Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Month-by-Month Itinerary for Cruising the Sea of Cortez, from November to May

By all accounts, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez is a boating paradise, a 570-nm-long warm-water cruising ground filled with marine life and some 100 uninhabited islands, often surrounded by white beaches with nary a soul in sight. The question is not whether to go there or not; it’s really how long to spend once you get there. This story from Sea magazine suggests an answer, saying it takes seven months to sample everything the Sea of Cortez has to offer. Why rush? You need to avoid the hurricane season in summer, but otherwise just relax and enjoy yourself. Sea suggests you…

Cruising Life
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Dramatic You-Are-There Video of Rescue of Disabled Fishing Boat in a Gale off Scotland

This video is not for the faint of heart, but it is a dramatic testimony to the courage and dedication of the crew of a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) rescue boat who went out in 45-mph winds and 30-foot waves to rescue six fishermen on a disabled fishing boat off the north coast of Scotland. The fishing boat became disabled when it fouled its prop in a westerly gale, and it started drifting toward shore. It took the RNLI rescue boat more than nine hours to tow the fishing boat back to port; the tow line parted a total…

Cruising Life
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Admiral Stavridis: Navy Needs To Return to Basic Blocking and Tackling

To my mind,  James Stavridis is a national treasure.  A retired four-star Admiral, Stavridis originally graduated from Annapolis and after 37 years rose to be Supreme Commander of NATO. He’s now chairman of the board of the U.S. Naval Institute and dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. In his writing and public appearances, Stavridis comes across as an experienced, plain-spoken patriot who knows what he’s talking about. In this story for Bloomberg, below, Stavridis writes about what the Navy needs to do in the aftermath of the collisions of two destroyers, the USS McCain and…

Cruising Life
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The Seven Knots You Need to Know – in an Easy Video. Take a Look

One of my all-time movie favorites is the scene toward the end of Jaws where Roy Schneider, playing the very un-nautical police chief, is sitting in the cockpit of Robert Shaw’s fishing boat, trying to learn how to tie a bowline…”The rabbit comes out of the hole…” he recites, while the theme music comes up and the shark swims closer and closer for its final attack. In real life, as in the movies, you don’t want to wait until you – or your crew – are actually on the boat before you learn how to tie at least a few…

Cruising Life
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International Dispute About Cannons, Other Artifacts from 1565 Shipwreck off Cape Canaveral

What we know is that in September, 1565, French navigator Jean Ribault, who’d already been exploring the Florida area for three years, was sailing his fleet of three ships up to St. Augustine to attack the new Spanish colony there. All three disappeared in a storm. In May and June, 2016, Global Marine Exploration, a marine salvage firm operating with permits from the state of Florida, found artifacts from an old shipwreck on the sandy seafloor in seven different spots off Cape Canaveral. The debris includes three brass cannons (each one, pictured above, is worth about $1 million), plus a marble…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Ensenada’s the Place to Be, with Pendana, Knot Wafflen’ and the CUBAR Boats All There at the Same Time By Peter A. Janssen One of the best things about cruising is the serendipity of it all. You never really know what’s going to happen next. One of the pleasures of cruising on a well-found boat is that you can act on a feeling, an impulse, or just a hope, and change course to take in something that looks new, different, enchanting. And you never know who you’ll run into along the way. That was certainly the case with James Ellingford,…

Cruising Life
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See the Video of an Oil Tanker Running Aground off Southport, North Carolina

I think it’s safe to say that most of us (all of us?) who’ve cruised on the ICW have run aground at some point. Running aground in a recreational boat is one thing. Running aground in an oil tanker is another. This video, taken from a backyard home security camera in Southport, North Carolina, shows the MT Swan Biscay, flagged in the Marshall Islands, running aground on the Cape Fear River. Not only does the ship hit the bottom, but it also keeps going, spinning around, throwing considerable fear into the captain of the small fishing boat who scrambles to…

Boat Reviews
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New Riva 76 Bahamas: High-Tech, High-Style and a Very Cool Convertible Top

If you want to go cruising in style, iconic Italian style, take a look at the new Riva 76 Bahamas, which just made its U.S. debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. It’s a combination of high-tech, legendary Riva styling and massive power – plus what the company calls “shark grey” paint with “bright black” detailing – that will turn heads in harbors from the Med to Miami. The new Riva also has a very cool carbon-fiber convertible top that transforms the three-cabin (plus crew), four-head beauty from an open boat to a coupe, all in 90 seconds. “The…

Cruising Life
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Saudi Crown Prince Sees Superyacht in French Harbor and Buys It for $500 Million that Afternoon

We usually don’t write about superyachts (we generally try to keep in the 25 to 75-foot owner-operator range), but in this case, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been reading news items about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, 32, who’s trying to reform the government there, letting women drive, for example, and arresting other members of the royal family for corruption while cutting spending in an austerity program. Several stories mentioned that two years ago, while on vacation in the south of France, the prince saw a large yacht in the harbor and was so enamored of it he…

Cruising Life
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Worried About Docking? Protect Your Boat Like Royalty

Worried about hitting the dock when you’re coming back to your slip? Well, who isn’t. But here’s something new to protect your boat, in addition to all the fenders that you’ve already hung over the side. It’s called ParmaFender, and it’s actually an air-filled series of chambers that act as fenders along the side of the dock, so you won’t have to worry about scratching your hull the next time you come home. ParmaFender also offers another benefit, as you can see in the picture above. King Harald and Queen Sonya of Norway don’t have to worry about stepping over…

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