Cruising Life

How To Dock in Wind or Current

By co_admin on September 4, 2023 Cruising Life

Here some great advice from Skipper Tips about how to dock safely even when there’s a strong wind or current. Take heed: Imagine you need to dock your boat in a strong, gusty wind between two other boats. The wind is blowing from ahead of your bow and parallel to the pier. How can you make this docking challenge easier? Follow these five easy steps. Stop into any marina on a weekend and you’re bound to see several great and not-so-great docking approaches. The best approaches are never about speed or quickness, but about command and control. Keep your bow…

Dive boat Conception. Photo by Ventura County Fire Department

NTSB Urges Coast Guard To Act on Safety

By Peter Janssen on September 4, 2023 Cruising Life

The National Transportation Safety Board is urging the Coast Guard to adopt safety management regulations for small passenger vessels, one of the recommendations that the NTSB made as a result of the fire on the commercial dive boat Conception that killed 34 people off Southern California in September, 2019. Safety management systems (SMS) regulations now are now looser for smaller passenger vessels than they are for cargo ships and workboats. But the NTSB has asked the Coast Guard to tighten them since 2005. Congress approved a tightening in 2010. For its part, the Coast Guard says it has made some…

Man Overboard from World’s Largest Cruise Ship

By Peter Janssen on September 3, 2023 Cruising Life

A 19-year-old college student, on vacation with a group of friends, somehow fell off the world’s largest cruise ship off the Coast of Cuba last week and has not been found. Sigmund Ropich is from Texas but he was attending college in Washington State. He fell off the Wonder of the Seas about 9 at night on the second day of a seven-day cruise from Port Canaveral in Florida. The ship measures 1,188 feet long and was carrying 5,606 passengers and 2,300 crew on its 18 decks. Royal Caribbean International, which owns the ship, said, “The ship’s crew immediately launched…

Idalia’s Storm Surge Slams into Florida’s Big Bend

By Peter Janssen on August 31, 2023 Cruising Life

The most terrifying part of Hurricane Idalia, which hit Florida on Wednesday morning, even more than the 129-mph winds and the blinding rain, was the storm surge. When Idalia slammed into the Big Bend area, north of Tampa and south of Tallahassee, it rose as high as 12 feet, about the level of the second floor in most houses. “I was swimming inside my house,” one Big Bend survivor told NBC News. The good news is that the bulk of the storm passed north of the heavily populated Tampa area, although there was a lot of local flooding. Indeed, 9.4…

Pearl to Display New 62 with Volvo Assisted Docking

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Pearl will demonstrate Volvo’s new Assisted Docking system at the Southampton boat show starting Sept. 15. on its award-winning 62, the British builder’s best-selling model. Volvo’s Assisted Docking is a stem-to-stern system designed to take the stress out of docking a boat, even one as large as the Pearl 62. It represents the next generation of marine automation (although it does not replace a captain at the helm) and makes docking even in tight spaces safe and easy, compensating for the dynamics of wind and current. You control the boat’s direction and speed, while the system automatically adjusts for everything…

Mercury Unveils New 20e and 35e Electric Outboards

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2023 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Gear

Mercury Marine just launched its new Avator 20e and 35e electric outboards that you can order now. Mercury launched its first electric outboard, the Avator 7.5e, at the Consumer Electronics Show last January. John Buelow, the president of Mercury Marine, said the two new outboards “set new benchmarks for innovation, performance, and connectivity.” The 20e and 35e have many of the same features as the earlier 7.5e, including transverse flux motor technology, color display, and ambidextrous tiller handles. They also can be connected to multiple Avator batteries to extend their range and run time, and they have access to the…

Coast Guard Rescues 4 Men, Dog

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2023 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard rescued four men and a dog just minutes before their 30-foot powerboat capsized off the coast of New Jersey on Sunday. Someone from the boat put out a Mayday call saying it was sinking near the Forked River in Barnegat Bay. A 29-foot fast response boat from the Coast Guard station at Barnegat Light was already in the water and headed to the scene. The recreational boat capsized and sank just moments after the Coast Guard had rescued the four men and the dog. The Coast Guard took the men and the dog to a marina in…

Canadian Completes Greater Loop on a Kayak

By co_admin on August 29, 2023 Cruising Life

Mark Fuhrmann, a 65-year-old adventurer, just became the first person to complete the Great Loop on a kayak. Actually, Fuhrmann completed the so-called Greater Loop, since he started and ended in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His epic voyage covered 6,800 nm and lasted 268 days. Here’s the story from the Good News Network: After 268 days in his kayak, a 65-year-old has completed his epic ‘Reverse the Bad’ expedition, becoming the first person to solo kayak the Greater Loop across Canada and the United States. The journey of almost 6,800 miles (11,000km) required Mark Fuhrmann to paddle for 1,643 hours—which is…

New Rangeboat 46 Made for Efficient Cruising

By Peter Janssen on August 28, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Rangeboat 46, designed for liveaboards or cruisers who want to go faster than displacement speeds and burn less fuel then most trawlers, just arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. The company will have a booth at the Newport show, starting Sept. 14, but the boat will be in the harbor for showing. Powered by a single 260-hp Yanmar, the Rangeboat 46 is efficient; it gets 3.5 miles per gallon at 10 knots. If you want to outrun a storm, or just get somewhere a bit faster, it tops out at about 18 knots. The boat was designed by Nigel…

Prestige To Unveil New Upscale F4 at Cannes

By Peter Janssen on August 28, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Prestige, the upscale French builder, will hold the global premiere of its new almost-50-foot F4 flybridge yacht at the Cannes Yachting Festival, starting Sept. 12. The new Prestige comes with some heavy-hitting names. Garroni Design of Genoa, which has worked on everything from cruise liners to superyachts, did the lines, while Michael Peters, the Sarasota-based naval architect who has worked on everything from Hinckleys to race boats, did the hull. Powered by twin 480-hp Volvo IPS650 pod drives, the new F4 is expected to cruise comfortably and efficiently in the 22-knot range, and top out at 27 knots. Prestige says…

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