Cruising Life

Coast Guard Removes 1,968 “Displaced” Florida Boats To Avoid Pollution

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2017 Cruising Life

The toll is staggering. So far, the Coast Guard and other government agencies have removed 1,968 vessels from Florida waters that were “displaced” by Hurricane Irma in September – meaning they sank or were damaged so badly that they couldn’t be moved by their owners. (Some 1,434 of these were from the Florida Keys.) And more boats are being added to that total every day. The Coast Guard is working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove the boats based on their potential environmental impact. But they also are urging boat owners…

One of the World’s Great Cruising Destinations, St. Barts is Making a Comeback after Irma

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

St. Barts suffered more than a glancing blow from Hurricane Irma in early September, but it wasn’t a knockout punch. Irma did cause a lot of damage throughout the island, destroying some hotels, restaurants and even wiping out the weather station, but now St. Barts, one of the world’s great cruising and vacation destinations, is staging a comeback. This story and video from Caribbean Journal tell how resilient the island is; some hotels have already reopened (although Eden Rock and Le Toiny will be shut until 2018), and more shops and restaurants reopening every day. But St. Barts is still…

Doug Zurn’s Fast, Very Fast, NEB 50, a Marriage of Good Looks and High Performance

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

With Doug Zurn’s iconic low profile, long sheerline and slender, water-shedding hull, the NEB/Zurn 50 is a standout because of its looks and its performance. The looks speak for themselves, while the performance – a top speed of 56 knots – is due to the boat’s light weight, composite construction and two 1,200-hp MAN diesel power plants and Rolls Royce jet drives. A high-end, custom commuter boat or fast coastal cruiser built at New England Boatworks in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the NEB/Zurn 50 combines the best of modern Down East design and cutting-edge engineering and construction. The hull and deck…

Ride on Water with a New Hydrofoil Bike from New Zealand

By Peter Janssen on November 27, 2017 Cruising Life, Gear

This is a hoot. Not exactly a cruising boat, but maybe something to give you a little exercise – or even take you ashore – when you anchor out. The 44-pound Manta5 is a hydrofoil water bike that lets you ride on the water. The two carbon fiber hydrofoils create lift (think of the America’s Cup boats in Bermuda), while a 400-watt motor provides enough power to reach a top speed of 12-mph. The battery lasts for about an hour, or you can just keep pedaling manually forever. The whole thing folds up to fit in a car trunk, or…

Taking on the Great Loop on a 1960 Chris-Craft Constellation and Loving It

By Peter Janssen on November 26, 2017 Cruising Life

How’s this for a modern-day adventure, although with a tip of the hat to a golden oldie? Albert Bartkus and Cindy Chebultz have joined a growing number of cruisers who are taking on the Great Loop, and they’re doing it on a classic 1960, 50-foot wooden Chris-Craft Constellation named MissMarianne. And to prove they’re totally up to date, Cindy is taking pictures and posting them on their blog, lifeofacaptain, just about every day. They left Chicago, their home port, on Oct. 27, and figure that by the time they’re through with the Loop, plus side trips, they’ll cover 7,000 miles,…

Five Favorite Anchorages in the Remote but Beautiful Broughton Islands

By Peter Janssen on November 26, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

Way above the more popular San Juans and the Canadian Gulf Islands, the Broughton Islands, on the mainland side of Queen Charlotte Strait in British Columbia, are an inviting (and often over-looked) cruising grounds, with remote anchorages, deep channels, sharply-creased fjords and lots of peace and quiet. Most cruisers, of course, stay farther south, but if you head up to the Broughtons, which basically are opposite Port Hardy, about two-thirds of the way up Vancouver Island, you’ll find that as the crowds thin out, the wildlife population increases; it’s not unusual to find dolphins playing next to your boat in…

Florida Floating Home Hero Back Before the U.S. Supreme Court in Fight Against Riviera Beach

By Peter Janssen on November 21, 2017 Cruising Life

Fane Lozman, a former Marine officer and now a successful financial trader, could be resting on his laurels. After all, he was hailed as a hero to floating home owners five years ago after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a suit he brought after the city of Riviera Beach, Florida, seized and destroyed his 60-foot-long, two-story-tall floating home at the city dock, claiming it was a boat and subject to maritime law. The Supreme Court saw it differently. “It was one of those cases where a picture was worth a thousand words,” Chief Justice John Roberts…

Sea of Garbage Floating in Caribbean. See the Video – and Worry

By Peter Janssen on November 21, 2017 Cruising Life

Take a good look at this picture. Then look again. Then look away. That’s the Caribbean, off the island of Roatán, one of the islands about 40 miles north of Honduras, and usually one of the premiere dive spots in the world. Here, it’s a giant floating garbage dump of plastic and junk. It seems that we’re looking at debris within a gyre, a system of circulating ocean currents driven by the wind. And this isn’t the worst. See the map in the story below the You Tube video for the location of five gyres that are considered much worse.…

Navy Adds AIS and More Sleep in Effort To Avoid Collisions

By Peter Janssen on November 21, 2017 Cruising Life

In addition to more training in basic seamanship, the Navy is introducing other reforms aimed at preventing more collisions at sea. The moves came after two destroyers, the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain (pictured above), collided with merchant ships in the Pacific recently, resulting in the death of 17 sailors. In a wide-ranging report, the Navy earlier said that the collisions were avoidable and were caused by preventable errors on both destroyers. It found that sailors were often sleep-deprived and didn’t have enough training to do their jobs properly. As a result, the Navy ordered additional training in basic…

A Fast Tour of the Best of Australia, from Perth to Tasmania, with Sunseeker

By Peter Janssen on November 21, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

Here’s a fast tour of the horizon if you’re ever cruising in Australia (Oz), from Rottnest Island off Perth on the Indian Ocean to the separate island of Tasmania off the southeast coast, the Barrier Reef and much more, all from the pages of Sunseeker Magazine, from Sunseeker Yachts. Our tour starts in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, a modern metropolis with skyscrapers and bustle. (When I was there some 30 years ago, it was much sleepier, reminding me of an earlier San Diego.) From there it’s an 11-mile offshore hop to Rottnest Island, filled with wildlife (don’t miss…

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