Cruising Life

How To Repair and Restore the Non-Skid Deck on Your Boat. An Easy Guide

By Peter Janssen on November 20, 2017 Cruising Life, Maintenance

All good things do come to an end, as the saying goes, and that certainly applies to the non-skid on your boat’s deck. Sooner or later, it will require more than a hard washing to make it look good again. And the problem is that old or cracking or worn-down non-skid is more than just a matter of looks. It’s also a matter of safety, of helping you keep your footing as you move around the boat. Repairing non-skid, however, is a big job. Here’s some great advice from Practical Sailor about to do it right, so it not only…

Innovative CrewWatcher MOB System Wins International Award

By Peter Janssen on November 20, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

CrewWatcher, the app-based man-overboard alarm system from Weems & Plath, just won the prestigious DAME award at the METS boating trade show in Amsterdam. When we first wrote about CrewWatcher last month, we said it was so good it “seems like a no-brainer.” The system consists of an app-based smartphone or tablet alarm and a small beacon that fits in your pocket. In giving the award, the DAME jury said, “CrewWatcher should be the winner because of the particularly simply and intuitive user interface of its smartphone app and the way in which it seemed easy to use right out…

Japanese Tug Loses Power, Drifts into U.S. Navy Destroyer; Some Scrapes, but No Injuries

By Peter Janssen on November 20, 2017 Cruising Life

In another case of a Navy destroyer colliding with a civilian vessel, the USS Benfold (above) was slightly damaged when a Japanese tug drifted into it during a towing exercise off central Japan. The tug lost power during the exercise and “drifted into the ship,” according to a Navy statement. No one was injured in this incident, and the Benfold just suffered some scrapes on its side. But it was a painful reminder of earlier collisions between two other destroyers, the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain, and merchant ships that ended with the deaths of 17 sailors. In…

Coast Guard Rescues Family of Six (and Their Dog) After 72-foot Trawler Sinks Off Key West

By Peter Janssen on November 16, 2017 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard rescued a family of six and their dog after their 72-foot trawler capsized and sank at 3 a.m. about five miles off Key West earlier this week. The family had abandoned ship after water started flooding in from the starboard engine compartment. “I knew we were going down,” one of the sons, Joshua Frame, said on a Facebook video (pictured above). They clung on to each other and treaded water as they drifted for 45 minutes before the Coast Guard, responding to their EPIRB signal, rescued them. All six, three men and three women, including a 78-year-old…

Coast Guard’s List of Life-Saving Christmas Gifts. You Can’t Go Wrong

By Peter Janssen on November 15, 2017 Cruising Life

Yes, yes, I know that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But I also know that I am starting to think about Christmas presents, and so is the rest of my family. What boat owner doesn’t need something new for the boat? And what better place to start than the Coast Guard’s own list of life-saving gifts – most of which you may already have, some you’ll need to replace, and some may be starting from scratch. To prompt your thinking, here’s the Coast Guard’s list from last December; everything here is still valid. If the Coast Guard issues a new…

New Azimut 55 Fly, with Italian Style, Soft Curves and Sophisticated Design, To Debut in Dusseldorf

By Peter Janssen on November 15, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The all-new Azimut 55 Fly, with nary a sharp edge or straight line anywhere, will debut at the Boot Düsseldorf show in Germany from Jan. 20-28. The contemporary Italian-designed yacht, filled with light and luxury home-style interiors, has three cabins and two heads (plus a crew cabin and head), and will top out at about 31 knots. The Azimut’s sophisticated lines, inside and out, are soft and smooth; there are no sharp edges on this cruiser. The exterior is designed by Stefano Righini, for Azimut, and the interior by Achille Salvagni, an architect who’s on the A list from Elle…

The Ten Most Famous Sailors’ Bars in the World. Do You Agree?

By Peter Janssen on November 15, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

These are billed as the Ten Most Famous Sailors’ Bars in the World, but it really doesn’t matter how you get there; the drinks and atmosphere are the same whether you arrive by sail or by power. But take a look at this list, created by Sail Universe, and see if you’ve been to any of them, or if you have your own favorites. The pictures alone will make your mouth water. Peter’s Café Sport, Horta, Azores. (Historic, dating to 1859. Don’t know how I missed this when I was there with the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally.) Foxy’s Tamarind Bar, Jost…

Prehistoric Shark with 300 Teeth and Dating to the Dinosaur Age Found off Portugal

By Peter Janssen on November 15, 2017 Cruising Life

You definitely don’t want to go near this guy. Look at those teeth, all 300 of them. And he’s been around a lot longer than we have; in fact, this frilled shark, recently caught off the coast of Portugal, has lived, largely unchanged, for 80 million years – since T Rex and his friends were roaming the planet. A deep-sea dweller, living between 390 and 4,200 feet below the surface, the frilled shark has a unique mouth, with more than 300 teeth in 25 rows, specifically designed “to trap squid, fish and other sharks,” according to The Portugal News.…

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…

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