Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Slowboat Flotilla to Alaska: Safety – and Fun – in Company The peak cruising season in the Pacific Northwest is just starting, but the Slowboat flotilla has already left Roche Harbor in the San Juans, heading up the Inside Passage to Sitka, Alaska. The flotilla has six boats this year, a Nordhavn 50, West Coast 46, Nordic Tug 42, two Nordic Tug 37s, and a Nordic Tug 34. All the owners are experienced boaters (including some who have lived aboard for 20 years and some who have cruised to Alaska before), but Laura Domela, one of the Slowboat organizers, says…

Charter
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Kingfisher: A 1959 Classic Huckins for Charter

How’s this for a different kind of charter – Kingfisher, a recently restored classic 50-foot Huckins Corinthian built in 1959? Available in the Northeast this summer, Kingfisher certainly qualifies as a class act, whether you want it for a wedding, a cocktail cruise, a long weekend or more. Think about arriving in Nantucket, Newport, or Sag Harbor with your friends or family; Kingfisher would certainly cause heads to turn. The yacht has two cabins, both with heads and showers, plus a protected salon, a large shaded flybridge, a roomy salon with settee and large side windows, a raised foredeck with…

Cruising Life
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St. Croix: The Largest, Most Historic, and Most Laid-Back of the U.S. Virgin Islands

With its warm waters, white beaches and protected harbors, St. Croix has been attracting visitors ever since Columbus landed there in 1493. Unfortunately, he was almost immediately attacked by the native Kalinago, and quickly sailed away. The Dutch and English had better luck, forming settlements in 1625, but they fought with each other and subsequent European nations trying to claim the place. Indeed, no fewer than seven nations (including the Knights of Malta and Denmark) have fought for ownership of St. Croix over the years. The U.S. finally bought the island, which is about 40 nm below St. Thomas (and…

Cruising Life
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Garmin’s New 360-Degree Spherical Camera, With GPS (Of Course)

Garmin has just introduced the VIRB 360, a versatile, compact, waterproof, spherical 360-degree camera. It offers high-quality video up to 5.7K/30fps, it has four built-in microphones to capture sounds in all directions, and it comes with a 4K Spherical Stabilization to make your video look smooth and steady. And, taking advantage of its built-in GPS (this is Garmin, after all), the VIRB 360 provides custom data overlays for all its settings. “The VIRB 360 lets you relive personal experiences and share them with your friends – from a different point of view, every time,” says Garmin VP Dan Bartel. “VIRB…

Cruising Life
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Army Corps Says Great Dismal Swamp Canal Won’t Reopen Until Late Summer

If you’re planning on the Great Loop or just cruising on the East Coast this summer, you’ll have to wait a while to go through the Great Dismal Swamp. The Army Corps of Engineers, which closed the Great Dismal Swamp Canal after Hurricane Matthew in October, now says it may not reopen until late this summer. The 22-mile-long canal dates back to George Washington, who visited the Great Dismal Swamp in 1763 and suggested draining it to create a waterway connecting the Chesapeake with Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. After the canal was dug, mostly by slave labor, it opened…

Cruising Life
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A Speeding Cat Kills Friend and Passenger on Smaller Boat in Fort Lauderdale

A 31-foot catamaran, going fast, crashed into the back of a 22-foot center console running slowly in the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale at 10:30 last Saturday night, killing two people on the smaller boat and injuring two more. No one on the cat was hurt. Witnesses said the cat, driven by Max Irvine, 36, rode up over the back of the center console as it approached Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill on the Waterway at 32nd Street. “The catamaran straddles the other boat,” said Timothy Heiser, the assistant chief of Fort Laudardale’s Fire-Rescue. The drivers of the two boats…

Cruising Life
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Problems with Your Diesel? Here’s a Great Guide on How To Diagnose and Fix Them

Do you know what to do if your diesel exhaust suddenly turns grey? Or the engine loses power? Or overheats? Even if you do, here’s one of the best and most thorough stories I’ve seen about how to diagnose and fix most problems with a diesel engine. It’s great as a primer, if you’re new to diesels, and as a refresher, if you’re an old hand. And it covers all the bases, including how to bleed air from the injectors, drain a filter, and change an impeller. The graphics are clear and easy to understand. Take a look: http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/diagnose-and-fix-marine-diesel-engine-problems-29940

Boat Reviews
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New, Innovative, Fun and Fast Walker Bay Generation 525. See Review and Video

It’s hard to fit the new Walker Bay Generation 525 into a narrow boat category, because this new, luxurious 17-footer offers so much: It’s a RIB, certainly, but it also can be a sport boat, a day boat, a tow boat, a runabout or even a megayacht tender. It would be fun to have the 525 just to zip around a harbor by yourself, or to take a crowd – the boat’s rated for ten passengers. A California company (located in Fairfield, about half-way between San Francisco and Sacramento), Walker Bay is known for its innovation and creative design. Indeed,…

Cruising Life
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Monster 63-foot Wave Measured in Southern Ocean 400 Miles South of New Zealand

The southern-most wave buoy in the Southern Ocean, some 400 miles south of New Zealand, just recorded a monster 63.6-foot wave, four times the height of a single-story house. “This is one of the largest waves recorded in the Southern Hemisphere,” says Oceanographer Tom Durrant. The wave buoy was just recently moored in 492 feet of water about six miles south of Campbell Island,  pictured above, in a joint effort by the New Zealand Defense Force and MetOcean Solutions, to get accurate readings of wave and air-sea interactions in that remote part of the world. So far, wave heights from…

Boat Reviews
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Sabre 66 Flybridge Sea Trial Video: 29.2 Knots WOT

Even with its flybridge, the Sabre 66 Dirigo maintains a sleek, low profile, and the Maine-built beauty also performs on the water. We’ve written about the boat before, and I cruised on hull number one in northern Florida more than a year ago, but now Sabre has released a video of the flybridge boat’s initial sea trials in Penobscot Bay. The flagship of the Sabre fleet, the flybridge 66 cruises at 24.6 knots, and is a quiet boat, registering only 68 dB(A) at the helm; at its top speed of 29.2 knots, it registers only 70 dB(A).  On board the…

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