Cruising Life

Good Samaritan, Coast Guard, Save 5 from Sinking Sportfisherman off Cat Cay, Bahamas

By Peter Janssen on April 30, 2018 Cruising Life

A good Samaritan boat and the Coast Guard rescued five people recently from a sinking sportfishing boat about 13 miles northwest of Cat Cay in the Bahamas. All five were taken to Cat Cay but the boat, La Bella, sank. The incident started when the Coast Guard in Miami received a Mayday call over Channel 16 from La Bella, saying it was taking on water and had five people on board. The Coast Guard broadcast an urgent message to all boats about La Bella and diverted the Cutter Robert Yered to the scene. Another vessel, Troy, heard the message and arrived at…

Great Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center Named One of Best in the U.S.

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

If you’re heading around the Great Loop, or simply cruising up and down the Intracoastal Waterway, you may want to schedule a stop at the facedock at the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center in North Carolina, just south of the Virginia border. It’s always been a friendly spot to rest or spend the night; indeed, about 2,000 boats stop there each year. But now it has some added cachet: Architectural Digest just named it one of the 15 most beautiful rest spots in the U.S. The state-run welcome center serves as a gateway to the Dismal Swamp State Park just across…

A New Record: 67 Boats, with 650 People, Transit Greek’s Historic Corinth Canal

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2018 Cruising Life

Here’s one for the record books, or the Guinness Book of World Records, to be exact. Rib Cruises, based near Athens, organized a flotilla of 67 boats, including 44 RIBs, in a run through the Corinth Canal, the four-mile-long, man-made cut between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnesian Peninsula. A shortcut from the Eastern Mediterranean to Southern Italy, the canal was closed for the event. It took all the boats, holding some 650 people, little more than an hour to transit the canal, which is only 64 feet wide. Rib Cruises says this is a record number of boats and…

Huckins Celebrates 90th Anniversary, Still Going Strong

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2018 Cruising Life

Huckins just celebrated its 90thanniversary with a three-day celebration including a 15-yacht rendezvous and overnight on Black Creek and a dinner party at its plant in Jacksonville, Florida. The company is still making its classic yachts with the iconic Quadraconic hull first developed by its founder, Frank Pembroke Huckins. About 100 owners and friends attended the anniversary, celebrating Huckins’ history and its continued focus on design and quality. Indeed, Huckins does all the work on its yachts, from conception to completion. “We do 100 percent of the design on all custom yachts,” said Cindy Purcell, the company president and Frank…

Coast Guard, Lots of Bystanders, Rescue Man Trapped in Capsized Army Corps Survey Boat

By Peter Janssen on April 28, 2018 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard, local authorities and a lot of good Samaritans rescued a man trapped in the cabin of a capsized Army Corps of Engineers boat off the coast of Oregon recently. The man survived by finding an air pocket in the upside-down boat while the rescue unfolded. The Army Corps of Engineers’ 26-foot Survey Boat Graham was conducting a routine survey off the mouth of the Chetco River in Brookings, Oregon, with two men on board, when it capsized. A bystander called the Coast Guard. A 29-foot Coast Guard rapid response boat from Station Chetco River was on the…

Drug Smugglers Burn Go-Fast Boat in Unsuccessful Effort to Destroy Evidence

By Peter Janssen on April 28, 2018 Cruising Life

A combination of forces from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and the Colombian Navy stopped a go-fast boat in the eastern Pacific recently and recovered 1,080 pounds of cocaine even as the boat caught fire and started to burn. They arrested four men who jumped overboard to escape the flames. Smugglers increasingly are using the low-profile, go-fast boats in an effort to avoid radar detection, but this boat was spotted by military aircraft, which alerted the USS Zephyr. When the Zephyr approached the go-fast boat, the crew started to throw the cargo overboard and then jumped overboard themselves. It…

Endangered Right Whales Now in Areas Off Boston and Cape Cod; Coast Guard Warns Mariners

By Peter Janssen on April 26, 2018 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard is urging mariners to be aware of many groups of right whales in the area from Boston Light to Marshfield, Massachusetts, and to stay at least 500 yards away from them. Under the Endangered Species Act, it is against the law to approach within 500 yards of a North Atlantic right whale in a vessel, an aircraft (including drones) or by any other means, or to fail to take avoidance measures, including steering away from the whale and immediately leaving the area at a slow speed. Right whales are surface feeders, and they often eat on the…

Danish Inventor Found Guilty of Killing Journalist on His Homemade Submarine

By Peter Janssen on April 26, 2018 Cruising Life

A court in Copenhagen just found Peter Madsen, the Danish inventor, guilty of what prosecutors called the “heinous and repulsive” killing of Swedish journalist Kim Wall when she went to interview him on his 56-foot homemade submarine last August 10. (The picture above right shows the two of them on the sub.) Madsen, 47, admitted dismembering her body and discarding it at sea, but said her death was an accident. The court found him guilty of premediated killing and sentenced him to a life in prison. Prosecutors said he bound, tortured, stabbed and sexually assaulted Wall, 30. They said he…

Time to Rethink Your Dink: Get Up Close and Personal to Bears, Whales and Icebergs with a Good, Fast RIB

By Peter Janssen on April 25, 2018 Cruising Life

Here’s a great story that might make you think again about your dinghy. It can be much more than simply a means of getting ashore for provisions or dinner once you’ve dropped the hook after a long day of cruising. Instead, think of it as a vehicle for exploring places you’d never take your big boat, for poking around coves and inlets and shallows without worrying about getting stuck or running aground. A good, fast dinghy, according to these three authors, opens up a sense of adventure; it gets you closer to the environment, not to mention, bears, whales and…

New SoelCat 12: Cruise for 29 Hours at 6 Knots Under Solar Power Alone

By Peter Janssen on April 25, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Day or night, rain or shine, the new SoelCat 12 is a 39-foot solar-powered catamaran than can run at six knots for 29 hours. If you firewall the throttle, you can push the lightweight (13,200 pounds) cat to about 14 knots, but you’ll also run out of juice at the end of an hour. Since most people feel comfortable in the 8-knot range, you can cruise under solar, using no fossil fuel and leaving no emissions or noise behind, for about eight hours at that speed, certainly long enough to enjoy a full day with your family or friends. And…

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