Cruising Life

Vanity Fair: A Terrifying Account of El Faro’s Final Hours

By Peter Janssen on April 5, 2018 Cruising Life

Here’s an absolutely gripping – and terrifying – account of the last 26 hours of El Faro, the 790-foot-long cargo ship that ran into the eye of a Category 3 hurricane off the Bahamas on Oct. 1, 2015, and sank, killing all 33 people on board. It was the worst U.S. maritime disaster in 30 years. Now, Vanity Fair has pieced together a thorough account of what happened, based on information from the ship’s digital data recorder, which recorded everything that was said on the bridge and was recovered 15,400 feet underwater, and from intensive investigations by the Coast Guard…

More Recovery in the BVI: Cooper Island Beach Club Reopens with Same Rum Bar, Same Views

By Peter Janssen on April 4, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

The recovery in the British Virgin Islands is getting stronger. Indeed, the Cooper Island Beach Club just reopened as a result of major rebuilding since the hurricanes last fall. Cooper Island is on the Sister Island chain leading to The Baths at Virgin Gorda, and is a popular overnight (or longer) spot for people cruising or chartering in the area. There are a lot of reasons to head to the Cooper Island Beach Club. It has one of the largest rum bars in the Caribbean, with stunning sunset views; an infamous microbrewery, a beachfront restaurant, and all its rooms have…

Boating Boom in the Bahamas, with “Excellent” Prospects for the Rest of the Year

By Peter Janssen on April 4, 2018 Cruising Life

There’s a boating boom in the Bahamas, at least there was for the first quarter of this year, when arrivals at marinas there were up a whopping 60 percent over the same time last year. And marina operators throughout the island chain are predicting that the boom will continue. “The prospects for boating to the Bahamas look excellent for 2018,” Stephen Kappeler, president of the Association of Bahamas Marinas, told the newspaper Tribune 242. Marina operators say there are several reasons for the boom. Boat sales are up and former boat owners have received settlements for boats lost in last…

New 40 Open Sunreef Power: Luxury, Space and Performance in a Wide-Open Cat

By Peter Janssen on April 4, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Here’s a boat that’s built for fun. Take a look at the new 40 Open Sunreef Power, a fast, luxurious iteration of a boat that just keeps on giving – or folding out for more and more space. One thing’s for sure with the Sunreef 40 – you’re not going to run out of room. And although this boat, hull number one, is open, Sunreef specializes in customizing its boats, and an owner can have a cabin with a double bed in the bow and a head in one of the cat’s hulls if he wants to go cruising. Meanwhile, the…

Raritan Introduces New Toilet Using Either Fresh or Sea Water to Flush

By Peter Janssen on April 4, 2018 Cruising Life, Gear

You don’t have to worry about using up your boat’s fresh water supply to flush the toilet any more. Raritan has just come up with a new line called Marine Elegance electric toilets with a patented SeaFresh option. You just flip a switch on the toilet’s control panel to choose which water source you want. The new toilets are designed to fit into most head compartments as a full-size, one-piece toilet. They have a small, compact base that matches most toilet footprint sizes. Made with white or almond vitreous china, they come in two heights, each with a straight or…

New Tax Law Offers Great Incentives To Buy a Boat for Charter Business

By Peter Janssen on April 3, 2018 Charter, Cruising Life

The new federal tax law could be some very good news if you’re thinking about buying a boat for a charter business. Under the new law, if you buy a new or brokerage boat from Jan.1 of this year through 2022 and use it in a charter or other business activity, you can score some significant tax savings. You may even be able to deduct the whole purchase price, plus improvements. According to interpretations of the new law from United Yacht Sales and Bluewater Yacht Sales, it has some fairly dramatic, and lucrative, benefits for boat owners. The details: You…

Dead Dolphins May Be “Sentinentals” to a Fractured Ecosystem in a Once Pristine Harbor in Brazil

By Peter Janssen on April 3, 2018 Cruising Life

What’s killing the dolphins in Brazil’s Sepetiba Bay, once a sleepy fishing village with white sand beaches but now an industrial port with chemical plants about 40 miles from Rio de Janeiro? As more and more of the native Guiana dolphins have died there recently, scientists think they are victims of pollution that kills marine life. In a sense, scientists think the 200 or so dead dolphins are “sentinels,” the first victims of a fractured ecosystem. They are dying from a virus, similar to the one that causes measles in humans, that causes a rash, fever, respiratory infection and disorientation.…

Well-Traveled Nordhavn 96 Up for Major Voyager’s Award After Cruising Across Pacific

By Peter Janssen on April 2, 2018 Cruising Life

Bob Giles’ Nordhavn 96 VivieRae2 is a finalist for the Voyager’s Award in this year’s World Superyacht Awards. The voyager’s award is based on ambitious and inspirational cruising in the past year, and the owner or a guest of the owner must have been on board the boat most of that time; delivery crews don’t count. Giles’ certainly qualifies. He and his wife took delivery of the boat, hull #14 of the 96 series, last June in Hong Kong, and then set out in a 2,800 nm shakedown cruise to Bali. Over the next six months they covered 7,500 nm…

A Quick Guide to Cruising to a Boater-Friendly Washington, DC, an Iconic Destination, Whatever Your Politics

By Peter Janssen on April 2, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

If you’re cruising in the Chesapeake this spring or summer, you may want to think about taking a side trip up the Potomac to visit Washington, DC, a great cruising destination for a long weekend or even more. It may be a well-kept secret, but the nation’s capital is boater-friendly, with several new and revamped marinas, a few within walking distance of some of the most iconic sights in the world. Here’s a story I wrote not long ago for Southern Boating about cruising to Washington. Local construction has improved some of the marinas since then, but all the attractions…

Oregon Inlet: A Busy Thoroughfare with a Treacherous Bar on the Outer Banks

By Peter Janssen on April 2, 2018 Cruising Life

Oregon Inlet, in the middle of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is a busy place; it’s a major thoroughfare for a large sportfishing fleet heading for the Gulf Stream, only 30 nm offshore, and it’s one of the few inlets along that part of the coastline. It also is home to the Oregon Inlet Bar only five feet underwater near the inlet’s entrance, where water from Pamlico Sound meets the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a collision that can produce 14-foot waves. Hit by drifting sand and tides, the inlet also moves south about 66 feet a year, so that…

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