Cruising Life

5 Ways To Summon Help: BoatUS

By co_admin on May 15, 2023 Cruising Life

National Safe Boating Week is coming up (starting May 21), and BoatUS is taking the occasion to remind everyone about how they can be seen, and heard, if they run into trouble this summer. Here are their five tips that can help you summon help if you need it: VHF Radio – A VHF (Very High Frequency) radio is the most reliable way to communicate with other boats and emergency responders on most waterways. New Digital Selective Calling (DSC) radios with a red distress button can even send an emergency call and other important information such as your location to…

New, Cruiser-Friendly Offshore 54 PH

By Peter Janssen on May 10, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Offshore 54 Pilothouse is the latest iteration of a popular cruising design built for easy handling by a couple. Offshore says the 54 is the “finest Offshore yet,” and that’s saying something since the company has built more than 300 yachts since its founding in 1948. The 54 PH has a semi-displacement hull with a fine entry for parting the waves and a full keel for directional stability and protection for the props. Standard power comes from twin 715-hp Cummins with straight shafts, producing a top speed of a bit over 20 knots and a cruising speed of…

Manatees Gather for Mating Season

By Peter Janssen on May 10, 2023 Cruising Life

The Save the Manatees organization just posted a new video of a herd of the big friendly mammals gathering in Blue Spring State Park in Florida for mating season. You can see it via the link here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=964779371542876 Save the Manatees said they counted more than 30 manatees last week at Blue Spring, about halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach, for the cool water and their annual mating ritual. During mating season, a female manatee is generally pursued by as many as half a dozen males and the female (cow) will mate with several males (bulls) to provide the largest…

Suzuki Cruise Promotes New Eco-Friendly Fuel

By Peter Janssen on May 10, 2023 Cruising Life

A 26-foot Sea Pro center console just cruised 941 miles from Florida to Washington, D.C., powered by two Suzuki outboards using new eco-friendly fuel. The boat took ten days to travel from Jacksonville to the Capitol. Its Suzuki DF140 outboards burned 479 gallons of new EcoGen90 fuel, developed by VP Racing, along the way, for an average of just under 2 mpg in the deep-V boat. The boat’s arrival on Washington earlier this week was timed to coincide with the start of the annual American Boating Congress, organized by the National Marine Manufacturers Association. It then was used for demo…

New Radar Helps with Search and Rescue

By Peter Janssen on May 9, 2023 Cruising Life, Electronics

The Coast Guard just announced that it’s buying a new radar system that will improve their search-and-rescue efforts significantly. The new next-generation weather radar system, the Honeywell IntuVue RDR-7000, uses automated technology; it will be used to upgrade the radar now on Coast Guard Jayhawk and Dolphin helicopters, replacing the current manual systems with fully automated tilt-and-gain controls. With the current system, a pilot has to manually adjust the controls to direct the radar beam. The new automated system, which captures weather as far as 80 nm away, will be particularly valuable to Coast Guard crews on search-and-rescue missions that…

Up from the Depths: The Fanged Lancetfish

By Peter Janssen on May 9, 2023 Cruising Life

Most of us have never seen a prehistoric-looking lancetfish, and we probably never will. That’s just as well, because they can grow to be 7-feet long, they have fang-like teeth, enormous eyes and a long, slithery body. They’re also cannibals, eating their own kind, and they have a fairly unusual sex life, in that they possess both male and female sex organs simultaneously. Lancetfish also are extremely rare. Indeed, NOAA Fisheries reports that since 1982 they’ve only found two in the Gulf of Alaska, four near the Aleutian Islands, and ten in the Eastern Bering Sea. But now lancetfish are…

New Sphinx 40: Living Off the Grid

By Peter Janssen on May 8, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you really want to get away from it all, take a look at the new Sphinx 40, a solar/electric cat developed by Sovereign Ships, a Pensacola startup. The Sphinx is much more than one more environmentally friendly, fossil-free cruising boat. On its website, Sovereign says the new cat is designed for “living free on the sea,” and that the company’s mission “is to maximize personal freedom by creating self-sufficient, ocean-going homes.” The Sphinx creates its own renewable power, it collects rainwater and has a desalination system for fresh water, a 97-square foot garden can grow carrots, potatoes, kale and…

Italia Yachts Launches Its First Powerboat

By Peter Janssen on May 8, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Italia Yachts just entered the powerboat market with a splash, introducing its new 43 Veloce with a sculpted, super-modern look and an unusual sheer. The new Italia is built for inboard power, with its massive drop-down aft sections, although, in a nod to the American market, it also comes with three outboards. Founded in 2011, Italia has concentrated on making sailboats, only sailboats, until now. But times, and markets, change. The 43 Veloce is the company’s first entry in the power market, and Italia wanted to create a boat that had its own look and identity. The 43 Veloce is…

New Absolute 52 Fly: Extra Space and Light

By Peter Janssen on May 8, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Absolute 52 Fly sets a new bar for interior light and glazing as well as for serious social zones inside and out. Introduced to the U.S. at the Miami show in February, the Italian-built Absolute is a three cabin, two head luxury motoryacht, with a crew cabin aft. Powered by twin 600-hp Volvo IPS800 pod drives, it cruises at 22 knots, and tops out at 28 knots. But, as with most Italian yachts, with the Absolute 52 Fly, the theme is as much about style and living on board as it is about performance. The new 52 is remarkable…

The deeper the warm colors, the higher the sea temperature. NOAA

Ocean Warming “Headed Off the Charts”

By Peter Janssen on May 4, 2023 Cruising Life

Ocean temperatures around the world are “headed off the charts,” according to scientists, who say that April set an all-time high. The average temperature since the start of April has been 21.1C, the scientists say, beating the previous high of 21C in 2016. They base their reporting on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The high surface temperatures can lead to marine heatwaves around the globe. NOAA reports that ocean surface temperatures are the highest since they started taking satellite records. “The current trajectory looks like it’s headed off the charts, smashing previous records,” Professor Matthew England, a…

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