Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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New Study: Ship Traffic and Fishing Boats Moving Closer to North Pole Every Year. Now Transiting Treacherous Northwest Passage in February

Melting sea ice in the Arctic means that the fabled Northwest Passage, the sea route over the top of the world linking the Atlantic and the Pacific that has trapped explorers and frustrated mariners for hundreds of years, is opening up. Now a new study using 120 million data points tracking ship traffic there over seven years shows exactly how much and how fast the area is changing. Indeed, it found that the center of ship activity in the Arctic moved 186 miles closer to the North Pole from 2009 to 2016. Researchers from Tufts University and the Woods Hole…

Cruising Life
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Six Things to Check Now on Your Hurricane Insurance from BoatU.S.

The last thing you need is for a hurricane to damage your boat. Well, that’s not quite right. The last thing you really need is for a hurricane to damage your boat when you don’t have enough hurricane insurance. To keep that from happening, here’s a list of six things you need to know about insuring your boat in a hurricane zone from BoatU.S. This may be particularly important because the experts at Colorado State University have already predicted that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season could be worse than usual, with the possibility of 14 tropical storms and seven hurricanes.…

Cruising Life
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Wind Farm Off Coast of Atlantic City Moving Ahead

If you’re cruising along the New Jersey shore, you may see a wind farm in the ocean off Atlantic City in a few years. Both houses of the New Jersey legislature now have approved a bill that could help the 24-megawatt project move forward; it gives the state’s Board of Public Utilities 90 days to consider an application by Fishermen’s Energy LLC to build the wind farm about 2.8 miles off Atlantic City. Former Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, had rejected the plan. But new Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, says he wants to pursue it. The new bill would…

Cruising Life
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Miami Charter “Captain” Arrested After He Kills Passenger in Biscayne Bay

A Miami man who said he had run some 40 charters on Miami Vice, a sleek 95-foot yacht , even though he didn’t have a Coast Guard license, was just arrested as he tried to flee the country after he ran over and killed a paying passenger in Biscayne Bay. The U.S. Department of Justice said that federal agents arrested Mauricio Alvarez, 49, and charged him with “misconduct or neglect of a ship officer that resulted in death.” Authorities said that one of the passengers was “sucked up by the propeller” while he was in the water and Alvarez put the…

Boat Reviews
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New Protector 33 Has Custom Fully Enclosed Cabin for All-Year Use

Here’s a new Protector Targa 33 customized by previous owners who wanted a completely enclosed cabin, more deck space for entertaining and additional waterline for a smooth ride. The new cabin makes the Protector a truly all-weather boat for year-round boating. Protectors are tough, sturdy and fast RIBs that are built to handle most sea conditions safely and comfortably. The basic design includes a large anchor locker, a luxury aft bench seat, shock-mitigating captains’ chairs, and a large aft deck for diving gear or water toys. The dash is built to hold large electronic displays and the steering wheel is…

Cruising Life
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Teens Save Two Families and Infant from Capsized Boat in Florida Keys

Two high school seniors and an uncle saved two families, including a mother clutching a three-month-old infant, after their boat capsized in choppy seas off the Florida Keys. According to this report in the FLKEYSNEWS, the boys were Mason Baker, 17, and Will Coffin, 18, who were fishing with Coffin’s uncle, Dave Tolhurst, 54, near Conch Reef, southwest of Plantation Key. They were surprised to see a capsized 23-foot boat with four adults and a four-year-old boy clinging to the overturned hull. They called the Coast Guard and then pulled one of the women, who had the infant strapped to…

Cruising Life
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Sperm Whale Killed by Eating 64 Pounds of Plastic

A dead 33-foot sperm whale washed up on a beach on the southern coast of Spain recently, and an autopsy showed it was killed by 64 pounds of plastic that had become lodged in its stomach. Local scientists were puzzled by what had killed the whale, until doctors from the El Valle Wildlife Recovery Center performed the autopsy. They found plastic bags, a jerry can and pieces of rope and fishing nets in the whale’s stomach. They said it died because it could not expel the plastic and that blockage in the digestive system caused a fatal infection. More than…

Cruising Life
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The Cruising Life: Sue LaNeve Started with a 19-foot Cuddy Cabin. Now She Loves Cruising Full-Time on Her Kadey-Krogen 55

Growing up in the small town of West Miami, Florida, Sue LaNeve was something of a tomboy. She climbed trees, dreamed of being an astronaut, rode horses, sailed a pram. A spirit of adventure took root. Today, she owns and cruises full-time on INVICTUS, a Kadey-Krogen 55’ Expedition raised pilothouse trawler. And she’s written her story for NAVAID, the Kadey-Krogen newsletter. Her boat-owning life started when she and her husband Don bought a 19-foot cuddy cabin for their fourth wedding anniversary. Five boats later, for their 30thanniversary, they bought Freebird, a 1996 Kadey-Krogen 48 North Sea. They had retired, and…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Maine Builder Back Cove Planning Its First Outboard-Powered Boat, a 34O, with Twin 300-hp Yamahas By Peter A. Janssen There’s big news this week from Back Cove, the Maine company that’s been building single-engine, diesel-powered cruising boats since 2003: It is now working on the Back Cove 34O, and the O stands for outboard power, as in two 300-hp Yamahas. The boat will be ready for sea trials in August and will make an appearance at the fall shows. This is a big change for Back Cove, which is part of Sabre, and an acknowledgement that the market, even for…

Cruising Life
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New Team Will Search for Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, which Sank in the Antarctic in 1915, Setting Off Heroic Rescue

The saga of Ernest Shackleton and how he saved the crew of the polar explorer ship Endurance after it was trapped in ice in the Antarctic has gone down as one of the greatest sea stories of all time. After the 144-foot-long ship sank on Nov. 21, 1915, Shackleton and his 27-man crew spent weeks on the ice, hoping to drift to safety. When they finally realized that wasn’t going to happen, they climbed on three open lifeboats and spent five days, with temperatures reaching 20 below, sailing and rowing before they reached Elephant Island, where at least they were on firm…

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