Cruising Life

Wind Farm Off Coast of Atlantic City Moving Ahead

By Peter Janssen on April 16, 2018 Cruising Life

If you’re cruising along the New Jersey shore, you may see a wind farm in the ocean off Atlantic City in a few years. Both houses of the New Jersey legislature now have approved a bill that could help the 24-megawatt project move forward; it gives the state’s Board of Public Utilities 90 days to consider an application by Fishermen’s Energy LLC to build the wind farm about 2.8 miles off Atlantic City. Former Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, had rejected the plan. But new Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, says he wants to pursue it. The new bill would…

Miami Charter “Captain” Arrested After He Kills Passenger in Biscayne Bay

By Peter Janssen on April 14, 2018 Cruising Life

A Miami man who said he had run some 40 charters on Miami Vice, a sleek 95-foot yacht , even though he didn’t have a Coast Guard license, was just arrested as he tried to flee the country after he ran over and killed a paying passenger in Biscayne Bay. The U.S. Department of Justice said that federal agents arrested Mauricio Alvarez, 49, and charged him with “misconduct or neglect of a ship officer that resulted in death.” Authorities said that one of the passengers was “sucked up by the propeller” while he was in the water and Alvarez put the…

New Protector 33 Has Custom Fully Enclosed Cabin for All-Year Use

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Here’s a new Protector Targa 33 customized by previous owners who wanted a completely enclosed cabin, more deck space for entertaining and additional waterline for a smooth ride. The new cabin makes the Protector a truly all-weather boat for year-round boating. Protectors are tough, sturdy and fast RIBs that are built to handle most sea conditions safely and comfortably. The basic design includes a large anchor locker, a luxury aft bench seat, shock-mitigating captains’ chairs, and a large aft deck for diving gear or water toys. The dash is built to hold large electronic displays and the steering wheel is…

Teens Save Two Families and Infant from Capsized Boat in Florida Keys

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2018 Cruising Life

Two high school seniors and an uncle saved two families, including a mother clutching a three-month-old infant, after their boat capsized in choppy seas off the Florida Keys. According to this report in the FLKEYSNEWS, the boys were Mason Baker, 17, and Will Coffin, 18, who were fishing with Coffin’s uncle, Dave Tolhurst, 54, near Conch Reef, southwest of Plantation Key. They were surprised to see a capsized 23-foot boat with four adults and a four-year-old boy clinging to the overturned hull. They called the Coast Guard and then pulled one of the women, who had the infant strapped to…

Sperm Whale Killed by Eating 64 Pounds of Plastic

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2018 Cruising Life

A dead 33-foot sperm whale washed up on a beach on the southern coast of Spain recently, and an autopsy showed it was killed by 64 pounds of plastic that had become lodged in its stomach. Local scientists were puzzled by what had killed the whale, until doctors from the El Valle Wildlife Recovery Center performed the autopsy. They found plastic bags, a jerry can and pieces of rope and fishing nets in the whale’s stomach. They said it died because it could not expel the plastic and that blockage in the digestive system caused a fatal infection. More than…

The Cruising Life: Sue LaNeve Started with a 19-foot Cuddy Cabin. Now She Loves Cruising Full-Time on Her Kadey-Krogen 55

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2018 Cruising Life

Growing up in the small town of West Miami, Florida, Sue LaNeve was something of a tomboy. She climbed trees, dreamed of being an astronaut, rode horses, sailed a pram. A spirit of adventure took root. Today, she owns and cruises full-time on INVICTUS, a Kadey-Krogen 55’ Expedition raised pilothouse trawler. And she’s written her story for NAVAID, the Kadey-Krogen newsletter. Her boat-owning life started when she and her husband Don bought a 19-foot cuddy cabin for their fourth wedding anniversary. Five boats later, for their 30thanniversary, they bought Freebird, a 1996 Kadey-Krogen 48 North Sea. They had retired, and…

New Team Will Search for Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, which Sank in the Antarctic in 1915, Setting Off Heroic Rescue

By Peter Janssen on April 11, 2018 Cruising Life

The saga of Ernest Shackleton and how he saved the crew of the polar explorer ship Endurance after it was trapped in ice in the Antarctic has gone down as one of the greatest sea stories of all time. After the 144-foot-long ship sank on Nov. 21, 1915, Shackleton and his 27-man crew spent weeks on the ice, hoping to drift to safety. When they finally realized that wasn’t going to happen, they climbed on three open lifeboats and spent five days, with temperatures reaching 20 below, sailing and rowing before they reached Elephant Island, where at least they were on firm…

New Waypoint 36 Coming This Spring from American Tugs. A Solid, Two-Stateroom, Pilothouse Cruiser with an Appealing Price

By Peter Janssen on April 10, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Tomco Marine Group, makers of American Tugs in La Conner, Washington, is launching an entirely new model called the Waypoint 36 later this spring. It is basically a new, lower-priced version of the American Tug 365, with two staterooms, one head, a 260-hp Volvo diesel and an introductory price of $350,000. The new Waypoint 36 uses the same hull and deck as the American Tug 365, but the interior will have more molded components and fewer options. The company says the idea is to build a more affordable, quality, trawler that can cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska…

The Hamiltons Get a New Prop Shaft After 9,500 Hours on Their Nordhavn 52. Then They Get a Vibration. A Blow-by-Blow Account

By Peter Janssen on April 10, 2018 Cruising Life, Maintenance

Back in December, James and Jennifer Hamilton, the globe-circling, high-tech cruising couple from Seattle, passed the 9,500-hour mark on the single 265-hp John Deere engine that drives their Nordhavn 52. That was in the North Atlantic. Since then they cruised to Ireland and then England, where, starting on Jan. 9, they decided to replace the cutlass bearings on the rudder shaft and on the wing and main prop shafts as well. They were at Saxon Wharf in Southampton. Hamilton gives a blow-by-blow account of what happened next, with pictures, all on their website (mvdirona.com). Here’s the short version: They loosened…

For Some of the Best of Maine, Head for Prouts Neck and the New 250 Main in Rockland

By Peter Janssen on April 10, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

In case you need another reason to go to Maine, take a good look at these stories and pictures of what you can find in Prouts Neck, just below Portland, with its rocky shoreline immortalized by Winslow Homer, and then farther up the coast in Rockland, known as the art capital of Maine but now also the home of an “art hotel” created by Cabot Lyman, of Lyman-Morse boatbuilders. Here’s a great guide from The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, MA, that will have you heading Down East in a hurry. You’ll find Prouts Neck first; it’s on a peninsula in Scarborough, surrounded…

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