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Cruisers’ Net Weekly Newsletter – July 24, 2026
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Guilty Tugboat Captain Was Shopping Online – Loose Cannon
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Guilty Tugboat Captain Was Shopping Online
Under Plea Deal, He Will Serve a Year in Prison for Three Deaths
“My client is deeply remorseful for his conduct, he feels awful,” defense attorney Walter A. Reynoso told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing. “He feels awful about the unimaginable pain and loss suffered by the three families who lost their three very young daughters. Our thoughts remain with each of the families as they continue to endure this profound tragedy.” Yusiel Lopez Insua, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday to seaman’s manslaughter in connection with the deaths of three girls learning to sail in Biscayne Bay. Insua admitted to operating a barge with obstructed visibility and without a proper lookout, which led to July 28, 2025 collision.
Insua also admitted he was using his phone to visit the online shopping services eBay and Amazon. “Due to the obstructed visibility, and lack of a lookout, Insua did not see the stalled sailboat before the barge struck it,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release yesterday. “A forensic review of Insua’s cellphone revealed internet activity during transit, including at or near the time of the collision.”
Under a plea agreement Insua will serve a year in prison and six months of home confinement. The maximum sentence for the manslaughter offense is 10 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for October 13.
(More details on the accident may be found by following the link at the bottom of this story.)
What follows is the “factual proffer” behind the plea agreement:
The United States of America, defendant Yusiel Lopez Insua (“the Defendant”), and the defendant’s undersigned counsel (collectively, the “Parties”), agree that had this case proceeded to trial, the United States would have proven the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt:
On July 28, 2025, the Defendant operated a 25-foot tugboat that was affixed to, and pushing, a 108 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 149 gross ton construction barge (collectively “the Vessel”). The Vessel had the capacity for steering and propulsion. Due to the position of a deckhouse and a crane on the barge, the Defendant did not have waterline visibility in front of the Vessel, from his position in the Vessel’s pilothouse. While there was another person on the barge (“Individual 1”), Individual 1 was not designated as a “look out” and was not acting as a lookout on July 28, 2025. Individual 1 did not have a means of communicating with the Defendant from the deckhouse to the pilot house, and the Defendant did not take actions to ensure that Individual 1 was acting as a “look out.”
On July 28, 2025, the Defendant was piloting the Vessel from a lot on Star Island to an empty lot on Di Lido Island to transport material from the deconstruction of a sea wall. Because the Defendant was driving the Vessel in the inland waters of the United States, he was subject to the United States Inland Navigation Rules, codified in 33 C.F.R. § 83, et seq. One such rule provides that “[a] power driven vessel underway shall keep out of the way of… [a] sailing vessel.” 33 C.F.R. § 83.18(a)(iv).
On that same day—July 28, 2025—a group of children and young adults in a camp run by a local organization were sailing from the camp towards Monument Island. One such sailboat was a Hobie Getaway type sailboat which had a 13’ 6” foot tall sail (‘the Sailboat”). The Sailboat’s sole means of propulsion was wind and sail. The Sailboat was operated by Victim 6 and had five children aboard (Victim 1, Victim 2, Victim 3, Victim 4, and Victim 5).
As the Sailboat progressed through Biscayne Bay, the wind suddenly died, leaving the Sailboat becalmed—unable to move under its own power. The Vessel, piloted by the Defendant, continued on a collision course towards the Sailboat. Because the Vessel was a power-driven vessel underway, it had a duty under the Navigation Rules to avoid collision. Despite this, the Defendant did not change course or speed. Victim 6, as alleged in the Information, attempted to warn the Defendant of the oncoming collision by waving her hands but the Defendant did not change course or speed.
A forensic examination of Defendant’s cellular telephone revealed that it was unlocked while transiting from the lot on Star Island and in the moments prior to and at the collision demonstrated activity on eBay and Amazon.
The Vessel—operated by the Defendant—collided with the Sailboat. Victim 4, Victim 5, and Victim 6, as alleged in the Information, escaped being pulled under the water by the Vessel as the Vessel continued to travel over and on top of the Sailboat, eventually submerging it and pinning it under the barge’s hull. However, Victim 1, Victim 2, and Victim 3, as alleged in the Information, were trapped underwater, pinned by their life jackets to the bottom of the barge’s hull. Victim 1, Victim 2, and Victim 3 perished by drowning.
