Cruising Life

Manattees Now Migrating from Florida along Gulf Coast, as Far as Louisiana

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

Who doesn’t love a manatee? Even when we’re frustrated with all the low-speed manatee zones in Florida, it’s still hard to bear any ill-will to these smile-inducing, half-ton creatures. They’re just big and slow and somehow endearing; children want to hug them. And manatees, at least some of them, migrate, swimming along the northern Gulf Coast from Florida in the summer, traveling as far as Louisiana. Now boaters in the coastal southern part of Louisiana are reporting manatee sightings in places where they haven’t been seen in years, and the state is issuing warnings to protect them. The West Indian…

New Calvin Beal 38 with a Rich Maine-Built Heritage and 20-Knot Speed

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

It just doesn’t get any more Down East than this – Star, a new, well-appointed 38 Calvin Beal lobster boat with roots in Maine that just won’t quit. First off, Star was designed by Calvin Beal Boats in Beals, Maine, on an island off Jonesport way up the Gulf of Maine (go to Northeast Harbor on Mt. Desert Island and keep on going). It was built as SW Boatworks in Lamoine, back on the mainland at the entrance to Mt. Desert Island. And the sea trials were conducted at Billings Marine in Stonington on Deer Island on East Penobscot Bay. Enough…

Scientists Test an Ozone Treatment System To Fight Florida’s Red Tide

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

Scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota say they have come up with something to fight Florida’s toxic red tide. Called an Ozone Treatment System, the new device processes 300 gallons of water a minute, breaking down toxin-infested water, injecting it with ozone and then pumping out clean water. At this point, with a state of emergency in seven counties and dead fish and marine life washing up on beaches and in marinas in southwest Florida, any solution offering hope to boaters, residents and the tourist industry seems too good to be true. Basically, the system kills high concentrations of…

A Survivor’s Story: “I’m waving at the guy, yelling, and all of a sudden, his boat was sitting on top of our boat.”

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

The story continues, building on one of the most memorable boating pictures in recent memory: A 37-foot charter fishing boat sitting on top of a 35-foot J/105 sailboat in calm conditions near Thomas Point in the Chesapeake, just south of Annapolis. The picture went viral, for the obvious reasons, with everyone wondering, what in the world happened here. Now, from the Capital Gazette, we have the story from the skipper of the sailboat. Read more: http://www.capitalgazette.com/sports/sailing_boating/ac-cn-boat-collision-survivor-0827-story.html

Cruising a 27-foot Avalon Pontoon Boat from Key West to Cuba, a First

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

It’s not news any more that Americans are cruising to Cuba. I went there myself in with Scott Porter, the president of Formula, on one of his 40-foot cruisers way back in 1998 (and it was one of the best trips ever). But it is news to cruise there on a pontoon boat, a vessel usually found on inland rivers and lakes. Here’s a fun story from Boating World about how Jim Wolf, the CEO of Avalon pontoon boats, and three friends drove a 27-foot Avalon from Key West to Cuba. Actually, they took the boat much farther, from Clearwater,…

Cruising Lake Michigan on an Ancient Mahogany Pacemaker 47 – and Loving It

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

This is a story about passion, and a labor of love. Don and Linda Nase bought their 47-foot mahogany Pacemaker cruiser in Saugatuck, Michigan, in 1975. It was seven years old, and its twin Detroit diesels had only 100 hours. They live in Phoenix, Arizona, but they spend their summers cruising on the boat, usually on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, going four or five hours a day, usually at about 10 knots. And they named the boat Naco, which Nase says loosely translates into “foolish pleasure” in Spanish. It’s easy to love cruising on a beautiful, restored wooden…

New Amphibious Dobbertin HydroCar: Fast on the Water, Very Fast on Land

By Peter Janssen on August 22, 2018 Cruising Life

You probably don’t want to cruise this to Bermuda, but if you want to do the Great Loop in a hurry, and not have to worry about how you’ll drive to the grocery store for supplies every night, take a look at the new Dobbertin HydroCar. With a 762-hp engine, it’s supposed to top out at 125 mph on land and 60 mph on the water, although it’s still so new it hasn’t been tested yet. The brainchild of Rick Dobbertin, who spent most of his career building fast cars (he won Hot Rod Magazine’s Street Machine of the Year…

World’s Largest Fish (Not a Beauty) Caught on New Video off Nova Scotia

By Peter Janssen on August 22, 2018 Cruising Life

It may not be the most beautiful fish in the world, but the ocean sunfish, weighing in at more than two tons, qualifies as the largest. Here’s a fun video of something you don’t see every day, a sunfish swimming next to a diver. The diver’s not in any danger; a gentle giant, a sunfish will not attack humans. A group of Nova Scotia boaters came across this particular sunfish while it was on the surface. As the writer for MTL Blog points out, it was just trying to chill and catch some rays. Sunfish do this frequently to regulate…

St. Lucia: A Charter and Cruising Jewel in the Windward Islands with a Rich Life on Shore and on the Water

By Peter Janssen on August 22, 2018 Charter, Cruising Life, Destinations

With The Pitons, iconic twin volcanic peaks towering some 2,000 feet above Soufriere Bay, St. Lucia is easily the most recognizable islands in the Windward chain in the Caribbean. But St. Lucia also is one of the jewels of the Windwards, just south of Martinique and north of St. Vincent, a rich and rewarding charter and cruising destination with protected harbors, golden beaches, inviting diving sites, and lush mountain rainforests beckoning with wild orchids, giant ferns and tropical birds. The 27-mile-long island has two state-of-the-art marinas. IGY Rodney Bay is in the north of St. Lucia, nestled in an inner…

New Pardo 50 To Be Launched at Cannes, Following Success of Last Year’s Pardo 43

By Peter Janssen on August 21, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new high-performing, head-turning Pardo 50 will be launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival, starting Sept. 11, exactly a year after the Italian builder’s first boat, the Pardo 43, was introduced there to wide acclaim. Indeed, Pardo has already sold 33 of the 43s, a significant number for a brand-new offering. Although Pardo itself is new (the company was founded in 2016), it is an outgrowth of Cantiere del Pardo, the high-end yard that has built more than 4,000 Grand Soleil sailboats since 1973. It wanted to get into the luxury, high-performance powerboat market, so it first developed the 43…

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