Cruising Life

Seven Tips for Plotting Your Next Cruise

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2020 Cruising Life, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Here are seven tips from Skipper Tips about how to plot your next cruise in advance to make it safer and easier. One tip: Plot waypoints around hazards along the way. Read on: 1. Get Ready to Navigate Now! Make your piloting preparations in advance to save time and effort underway. Complete 90% of navigation plotting in the comfort of your home or apartment. Plot your base sailing courses onto each chart you will use. Highlight dangers, emergency anchorages, and prominent aids to navigation (i.e. lighted aids or those with sound signals). Plot waypoints at the start and finish of…

Navy Combat Ship Makes Big Pacific Drug Bust

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2020 Cruising Life

The USS Gabrielle Giffords, a Navy littoral combat ship, just seized more than $100 million worth of cocaine from a low-profile smuggling boat in the Pacific. Here’s the story from Seapower, the official publication of the Navy League of the United States: AT SEA — The Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) with embarked U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 407 seized an estimated 2,810 kilograms of suspected cocaine, Dec. 5, the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs Office said in a Dec. 11 release. While on routine patrol, Gabrielle Giffords was diverted to intercept a low-profile vessel…

New Cetera 60: 3 Staterooms on the Main Deck

By Peter Janssen on December 14, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Here’s a new idea from Cetera Yachts in Italy: A new 60-footer with all three staterooms on the main deck, giving them panoramic views and getting them away from the machinery spaces and waves that slap against the hull. The galley and major indoor social spaces that are usually there, in a main deck salon, have been moved to the upper deck, while the engines and everything that makes the boat work are on the lower deck, along with a two-person crew quarter. Cetera says the new 60, designed by Francesco Guida, is a “multispaces yacht,” and that it has…

U.S. Navy Finds New Species of Beaked Whale

By Peter Janssen on December 13, 2020 Cruising Life

The Navy says it has found a new species of beaked whale off the coast of Baja, Mexico. Read the Navy’s story here: From Naval Sea Systems Command Public Affairs Researchers funded by the Naval Sea Systems Command Monitoring Program believe they have discovered a new species of beaked whale in the waters off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. NAVSEA funded the expedition to determine the source of a unique beaked whale vocalization near a Navy test area in Southern California thought to have come from a Perrin’s beaked whale. Researchers from the U.S. Navy and Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected…

Vicem Building New 50 IPS Classic

By Peter Janssen on December 13, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Vicem Yachts just announced that they are building a new 50 IPS Classic, based on the success of the 46 that was introduced in 2017. The Turkish builder plans to have the new 50 in the U.S. by this spring. The new 50, like the 46, will be laid up with infused-fiberglass composite to reduce build time. Vicem has earned a world-wide reputation for building cold-molded mahogany boats, up to 92 feet. The 50 clearly fits in to Vicem’s Classic series, with its Down East looks, low profile, long sheerline and gentle tumblehome. When Vicem started the Classic series in…

Coast Guard Boat Hits Jetty in Port Aransas, Texas

By Peter Janssen on December 9, 2020 Cruising Life

As I’m sure readers of this website know, we have a deep respect for members of the United States Coast Guard. Indeed, the men and women in the Coast Guard are highly trained – and highly motivated – professionals who often put their lives on the line to keep us safe out there. But, as we also know, bad things can happen to the best of us. That’s certainly the case here, where a 29-foot Coast Guard boat ran into the south jetty in Port Aransas, Texas, on Tuesday night. Four crew were taken to a hospital, reportedly with minor…

Cellist Plays Bach on Float in Round Pond Harbor

By Peter Janssen on December 9, 2020 Cruising Life

The Salt Bay Chamberfest usually plays during the summer in a converted barn in Damariscotta, Maine, under the direction Wilhelmina Smith, a cellist and its founder and artistic director. But the Covid pandemic put an end to that this summer. Undeterred, Ms Smith, who made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra when she was still a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1997, carried on, taking her cello and a cinematographer out to a float in the middle of Round Pond Harbor. There, sitting on a lobster trap, she played the prelude from Cello Suite No 6…

Formula Building New 50-Foot Flagship with 5 Outboards

By Peter Janssen on December 8, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Formula just announced that it’s building a new 500 Super Sport Crossover flagship that will be launched early next year. The boat is meant to be an all-purpose boat, ready for everything from day boating to longer cruising. Standard power comes from five 400-hp Mercury outboards, but if you want to work up even greater adrenaline rush, you can opt for five 450-hp Mercury Racing outboards. The new Formula is designed by John Adams, who’s been working with Formula for many years. Like all of his boats, the new 50-footer has a highly polished painted hull, and owners can choose…

Ship Loses 1,818 Containers in Pacific Storm

By Peter Janssen on December 8, 2020 Cruising Life

The 1,194-feet-long container ship ONE Apus arrived in Kobe, Japan, on Tuesday (pictured above), eight days after it lost 1,818 containers in a storm 1,600 nm northwest of Hawaii. It was in the largest weather-related container loss ever. Shipping authorities reported that 64 of the containers are labeled Dangerous Goods, including 54 that carried fireworks, eight with batteries, and two with liquid ethanol. Each container is 40 feet long. A partly sunken container could easily cause a fatal accident if a recreational or fishing vessel hit it. The U.S. Coast Guard in Hawaii issued a warning to mariners to look…

Now in Tampa, Tom Brady Gets a New Boat

By Peter Janssen on December 7, 2020 Cruising Life

Judging from the picture from TMZ Sports (above), football superstar Tom Brady is more than happy with his new boat, reportedly a custom 44-foot cruiser with a hard-to-miss metallic blue paint job. Brady, the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Bucs (7-5), took delivery of the boat last week at a yard in St. Petersburg. He named it Viva a Vida, the name of his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen’s environmental conservation initiative. Brady, 43, is new to the Florida boating scene. He just moved to Tampa earlier this year after signing a two-year, $50 million contract with the Bucs, renting Derek…

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