Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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NTSB Releases Chilling Video Recreating El Faro’s Final Hours Before It Sank, Killing All 33 on Board

Here’s an absolutely bone-chilling video (below) from the National Transportation Safety Board, recreating the sinking of the container ship El Faro in a hurricane off the Bahamas in October, 2015, with the loss of all 33 people on board. It shows the drama of the ship’s last 26 hours, with the hurricane’s track, the ship’s track and the real-time decisions by the captain who overruled his mates who asked him several times to change course. In releasing the video, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said the captain failed to change course “despite three calls to his quarters indicating that the El Faro…

Charter
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The Moorings Reopens in the BVI with 100 Boats Ready to Charter Right Now

There’s more good news about the post-hurricane comeback in the British Virgin Islands. The Moorings and Sunsail, the power and sail charter powerhouses, just reopened their base in Road Town, Tortola, with a combined fleet of more than 100 yachts ready to go (see the picture above). In addition, the companies have invested $66.5 million to bring in more than 130 new boats that will arrive in early 2018. The people throughout the BVI have been resilient and working hard to build back after the devastating hurricanes just three months ago. Pirate’s Bight, Soggy Dollar Bar and Foxy’s are all…

Boat Reviews
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Arcadia Sherpa 60: A New Cruiser with a Unique Profile

Arcadia Yachts, the Italian builder, will introduce its new, and unique-looking, Arcadia Sherpa 60 to the United States at the Miami Yacht Show in February. With its unique tall forward section for the helm, staterooms and galley, the Sherpa 60 has a profile that sets it apart from most other boats in the harbor. Meanwhile, the low aft half of the boat has an unusual amount of useable sunning and socializing space in a design where form definitely follows function. The boat’s distinguishing convertible sky lounge forward is an all-weather space; the sides can be open to the fresh air,…

Cruising Life
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“Motorcycle Gangs” of Killer Whales Are Harassing Alaska Fishing Boats

Killer whales are harassing and hunting down fishing boats in Alaska, often tracking them for days before attacking their nets full of fish. The whales are smart and can distinguish between different kinds of boats, even recognizing the drone of the fishing boats’ hydraulic systems as they lower their nets into the water. And they’ve learned to ignore the electronic horns that were designed to drive them away; instead, the sound of the horn, one captain told the National Post, “became a dinner bell.” The problem is widespread, covering the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutians and up to the Bering…

Cruising Life
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“The Most Beautiful Man Cave” – a $950,000 Floating Home for Sale in Seattle

This floating home in Seattle gives a whole new meaning to the idea of living aboard. It certainly doesn’t bear much of a relationship to my days of living aboard my Grand Banks 36 in Connecticut. Floating homes, it turns out, are a hot market in Seattle. The land-based real estate market is heating up, and then there’s all the romance associated with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle (I’m still crying…). This particular floating home, now for sale for $950,000, is on the northern shore of Lake Union, not far from the University of Washington, and…

Cruising Life
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Grand Jury Indicts Captain of 60-foot Princess for Killing Fisherman on 23-foot Center Console

A grand jury in Providence, Rhode Island, just indicted the captain of a Princess 60 who ran down and killed a fisherman on a 23-foot Steiger Craft two years ago off Napatree Point on charges of seaman’s manslaughter. The indictment says that Cooper Bacon, 76 and a Coast Guard-licensed captain, was running his 60-foot yacht on autopilot and was not paying attention when he hit Walter Krupinski, 81, who was returning home to Stonington, Connecticut, after fishing. Bacon was enroute from Newport, Rhode Island, to Stamford, Connecticut, and running his Princess at 25 knots at 10:30 in the morning of…

Cruising Life
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40 Great Nautical Christmas Gifts for Cruising Boat Owners

What to get for that favorite boat owner on your Christmas list? The good news is that boats, and boat owners, almost always need something. The problem, as holidays and birthdays come and go, is to find something new – something they’ll not only like but also use. Here are 40 answers to that question, and if you don’t find some ideas here, well…The list is compiled by Yachting World, the British publication, and it’s labeled as gifts for sailors, but almost all of the 40 apply to powerboat owners too. It’s hard to pick favorites (there are so many…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Life on the Loop: Heading South for the Winter – Plus Brunch at Tacky Jack’s and Pizza and Popcorn for Dinner By Peter A. Janssen This is the time of year when the annual migration of cruising boats from the Great Lakes and Midwest reaches the Gulf Coast, having moved down the Mississippi and the Tombigbee, looking for warmer weather. The movement is timed to the end of the hurricane season, for insurance (as well as safety) reasons, and means that a large group of Loopers are now gathering in the Mobile and Pensacola area before cruising farther south around…

Cruising Life
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Let’s Hear It for Beards in the Coast Guard

You may not have been aware of this, but beards have been banned in the Coast Guard ever since 1986, when Admiral Paul Yost said the Coast Guard should “meet the same standards of smartness” as the other military branches. (The Navy had banned beards the year before.) But that was then and this is now, and Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Joshua Wine writes in the U.S. Naval Institute Blog that the ban has outlived its usefulness. The Coast Guard, he says, should revert to its policy permitting beards, a policy that started in 1790. Lt. Cmdr. Wine looks at…

Cruising Life
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The Onboard Life of an Ohio River Tugboat Captain, in a Photo Essay from Reuters

Here’s a beautiful photo essay from Reuters about the life of a tugboat captain on the Ohio River, as well as about all the changes taking place in communities along the river itself. It’s about Joe Gray, the captain of the 126-foot-long tug Tommy H, who grew up along the Ohio River and started working as a towboat deckhand alongside his brothers in 1988, when times were good. Gray is now 46 and works 28-day stints on the river between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cairo, Illinois. He earns $45 an hour, and often has to maneuver his tug and barges, which…

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