Cruising Life

Summer – and Salmon – Along the Inside Passage to Alaska

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Cruising Life

Summer is cruising time along the Inside Passage, the roughly 1,000-mile journey from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska. It’s also salmon season, when tens of thousands of Alaska salmon return to the more than 2,000 freshwater streams, rivers and bays where they were hatched, often jumping (as high as 12 feet) up rapids and other obstacles. And salmon fishing is a huge business; sales of Alaska salmon, halibut, cod and crab reach $6 billion a year. Here’s a beautifully written story by Karen Evenden about cruising the Inside Passage with her husband Bill, with gorgeous illustrations by Jean MacKay. But it’s…

Texting While Boating? A Very Bad Idea

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Cruising Life

We all know about the dangers of texting while driving a car, but what about texting while driving your boat? It’s just the same really, leading to distractions, not looking where you’re going, losing situational awareness, and potentially leading to an accident of one shape or another. (I actually have a thing about paying attention when I’m driving a boat, whether it’s my old 8-knot Grand Banks or a 162-mph Fountain raceboat. I do want to concentrate on what’s going on, and I hate it when a passenger, however, well-meaning, leans in front of me to adjust the chartplotter or…

New 50-mph Cutwater 302 Pocket Cruiser: Innovations and Speed. See Video

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

We first wrote about the new Cutwater 302 when it was launched (last Dec. 14), but now the boat’s in the water, with a video, and it’s even more impressive than we had thought. Indeed, its 50-mph speed, driven by twin 300-hp Yamaha outboards and Cutwater’s double-stepped hull, is eye-opening, and its overall creative engineering and out-of-the-box thinking offer more living and entertaining space on board than you can find on much larger boats. The largest in the Cutwater fleet, the new 302 is a two-cabin, one-head pocket cruiser that actually can sleep six (with two on the convertible dinette).…

New 78-foot Luxury Flagship for Lagoon Power Cat Fleet

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

The flagship of the Lagoon motor yacht fleet, the new, luxurious, long-range Lagoon Seventy 8 will be introduced at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September and then shown in the U.S. later in the year. The company says the idea behind the massive 78-foot-long cruiser with a 36-foot beam is to compete in the top end of the world-wide motor yacht market. The Seventy 8 will emphasize comfort, luxury and seaworthiness. The cat’s twin hulls provide stability and space, while the three-foot draft gives the boat access to shallow bays and coves around the world. We don’t have details yet,…

Ten Great Boating Watches, from $230,400 to $220

By Peter Janssen on May 14, 2017 Cruising Life, Gear

How would one of these look on your wrist? This Bloomberg roundup of ten watches is timed for the America’s Cup, but it applies to cruising boat owners anywhere in the world. After all, even if you have redundant nav electronics on the lower and upper stations of your boat, plus a few handhelds scattered around, you still need to know what time it is. And what better way to find out that to glance at the Breguet Marine Equation Marchante 5887 (above left), from a company with a history going back to the French navy 200 years ago.…

Garmin Buys ActiveCaptain: Should Be Good News for Cruisers

By Peter Janssen on May 11, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

It would be hard to find a serious cruising person who, at one time or another, has not turned to ActiveCaptain for help. I know I have, and so has almost everyone I’ve cruised with. Its major strength is its ability to update real-time information about navigation hazards, marinas, anchorages and points of interest supplied by its 250,000 users, and offer all that data digitally on web browsers and most smart phones and tablets. Now ActiveCaptain is moving into an entirely new realm, with its purchase by Garmin, one of the leading electronic companies in the world. The synergies here…

Want to Drive Yourself Around the Lagoons in Venice? Well, First You Need a License, then…

By Peter Janssen on May 11, 2017 Cruising Life

This is just too good, a great story about trying to rent a small powerboat in Venice. And who among us wouldn’t want to do this? I know I would. A few years ago when I was there with my wife on her birthday I asked at my hotel if I could rent a boat to drive us around myself, and all I got was a shrug; we headed for the gondola, instead. But here’s a story by an intrepid New York Times reporter who kept trying, only to find out that first, he had to have a license, and…

Insiders’ Tips for Getting the Most from Your First Charter

By Peter Janssen on May 10, 2017 Charter, Cruising Life

If you’ve never taken a charter before, the idea can be a bit intimidating. No matter where you go, you’re investing a good amount of time, and money, hoping for the best. A good charter can be one of life’s best treasures; a bad one, and they don’t happen often, but still…can be awful. Here’s some great advice from charter professionals about how to tilt the odds in your favor. Even if you’ve chartered before, these tips will help you make sure that the next one is also memorable. Take a look at this insiders’ guide from Boat International: http://www.boatinternational.com/charter/luxury-yacht-charter-advice/pieces-of-expert-advice-for-first-time-charterers–30003/frame-2?view_all=true

Engine Room Fire Sinks Bayliner 4788 on Tennessee River. Three on Board All Safe

By Peter Janssen on May 10, 2017 Cruising Life

“It was pretty horrific,” David Carter told me. “You think you’re ready, but when the time comes…” Carter, 60, who’s retired and a licensed captain, was talking just a few days after his 2001 Bayliner 4788 Carter’s Cove 2 caught fire and sank in the Tennessee River near Scottsboro, Tennessee. Carter, his wife and a friend who were on board all jumped overboard and were picked up safely. It was a Saturday afternoon and Carter was about two miles from the Goose Pond Colony Resort and Marina, going slowly, waiting out a storm. He had bought the boat last…

New Shipping Lanes Opening Up in Arctic as More Ice Melts

By Peter Janssen on May 9, 2017 Cruising Life

New shipping routes are opening up in the Arctic, even directly over the North Pole, as the ice there keeps melting. Scientists report that sea ice covering the Arctic has declined each decade since the 1980s, with older, thicker ice disappearing due to global warming. This won’t happen tomorrow, but by the middle of this century they predict that the warming will “open up vast swaths of the Arctic Ocean,” and even direct over-the-pole routes could be navigable during summer and fall. The Arctic, of course, offers faster, more direct routes between ports in Asia and Europe. Commercial shipping there…

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