Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Japanese Tug Loses Power, Drifts into U.S. Navy Destroyer; Some Scrapes, but No Injuries

In another case of a Navy destroyer colliding with a civilian vessel, the USS Benfold (above) was slightly damaged when a Japanese tug drifted into it during a towing exercise off central Japan. The tug lost power during the exercise and “drifted into the ship,” according to a Navy statement. No one was injured in this incident, and the Benfold just suffered some scrapes on its side. But it was a painful reminder of  earlier collisions between two other destroyers, the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain, and merchant ships that ended with the deaths of 17 sailors. In…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Rescues Family of Six (and Their Dog) After 72-foot Trawler Sinks Off Key West

The Coast Guard rescued a family of six and their dog after their 72-foot trawler capsized and sank at 3 a.m. about five miles off Key West earlier this week. The family had abandoned ship after water started flooding in from the starboard engine compartment. “I knew we were going down,” one of the sons, Joshua Frame, said on a Facebook video (pictured above). They clung on to each other and treaded water as they drifted for 45 minutes before the Coast Guard, responding to their EPIRB signal, rescued them. All six, three men and three women, including a 78-year-old…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

The Best Boats for Cruising the Loop: From 86 to 25 Feet By Peter A. Janssen The wide – and healthy – variety of U.S. cruising, particularly Great Loop cruising, has come into focus recently with two unrelated events. On the one hand, at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Outer Reef celebrated the debut of its 86-foot Deluxbridge Skylounge yacht, designed specifically for the Great Loop. On the other, Pat and Patty Anderson, a retired lawyer and school teacher from Birch Bay, Washington, celebrated their completion of the Loop, after 226 days, on their 12-year-old, 25-foot Cape Dory Daydream…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard’s List of Life-Saving Christmas Gifts. You Can’t Go Wrong

Yes, yes, I know that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But I also know that I am starting to think about Christmas presents, and so is the rest of my family. What boat owner doesn’t need something new for the boat? And what better place to start than the Coast Guard’s own list of life-saving gifts – most of which you may already have, some you’ll need to replace, and some may be starting from scratch. To prompt your thinking, here’s the Coast Guard’s list from last December; everything here is still valid. If the Coast Guard issues a new…

Boat Reviews
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New Azimut 55 Fly, with Italian Style, Soft Curves and Sophisticated Design, To Debut in Dusseldorf

The all-new Azimut 55 Fly, with nary a sharp edge or straight line anywhere, will debut at the Boot Düsseldorf show in Germany from Jan. 20-28. The contemporary Italian-designed yacht, filled with light and luxury home-style interiors, has three cabins and two heads (plus a crew cabin and head), and will top out at about 31 knots. The Azimut’s sophisticated lines, inside and out, are soft and smooth; there are no sharp edges on this cruiser. The exterior is designed by Stefano Righini, for Azimut, and the interior by Achille Salvagni, an architect who’s on the A list from Elle…

Cruising Life
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The Ten Most Famous Sailors’ Bars in the World. Do You Agree?

These are billed as the Ten Most Famous Sailors’ Bars in the World, but it really doesn’t matter how you get there; the drinks and atmosphere are the same whether you arrive by sail or by power. But take a look at this list, created by Sail Universe, and see if you’ve been to any of them, or if you have your own favorites. The pictures alone will make your mouth water. Peter’s Café Sport, Horta, Azores. (Historic, dating to 1859. Don’t know how I missed this when I was there with the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally.) Foxy’s Tamarind Bar, Jost…

Cruising Life
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Prehistoric Shark with 300 Teeth and Dating to the Dinosaur Age Found off Portugal

You definitely don’t want to go near this guy.  Look at those teeth, all 300 of them. And he’s been around a lot longer than we have; in fact, this frilled shark, recently caught off the coast of Portugal, has lived, largely unchanged, for 80 million years – since T Rex and his friends were roaming the planet. A deep-sea dweller, living between 390 and 4,200 feet below the surface, the frilled shark has a unique mouth, with more than 300 teeth in 25 rows, specifically designed “to trap squid, fish and other sharks,” according to The Portugal News.…

Cruising Life
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Report from Lake Okeechobee: “Ugly, Dark Brown” Water and an Unhappy Lockmaster

For all you snow birds who are heading south and perhaps thinking about crossing Lake Okeechobee to get to the west coast of Florida, take a look at this report from Peg and Jim Healy, very experienced cruisers on their Monk 36 Sanctuary. They crossed from east to west last week and wrote the following for Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net: “The condition of the water is deplorable. In the anchorage at Stuart, the water is ‘Lake O chocolate milk.’ The water throughout the system is an ugly, dark brown. Water levels are high, and there are no water level issues…

Cruising Life
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New Software Creates Routes To Avoid Bad Weather, Already Being Used by the Navy

Here’s something new in planning how to avoid heavy weather on a long cruise, thanks to researchers at the University of Connecticut and the U.S. Navy. It’s new software called TMPLAR (Tool for Multi-objective Planning and Asset Routing) and it’s already being used by the Navy to reroute ships to avoid bad weather. But it also can create routes, with waypoints, depending on whether you want to emphasize speed or fuel efficiency to reach your destination – all while avoiding bad weather. The software is already being fully integrated into the Navy’s meteorology and oceanographic weather forecasts for both surface…

Cruising Life
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Post-Hurricane Status Report of What’s Open, and What is Still Recovering, in the Caribbean

It’s now been about three months since Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated parts of the Caribbean, but the swath of destruction was selective. Some islands were virtually destroyed. Almost every building on Barbuda, for example, was knocked down, while on Antigua, almost next door, the damage was minor. Generally, the southern Caribbean, from Martinique on down, escaped undamaged, while Puerto Rico and the nearby U.S. and British Virgin Islands took a big hit. But that was then. What’s open now? Here’s an island-by-island update from the Travel section of The New York Times, reporting on the recovery situation and when…

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