Cruising Life

Helmsman Trawlers Bring New 38-foot Cruiser to the Chesapeake

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Helmsman Trawlers, single-engine cruisers built in China and popular on the West Coast, now have a demo boat for sale in the Chesapeake area. The new Helmsman Trawlers 38E will be at Bay Bridge Marina on Kent Island, across the bay from Annapolis; it will be displayed at the Annapolis power show in October. Built in Fuzhou, China, Helmsman are designed for owners who want a quality cruising boat but don’t want to overpay for one. They are sold factory direct, to reduce costs to consumers. The Helmsman line runs from 31 to 43 feet. The 38E has a unique…

144-Year-Old Chesapeake Lighthouse For Sale: $15,000, As Is

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2017 Cruising Life

It’s hard to beat this for waterfront property, but it does need a bit of TLC. The 144-year-old Craighill Channel Lower Range lighthouse, marking the Craighill Channel from the Chesapeake up the Patapsco River into Baltimore, is for sale for only $15,000, so you probably would have some money left over for remodeling. The lighthouse has been empty since 1964, when the keeper and his assistant moved out after the light was automated. Some of the interior is open to the elements; birds live there now. The good news is that the keeper’s quarters rise one and a half stories…

A Repeat Winner for the Beverly, Mass., 22nd Annual Lobster Boat Races

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2017 Cruising Life

For the second year in a row, Mike Malewicki proved he was the fastest lobster boat captain in Beverly, Mass., last weekend. In fact, Malewicki, driving Janie M, his 37-year-old wooden lobster boat, won two of the six races there to keep his crown. Janie M is powered by a 300-hp John Deere diesel. Therese Sauvageau, the captain of Sea Anchor, who has competed every year in the race’s 22-year-history, was happy, because she actually beat Janie M by half a boat length in one heat. “I usually come in second or third,” she said. After the races, some of the captains…

Rosario Resort and Marina: A Restored Jewel in the San Juans

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

A few years ago, at the end of a charter vacation in the San Juan Islands, my youngest daughter, Liz, and I put in to Rosario Resort Marina. It’s on a small protected bay off East Sound, which almost cuts the fairly large Orcas Island in half. We were on a Grand Banks 36 from NW Explorations in Bellingham, Washington, and had already been cruising up in South Pender Island and then Roche Harbor. Rosario was going to be an easy, last night stop on our way back to Bellingham. It was all that and more. East Sound is long,…

Reliant’s Latest: A Super-Modern Megayacht Tender that’s also a Proper Yacht

By Peter Janssen on August 1, 2017 Cruising Life

Reliant Yachts started a year ago with a traditional Downeast boat. The Reliant Commuter 40 had it all: A gorgeous tumblehome, wide teak decks, low profile and long sheer line. Then Reliant, the brainchild of industry veterans David MacFarlane and Jim Ewing, built a carbon-fiber, 40-knot Reliant X40, a super-modern design that would be more at home in the French Riviera than in Maine. Now they’re expanding on that X platform, with what they call a limousine tender that will be completed early next year. There’s no doubt that MacFarlane and Ewing know what they’re doing. MacFarlane is the former…

Scientists Puzzled by Record Number of Whale Deaths in Gulf of St. Lawrence

By Peter Janssen on August 1, 2017 Cruising Life

So far, this has been a bad summer for whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Indeed, scientists say nine North Atlantic right whales have died there in the past two months, making this the deadliest year for the endangered mammal since the 1980s. “This is catastrophic,” Tonya Wimmer, director of the Marine Animal Response Society in Halifax, told Reuters. Only 500 North Atlantic right whales remain in the world, and more have been sighted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, above Nova Scotia and between Newfoundland and New Brunswick, than ever before. Scientists speculate this may be because their…

Great Abacos Charter Story and Pictures from One Epic Adventure

By Peter Janssen on August 1, 2017 Charter, Cruising Life

Here’s a great story by the people at One Epic Adventure about chartering in the Abacos, one of the best cruising grounds around. To my mind, you won’t go wrong chartering anywhere in the Bahamas, but the Abacos are particularly appealing. The passages are short, navigation is usually line-of-sight, and there are lots of picturesque little towns, gorgeous white beaches, great snorkeling and crystal-clear, light blue-green water. You do need to watch your depth, as those beautiful waters are often shallow, and many of the cays in the Bahamas are protected by barrier reefs. In this story, the One Epic…

Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot Heads for East Coast Shows

By Peter Janssen on August 1, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Hull number one of the 20-knot Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot is on its way to the east coast, where it will be displayed at the fall boat shows, starting with Newport, Rhode Island, in early September. This three-stateroom, two-head Nordhavn, which tops out at twice the speed of previous Nordhavns, is the first to be built for coastal cruising, as opposed to the open-ocean, blue-water boats that have made the company famous. “This is a boat for people who don’t need ocean-crossing capabilities,” says Jim Leishman, vice president of PAE, Nordhavn’s parent company. Designed for owners moving down from larger…

New High-Tech FLIR Cooled Thermal Camera Detects Targets Nine Miles Away

By Peter Janssen on July 31, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

FLIR has just introduced a cutting-edge cryogenically-cooled thermal camera that allows for early detection of other vessels, landmarks and nav aids up to nine miles away. A multi-sensor marine camera, the FLIR M500 has a 14x optical zoom lens to improve situation awareness, a gyrostabilizer to produce steady images in rough seas, and a video tracker to monitor a selected moving or stationary target. The new camera does all this by detecting small temperature variations in targets, providing greater detail even at great distances or in reduced visibility. It is the first cooled thermal camera in FLIR’s award-winning M Series…

Captain of Capsized Alaska Fishing Boat Jumps in Water To Save Crew. See Coast Guard Video

By Peter Janssen on July 27, 2017 Cruising Life

The captain of a capsized fishing boat jumped into 47-degree water near Kodiak, Alaska, and swam 50 yards to pull one of his crewmen back to safety. The crew of a Coast Guard helicopter, sent to rescue all four men from the capsized boat, recorded the captain’s heroic effort (see the video below). The problems began about 3:25 on Monday afternoon, when the Coast Guard received a Mayday call. The fishing boat Grayling, with four men on board, had taken on water and capsized. The Coast Guard diverted a Jayhawk helicopter, already in the air on a training mission, for…

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