On Watch with Peter Janssen

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By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Grieving Mother Orca Carries Dead Baby Around the San Juan Islands for More than Nine Days By Peter A. Janssen A grieving mother orca has been carrying her dead calf through the waters north of Puget Sound and around the San Juan Islands for more than nine days, with her orca family staying close to her, taking turns staying at her side. The calf was the first to be born to the endangered pod of orcas, killer whales, in three years. The death was a setback to the orca population; it numbered 98 in 1995, but it’s down to 75…

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By Peter Janssen on July 26, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Maine Boat & Home Show: Great Boats, Artisans, Boatyard Dogs and More By Peter A. Janssen For a totally different kind of boat show, take a look at the Maine Boat & Home Show in Rockland, Maine, from August 10-12. It’s full of Maine-built boats (and boats that are like Maine-built boats), artisans, custom furniture, a small-boat love-in, and its trademark annual Boatyard Dog Trials. It’s more than a boat show; it’s really a state of mind. And it’s fun. Did I mention the live Dixieland band, the food trucks with lobster rolls, and the friendly, welcome-aboard attitude of…

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By Peter Janssen on July 18, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Leopolds Cruise Their Ranger Tug 27 Up the Inside Passage to Alaska, All Three of Them (and Moxie) By Peter A. Janssen When Mark and Peggy Leopold drove a trailer with their 27-foot Ranger Tug out of their driveway in Anacortes, Washington, on June 2, heading for the launch ramp to start their 3,000 nm round-trip to Juneau, Alaska, they left the davit crane that they usually use to lift their daughter Nicole on board behind. Instead, given the uncertainty of docks they would be encountering along the way, they brought a two-person sling, with secure straps, to carry…

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By Peter Janssen on July 11, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

New Aspen Power Cat Knot Wafflen’ Finishes 10,000 Mile Tour of U.S. from Alaska to Annapolis By Peter A. Janssen They made it. The 10,000 Mile Tour is over. Knot Wafflen’, the 40-foot Aspen Power Catamaran that left Anacortes, Washington, last May, on a voyage around the United States, is home in Annapolis, Maryland, some 10,540 nm and 1,001 engine hours later. And its owner, David Jenkins, who calls himself a serial entrepreneur, is happy. “The boat was as advertised,” he told me. “It held up as I thought it would, based on my factory tour of its construction. Mileage,…

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By Peter Janssen on July 2, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Gardyne Family Cruises to Alaska on Their Nordhavn 40: Next Stop, the World By Peter A. Janssen The Gardyne family from Alameda, California, across the bay from San Francisco, didn’t want to wait for their retirement to start cruising around the world. Two years ago, they bought a 2002 Nordhavn 40 in Seattle and drove it home, on something of a trial cruise. And they were hooked. On April 17, the Gardynes – Dougal and Jen and their daughter Cassidy, 7 – passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on their Nordhavn, appropriately named Cassidy, and turned north. “Our goal…

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By Peter Janssen on June 27, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Trade Wars Already Hurting U.S. Boating. Sales Are Cancelled, Layoffs Are Threatened By Peter A. Janssen The Trump Administration’s trade wars are already hurting U.S. boat manufacturers, as European and Canadian sales are cancelled because of higher tariffs. Some manufacturers say they will have to cut production and lay off workers if the trade wars continue. In retaliation to the tariffs that President Trump imposed on some imports, the European Union has imposed a 25 percent tariff on sail- and power-boats built in the United States. For its part, Canada will start a 10 percent tariff on U.S.-made boats starting…

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By Peter Janssen on June 21, 2018 Engine Room, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Volvo Unveils Revolutionary New Self-Docking System on 68-foot Azimut. See Video By Peter A. Janssen Volvo Penta just demonstrated its new self-docking system in a 68-foot Azimut in Sweden where the boat docked itself perfectly in a tight space without the aid of a human hand. And it has a video to prove it. The new system. called “Easy Docking,” is an example of Volvo’s research in autonomous vehicles, and it was displayed during a stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race in Gothenburg. After the captain pushed a button at the helm, the boat maneuvered itself with a combination of Volvo’s…

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By Peter Janssen on June 14, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Ranger Tug 25 Update: Nellie May Passes 4,000 Miles on Great Loop, Now in Erie Canal By Peter A. Janssen The beat goes on. Tim and Mary Kenyon have put more than 4,000 miles under the hull of their Ranger Tug 25 Nellie May since they left Illinois last Sept. 11, and now they’re cruising on the Erie Canal (see the picture, top). If all goes according to plan, they expect to cross their wake in Ottawa, Illinois, about half way between Chicago and Peoria, in early September. We last covered the Kenyons in February when they left Nellie May in Melbourne,…

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By Peter Janssen on June 7, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Fatigue and Outdated Watch System Caused Sinking of U.S. Tug in British Columbia, Investigation Says By Peter A. Janssen In a new report that resonates with all of us who go cruising, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said that fatigue, caused by the 6-on, 6-off watch system, was the major factor in the grounding and ultimate sinking of the 95-foot-long tug Nathan E. Stewart near Bella Bella, B.C. in October, 2016. The tug ran aground on Edge Reef on the Inside Passage, about 10 nm west of Bella Bella, just after 1 a.m. when the second mate, the only person on…

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By Peter Janssen on May 31, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

After the Great Loop, the McVeys Keep on Cruising: “There is so much more to see.” By Peter A. Janssen Charlie and Robin McVey from Louisville, Mississippi, just don’t know how to quit. Indeed, they’ve been cruising on their 42-foot 1986 Jefferson Sundeck trawler The Lower Place most of the time since they retired more than two years ago. After a few break-in cruises, they started the Great Loop at 5 am on Oct. 23, 2016, and completed it 343 days later, passing through 17 states, the District of Columbia and parts of the Bahamas and Canada. Back at their…

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