Cruising Life

Sea Stories from Those Who’ve Been There: What To Do When Things Go Wrong

By Peter Janssen on February 26, 2017 Cruising Life

It’s certainly a truism that we learn from experience. (I guess the real truism is that we should learn from experience.) And that certainly applies to cruising and spending time on boats, where a whole lot of things can go wrong, usually when we least expect them to do so. But we can learn from the mistakes of others. Here are five different stories from the readers of Sea magazine about things that went wrong on their cruises – and what they learned to prevent them from happening again. Take heed: http://www.seamagazine.com/the-hard-way/?utm_source=SEA+Magazine&utm_campaign=7db0a6bf21Sea_2017_02_24_NL_02_24_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_30cb03d58b-7db0a6bf21-46073145

Lucas Pronk, Age 10, Tells His 5th Grade Class Back Home About the Great Loop; Great Video

By Peter Janssen on February 26, 2017 Cruising Life

If you want to renew your faith in humanity, or just feel good about the world, take a look at this video by Lucas Pronk, 10. Yes, I know he’s on a sailboat, and this is a powerboat site. But that’s not the point. Lucas and his family – his father, James; mother, Nancy; and brother Marcos, 6, are truly living the dream – doing the Great Loop together – on a 44-year-old Catalina 27. James, an artist, and Nancy, a teacher, are taking a year off, and homeschooling the boys. They rented their house in Peterborough, Ontario, and set…

Ida Lewis: “The Bravest Woman in America”

By Peter Janssen on February 26, 2017 Cruising Life

Long before women could vote, much less hold down “a man’s job,” Ida Lewis was called “the bravest woman in America.” The reason: As the official keeper of the Lime Rock Light Station on a tiny island off Newport, RI, she managed to save 18 people from drowning. Lewis took over the Light Station when her father, who had been the keeper, died in 1872. After she started saving people by herself, Lewis became a 19th century celebrity: She was on the cover of Harper’s Weekly; President U.S. Grant visited her when he was in Newport. Lewis kept the job…

Stay Connected, Anywhere in the World, with the New Mazu App

By Peter Janssen on February 23, 2017 Annapolis Boat Show, Cruising Life, Electronics

Even in our constantly-on digital world, staying connected isn’t always as easy as it should be, particularly if you’re cruising offshore or out of Wi-Fi range. Everyone wants to stay connected, but it’s often expensive or complicated. Now the new Mazu app from SkyMate helps to solve those problems by making communications and nav functions both easy and inexpensive anywhere in the world. The way it works is certainly easy enough. You download the free Mazu app from the App Store for your iPad. Then you purchase the mSeries system and install it on your boat (it’s designed to be…

Construction of the New Kadey-Krogen 50 Open: An Owner’s Progress Report

By Peter Janssen on February 23, 2017 Cruising Life

Here’s an inside view of the construction of hull number one the new Kadey-Krogen 50 Open, as seen through the eyes of its owner, Larry Polster, who’s also a partner and vice president of Kadey-Krogen Yachts. Polster told me in Miami that he’s now doing what we all would love to do, living the dream himself, since he and his wife, Janet, plan to live aboard the boat once it is delivered next fall and then do some extended cruising, starting with the Bahamas after the Miami boat show next February. But it would be hard to find a…

Cape Breton Island: A Canadian Cruising Heaven that Still Beckons

By Peter Janssen on February 23, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

Many years ago, I drove a Phoenix 35 from Norwalk, Connecticut, up to the little Canadian town of Gaspé, on the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, with my friend Eric Schweikardt, the photographer. The trip took us up to Maine, over to Nova Scotia, up to the Canso Canal, past Prince Edward Island and finally to Gaspé, at the entrance to the St. Lawrence. Unfortunately, we went right by Cape Breton Island and Bras d’Or, the magnificent lake in the middle of it. We were in a hurry, or thought we were, and, with the ignorance of relative youth, thought…

What’s Killing the Swimming Pigs in the Exumas?

By Peter Janssen on February 23, 2017 Cruising Life

In some circles, the swimming pigs of the Exumas are virtual celebrities. People put a visit to Big Major Cay, near Staniel Cay, where the pigs swim out to greet incoming boats (and hope for food) on their bucket lists. Over the years, the pigs have been written about in cruising guides, Forbes and Travel+Leisure; they’ve even been featured on The Today Show. But now about half the swimming pig population has turned up dead, and nobody seems to know why. Big Major Cay doesn’t have any human population, but it did have about 20 pigs and piglets. The Bahamas…

Bavaria Yachts Virtess 420 Fly: An Award-Winning Cruising Machine. Plus Video

By Peter Janssen on February 22, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Bavaria Yachts booth at the Miami International Boat Show was always busy, it seemed, and the star of the show there was the Bavaria Virtess 420 Fly, now in the U.S. after having been named European Boat of the Year a while ago. And, with its combination of German engineering and Italian interior design, it was easy to see why. Powered by two 435-hp Volvo diesels with Volvo’s IPS fingertip joystick control, the Bavaria 420 tops out at about 33 knots, and its 18-degrees of deadrise at the transom mean she can perform even in heavy seas. Overall, the…

A Palm Beach Couple Enjoy the Cruising Lifestyle on Their Alden 49

By Peter Janssen on February 22, 2017 Cruising Life

Patrick and Denise Segraves probably use their boat the way most of us do – on weekends, on vacation cruises or simply as a place to relax and entertain friends close to home. The Segraves, who live in Palm Beach, bought their Alden 49 Tonic four years ago in New York. They kept it in Newport, Rhode Island, for a year before bringing it down to Palm Beach themselves. With twin diesels producing 1,400 hp, Tonic hits 25 knots, which means the Keys and the Bahamas are all within easy reach. Read about the Segraves and their boating lifestyle here. http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/lifestyles/denise-and-patrick-segraves-enjoy-their-power-boat-life-palm-beach/OTwL9DcRtPyOJb4rchv0eN/…

Furuno’s New Radar: More Powerful and Precise at Both Short and Long Range

By Peter Janssen on February 22, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

Long a leader in providing sophisticated radar for commercial users, Furuno has just introduced two new features to improve the performance of their X-Class radar units on cruising powerboats as well. By extending the maximum pulse length from 0.8 to 1.2 megaseconds, Furuno has increased the performance in both long- and short-range applications. This means that you can see land masses, for example, in great detail at long range, while you can detect many different targets, clearly and precisely, at short range. The two new features are for Furuno’s NavNet TZtouch and TZtouch2 units, and they’re called DRS12AX and DRS25AX.…

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