The above conduct given the attendant circumstances constituted the required negligence under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1115. This negligence caused Victim 1, Victim 2, and Victim 3’s deaths. The Defendant had a duty to avoid a collision.
The facts described above are not intended to be a complete recitation of the facts of this case and are merely intended to form a basis for the undersigned Defendant’s knowing, willful, and intentional plea of guilty to Counts 1 and 2 of the Information.
‘Seaman’s Manslaughter,’ Coast Guard Says, Referring Barge Deaths to Prosecutors
·October 31, 2025Read full story LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
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© 2026
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Tropical Storm Bertha Strengthens – Fred Pickhardt
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Tropical Storm Bertha is showing increased organization this morning. Deep convection has developed around the system, dropping its minimum central pressure to 995mb. Max sustained winds have ticked up to 50 knots (approx. 60 mph). The storm is currently drifting north-northwest at a slow 3 knots.
Forecast Track and Intensity
A mid-level ridge centered near the Rockies is expected to move southeastward. This will push Bertha on a west-northwest to westward track, steering it near or along the northern Gulf Coast.
Despite the recent organization, Bertha remains an asymmetric storm. The heaviest rainfall and strongest winds are concentrated to the south and east of the center. Furthermore, strong northeasterly vertical wind shear will persist through tonight. This shear will make further intensification difficult. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts a gradual weakening trend over the coming days.
Key Impacts and Safety Warnings
- Wind and Storm Conditions: A Tropical Storm Warning is currently in effect from the Florida Panhandle westward to southeastern Louisiana. Expect tropical storm conditions to arrive later today and continue into Wednesday. A Tropical Storm Watch is also in effect for metro New Orleans and the southern Gulf Coast of Louisiana.
- Coastal Flooding: A Coastal Flood Warning covers the Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines. Residents in these areas should prepare for moderate coastal flooding.
- Flash Flooding: Heavy rains could cause isolated areas of flash flooding through Friday. The highest risk spans the Gulf Coast from western Florida into southern Louisiana and the upper Texas coast.
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© 2026 Fred Pickhardt
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Dear Coast Guard, You Do Know They Can’t Hear You, Right? – Loose Cannon
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The author is a retired telecom/satcom professional who cruises the East Coast with his wife Louise aboard a 52-foot steel trawler yacht named Vector. He is Loose Cannon’s go-to guy in matters of regulations and best practices.
By SEAN WELSH
Dear U.S. Coast Guard radio watchstanders:
Getting on Channel 16 when there is an open mic, to announce that there is an open mic, and to ask mariners to check their equipment, basically does nothing except add clutter to the channel, something you would be yelling at us for doing.
The reason is simple, and really ought to be taught in radio watchstander school, if it’s not already: The radio with the open mic—the one radio you are trying to talk to—cannot and will not hear your announcement. When the microphone transmit button is pressed, the radio can no longer receive transmissions from other stations.
Yes, yes, there is a minuscule chance that the vessel with the open mic actually has more than one radio, and one of the other radios is tuned to 16, and someone somewhere on that vessel will hear your plea, make their way to the bridge or wherever the offending radio is, and do something about it.
Or perhaps the vessel with the open mic is actually in a marina, and within earshot of another boat with a radio that is on, and they will hear your call.
But both of these scenarios have a likelihood that is vanishingly small. When most of us hear people making open-mic announcements, we think “does this person not know how radios work?” When it’s the Coast Guard doing it, we wonder about standards of training.
FWIW.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
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Alternate History: ‘Real’ Odysseus Sailed to the Bahamas and Back – Loose Cannon
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Alternate History: ‘Real’ Odysseus Sailed to the Bahamas and Back
Author-Sailor Also Suggests Florida Might Have Been ‘Hell’
Another waterfront property owner shows his distain for sailors trying to enjoy the cruising lifestyle. Actually, the Cyclops doesn’t play a role in the reimagined Odyssey. This work, Odysseus and Polyphemus, is an 1896 oil painting by the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin, now display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Henk van Oosten is a Dutch sailor and professional predictor of the future. When van Oosten retired from his job as an innovation expert, he combined sensibilities from both vocation and avocation, reexamined historical assumptions and proceded to rewrite The Odyssey.
