Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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How in the World Did a U.S. Navy Destroyer Get Hit by a Container Ship?

All of us, anyone who has ever cruised anywhere, can relate, and also can ask the question: How did this happen? How did a U.S. Navy destroyer get hit by a Philippine container ship on a clear night, even in a busy shipping lane? Think of times you’ve been cruising on your own boat near a container ship in a busy shipping lane. Think Delaware Bay, San Francisco Bay, New York Harbor. Think of how aware you were of their size, their inability to change course quickly, their mammoth wake. Scary. You make sure you’re well clear of these behemoths.…

Cruising Life
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Nantucket Ferry Hits Hyannis Jetty; Six Passengers Hurt

Here’s a case where we know what happened but we don’t know yet why it happened. What happened is that about 9:30 on Friday night the high-speed ferry from Nantucket, carrying 48 passengers, six crew and three food service workers somehow ran into the jetty at the entrance to Hyannis Harbor. Six people were injured, and the Coast Guard, local police and fire and other first responders worked for hours by boat and helicopter to get people off the ferry safely. Fire Captain Thomas Kenney said in his 36 years of experience he’s seen several small boats crash into the…

Cruising Life
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President Trump Orders Tougher New Rules for Americans Going to Cuba

We still don’t know exactly what this means for Americans cruising to Cuba on their own boats, but President Trump has just reinstated some travel restrictions making it harder for Americans to plan their own trips there. In a six-page directive, which he signed after making a speech in Miami’s Little Havana, President Trump ordered the Treasury and Commerce Departments to write the new restrictions in the next 30 days. The new regulations will end some of the more relaxed travel policies that President Obama had started in an effort to normalize relations between the two countries. The New York…

Destinations
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On Watch

Mackinac Island: A Laid-Back Boating Haven on the Great Lakes Little changed since 1897, when the town leaders banned automobiles (they scared the horses), Mackinac Island, at the top of Lake Huron and just around the corner from the top of Lake Michigan, is perhaps the leading summer destination in the Midwest, and certainly is one of the most picturesque in the United States. With its own marina on the historic island, and two more nearby, it’s also a major boating destination, and that’s before you count the 320 sailboats that will arrive there from Chicago at the end of…

Cruising Life
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All-Time Great Video of Cruising Through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage

We usually don’t cover superyachts, but I’ve been fascinated by the Northwest Passage ever since my friend Sprague Theobald cruised across it on his Nordhavn 57 with his family in 2009. (Theobald wrote a great book about his adventure, transiting some of the most dangerous – and often frozen – waters on the planet, called “The Other Side of the Ice.”) Here’s a great you-are-there video about two trips through the Passage on Latitude, a 148-foot Vripack, in the summers of 2014 and 2015, complete with polar bears, whales, icebergs, glaciers and even a trip to the memorial to the…

Cruising Life
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Keep Your Crew Happy: Soundproof Your Boat

Ask any builder of modern cruising boats, and they’ll readily confirm that sound levels are extremely important to their owners and potential buyers. Not only at the helm and salon, but also even in the staterooms, particularly since many master staterooms now are located midships, just forward of the engine room. A noisy boat with a lot of decibels coming from the engine or the generator (or both) can make for an uncomfortable cruise; it makes talking difficult at best, and it can lead to a headache and a longing to return to the peace and quiet of home back…

Cruising Life
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After the Abandon Ship, What’s Life Really Like on a Life Raft?

If you’re cruising offshore, let’s hope you have a life raft stowed somewhere on your boat. If the worst happens – your boat hits a whale or shipping container, a fire starts in the galley or engine room, a freak wave swamps the boat – you certainly want a raft to keep you and your crew afloat. But what is life actually like once you’re in the raft and free of the mothership? To find out, two editors from Yachting Monthly launched a raft from a simulated sinking ship in the Bay of Biscay. The two men were on a…

Cruising Life
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4,465 Milles of the Great Loop Alone on a 14-foot Walker Bay

You’ve got to love Dave Pike (at least I do). On his blog, where he explains why he’s doing the Great Loop in a 14-foot Walker Bay RIB, he introduces himself by saying, “I’m a 67-year-old male with a bit of adventure in my DNA.” He’s climbed mountains, paddled canoes through the Canadian wilderness, and started cruising when he and his wife Ann chartered a trawler in Alaska 15 years ago. And now he’s just gone through the Erie Canal on his Walker Bay, putting 4,465 Great Loop miles behind him, as he starts the last leg of his solo…

Boat Reviews
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Sirena To Show Two New Boat in Cannes and Announce Plans for Another

Sirena Marine just keeps growing. Last year the high-class Turkish builder started its new powerboat line (officially called Sirena Yachts) with a 64-foot long-range cruiser, first shown at the Dusseldorf show, followed by a 56-foot version introduced at the Miami show. Now it will have both of those models in the water at the Cannes show in September, where Ipek Kirac, the company’s CEO, will announce plans for an even larger yacht. Both the 56 and 64 are impressive cruising boats with clean, contemporary European lines and curved wraparound pilothouse windows. They come with an impeccable pedigree. German Frers, one…

Cruising Life
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A Touch of Class: Folding Teak Boarding Step. See the Video

This isn’t something you absolutely have to have to enjoy your cruising life, but I think it is very cool: A new teak dock step that makes climbing on your boat easy, and then folds into itself to make storage easy as well. And it does add a touch of class to any dock. When the step is fully open, it provides a large and stable platform to get on and off your boat. And when it’s folded down, it’s only 6 5/8 inches thick, so it can fit into a lazarette or storage bin. The Folding Teak Dock Step…

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