Thursday, March 28

Browsing: Cruising Life

Here’s a great story about harbor pilots, their risks and their jobs, from Business Insider: The average harbor pilot at the Port of Los Angeles makes $434,000 a year, but also faces a one in 20 chance of dying on the job, according to a new book out Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims. The book, “Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door — Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy,” breaks down the complicated dance that brings a shipment from Asia to US buyers in a matter of days. Harbor pilots are some of…

A man suffered a severe leg cut in a freak accident while docking a boat at a popular Fort Lauderdale waterfront restaurant. The man, who has been identified, apparently lost his balance and fell off the boat at the Boathouse at the Riverside restaurant on the New River in the Las Olas section of town. About 50 people were eating on the outdoor terrace overlooking the river at the time. He was heading for the restaurant to attend a birthday party about 2 p.m. on Saturday. When his friends lifted him back on the boat, diners could see a deep…

SPRINGFIELD, Va., Sept. 27, 2021 – Recreational boat owners are preparing their boats for a long winter’s nap, but sugarplums aren’t dancing in their heads. What may keep them up at night is hoping cold temperatures won’t damage their boats. Freshwater expands in volume by about 9% when it freezes and can push outward with a force of tens of thousands of pounds per square inch, cracking engine blocks, damaging fiberglass, splitting hoses and waterlines, and destroying refrigeration systems. Boat Owners Association of The United States’ (BoatUS) marine insurance provider, GEICO, shares that boaters often don’t become aware of the…

HMY Yachts just announced that they will introduce the new luxurious Two Oceans 555 Power Catamaran, made in South Africa, to the American market next year. The new 555 has a four-cabin layout, with the master stateroom on the main deck with a door opening to a sunken lounge on the foredeck. Founded in 1989, Two Oceans specializes in blue-water, comfortable and safe power and sail cruising catamarans. The power cat range incudes a 75, 82 and 87. The new 555 models are the company’s entry-level cats. But there is nothing small about them. Designed by Du Toit Yacht Design…

Here’s an incredible video of a curious southern right whale seeming to play with a woman on a standup paddleboard in Puerto Madryn, in northern Patagonia, Argentina. At one point, the whale pushes the board forward gently, and then swims under it to see what’s happening. Maximiliano Jonas, who filmed it, says “These whales surely love paddleboards. Every time they spot one floating on the water they get all excited and approach it but not in an intimidating way.” This is the middle of the whales’ migrating season in Argentina. Marcos Grosso, Puerto Madryn’s tourism secretary, said that 1,600 whales…

A runaway boat near St. Pete Beach in Florida caused some havoc as a boat from the local sheriff’s office rescued the driver from the water while officers in a helicopter overhead urged swimmers to head for shore. You can see all the action in the sheriff’s video below. The rescue started when the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office got a call that the driver had been thrown from his boat about half a mile off Pass-a-Grille Beach, just south of St. Pete. The sheriff’s office then launched a boat and a helicopter to the scene. They found the driver treading…

Last Monday, the day after the close of the successful Newport international Boat Show, I had the good luck to join professional captain Louis for a quick sea trial of the new Vicem 50 Classic. The dawn was clear and cool without a breath of wind brushing Newport Harbor. Louis fired up the twin Volvo IPS600 engines and with bow thruster and IPS pod drives engaged, he inched the 50 out of her tight slip at Bannister’s Wharf and drove her slowly into the fairway. As always on late summer mornings, Newport was filled with an amazing collection of sail…

North American right whales are in trouble. In fact, according to several new studies by marine scientists, they are in danger of becoming extinct. Three recent research papers say the whales’ problems are caused by a combination of climate change and increasing interactions with ship and fishing gear. Climate change means the waters of the Gulf of Maine, the right whales’ traditional favored waters, are warming faster than any other marine ecosystem on earth. And right whales are increasingly the victims of being hit by ships and getting entangled in fishing nets and other gear. The North Atlantic right whale…

For me, the Monaco Yacht  Show was always fun. Forget about playing James Bond at the Casino in Monte Carlo, the really outrageous action was down on the docks at Port Hercules, where the megayachts and the helicopters and the toys were usually way over the top. I’m not at the show this week – the pandemic and all – so I haven’t seen the latest, a 33-foot-long amphibious limousine tender that fits in the garage of a megayacht (a large megayacht). The new tender, the Nouvoyage 33, answers the problem of how to get from your jet to your…

Kadey-Krogen and Summit Motoryachts, its new brand, just announced two new boats at the Newport show. Building on the reception to the Kadey-Krogen 50 Open, the company will introduce a new 60 Open, with the same living concept joining the salon and galley area with the pilothouse. And Summit will launch a new 54 Coupe (see rendering, above) to add on to the 54 Motoryacht it just displayed in Newport. Kadey-Krogen has a rich history, having built more than 600 cruising yachts in the past 44 years in its yard in Taiwan. Full-displacement, blue-water trawlers, they have earned a reputation…

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