Why Is This of Interest to Sailors Today?
- The author assumes an early Western European maritime culture with bluewater-capable craft plying trade routes outside the Mediterranean.
- He posits a lost system of celestial navigation more akin to traditional Polynesian methods but not exactly that either.
One of the greatest works of literature of all time, The Odyssey is also one of the earliest examples of a sequel. Writing around 800 years BC, Homer chronicled an epic war of Greeks versus Trojans in his poem The Iliad. The blind Greek poet hooked his audience: The war was caused by Helen, the unfaithful queen with a “face that launched a thousand ships.”
With the release of the Christipher Nolan movie “The Odyssey” last week, a massive amount of attention is being paid to the story.
Odysseus, the central figure in The Odyssey, was fresh from winning the Trojan War with his idea for the “Trojan horse” ruse de guerre in The Iliad. If you think of the Greek heroes of that war as celebrities such as, say, the Beatles, Odysseus would have been “the clever one.”
What van Oosten had done in a series of academic papers and a book was to upend the Homeric versions and create an entirely different narrative, set not in the Greek world of the Eastern Mediterranean but the Atlantic Ocean.
In van Oosten’s retro-futuristic imagination, Odysseus takes a ten-year lap around the Atlantic, to the Caribbean, then the Bahamas, Florida and the Azores before returning to his kingdom in southwestern Spain.
Hilariously, van Oosten identifies Florida as possibly the Hades of Homer’s account. That is, a Hell on earth.
Van Oosten was inspired by a 1990 book that posited Troy as a fortress in England, not what is now Turkey. Speaking to Fiona Cameron Lister in a July 22, 2020 story on the Medium website, Van Oosten said:
As a scientist, I disliked the fact everyone was saying the same thing about Troy — that it was Greek and on the coast of Turkey. The few people saying something different and that the Odyssey was possibly on the Atlantic were completely dismissed by classical historians and archaeologists…In searching for other perspectives to interpret the Iliad and the Odyssey, I am taking my own approach. As a reader, but also as a traveller and sailor.
Van Oosten’s inspiration was the shield of Achilles, another Trojan war hero conventionally assumed to have been Greek. According to Homer, the shield was made by a god for Achilles and decorated along its rim by a depiction of Oceanus, now called the Atlantic Ocean. The waves of Oceanus surround a dome of the sky with the sun, moon and four constellations.
Which can be used, van Oosten theorizes, for navigation to guide voyagers on the somewhat circular route still used for small boat voyages from Europe to the Caribbean and back. The fact that the Oceanus motif rims the circular shield suggests the Gulf Stream, he said.
Haphaestus, Greek god of fire and blacksmiths, made this shield for Achilles. The Iliad records the first reference in history to celestial navigation. Homer describes the nymph Calipso giving Odysseus sailing directions using the very same constellations on Achilles’ shield, according to van Oosten:
Ocean navigation is determined, more accurately than by the sun, by constellations on the Achilles shield. Using the SkyMap astronomy software, it is possible to study the night sky in 1400 BC. The Great Bear is always in the north. If there are two stars on the horizon perpendicular to each other, that is the right course.
Stars Like Range Lights
To the west in winter is the setting Betelgeuse (Orion) and directly above, Procyon (Canis minor). In 1400 BC, this range marked the route from Boa Vista in the Cape Verde Islands to Guadalupe in the Caribbean. 
In the summer of 1400 BC, heading towards the home port in the east, there is the rising Saiph (Orion) and Aldebaran (Hyades) directly above it. To van Oosten, Ithaca was not a Greek city state; it was in Southwestern Spain at the mouth of the Rio Odiel and Rio Tinto, site of present day Huelva. Odysseus’ Imagined Route
As you can see, the reimagined Odyssey does follow the currents like the ocean-river depicted on Achilles shield. Coastal cruising is indicated by dotted lines, while the ocean-crossing passages are straight lines, aligned with the ranges depicted in the star charts above. The story is pretty involved, of course. Epic, you might say. So one of van Oosten’s papers is included below for those who want to get deep in the weeds, or you could read van Oosten’s book on the subject.
