Cruising Life

Totally Over-the-Top Holiday Gifts for Superyacht Owners

By Peter Janssen on November 20, 2019 Cruising Life

Many, many years ago, when my children were young and we had a sailboat, they gave me a sailbag for Christmas. The next year, it was a hand-held compass. I was very happy with both of these presents; my children knew how to connect with my passion. Later on, when they flew down to Fort Lauderdale to join me on our Grand Banks for a holiday cruise to Ocean Reef in the Keys, they brought a set of drinking glasses that I still have to this day. Those are normal kinds of holiday gifts for boat owners. Last week we…

Colin O’Brady Wants To Row to Antarctica

By Peter Janssen on November 18, 2019 Cruising Life

Colin O’Brady is a professional adventurer, an endurance athlete whose last major feat was to set a record for the world’s first solo crossing of Antarctica. He’s also climbed up Mt. Everest and holds three mountaineering world records. All these adventures were on land. Now O’Brady, part of a team of six, wants to row 600 to 800 miles across the Drake Passage from Cape Horn at the tip of South America to Antarctica, some of the most dangerous waters in the world. It doesn’t bother him that until three months ago he had never rowed anything at all. O’Brady,…

Manatees Return to Florida for the Winter

By Peter Janssen on November 18, 2019 Cruising Life

Manatees are returning to Florida for the winter, so boaters need to be extra careful to avoid the huge, slow-moving creatures. Adult manatees are about ten feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds, and they like to swim just below the surface, so they are very susceptible to injury from passing boats. They also are slow, usually swimming at just 3 to 5 mph, although they can go as fast as 20 mph in short bursts. The gentle sea cows are creatures of habit, often returning to the same place year after year. They gather in Florida from November through March…

Coast Guard Busts Sub with 5,000 Pounds of Cocaine

By Peter Janssen on November 18, 2019 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard has boarded and seized a submarine carrying more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine – worth more than $69 million – somewhere in the Eastern Pacific. There was so much coke on the narco sub that the Coast Guard cutter that made the bust had to call in a larger cutter with a crane to offload the drugs. The semi-submersible boat was seized by law enforcement officers from the Harriet Lane, a 270-foot Coast Guard cutter, after a patrol plane had spotted it. Boarding teams from the cutter climbed on the sub just before midnight and took control…

Maine Maritime Academy Degree Pays Off More Than Harvard

By Peter Janssen on November 17, 2019 Cruising Life

Want to make money after you graduate from college? Forget Harvard. Go to Maine Maritime Academy instead. If that doesn’t work, think about the United States Merchant Marine Academy. A new study from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce shows that in terms of return on investment 40 years after graduation, Maine Maritime Academy is number six in the top ten among 4,500 colleges studied, Harvard is number eight, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is number ten. For some perspective here, Harvard was founded in 1636 and has an endowment of $40.9 billion. Maine Maritime Academy, a…

Two Superyachts Destroyed in Fort Lauderdale Fire. See Video

By Peter Janssen on November 17, 2019 Cruising Life

A dramatic pre-dawn fire destroyed two superyachts at the Universal Marine Center in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday morning. More than 100 firefighters fought the fire, which sent flames and smoke soaring into the air, for four hours. No one was injured in the fire, but Reflections, a 107-foot, 1997 Christiansen (left, in the picture above), and Lohengrin, a 160-foot, 2006 Trinity, were destroyed. Fort Lauderdale Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan said the fire appeared to have started on Lohengrin and spread to Reflections, which was next to it. Witnesses said they heard explosions as the fire spread. Lohengrin was valued at…

NTSB Criticizes Coast Guard in Fatal Duck Boat Sinking

By Peter Janssen on November 15, 2019 Cruising Life

The National Transportation Safety Board has just criticized the Coast Guard for ignoring suggestions about improving the safety of duck boats for almost 20 years. The proposals possibly could have prevented the sinking of a duck boat, known as Stretch Duck 7, in a storm on July 23, 2018, on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people on board. The criticism came in a NTSB Safety Recommendation Report even while the federal agency is still investigating the sinking. The NTSB is urging the Coast Guard to require sufficient reserve buoyancy on duck boats (amphibious passenger vessels similar to…

41 Great Christmas Gifts for Your Favorite Cruising Boat Captain

By Peter Janssen on November 12, 2019 Cruising Life

Yes, I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but Christmas is coming in only six more weeks, which raises the question – what do give your favorite cruising boat captain or mate? There are always many opportunities here, no matter how large the boat is, or how experienced the owner is, or how much stuff (all totally necessary, of course) is already on the boat. In the next few weeks, we’ll have more great gift ideas, but here, for a start, is a list of 41, yes 41, Christmas presents from Yachting World, the British magazine. It has a few…

New Underwater Diving Drone Features a Robotic Arm

By Peter Janssen on November 11, 2019 Cruising Life

Here’s something new that could add another dimension to your next cruise or charter: an underwater diving drone with a robotic arm, so you can explore the ocean depths down to 492 feet. It’s called the Geneinno T1. Geneinno is a startup team that makes underwater drones and scooters. They say the Geneinno T1 is the world’s first diving drone equipped with a robotic arm. It dives deep and can explore the ocean floor. If you don’t want to go that far down, it has a precise hovering feature and a high-low angle shot that can be used for professional…

Army Corps Will Close Locks on Illinois Waterway Next Summer

By Peter Janssen on November 11, 2019 Cruising Life

Here’s some bad news for anyone planning for the Great Loop or cruising in the Midwest next summer. Many of the locks along the Illinois Waterway, running from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, will be closed for repairs and no vessels will be allowed through. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the eight lock and dam sites along the Waterway, and it closed some of them for short periods of time earlier this year. It has announced the dates for major repairs in 2020 and again in 2023, and said that “during the scheduled closures, no vessels will be able…

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