Yeah, I know I really shouldn’t be doing this. Showing rough-weather videos to boating junkies is like feeding the bears at Yellowstone. It’s not good for them. They want more. They will go to YouTube and spend (waste) hours looking at rough-water videos, then bad weather videos, then tornado videos, then videos of that cool [...]
Renting an EPIRB from BoatU.S. for the occasional offshore passage might just save your life; like it did for these three sailors off the coast of northern California. Check out the video for the dramatic Coast Guard rescue.
By way of introducing this new video series, let me re-state what will become obvious to you: I am a writer. And writers may have great ideas for video but viewers will likely suffer a bit while the writer learns to be a filmmaker. And with that ugly excuse for the quality of our first [...]
The video you see here was taken while departing the Fort Pierce, Florida, inlet, Friday, April 16. The tide was running out strongly and the wind and seas were running in just as strongly. The resulting washing-machine ride was rather sporty, although our Krogen 58′ handled it well. At one point, we realize we’ve forgotten [...]
It’s 2 p.m. on Friday and I’m stowing my camera gear carefully in the salon of this big yacht when I hear a sudden muted rumble from below decks. Our captain, Kadey-Krogen Project Manager Gregg Gandy, has started the John Deere diesels. We’re ready to depart our Jensen Beach, Florida, marina and head north to [...]
Last year’s “Baja Ha Ha,” the fleet cruise from San Diego to Mexico, provides yet another impetus for all ocean cruisers to reconsider their liferaft situation. You DO have one, right? And it HAS been maintained, inspected and re-certified, right? And you actually know what’s stored in it and how to use it, right? And [...]
Our recent piece by Jeff Siegel of ActiveCaptain about a novel dinghy anchoring technique stimulated quite a bit of discussion from readers and we even heard about another, possibly even better, technique from John Marshall, owner of the Nordhavn 55 Serendipity. Marshall discovered a particular product that makes the process of anchoring the dinghy off [...]
Sea Sense, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based sailing and powerboating school for women, is offering a new international class on Ireland’s Shannon River and canals. Every year, the company offers a different international course, with previous locations including various Caribbean locales, as well as Italy, Greece, France and Tahiti. The 2010 course will be aboard a [...]
By Jeffrey Siegel (ActiveCaptain); Videography by Karen Siegel Here’s a great technique for anchoring the dinghy off the beach. Our dinghy weighs about 800 pounds. She’s a rigid inflatable with a 40 HP engine. It’s our family car when we’re cruising and we put a lot of demands on her. So I was telling Larry [...]
The following is from the official blog of the U.S. Coast Guard, The Coast Guard Compass. It describes the annual video contest the service holds and this year’s collection of videos are as dramatic as ever. I’ve picked my favorite. Now it’s your turn. Have a look at the compilation below and then visit the [...]
Returning recently from the Cannes international boat show, Selene Europe’s Mark Seaton had arranged for a helicopter photo shoot of the brand new Selene 66 (6603) he was driving. At least a hundred other boats were all attempting to head out to sea and pass around the famous headland Cap D’Antibes when the winds picked [...]
If you’re looking to add to your cruising skills knowledge base, you might consider attending a workshop that will be hosted in January by The Annapolis School of Seamanship. The organization recently announced the launch of a new Cruiser’s Winter Workshop to be held Saturday and Sunday, January 23-24, 2010 at the world-renowned maritime training [...]
I saw a great example recently of why you need to be diligent about the hourly (or whatever regular schedule you set) engine room check while cruising offshore. As you know from some earlier posts, Jeffrey and Karen Siegel, owners of ActiveCaptain, aboard their DeFever 53 aCappella, are headed south for the winter and recently made an [...]