Trojan Tin War And Odysseus Ocean Route1.35MB ∙ PDF fileBy Henk van Oosten, Wageningen University Download Helen of Troy doesn’t exist in van Oosten’s narrative. The Trojan War is a powerplay between various peoples along the Iberian Atlantic and British Isles involved in the mining and distribution of tin. Tin was perhaps the most strategic commodity of the Bronze Age since it was the element in bronze alloy that kept edged weapons sharp.
The absence of Helen doesn’t mean van Oosten entirely ignores the love angle. None of the mentioned Atlantic islands were populated in 1400 BC, according to conventional thinking, but the science is not definitive. That gives van Oosten the wiggle room to speculate.
In those places, Odysseus dallies with the same assortment of nymphs, witches and queens as had been assigned by Homer, thus maintaining a plausible explanation of why it took 10 years to sail from Cornwall in the Southwest England to his wife in Huelva.
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Tropical Depression 2 Monday Update – Fred Pickhardt
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Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for moreTD2 at 5pm EDT, was centered near 28.7N 85.8W with max winds of 30 KT with a minimum pressure of 1005 mb. The strongest winds are currently south and east of the center. The low-level center is drifting northwest at only 3 knots and is forecast to move slowly northwestward to west-northwestward for 36 h or so, followed by a turn toward the west.
The depression is experiencing moderate northeasterly shear, and these conditions should continue for another 18-24 hours, after which, the northeasterly shear should increase, and cause the system to weaken. The peak intensity forecast is 45 knots in 36 hours, however, wind shear could keep that somewhat lower.
Tropical storm conditions are possible in portions of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to southeastern Louisiana Tuesday and Wednesday. A storm Surge Watch is in effect for the Alabama, Mississippi, and southeastern Louisiana coasts.
Areas of flash flooding will be possible through Friday along portions of the Gulf Coast and adjacent inland locations from western Florida north of Fort Myers to the Middle Texas Coast, including southern portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Latest NHC advisories: NOAA NHC
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Weather Alert – TD 2 No Threat to SC, Stormy Late Wednesday, SCDNR
Weather Alert – July 20, 2026
TD 2 No Threat
Over the weekend, the disturbance over the eastern Gulf became Tropical Depression Two. It remains a weak feature south of Panama City, Florida.
It now looks like it will head westward instead of our way. The National Hurricane Center calls for it to move into Louisiana Wednesday afternoon as a weak tropical storm. So, it won’t have any effect on us through the first part of the week. Some computer models show moisture from it being pulled toward us later this week by a cold front moving in. That would be nice; we need the rain.
It’s quiet over the rest of the Atlantic still. The tropical wave near Cabo Verde on Friday is now over the middle of the tropical Atlantic along 40° west, but there is little thunderstorm activity with it. Another wave moving off of Africa today will struggle against dry, stable air and vertical wind shear.
The above loop of visible satellite imagery above shows several features of interest across the North Atlantic and eastern U. S.:
- Tropical Depression Two over the northeastern Gulf.
- A tropical wave near 40° west in the tropical Atlantic
- A band of clouds over North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and the Atlantic associated with a stationary front.
- Smoke from Canadian wildfires is spilling southward over the middle of the Atlantic, all the way into the deep tropics.
Stay prepped; hurricane.sc is the place to go for prep advice.
Our Weather This Week:
The front we hoped would bring us active weather early this week has stalled farther north than expected. It’s close enough that the northern half of the state will see substantial coverage of afternoon thunderstorms through Tuesday, and a locally severe storm with damaging wind is possible. A stray storm can’t be ruled out further south, but they will be isolated. Temperatures will remain near to a few degrees above average.
We remain on track to see a more substantial cold front move through on Wednesday afternoon and evening. With that comes more widespread storms and the risk for locally severe storms, especially across the north. Damaging winds will be the primary concern.
It’s looking more likely that the front will stall over us later in the week now rather than push south. There’s a chance that the Upstate sees a nice day with low humidity on Friday, but don’t count on it. Otherwise, we’ll see limited sunshine with widespread showers and thunderstorms, mostly during the afternoon. If tropical moisture from TD Two becomes involved, torrential downpours and a flash-flooding risk would become a concern.
Frank Strait
Severe Weather Liaison
S.C. State Climate Office
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
260 D. Epting Lane
West Columbia, SC, 29172Stay Connected with SCDNR: 
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