Cruising Life

Volvo’s New Easy Connect Lets You See All Your Engine and Boat Data on Your Smartphone or Tablet

By Peter Janssen on February 7, 2018 Cruising Life, Electronics

Volvo Penta is certainly working hard to make our lives easier on board. Now, Volvo has developed Easy Connect, a platform that uses a Bluetooth interface with the boat’s engines and sensors to display all that information on your smart phone or tablet. The free Easy Connect app gives instant live access while you’re on board; you can see the engine and vessel data with a swipe of your fingers. At home, you can review the information you’ve saved. Volvo will be showcasing Easy Connect on their boats at the Miami Boat Show. Easy Connect starts with a simple and…

Two Photographers Cruise Through Northern Europe on Homemade Floating Studios

By Peter Janssen on February 7, 2018 Cruising Life

Here’s a different kind of cruising – floating studios that two photographers have cruised over European waterways to Paris and Amsterdam and now plan to head back to Hamburg. The photographers, Claudius Schulze, from Hamburg, and Maciej Markowicz, from Berlin, built the boats themselves. They have already been to the Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam and then down to the Paris Photo Show. They will end their journey at the Triennale of Photography in Hamburg in June. Schulze, an environmental photographer, built his boat from reclaimed wood panels and old windows. It’s funky and warm, with an outdoor disco ball,…

Herb Seaton Just Completed the Great Loop, Mostly Alone. Now He Wants To Do It Again

By Peter Janssen on February 7, 2018 Cruising Life

At 77, Herb Seaton doesn’t know when to stop. He just completed the 6,000-mile Great Loop in December, going most of the way single-handed on his 53-foot Tarquin Trader Phantom. And now, after a little down time at home in Tarpon Springs, Florida, he’s ready to do it again. “The Loop is no big deal,” he wrote me. “It just takes money, time, and being a little crazy to try doing it alone.” Seaton is originally from Johnson City, Tennessee, and he joined the Army after graduating from the ROTC program at East Tennessee State University. The Army sent him…

Digital Gateways: The On Board Translators that Connect All Your Electronics

By Peter Janssen on February 7, 2018 Cruising Life, Electronics

More and more, it seems, all the various pieces of electronics on our boats are interconnected; just take a look at the helm of a well-equipped contemporary cruiser and you can see the basic nav functions on the chartplotter and autopilot, but also digital info on engine, genset and even transmission functions all on the display in front of you. But how do all these separate pieces of digital information all come together? Here’s a great introduction to new digital gateways that connect all the electronics on board from the Marine Electronics Journal. It used to be that NMEA 0183…

Dream Yacht Charter Opens New Base Serving the Exumas, with Some of the Best Cruising Grounds in the World

By Peter Janssen on February 6, 2018 Charter, Cruising Life

Dream Yacht Charter has just opened a new base serving the Exumas at Palm Cay Marina in Nassau in partnership with Navtours. One of the best cruising grounds in the world, the Exumas, just 30 miles from Nassau, are made up of 365 cays and include secluded anchorages, unspoiled beaches and world-famous dive spots. For an ideal bareboat cruising vacation, the Dream Yacht Charter fleet includes a Lagoon 40 Power Cat. Some highlights might include the natural beauty of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells, where you can explore some of the world’s oldest stromatolite reefs;…

Site of the Miami Boat Show, Virginia Key Also Is the Center of a Local Dispute

By Peter Janssen on February 5, 2018 Cruising Life, Destinations

Virginia Key, the site of the Miami International Boat Show since 2016, is also the site of a local dispute, pitting developers against some local officials who want more public access and environmental sensitivity. The one thing everybody agrees on is that the 1,000-acre key on the Rickenbacker Causeway offers beautiful views of Biscayne Bay and the downtown Miami skyline. Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz says Virginia Key should be Miami’s version of New York’s Central Park. And the key’s master plan seemed to be heading in that direction. But the city already has allocated $750,000 to design a mooring…

What Does It Really Cost To Drive an Electric Boat 1,000 Miles at 10 mph? Here are Some Answers from Stephens Waring Yacht Design

By Peter Janssen on February 5, 2018 Cruising Life, Engine Room

We all know that electric-powered boats are cheaper to operate than gas- or diesel-powered models, right? But exactly how much cheaper are they? Now the creative people at Stephens Waring Yacht Design up in Belfast, Maine, have come up with some numbers to answer that question. Oddly enough, hard figures are hard to come by. So, Stephens Waring started their research at the Alternative Fuels Data Center at the Department of Energy, which has a lot of drop-down menus with information about cars, comparing the costs of an all-electric Chevy Volt, for example, to the costs of a combustion-engine-driven Volkswagen…

Killer Whale Learns to Mimic Human Speech, Even Counting up to Three

By Peter Janssen on February 5, 2018 Cruising Life

Say “hello” to Wikie, a 16-year-oll orca whale, pictured above. Better yet, let Wikie say “hello” to you. Or “good bye.” If that’s not enough, Wikie also can count, at least as far as “one, two, three.” New research, just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, says that Wiki is able to mimic a variety of human sounds on command, adding to the growing body of evidence that killer whales learn new sounds through social interaction. In the wild, orcas live in tight-knit pods with unique vocal traditions. Now scientists believe that the whales acquire these dialects…

Once Overlooked, the Miami River Waterfront Now is Hot with $50 Million Condos and a $229 Seafood Special

By Peter Janssen on February 4, 2018 Cruising Life

If you’re going to Miami any time soon, for the boat show or otherwise, you might want to check out the new boom of upscale waterfront restaurants, condos and retail stores along the Miami River, an area that was getting pretty seedy not long ago. But things change, and now “the Miami River is hot,” as one real estate broker told The New York Times. Indeed, the Miami River downtown, just above the booming Brickell area, no longer looks like a Miami Vice outtake. It used to be filled with decrepit vessels, small bait-and-tackle shops and nefarious dealings. In 1985,…

New Prestige 630S Will Launch in Miami, a 30-Knot Cruiser with Contemporary French Flair

By Peter Janssen on February 1, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new, aggressively styled Prestige 630S with a light-filled interior and proud French pedigree will be launched in the U.S. at the Miami Yacht Show on Collins Avenue, starting Feb. 15. The newest in Prestige’s SportYacht lineup, the 630S has three cabins (plus a captain’s quarters) and a 24-knot cruising speed powered by twin 725-hp Volvos with IPS950 pod drives. Inside, the 630S has a clean, contemporary, European-styled salon, with luxurious settees and a dining table where guests can enjoy 360-degree views from windows all around. In addition, a large sliding glass sunroof lets in more light and fresh air…

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