Cruising Life

Report from Lake Okeechobee: “Ugly, Dark Brown” Water and an Unhappy Lockmaster

By Peter Janssen on November 14, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

For all you snow birds who are heading south and perhaps thinking about crossing Lake Okeechobee to get to the west coast of Florida, take a look at this report from Peg and Jim Healy, very experienced cruisers on their Monk 36 Sanctuary. They crossed from east to west last week and wrote the following for Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net: “The condition of the water is deplorable. In the anchorage at Stuart, the water is ‘Lake O chocolate milk.’ The water throughout the system is an ugly, dark brown. Water levels are high, and there are no water level issues…

New Software Creates Routes To Avoid Bad Weather, Already Being Used by the Navy

By Peter Janssen on November 14, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

Here’s something new in planning how to avoid heavy weather on a long cruise, thanks to researchers at the University of Connecticut and the U.S. Navy. It’s new software called TMPLAR (Tool for Multi-objective Planning and Asset Routing) and it’s already being used by the Navy to reroute ships to avoid bad weather. But it also can create routes, with waypoints, depending on whether you want to emphasize speed or fuel efficiency to reach your destination – all while avoiding bad weather. The software is already being fully integrated into the Navy’s meteorology and oceanographic weather forecasts for both surface…

Post-Hurricane Status Report of What’s Open, and What is Still Recovering, in the Caribbean

By Peter Janssen on November 13, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

It’s now been about three months since Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated parts of the Caribbean, but the swath of destruction was selective. Some islands were virtually destroyed. Almost every building on Barbuda, for example, was knocked down, while on Antigua, almost next door, the damage was minor. Generally, the southern Caribbean, from Martinique on down, escaped undamaged, while Puerto Rico and the nearby U.S. and British Virgin Islands took a big hit. But that was then. What’s open now? Here’s an island-by-island update from the Travel section of The New York Times, reporting on the recovery situation and when…

Month-by-Month Itinerary for Cruising the Sea of Cortez, from November to May

By Peter Janssen on November 13, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

By all accounts, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez is a boating paradise, a 570-nm-long warm-water cruising ground filled with marine life and some 100 uninhabited islands, often surrounded by white beaches with nary a soul in sight. The question is not whether to go there or not; it’s really how long to spend once you get there. This story from Sea magazine suggests an answer, saying it takes seven months to sample everything the Sea of Cortez has to offer. Why rush? You need to avoid the hurricane season in summer, but otherwise just relax and enjoy yourself. Sea suggests you…

Dramatic You-Are-There Video of Rescue of Disabled Fishing Boat in a Gale off Scotland

By Peter Janssen on November 13, 2017 Cruising Life

This video is not for the faint of heart, but it is a dramatic testimony to the courage and dedication of the crew of a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) rescue boat who went out in 45-mph winds and 30-foot waves to rescue six fishermen on a disabled fishing boat off the north coast of Scotland. The fishing boat became disabled when it fouled its prop in a westerly gale, and it started drifting toward shore. It took the RNLI rescue boat more than nine hours to tow the fishing boat back to port; the tow line parted a total…

Admiral Stavridis: Navy Needs To Return to Basic Blocking and Tackling

By Peter Janssen on November 13, 2017 Cruising Life

To my mind, James Stavridis is a national treasure. A retired four-star Admiral, Stavridis originally graduated from Annapolis and after 37 years rose to be Supreme Commander of NATO. He’s now chairman of the board of the U.S. Naval Institute and dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. In his writing and public appearances, Stavridis comes across as an experienced, plain-spoken patriot who knows what he’s talking about. In this story for Bloomberg, below, Stavridis writes about what the Navy needs to do in the aftermath of the collisions of two destroyers, the USS McCain and…

The Seven Knots You Need to Know – in an Easy Video. Take a Look

By Peter Janssen on November 13, 2017 Cruising Life

One of my all-time movie favorites is the scene toward the end of Jaws where Roy Schneider, playing the very un-nautical police chief, is sitting in the cockpit of Robert Shaw’s fishing boat, trying to learn how to tie a bowline…”The rabbit comes out of the hole…” he recites, while the theme music comes up and the shark swims closer and closer for its final attack. In real life, as in the movies, you don’t want to wait until you – or your crew – are actually on the boat before you learn how to tie at least a few…

International Dispute About Cannons, Other Artifacts from 1565 Shipwreck off Cape Canaveral

By Peter Janssen on November 9, 2017 Cruising Life

What we know is that in September, 1565, French navigator Jean Ribault, who’d already been exploring the Florida area for three years, was sailing his fleet of three ships up to St. Augustine to attack the new Spanish colony there. All three disappeared in a storm. In May and June, 2016, Global Marine Exploration, a marine salvage firm operating with permits from the state of Florida, found artifacts from an old shipwreck on the sandy seafloor in seven different spots off Cape Canaveral. The debris includes three brass cannons (each one, pictured above, is worth about $1 million), plus a marble…

See the Video of an Oil Tanker Running Aground off Southport, North Carolina

By Peter Janssen on November 9, 2017 Cruising Life

I think it’s safe to say that most of us (all of us?) who’ve cruised on the ICW have run aground at some point. Running aground in a recreational boat is one thing. Running aground in an oil tanker is another. This video, taken from a backyard home security camera in Southport, North Carolina, shows the MT Swan Biscay, flagged in the Marshall Islands, running aground on the Cape Fear River. Not only does the ship hit the bottom, but it also keeps going, spinning around, throwing considerable fear into the captain of the small fishing boat who scrambles to…

New Riva 76 Bahamas: High-Tech, High-Style and a Very Cool Convertible Top

By Peter Janssen on November 9, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you want to go cruising in style, iconic Italian style, take a look at the new Riva 76 Bahamas, which just made its U.S. debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. It’s a combination of high-tech, legendary Riva styling and massive power – plus what the company calls “shark grey” paint with “bright black” detailing – that will turn heads in harbors from the Med to Miami. The new Riva also has a very cool carbon-fiber convertible top that transforms the three-cabin (plus crew), four-head beauty from an open boat to a coupe, all in 90 seconds. “The…

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