Cruising Life

Five Great Tips for Guests on Board. Number One: Don’t Contradict the Captain

By Peter Janssen on April 23, 2018 Cruising Life

We’ve all seen the lists of things to tell potential guests before they come on board, for an afternoon or for a week. The obvious things: soft-soled shoes, soft-sided luggage, lots of sunblock, and perhaps a good bottle of wine or rum to help everyone enjoy the evening. But it’s the less obvious things that are interesting. I once sailed back from Bermuda on a beautiful Tartan 41 and my friend, the owner, told me before we left that he had just one request: That no one come on board with a toothpaste tube with a removable cap; the cap…

Harried and Heroic Houston Harbor Pilots: Moving 20,000 Ships a Year Through Congested and Narrow Channel. See Video

By Peter Janssen on April 23, 2018 Cruising Life

In case you’re thinking about changing careers, or if you’re simply interested in all things nautical, take a look at this great video about the life of Houston Harbor Pilots and how they manage to navigate enormous vessels through one of the busiest, and narrowest, shipping channels in the U.S. This definitely is not a job for the faint of heart. Each year, the Houston Pilots move 20,000 ships and 125,000 inland tows through the channel, working 24/7, 365 days a year, in all kinds of weather and traffic conditions. They say the job is part art, part science, and…

New Nordic Tugs 34: A Semi-Displacement Couple’s Cruiser with Lots of Character

By Peter Janssen on April 23, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

A couple’s boat with lots of character, the Nordic Tugs 34 is designed for the Great Loop, the Inside Passage or a summer excursion to the rocky shores and hidden coves of Down East Maine. A semi-displacement trawler, the Nordic Tugs 34 is a salty, comfortable, single-diesel cruiser that’s easy to manage and maintain, while retaining the company’s iconic tugboat lines, including the faux smokestack. The 34 is an outgrowth of the popular Nordic Tugs 32, which the company first built in 1985. (Nordic Tugs started with a 26 that was introduced at the Seattle boat show in 1980, and…

Belfast, Maine: A Summer Cruising Destination with a Now-Thriving Waterfront

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

Once a major shipbuilding and commercial fishing center that fell on hard times, Belfast, Maine, is enjoying a revival that makes it an attractive cruising destination this summer if you’re heading Down East. Way up Penobscot Bay, Belfast seems a bit off the beaten track, but it’s well worth the detour. For one thing, the newly invigorated waterfront, centering around a public Harbor Walk and the thriving Front Street Shipyard, is worth a visit in itself. For another, because of its location, Belfast often gets less summer fog than many other Maine ports. Belfast dates to 1630, when it was…

Another Boat Crashes onto Same Government Cut Jetty where Miami’s Jose Fernandez and Two Friends Died. See Video

By Peter Janssen on April 18, 2018 Cruising Life

Another boat has crashed at night into the same rock jetty in Government Cut where Miami Marlins star pitcher José Fernandez and two friends died two years ago. This time the three people on board were rescued by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue; one was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the other two had scrapes and bruises. The boat hit the rocks, on the south side of the cut, the large, man-made channel separating Miami Beach from Fisher Island, about 9:15 at night. A fireboat arrived, and a rescue swimmer jumped into the water and got to the stranded…

New Nimbus 405 Flybridge: A Stylish, Sophisticated, Swedish Cruiser with Volvo Performance

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

The new Nimbus 405 Flybridge is the latest iteration of the popular and prize-winning Nimbus 405 Coupe, adding space, an additional helm station and lots of entertaining room to the three-stateroom, two-head, Swedish-built, all-weather cruiser. The 405 Coupe was a hit when it was introduced three years ago, winning a Best of Boats Award and a nomination for European Powerboat of the Year. Nimbus is relatively new in the U.S., and it’s represented by Essex Yacht Sales in Connecticut on the East Coast and by Seattle Yachts on the West Coast. But the brand is well-established in Europe; it started…

SSCA Starts Daily Weather Net with Chris Parker for All Atlantic Cruisers

By Peter Janssen on April 18, 2018 Cruising Life

Here’s some good news if you’re planning to cross the Atlantic this year. The Seven Seas Cruising Association has formed a partnership with Chris Parker, the chief forecaster for the Marine Weather Center, and two other HAM stations to provide a Trans-Atlantic Cruisers’ Net. The service is available to all mariners, not just members of the SSCA. The service started on April 15 and will continue through the traditional crossing seasons. Parker (pictured above) will provide weather routing for the Atlantic. He will broadcast at 2200 UTC on SSB frequencies 8.137 and 12.350. Half an hour earlier, at 2130, SSCA…

The Blackbeard Book Club? A Surprise Find After 300 Years Produces a Book from the Pirate’s Sunken Flagship

By Peter Janssen on April 18, 2018 Cruising Life

You may wonder what pirates did in their spare time, when they weren’t raiding, plundering and killing their victims at sea? Turns out, at least some of them spent their time reading. Conservators for Queen Ann’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship, which sank off the North Carolina coast 300 years ago, found 16 fragments of paper with legible printing, none larger than a quarter, wedged into a chamber of a canon. After more than a year of research, they determined that the fragments came from the first edition of a book by Capt. Edward Cooke published in 1712 called A Voyage to…

Absolutely Great Video and Still Pictures of a Pod of Orcas Swimming 20 Miles Off San Diego

By Peter Janssen on April 17, 2018 Cruising Life

Here are some of the best whale pictures I’ve ever seen, both video and stills, taken by a San Diego marine photographer about 20 miles offshore on a beautiful, clear, blue day. Dominic Biagini, of La Jolla, who works for Captain Dave’s Dolphin Safaris, a whale-watching business on Dana Point, took something of a busman’s holiday when a friend was visiting recently from Chicago. He took the friend out on a private boat in search of whales. As he told Fox 5 in the story below, after an hour or so they came across a pod of six orcas, swimming by…

Lifetime Sailor and Washington Insider Starts New Chapter in His Life, on a Ranger Tugs 25

By Peter Janssen on April 17, 2018 Cruising Life

Like many of us, Craig Fuller started out in sailboats. He sailed in both Northern and Southern California before he headed to Washington, D.C., in 1981 to work in the White House for President Ronald Reagan. He then started sailing in the Chesapeake, and stayed in Washington, working for Vice President H.W. Bush and then for many years as the head of public relations firms and trade groups. But times change. As Fuller just wrote in The Talbot Spy, from Easton, Maryland, last summer he thought it was time to start a new chapter in his life. He started looking…

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