Friday, March 29

Browsing: Cruising Life

If you’re cruising in Southern California for the rest of the summer, check out the schedule at Marina del Rey next to Los Angeles; there’s a lot going on. For starters, Marina del Rey is one of the largest and most attractive marinas not only on the West Coast but anywhere in the U.S., so a visit at any time is a treat. Over the years I’ve always had a great time there. But this summer the schedule includes Marina Fundays, free concerts, food on the beach, a farmer’s market and more. Throughout August and September, the Marina Fundays offer…

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is urging boaters to use “extreme caution’ in the Chesapeake after heavy rains and opened floodgates on a dam in the Susquehanna River produced fields of debris in the bay. The department says “marine debris” includes tree limbs and driftwood on the surface and just under the surface that can damage boats. In Annapolis, crews form the Harbormaster’s Office cleared debris that floated into Ego Alley, the city’s marine showcase and downtown center of boating activity. The debris and sediment there flowed from the Susquehanna, Patapsco and Severn Rivers. Last week, operators of the…

The toxic algae bloom grew larger in Lake Okeechobee over the weekend, according to the Palm Beach Post. The paper says that scientists had feared this would happen. New satellite images show that over the weekend the algae bloom grew to cover 40 percent of the lake (220 square miles) after falling to a 30 percent level earlier in July. A NOAA oceanographer says the increase could be because calm winds helped the algae collect nearer the surface, where it’s easier for the satellite cameras to detect it. Still, Sachi Mishra, the oceanographer, says the bloom in general is receding, since…

Last summer there were so many sharks along the California coast that the NBC station in Los Angeles called it the “summer of sightings.” Boaters, kayakers, surfers, divers and swimmers all reported seeing more sharks, including great white sharks, than ever before. And this year there are more than ever, so many, in fact, that the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, the leading great white shark research organization, has run out of tags to identify them. The historic trend is stark: In the 1950s, there were 12 shark attacks in California waters. So far in the 2010s,…

The Coast Guard has convened a formal Marine Board of Investigation into the loss of the  duck boat that sank on July 19 with the loss of 17 lives near Branson, Missouri. A Marine Board of Investigation is the highest-level investigation in the Coast Guard, and it’s only the fifth to be convened in the past decade. Meanwhile, two different families of drowning victims in the tragedy have sued Ride the Ducks Branson, the company operating the duck boat fleet there, charging that they are “death traps” and that the operators knew about safety problems for years and did nothing…

The fight over high-ethanol fuel is heading up, with the boating industry warning that President Trump’s plans to let E15 be sold year-round could damage the engines of millions of boat owners. “President Trump’s pledge to allow the year-round sale of E15 will needlessly put consumers in danger,” Thom Dammrich, president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, said last week. The immediate problem started the previous day when President Trump told Iowa farmers that his Administration is “getting very close” to approving a waiver to allow E15, a fuel blend including 15 percent ethanol, to be sold year round. Currently,…

“‘But…’ my husband hesitated. ‘You don’t have  a license.’ My best friend was less diplomatic. Her text message simply read: ‘ARE THEY MAD?’ “None of my nearest and dearest could quite believe someone was going to let me – a ham-fisted, maladroit non-driver, who even managed to fail the cycling proficiency test – pilot a boat. I’ll admit it; I was a little surprised myself. So when I set off down the Rideau Canal on a Canadian boating holiday it was with the sun on my face, my knuckles white on the wheel and a determination to prove everyone wrong.…

Azimut will launch its new high-style, high-tech, 59-foot S6 sport cruiser at the Cannes Yachting Festival starting Sept. 11. The latest in the Italian builder’s S series, the three-stateroom, two-head boat features the glazed hull surfaces and distinct bow cap that make the series easily recognizable. It also features carbon fiber construction and three Volvo 550-hp diesels with IPS700 pod drives for fuel efficiency, quiet cruising and fingertip-easy low-speed maneuvering around a dock. With an exterior by superyacht designer Stefano Righini, the Azimut S6 sports a low profile, highly raked windshield and equally low and raked radar arch. The interior…

You think you’ve seen waves before? Well, probably not waves that look like this. Photographer Rachael Talibart took the picture above, as part of her new wave series, after a storm on the southeast coast of England. Her series, called Sirens (inspired by Homer’s Odyssey), is shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Award; it also will be exhibited at the Sohn Fine Art Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, in September. Talibart grew up sailing with her father in the English Channel. The problem was that she got seasick. Her cure was to sit in the cockpit and stare out at the…

When salvage crews raised Stretch Duck 07 some 80 feet from the floor of Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, four days after it sank, two small American flags were still flying from the front and rows of orange life jackets were still dangling from the cabin top. None of the 17 people who were killed – or the 14 who survived – when the duck boat went down in a sudden storm were wearing a life jacket. One survivor told CNN that just before the boat entered the water from the launch ramp, the captain told them there were three sizes…

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