Cruising Life

Ocean Cleanup Collects Plastic from Great Pacific Garbage Patch

By Peter Janssen on December 17, 2019 Cruising Life

The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch non-profit organization that’s trying to clean the waters offshore, just brought its first batch of plastic back from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Boyan Slat, the group’s founder and CEO, stood amid bags of plastic retrieved from the ocean when they were unloaded in Vancouver, British Columbia, to announce the successful catch. The Ocean Cleanup got off to a rocky start in September, 2018, when its U-shaped floating collection system with a ten-foot skirt hanging underwater didn’t retrieve much of the plastic it was supposed to trap. The group made some changes in the design…

New Fees for Cruising in Bahamas. Big Boats Pay More

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2019 Cruising Life

If you’re thinking of cruising to the Bahamas, here’s some bad news. The entry fees for some boats entering the Bahamas will go up, particularly for larger boats, starting Jan 1. The new fees were just posted on the official Bahamas websites. The last time the fees were adjusted was in 2003. The current fees are: Boats up to 35 feet: $150 Boats over 35 feet: $300 The new fees, starting Jan. 1: For boats staying in the Bahamas for up to three months: Boats up to 34 feet: $150 (the same) Boats 35-99 feet: $300 (the same) Boats 100-149-feet:…

The Future of Yachting? Cruise On and Under the Water

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2019 Cruising Life

Who just wants to cruise on the surface of the water anymore? How banal; everybody does that. Take a look at the newest trend for the over-the-top superyacht market: The Carapace, a 256-foot-long hybrid that travels on the surface and under the water too. The product of Elena Nappi, 34, an Italian naval architect, Carapace can submerge to a depth of 985 feet for up to ten days at a time. There you can get a new look at marine life; take a break from the mundane surface world; or, simply disappear from view, if that’s what you have in…

See Top Ten Videos of Year from BoatUS

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2019 Cruising Life

Video: “Backing into a Slip with a Single Engine Inboard Boat” was the number one BoatUS YouTube video in 2019. SPRINGFIELD, Va. Dec. 12, 2019 – It would take one person watching for 82 years to view what is uploaded every hour to YouTube. That volume of videos also means recreational boaters consistently have a trove of how-to, consumer and practical help easily viewed at any hour of the day. What did boaters watch this year? Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) shares its list of Top 10 Most-Watched Boating Videos from 2019. Said BoatUS Magazine Publisher Elio Betty, whose editors produce…

Climate Change Causing Chaos in Arctic Fisheries: NOAA

By Peter Janssen on December 11, 2019 Cruising Life

WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE (Reuters) – Climate change is causing chaos in the Bering Sea, home to one of America’s largest fisheries, an example of how rising temperatures can rapidly change ecosystems important to the economy, U.S. federal government scientists said in a report on Tuesday. Rising temperatures in the Arctic have led to decreases in sea ice, record warm temperatures at the bottom of the Bering Sea and the northward migration of fish species such as Pacific cod, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said in its 2019 Arctic Report Card. While the changes are widespread in the Arctic,…

Great White Sharks Gather Off Carolinas; More Coming

By Peter Janssen on December 10, 2019 Cruising Life

A group of great white sharks is swimming off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, according to the shark research organization Ocearch, including a giant that’s 15 feet and 5 inches long and weighs 2,076 pounds. And Ocearch says that more are on the way. The concentration of great whites is part of their migration south each fall in search of warmer water. Ocearch says it tracked ten great whites off the Carolinas in the past few weeks. It tags the sharks with GPS trackers that ping when sharks surface. The non-profit organization says the coast from North Carolina to…

Record-Breaking 74.4-Foot Wave Hits California Coast

By Peter Janssen on December 10, 2019 Cruising Life

A monster record-setting wave was recorded during a “bomb cyclone” less than 20 miles off the northern California coast last month, according to scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. At 74.4 feet high, it was the largest wave ever recorded by Scripps’ network of coastal buoys. The wave was measured at a buoy off Cape Mendocino, in more than 1,000 feet of water. What was unusual was not only the size of this single wave, but also the size of average waves at the time. Scripps’ buoys measure average wave height every 30 minutes. The 74.4 wave came during…

Lazzarini Launches New Eye-Catching F33 Spaziale

By Peter Janssen on December 9, 2019 Cruising Life

You probably haven’t seen a boat quite like this before, and you’d probably remember if you did. So take a good look at the new F33 Spaziale from Pierpaolo Lazzarini, the Roman designer who also created the egg-shaped Jet Capsule a while ago. The F33 Spaziale is nothing if not eye-catching, and that’s because Lazzarini definitely pushes the outer limits of the design envelope. Other boats recently have taken their design cues from luxury automobiles and even spaceships, but Lazzarini seems to create his own category. The 33-foot Spaziale is highly customizable, and can be used for a number of…

Coast Guard Report: Why Ferry Crashed Into Hyannis Breakwater

By Peter Janssen on December 8, 2019 Cruising Life

At 9:33 on a rainy night in June two years ago, the 154-foot-long Iyanough fast ferry from Nantucket ran headlong into the breakwater in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, at 30 knots, even though there were two officers with decades of experience on the bridge. In the crash, 15 people were injured, and a Coast Guard helicopter lifted them to shore. The other 42 people on board climbed down a ladder to the breakwater; the last one reached land at 3:30 a.m. How did the captain, Karl Riddar, and the pilot, Thomas Manley, miss the turn into Hyannis Harbor and the ferry terminal…

Navy, Coast Guard Boats Collide in Alaska, 9 Hurt

By Peter Janssen on December 6, 2019 Cruising Life

By: Navy Times staff A Wednesday evening collision involving a Coast Guard craft and a Navy boat in Alaska’s Womens Bay left at least nine personnel injured, one seriously. Coast Guard Alaska 17th District spokesman Scott McCann told Navy Times that six enlisted members of his service’s Aids to Navigation Team Kodiak were treated and released after suffering light injuries. Three Navy personnel also were treated, with one seriously injured sailor being flown to Anchorage for special care. “It was worse than the others,” McCann said. Although the collision occurred around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday just east of Coast Guard Base…

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