Cruising Life

Cruise One-Way Down the Windward Islands in a Chartered Power Cat from the Moorings

By Peter Janssen on October 9, 2017 Charter, Cruising Life

How’s this for a great charter idea? Pick up a power cat in St. Lucia and then spend a week or so island-hopping down the Windwards and end up in Granada, sampling some of the most romantic beaches, towns and small French bars and restaurants along the way. The Moorings is now promoting this as the ultimate one-way Caribbean charter, taking advantage of the prevailing winds, and letting you sample half a dozen or more of the smaller islands that make up the Windwards, so-called because they were more to windward to the early sailing ships in the 16th and…

Coast Guard Practices in Surf as Hurricane Passes Offshore: See Video

By Peter Janssen on October 9, 2017 Cruising Life

For the Coast Guard, an offshore hurricane provides a great chance to do some serious surf training. And that’s exactly what they did recently, when Hurricane Maria passed about 150 miles off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In fact, the Coast Guard station at Oregon Inlet decided to take advantage of the storm to do some extra work. They launched a 47-foot Lifeboat near Nags Head to run surf drills for a total of 18 hours as the storm passed offshore, practicing maneuvering, man overboard and emergency tows. “Each time the weather presents an opportunity to train in breaking…

New Sunreef 68 Power Cat: Luxury Living with Extra Space Everywhere

By Peter Janssen on October 8, 2017 Cruising Life

The first Sunreef Supreme 68 power cat in the United States will be introduced at the Fort Lauderdale show, and it’s simply vast. With more than 3,200 square feet of living space – luxurious living space, at that – it’s larger than many New York apartments. The Sunreef 68 is an elegant, contemporary European design with clean lines, where the interior and exterior spaces blend together to create vast open areas for lounging and dining whether underway or at a dock. In the new 68, Sunreef keeps the salon and exterior deck, fore and aft, all at the same level.…

The Andersons, with Baxter, Are Completing the Great Loop on Their C-Dory 25

By Peter Janssen on October 8, 2017 Cruising Life

Pat and Patty Anderson, of Birch Bay, Washington, are now well on their way toward completing the Great Loop on Daydream, their C-Dory 25, with their ten-year-old Lhasa Apso, Baxter. In fact, they’re now in Demopolis, Alabama, heading back down to where they started on April 1 in La Belle, Florida, on the Okeechobee Waterway. What is even more remarkable than the fact that they’ve come this far on their 12-year-old C-Dory, one of the smaller craft on the Loop, is the reaction of other people to their voyage. So far, the Andersons have had about 54,000 page views on…

A New 475 Blue-Water Pilothouse Cruiser Coming from Nordhavn

By Peter Janssen on October 5, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Nordhavn is designing a new 475 trawler to replace the popular 43 in the company’s lineup. And the new two-stateroom, two-head pilothouse cruiser, powered by a single 180-hp John Deere diesel, will be true to Nordhavn’s blue-water, world-circling roots, says Jim Leishman, the vice president of PAE, Nordhavn’s parent company. “Nordhavns have crossed more oceans than all our competitors combined,” he told me at the Newport show recently. The 475 will be built to increase that number. On the 475, the keel will be extended aft from the keel on the 43, the salon will be larger and the boat…

Intrepid Cruisers, the Odendahls Create Their Own “Shoe Loop” on Their Ranger Tugs 25

By Peter Janssen on October 5, 2017 Cruising Life

Take a look at the map, above. Taking some poetic license, Cheryll and Rich Odendahl say it resembles a shoe. In any event, it traces a 1,240-mile voyage the Odendahls just completed on their 2008 Ranger Tugs 25, appropriately named Roam. And the Odendahls, who’ve cruised just about everywhere from Alaska to the Bahamas and Cuba, have named it the Shoe Loop. SHOE, Odendahl says, also is an acronym for St. Clair-Huron-Ontario-Erie. Intrepid travelers on land, air and sea, the Odendahls have visited 149 countries around the world, many since he retired in 2011 after working 30 years at General…

Journalist Was Stabbed 14 Times in Danish Submarine Case, Autopsy Shows

By Peter Janssen on October 5, 2017 Cruising Life

Kim Wall, the American-educated journalist who was last seen on Aug. 10 when she went for a ride on Peter Madsen’s homemade submarine in Copenhagen, had been stabbed 14 times before she died, according to authorities there. Wall, 30, was born in Sweden but graduated from The Columbia School of Journalism in New York and had written for The New York Times. She went out with Madsen on his 55-foot sub for a story. When she did not appear the next morning, her boyfriend called police. A search and rescue team found Madsen’s sub a few hours later, floating disabled…

New, Fun 45-mph Seakart: “The UItimate Sea Toy”

By Peter Janssen on October 4, 2017 Cruising Life, Gear

Just launched at the Monaco Yacht Show, the Seakart 335, a combination of a RIB, a jetski and a yacht tender, is billed as “the ultimate sea toy.” It may be, but whatever it is, it looks like a lot of fun. Powered by a 110-hp or a 180-hp gas four-stroke Yamaha jet engine, the Seakart can hit a top speed of 45 mph, and hold up to five people – two in the bow and three across the stern. It has fiberglass parts and inflatable Hypalon tubes, so it is appropriate as a yacht tender as well as an…

Moorings Opens New Charter Destination in the Exumas, Starts Classes in Greece

By Peter Janssen on October 4, 2017 Charter, Cruising Life

The Moorings, the powerhouse charter company with more than 20 locations around the world, now has a new destination in the Exumas in the Out Islands of the Bahamas, and they’re also starting a new Power Cruising Course in Corfu, Greece, one of the most romantic spots in the world, that leads to a charter certificate from the Royal Yachting Association. The Exumas are a group of 365 islands and cays about 35 miles southeast of Nassau with some of the most unspoiled beaches in the Caribbean (see the picture above). They are definitely off the beaten path. The Moorings…

Toxic Algae Blooms Cover Western End of Lake Erie. Can Hurt Boating

By Peter Janssen on October 4, 2017 Cruising Life

Lake Erie is in trouble, or at least about 700 square miles of the western end of the lake are, and the problem seems to be getting worse. The surface of the lake there is turning bright green, as miles of algae cover the surface, often deep enough for you to write on. A similar problem two years ago kept boats out of the lake for six weeks or more. The New York Times reports that algae blooms, containing cyanobacteria with toxins that can contaminate drinking water, have been growing on the lake since 2000. They have increased as fertilizer…

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