Cruising Life

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…

British Woman Survives 10 Hours at Night in Adriatic After Falling Off Cruise Ship

By Peter Janssen on August 21, 2018 Cruising Life

A 46-year-old British woman sang songs and kept herself awake for ten hours after she fell off a cruise liner in the Adriatic Sea before she was rescued by the Croatian Coast Guard. The woman, Kay Longstaff, who lives in Spain, said she fell off the back of the Norwegian Star, a 965-foot-long cruise liner that holds 2,348 passengers. She did not give any other details, but she told CNN, “I’m very lucky to be alive.” The Croatian Coast Guard says she fell off the ship at 11:45 p.m. The ship’s captain alerted the Coast Guard of the situation and…

Williams Re-Launches Two New Powerful Turbojet Tenders at Cannes Show

By Peter Janssen on August 20, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Williams Jet Tenders is re-launching two of its popular Turbojet tenders at the Cannes Yachting Festival starting Sept. 11, and it also will introduce its new high-performance Sportjet 435. The Turbojet 285 and 325 have been two of Williams’ best-selling models since they were first launched in 2005. They have been tweaked over the years, but now they’ve been given new, more powerful engines, a new tube profile and some new upscale upholstery for a more modern look. The 285 (pictured above) is 9’ 6” LOA and is designed for yachts from 39 to 52 feet. The 325 is a…

New Coast Guard Warning: LED Lights Can Interfere with VHF, AIS Reception

By Peter Janssen on August 20, 2018 Cruising Life, Electronics

The Coast Guard warns that LED lighting may interfere with VHF radio and AIS reception. The Coast Guard says it has received reports from crews and others about poor reception on VHF frequencies, DSC (digital selective calling), and AIS (automatic identification systems) when they are used near LED night-time lighting, nav lights, searchlights and floodlights on boats. The interference can create potential safety hazards. In one port, a rescue coordination center was not able to contact a ship in a traffic separation incident by VHF radio; that ship also reported poor AIS reception. The Coast Guard says that ships in…

Charter Fishing Boat Rides Over Top of Sailboat in the Chesapeake; No Serious Injuries. Plus: First-Person Account of What Happened

By Peter Janssen on August 20, 2018 Cruising Life

You don’t see this very often. But here’s a startling picture showing the results of a collision between a sailboat and a powerboat on the Chesapeake near Thomas Point, just south of Annapolis. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. About noon on a summer Friday, Hunter, a 37-foot charter fishing boat out of Kent Island, ran into Levitation, a 35-foot J/105 out of Annapolis. Levitation had its sails up, but authorities don’t know if its engine was running. Seven people were on board the fishing boat; two on the sailboat. The fishing boat ended up basically straddling the sailboat, with its bow…

First Look at New, Outboard-Powered Back Cove 34O Running at 39 Knots. See the Video

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

Here’s a first look at the brand-new Back Cove 34O running with twin 350-hp Suzukis. The first outboard Back Cove (and the first twin-engine Back Cove), this new made-in-Maine cruiser topped out at a rapid pace of 39 knots right out of the box. It is still being tweaked, and will make its first public appearance at the Newport International Boat Show starting Sept. 13. The boat represents a major breakthrough for Back Cove, which has been building single-engine, diesel-powered cruisers since 2003. It is based on the Back Cove 32, a classic Down East couple’s boat, which was named…

To Totally Relax, Take a Le Boat Charter Through the Canals in the South of France

By Peter Janssen on August 15, 2018 Charter, Cruising Life, Destinations

For a different kind of charter vacation, think about an idyllic, serene and totally relaxing canal cruise in the Petite Camargue area in the south of France. Life on a 49-foot canal boat from Le Boat, with three staterooms, all with en suite heads and showers, is about as easy as it can ever can be, and watching the sun go down from the top deck, eating some local cheese and oysters and sipping some of the local rosé is pretty hard to beat. Here’s a first-person story from The Guardian about four people spending five days along the Canal du…

New Axopar 37: A Fun, Fast and Very Cool Cruiser from Finland

By Peter Janssen on August 15, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The long, low, slender Axopar 37 Cabin, along with its smaller sibling, the Axopar 28 Cabin, caught my eye as I was walking down the dock at the recent Maine Boat Show in Rockland. The Axopars are definitely distinctive; they don’t look like any other boat out there. And they did attract a lot of attention, for two obvious reasons: They look like they’re fun, and they’re built for the way a lot of people are using their boats today. Axopars, it turns out, have impressed a lot of people around the world. Indeed, the 37 was voted Motor Boat…

How To Dock a 1,187-foot-long Cruise Liner in St. Thomas, a Very Tight Harbor. See the Video

By Peter Janssen on August 15, 2018 Cruising Life

You think you have a hard time docking? Consider the Oasis of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world. coming in to a very tight entrance at St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The ship is 1,187 feet LOA, so the captain has to thread a needle into the harbor, making a tight turn in a narrow channel with sailboats moored all around. And with a 30-foot draft, there are only six feet to spare under the keel. Power for the ship, which carries 6,000 passengers, comes from three 26,800-hp ABB Azipods, driving 20-foot props.…

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