Cruising Life

Hybrid Upscale Floating Home To Debut at Fort Lauderdale Show

By Peter Janssen on August 13, 2017 Cruising Life

If you want to live on the water, and your cruising boat doesn’t have enough room to really stretch out, take a look at the Luxuria 1, a hybrid house and boat that floats on a barge and that has two luxurious bedrooms, two baths, a living room (with a 12-foot LED fireplace) and a wine room. Designed by Global Boatworks Holding Inc. and built at the Lauderdale Marine Center, Luxuria 1 is now at the Bahia Mar Yachting Center and will be exhibited there at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, starting Nov. 1. The two-story vessel has floor-to-ceiling…

Good News: Dismal Swamp Canal To Open by the end of September

By Peter Janssen on August 13, 2017 Cruising Life

Here’s good news if you’re heading south this fall. The Dismal Swamp Canal, the 22-mile cut of an alternate route of the Intracoastal Waterway through parts of Virginia and North Carolina, will reopen by the end of September. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it will be able to complete dredging of the canal to a 6-foot controlling depth by then. The Corps closed the canal after Hurricane Matthew last October, and has cleared more than 350 trees from the waterway since then and dredged shoals as shallow as one foot. The oldest operating man-made canal in the U.S.,…

NOAA Updates Atlantic Hurricane Forecast: Now Potential To Be “Extremely Active”

By Peter Janssen on August 10, 2017 Cruising Life

NOAA has just updated its forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season, and it will be worse than they had thought just a few months ago. Indeed, NOAA says we now face a higher likelihood of an above-normal season, with the potential for it to be extremely active – the worst since 2010. The new, harsher forecast says there is a 60 percent chance of an above-normal season, with 14 to 19 named storms; 5 to 9 hurricanes, and 2 to 5 major hurricanes. Gerry Bell, the lead forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, says, “The wind and air patterns in…

Beneteau’s New Flagship: Gran Turismo 50 with Lots of French Styling

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

Beneteau is planning a new flagship, the Gran Turismo 50, with either two or three staterooms, the company’s trademark French styling, and lots of social and entertaining spaces inside and out. The large lounge in the cockpit is fully flush with the salon, creating an easy flow of guests inside and out. The cockpit is protected by the overhang from the flybridge, and is meant for entertaining with an exterior galley and grill. The large swim platform is submersible for water sports, and the garage is large enough to hold a Williams Minijet. The interior, by Andreani Design, is bright,…

New York Nautical: The Epicenter for Charts in the U.S.

By Peter Janssen on August 9, 2017 Cruising Life

If you love charts, or even if you just need one, you should check out New York Nautical in New York City’s TriBeCa. It’s been around for almost 100 years, and a visiting admiralty law professor recently called it “the epicenter for charts and navigation on the East Coast, if not the entire United States,” in this New York Times story. New York Nautical, at 200 Church Street, is full of all things nautical – wooden cabinets stuffed with charts, plus globes, ship models, nautical flags, cruising guides and historic charts (an 1863 chart of the Chesapeake, for example, for…

Best Places to Watch the Eclipse from Your Boat

By Peter Janssen on August 8, 2017 Cruising Life

In a special report, The New York Times Magazine had this to say about the eclipse: “On the morning of Aug. 21, the moon’s shadow will appear over the Pacific Ocean and move swiftly toward Lincoln Beach, Oregon, just south of Portland, making landfall at 10:16 a.m. local time. If the morning fog has lifted by then, and if the weather is clear, viewers will see something in the sky that most have never seen: a black hole where the sun should be, and around the edges sinuous flames radiating out in all directions.” The shadow then will move on…

New Simard NSS evo3 Multi-Function Display: Easier to Read, Easier to Use

By Peter Janssen on August 8, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

The new Simrad NSS evo3 multi-function display has a lot going for it. It’s easier to read, it’s easier to navigate and it’s easier to use. It also combines a lot of features all in one unit to make cruising easier and safer. The brilliant landscape on the new widescreen SolarMAX HD display shows true colors, and the display is clear in the sun and easy to read even at a wide angle. The clarity is exceptional. You control it via the all-weather touchscreen or the expanded keypad, so that you have reliable control in all sea conditions. You can…

The 20 Best Beach Bars in the World. Find Your Favorite

By Peter Janssen on August 8, 2017 Cruising Life

Take a look at this list of the 20 best beach bars in the world, compiled by Coastal Living magazine, and you may want to take out your passport and start booking a flight. Some are in the expected places – Sardinia, St. Tropez, Mustique, Mykonos, Ibiza and the Maldives. But others: Uruguay? Or the Netherlands, where Woodstock ’69 is just an hour’s drive from Amsterdam? Closer to home is the Flora-Bama in Pensacola, Florida, on the Alabama line. So far, I’ve missed that one somehow. But the one that really appeals to me is the Baba Nest in Phuket,…

5 Fun Things To Do with Kids in the Florida Keys

By Peter Janssen on August 8, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

If you’re cruising in the Keys with your family, here are some great ideas from Drew White, the resident expert at Cannons Marina on Longboat Key. White spent summers there as a kid himself, and now lives there. You may have your own list, but here’s a good place to start: 1.Eat on the dock at Robbie’s Restaurant in Islamorada, and get a bucket of fish to feed the tarpon. 2.Visit the Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key, where there are hundreds of small deer. 3.Swim with the dolphins at Theatre of the Sea on Islamorada, a mini-theme park.…

BBQ Grills on Board: Which One’s Best for You?

By Peter Janssen on August 7, 2017 Cruising Life, Gear

A lot of us think that it doesn’t get much better, at the end of the day, than to fire up the grill on board and barbecue a steak, some fresh fish, burgers, almost anything. Somehow, almost everything tastes better when it comes off a grill. But, if you don’t have one yet, what kind of grill should you buy for your boat? Charcoal? Electric? Gas/Propane? They come in various sizes, with various costs, ranging from the $150 level, for a small stainless steel grill that you clamp onto a handrail or slide into a rod holder, to several thousands…

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