriding…

Cruising Life
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Barton & Gray Mariners Club Now Offers Hinckley Fleet in Washington, D.C.

The Barton & Gray Mariners Club, the organization that gives members the use of a beautiful Hinckley yacht with a captain in 20 upscale boating destinations along the East Coast and the Great Lakes, is opening a new facility in Washington, D.C. The new club, opening June 1, will be at The Wharf, the recently renovated waterfront development in Southwest Washington. The theory behind the club is to give members all the fun of yachting without the hassles of ownership. Membership is in four tiers, starting at $29,500 a year, and gives members access to a fleet of 30 Hinckleys,…

Cruising Life
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Good Samaritan, Coast Guard, Save 5 from Sinking Sportfisherman off Cat Cay, Bahamas

A good Samaritan boat and the Coast Guard rescued five people recently from a sinking sportfishing boat about 13 miles northwest of Cat Cay in the Bahamas. All five were taken to Cat Cay but the boat, La Bella, sank. The incident started when the Coast Guard in Miami received a Mayday call over Channel 16 from La Bella, saying it was taking on water and had five people on board. The Coast Guard broadcast an urgent message to all boats about La Bella and diverted the Cutter Robert Yered to the scene. Another vessel, Troy, heard the message and arrived at…

Cruising Life
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Great Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center Named One of Best in the U.S.

If you’re heading around the Great Loop, or simply cruising up and down the Intracoastal Waterway, you may want to schedule a stop at the facedock at the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center in North Carolina, just south of the Virginia border. It’s always been a friendly spot to rest or spend the night; indeed, about 2,000 boats stop there each year. But now it has some added cachet: Architectural Digest just named it one of the 15 most beautiful rest spots in the U.S. The state-run welcome center serves as a gateway to the Dismal Swamp State Park just across…

Cruising Life
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A New Record: 67 Boats, with 650 People, Transit Greek’s Historic Corinth Canal

Here’s one for the record books, or the Guinness Book of World Records, to be exact. Rib Cruises, based near Athens, organized a flotilla of 67 boats, including 44 RIBs, in a run through the Corinth Canal, the four-mile-long, man-made cut between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnesian Peninsula. A shortcut from the Eastern Mediterranean to Southern Italy, the canal was closed for the event. It took all the boats, holding some 650 people, little more than an hour to transit the canal, which is only 64 feet wide. Rib Cruises says this is a record number of boats and…

Cruising Life
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Huckins Celebrates 90th Anniversary, Still Going Strong

Huckins just celebrated its 90thanniversary with a three-day celebration including a 15-yacht rendezvous and overnight on Black Creek and a dinner party at its plant in Jacksonville, Florida. The company is still making its classic yachts with the iconic Quadraconic hull first developed by its founder, Frank Pembroke Huckins. About 100 owners and friends attended the anniversary, celebrating Huckins’ history and its continued focus on design and quality. Indeed, Huckins does all the work on its yachts, from conception to completion. “We do 100 percent of the design on all custom yachts,” said Cindy Purcell, the company president and Frank…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard, Lots of Bystanders, Rescue Man Trapped in Capsized Army Corps Survey Boat

The Coast Guard, local authorities and a lot of good Samaritans rescued a man trapped in the cabin of a capsized Army Corps of Engineers boat off the coast of Oregon recently. The man survived by finding an air pocket in the upside-down boat while the rescue unfolded. The Army Corps of Engineers’ 26-foot Survey Boat Graham was conducting a routine survey off the mouth of the Chetco River in Brookings, Oregon, with two men on board, when it capsized. A bystander called the Coast Guard. A 29-foot Coast Guard rapid response boat from Station Chetco River was on the…

Cruising Life
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Drug Smugglers Burn Go-Fast Boat in Unsuccessful Effort to Destroy Evidence

A combination of forces from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and the Colombian Navy stopped a go-fast boat in the eastern Pacific recently and recovered 1,080 pounds of cocaine even as the boat caught fire and started to burn. They arrested four men who jumped overboard to escape the flames. Smugglers increasingly are using the low-profile, go-fast boats in an effort to avoid radar detection, but this boat was spotted by military aircraft, which alerted the USS Zephyr. When the Zephyr approached the go-fast boat, the crew started to throw the cargo overboard and then jumped overboard themselves. It…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

After 48,350 Miles, Mystic Moon Cruises to Japan and Needs Help from Google Translator By Peter A. Janssen As even the most experienced long-range cruisers can attest, when you’re in foreign ports it helps to have a sense of humor, a lot of patience, and a handy Google Translator. At least that’s been the case for John and Kathy Youngblood on their 2004 Selene 53 Mystic Moon during their stay at Marinoa Marina in Fukuoka, Japan. But to start at the beginning… In 2003, the Youngbloods went to the Seattle boat show with the idea that they wanted to cruise around the…

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