Destinations

Charleston: Still a Visitors’ Favorite

By Peter Janssen on September 20, 2023 Destinations

Historic, charming and boater-friendly Charleston, South Carolina, was just voted the number one city to visit in the United States by readers of Travel + Leisure – again. Charleston won the top spot in the magazine’s 2023 World’s Best Awards competition this year, for the 11th year on a row. For anyone who’s been there, Charleston’s repeat performance is easy to understand. It offers a mixture of history, Southern charm, great restaurants, hotels, and antebellum homes almost all within walking distance of each other. And it’s always been a favorite stopping point for anyone cruising on the ICW on the…

Saba Rock: A Little Gem in the BVI

By Peter Janssen on September 6, 2023 Destinations

It’s small, and a bit off the beaten path, but Saba Rock Resort is emerging as one of the most popular cruising and chartering destinations in the British Virgin Islands. Saba Rock is on North Sound, just above the more well-known Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda, so that getting there is half the fun. But once you’re there, you can tie up or pick up a mooring ball and go ashore for a great lunch or dinner. If you spend the night, you’ll enjoy one of the best places to watch a sunset in the entire BVI. Saba…

Newport: A Cruiser’s Mecca

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2023 Destinations

The 52nd annual Newport, Rhode Island, boat show starts Sept. 14, and if you love looking at new boats, then that’s the place to be. But you don’t need the excuse of a boat show to head for Newport. One of the best and most welcoming cruising destinations on the East Coast, Newport has a lot to offer all year long. At the end of Aquidneck Island, bounded on one side by the Atlantic and the other by Narragansett Bay, Newport (pop. 25,000) is built along a picturesque, largely protected harbor about 10 nm in from Point Judith. That means…

Lots To Do at Wharf Marina in Washington, D.C.

By Peter Janssen on August 24, 2023 Destinations

Totally aside from its politics, Washington, D.C., has always been a boater-friendly town, located on the banks of the Potomac with first-class marinas on both the Maryland and Virginia sides. Boaters have been sailing up the Potomac from the Chesapeake and beyond ever since the British sent warships up the river in the War of 1812. It’s much more peaceful now, and much more welcoming, particularly with the completion of the $3.6 billion, 24-acre Wharf project along Washington Channel just south of the Mall. The massive Wharf Marina there has more than 300 slips along the development’s mile-long promenade that…

Lake Tahoe Concours: 60 Antique Boats

By Peter Janssen on August 16, 2023 Destinations

The 49th annual Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance just ended on the west shore of the majestic lake, one of the most beautiful spots in the United States. (I may be biased here, because I grew up in San Francisco and my family spent many summer vacations there.) Nestled between California and Nevada at 6,225 feet above sea level in the Sierras, Tahoe is about 21 miles long and 11 miles wide. The water, averaging abut 1,000 feet deep, is also clear and cold, very cold. If you’re waterskiing there, the water temperature alone is a major incentive not to fall…

Ford’s Terror on Airship, a Nordic Tug 44

By co_admin on August 10, 2023 Destinations

For the past several years, Laura Dormela, a professional photographer from Portland, Oregon, has led a Slowboat flotilla of cruising boats up the Inside Passage from the San Juan Islands just above Seattle to Juneau, Alaska. She and her husband, Kevin Morris, the editor of an electronics journal, cruise on their 2006 Nordic Tug 44 named Airship. This summer, after the flotilla disbanded, they kept cruising. Recently they were in Tracy Arm, about 45 miles miles south of Juneau, with a breathtaking glacier (I was there many years ago with my friend Eric Schweikardt). Then they went a bit farther…

New Marina Coming Near Nassau in Bahamas

By Peter Janssen on August 1, 2023 Destinations

A new resort and marina is planned for Blue Water Cay, a bit southeast of Nassau, designed to be a gateway to cruising, fishing and enjoying life in the Bahamas. Construction is scheduled to start soon on the Legendary Marina Resort at Blue Water Cay on a 20-acre peninsula. The new marina will include state-of-the-art docks for boats up to 200 feet and hurricane-rated dry storage for 750 boats up to 55 feet with quick launch services. The marina will have a high-speed fuel dock with gas and diesel, and on-site marine service and repair facilities. A concierge service can…

Where the Superyachts Are This Summer

By Peter Janssen on July 11, 2023 Destinations

We all know that the rich and famous gather at St. Bart’s on their superyachts to celebrate Christmas and the New Year’s holidays. But in the summer? Well, most of those same people, on their same yachts, head for the Med. To keep track of who’s where, Forbes made a list of superyachts that are already in or around the Med, enjoying life from St. Tropez to the Greek islands, shuttling back and forth to some of the most beautiful harbors in the world, often on the yacht’s own helicopter. (Solandge, a 279-foot charter yacht, is pictured cruising off Croatia.)…

Florida Running Out of Dock Space

By Peter Janssen on June 28, 2023 Destinations

This probably isn’t news to anybody who’s been paying attention, but The New York Post reports that dock space is so tight in Florida now that some owners are paying $1 million to reserve a slip even before their yacht is built. With the influx of large yachts, owners are scrambling to find space to dock them (owners of 30-foot boats are having trouble, too). “South Florida has become a highly desirable place to live not just domestically, but globally,” Carolyn Stone, the deputy town manager of Palm Beach, told the paper. “There just weren’t enough slips to accommodate the…

Mackinac: #1 Summer Travel Destination

By Peter Janssen on June 22, 2023 Destinations

It’s always been a personal favorite, but I was still a bit surprised to learn that Mackinac Island, nestled between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, had been voted the number one Best Summer Destination in the United States in the 2023 USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards. Mystic, Connecticut, with its historic seaport and aquarium, was number three. Nantucket, Catalina, the San Juans? Oh well. Lots of people love Mackinac (pronounced “Mackinaw”), and for good reason. A four-acre island at the top of Lake Huron, just around the corner from the top of Lake Michigan, Mackinac has been a major tourist…

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