Cruising Life

New Ocean-Crossing Leopard 51 PC: A Big, Fast, Family Cruiser or Charter Boat

By Peter Janssen on January 1, 2019 Boat Reviews, Charter, Cruising Life

A seakindly, large, long-range cruising boat, the new Leopard 51 PC comes in either a three- or four-cabin configuration, and is designed for either private or charter use. In either configuration, the Leopard 51, which is delivered on its own bottom from the Robertson & Caine yard in Cape Town, South Africa, is a fuel-efficient family cruiser with a nice turn of speed and enough interior volume to make a long cruise or charter enjoyable and comfortable. Designed by the Dutch firm of Simonis Voogd, the Leopard 51, with a beam of more than 25 feet, provides a stable platform…

A Climate Crisis in the Galapagos Starts To Change Life There

By Peter Janssen on December 19, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

Climate change, a combination of warming ocean water and the storms caused by El Niño, is threatening the unique sea and land life in the Galápagos Islands that inspired Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. As a result, life on the Galápagos is changing, often in ways that have not been seen before. The Galápagos, which lie 846 miles west of Ecuador, are at the intersection of three major ocean currents. They also are in the cross hairs of El Niño , one of the world’s most destructive patterns, which causes rapid and extreme ocean heating across the tropics…

Greenline Launching New 48 Coupe with Solar, Hybrid or Diesel Power

By Peter Janssen on December 19, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Greenline Yachts, the Slovenia builder that’s at the forefront of the electric- and hybrid- power revolution, is launching a new Greenline 48 Coupe at the Düsseldorf show in January; it will be introduced to the U.S. at the Miami show in February. The 48 Coupe is modeled after the company’s 48 Flybridge model, and comes after customers said they wanted a large coupe-style boat. Because of its coupe configuration, the new 48 has an array of 2.4kW solar panels on its cabintop, providing the equivalent power of a small generator running all the time. The solar panels provide enough power…

Front Street Shipyard Building Tough New Sea Blade X with Revolutionary Hull

By Peter Janssen on December 18, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

This wicked-looking 36-foot center console with a revolutionary hull design is now under construction at the Front Street Shipyard in Belfast, Maine. The new SBX36, hull number one of the new Sea Blade X line from Navatek Ltd. of Honolulu, will be ready for sea trials in the spring. The Sea Blade X hull is built of fiberglass with a foam core; the boat has a T-Top and an inflatable Hypalon perimeter tube. The stepped V bottom hull, with outer sponsons for stability, was originally designed for the military, and is being used by law enforcement in Hawaii. The boat…

Cape Breton Lobster Boat Captain Granted Full Parole in Bizarre Killing of a Fisherman He Thought Was Cutting His Traps

By Peter Janssen on December 18, 2018 Cruising Life

A Cape Breton lobster boat captain has just been granted full parole in the bizarre murder of another fisherman who he thought was cutting his traps five years ago. The captain, Dwayne Samson, 48, had been convicted of manslaughter and was given an almost ten-year sentence three years ago for the death of Philip Boudreau, 43. Samson, who had been described as “a model inmate and excellent worker” in prison, is now a free man. Here’s the full story, according to the court’s statement of facts, as reported on the Cape Breton Post: At 5 a.m. on June 1, 2013, Samson…

Florida’s Red Tide Killing Stone Crab Business. Crabbers Going Out of Business. Joe’s Stone Crabs Changes Its Menu

By Peter Janssen on December 18, 2018 Cruising Life

You know the toxic red tide in south Florida is serious when Joe’s Stone Crabs, the world-famous seafood restaurant in Miami Beach, starts to run out of stone crabs. But the stone-crab crisis is indeed serious, and it’s decimating the stone-crab fishing industry. “This is about the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Rick Collins, 69 and an Everglades City crabber for more than 50 years, told The New York Times. Until this year, he usually caught 400 pounds of stone crabs a day. One day recently he offloaded 73 pounds, and he doesn’t know how much longer he can stay…

FLIR Launches New Raymarine Element, A Combo GPS and Sonar with Lifelike Images

By Peter Janssen on December 17, 2018 Cruising Life, Electronics

FLIR has just introduced the Raymarine Element, a new, highly advanced generation of combined sonar and GPS displays. Element uses new sonar technology to provide lifelike images for fishing or navigating the bottom, with versatile mapping capabilities of its own on a user-friendly display. The new Element builds on Raymarine’s prize-winning Axiom navigation displays. It uses new patent-pending RealVision 3D sonar technology and new 3D bottom imagery to show a more precise location of fish and structural targets on the bottom. It also incorporates new patent-pending HyperVision 1.2 megahertz sonar technology with ultra-high Compressed High Intensity Radar Pulse (CHIP) sonar…

19 of the Best Islands in the World To Visit in 2019

By Peter Janssen on December 16, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

Wondering about what to do or where to go in the coming year? Or you just want to make an addition to your bucket list? Here’s a list of the 19 best beach and island destinations to visit in 2019, from the from Islands magazine. They’re all over the world, with some of the usual suspects, such as St. Barts, Antigua (pictured above) and Crete. But how about a trip to the Whitsunday Islands, the 74-island archipelago (only four of which are developed), with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world? The Whitsundays serve as the gateway to the Great…

Floating Boom, Designed to Clean Up the Pacific Garbage Patch, Isn’t Working

By Peter Janssen on December 16, 2018 Cruising Life

Here’s some unsettling news. The much-heralded, 2,000-foot-long floating boom that was supposed to clean up the massive Pacific Garbage Patch isn’t working. The boom, part of Ocean Cleanup, was designed to be deployed from its mothership and float in a U-shape on the surface of the ocean. The idea was that the wind and waves would push the boom faster than it pushed the floating trash, so the trash would be trapped in the middle. But now that the boom, which left San Francisco three months ago, is actually deployed, it turns out that the trash doesn’t stay trapped inside…

First Floating Supermarket Opens in Dubai. Will Your Harbor Be Next?

By Peter Janssen on December 16, 2018 Cruising Life

Just in case you, or someone your boat, develop an insatiable desire to go shopping the next time you’re on a cruise, consider this: Carrefour, the huge French-based multinational retailer, is just opening a floating supermarket in Dubai. A company statement said the floating store, named Carrefour Bites and More By the Shore, is “aligned with our vision to create great moments for everyone, every day.” The store is on a custom-built Aqua Pod, and is designed to serve customers from megayachts, jet skis and even those on three nearby beaches. It will sell more than 300 products, including food,…

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