This week’s lowest current marina fuel prices as of Jul 16 Diesel Range: $2.91 to $4.20 Lowest @ Osprey Marina in (South Carolina) Gas Range: $3.85 to $5.00 Lowest @ Osprey Marina in (South Carolina) Remember to always call the marina to verify the current price since prices may change at any time. Also please let us know if you find a marina’s fuel price has changed via the Submit News link.
We could tell you how powerful and effective Kanberra is… But it’s better when you do. Here’s what real customers are saying about the all-natural solution that keeps their homes fresh, clean, and odor-free.
Oriental is a wonderful place with friendly people and good food. And, if you do stop here, by all means, eat at our good friends at Toucan’s Grill and stay at Oriental Marina, a SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR!
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with salt water in their veins will subscribe. $7 a month or $56 for the year, and you may cancel at any time.
A foursome of American trawlers moor in cozy anchorage on Lake Champlain last week.
A reconnaissance to Lake Champlain appears to confirm that the Canadian reluctance to spend tourist dollars in the U.S. this year applies to its cruising community as well.
Loose Cannon’s home base in Green Cove Springs on the St. Johns River is a boat storage hub for Canadian cruisers, to the extent that a local boatyard has named one of its storage lots “Canada.”
The question is: Will the Canadian sense of having been disrespected continue into winter when snowbird cruisers traditionally flock to American’s Southern states, mainly Florida? The waterfront city of Plattsburgh, N.Y.—just an hour-and-15-minute drive from Montreal—may be a bellwether for Florida next fall.
A couple dozen marinas line both sides of the big lake from Burlington Vt. to the Canadian border. Champlain freezes in winter so docks and boats are typically hauled out, and slipholders are also hauled out and stored on the grounds, too.
For foreign readers a tad unfamiliar with U.S. geography, Champlain is a lake that is 107 miles long, 14 miles wide and averages 64 feet deep. The east side laps up against the state of Vermont and the west side against the state of New York, with a nib poking up into Canada’s Quebec province.
In the windshadow of the Adirondak Mountains to the west, Lake Champlain benefits from a microclimate. The valley is often referred to as the “banana belt” of Vermont with a longer growing season and milder temperatures compared other parts of Vermont, and, for that matter, New York State.
According to Vermont tourism officials, five percent of out-of-state visitors and 30 percent in northern parts are Canadian. Similar numbers likely apply to the New York side, including the city of Plattsburg, where we stayed. The Canadian tourism season begins in earnest on July 1, which is Canada Day—kinda sorta their Fourth of July.
Businesses in the Vermont city of Burlington have been reporting that Canadian visitors were down anywhere between 15 to 50 percent. TheBoston Globe newspaper quoted Canadian officials as saying that roadtrips across the border to the U.S. were down by 32 percent compared to 2024, the third straight month of declines.
TV reporters caught Vermonter Tracy Stopford as she was loading her boat recently at the Ferry Dock Marina in Burlington ahead of Fourth of July celebrations. She said Canadians have been noticeably absent.
“We have been discussing amongst ourselves: I think that there’s 50 percent less Canadians docked out right now,” Stopford told WCAX television.
Visiting Plattsburgh marinas after the Canada Day weekend—there are five—Loose Cannon noted that many vessels with Montreal hailing ports were still resting on jackstands. To be sure, quite a few had been launched and lay in slips as well.
Last week, many Canadian boats at Plattsburgh marinas had yet to be launched.
Anyone paying attention is aware that the American government’s tariff initiative has generated quite a bit of anti-Canadian rhetoric, but as the Globe noted, that may not be the only factor:
Since President Trump took office this year with threats to make Canada “the 51st state”—and imposed tough tariffs and new border security measures—Canadian tourism to the US has plummeted…
The reasons go beyond tariffs. The US government has spooked Canadian tourists by requiring them to register if they’re in the country for 30 or more days—and by searching electronic devices at the border. The Canadian dollar remains weak compared to the U.S. dollar, making southerly shopping trips expensive.
However, as the U.S. dollar weakens as the result of uncertainty also created by the tariff initiative, the Canadian dollar has gained value by default. The Loonie, as it is called, has gained three percent in value against the dollar since President Trump entered office, and it is forecast to continue an upward climb.
That suggests that decisions by individual Canadian cruisers about whether to come back to Florida may be largely influenced by the state of U.S.-Canada relations going forward and to what degree Canadian cruisers will hold a grudge. Recent increases in cruising fees in the Bahamas may have made the entire region less attractive.
For sure, a lot of this reporting is anectdotal. If you are among our Canadian readership, please share your thoughts in the comment section below. You don’t have to be a subscriber.
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.
What’s Happening In Your Parks – Charleston County Parks
Hot Summer Nights
Find your chill – plus a frosty beverage – at our next Reggae Nights concert! On July 11, bring your blanket and chairs to James Island County Park for a kick-back-and-relax evening of good vibes and great music.
Save the Date
Get ready for the social event of the season: Dog Day Afternoon! The Charleston County waterparks are going to the dogs for three bark-tastic days this year, so Lowcountry canines (and their humans) can choose from a trio of dates and locations. Tickets are on sale now, but don’t wait: these pool parties sell out fast!
Mystical Moths
Stop swatting and start oohing and ahhing! On July 25, join our insect whisperer at Caw Caw to learn all about the ethereal winged wonders flitting through the summer darkness. Reserve your space today for this nocturnal stroll through the park.
Breathe Deep…
On July 10, salute the setting sun and show off your star pose during Starlight Yoga. The soft sands and warm breezes of Folly Beach will be your studio for the evening as a certified instructor guides you through this all-levels, flowing yoga class. Register online
Birds-eye View
Beat the heat when you hang with the early birds! This month’s bird walks dawn bright and early in the Charleston County parks, home to some of the Lowcountry’s most diverse bird habitats. Take your pick of strolls through Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve, Stono River County Park, Caw Caw Interpretive Center…or join our birding experts for all three!
This week’s lowest current marina fuel prices as of Jul 09 Diesel Range: $2.77 to $4.80 Lowest @ Port Consolidated in (Eastern Florida) Gas Range: $3.80 to $4.69 Lowest @ Atlantic Yacht Basin in (Virginia to North Carolina) Remember to always call the marina to verify the current price since prices may change at any time. Also please let us know if you find a marina’s fuel price has changed via the Submit News link.
I found this article to be fascinating since I have entered many of these inlets while cruising up and down the East Coast. It is interesting to read about the rich history of many of them.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with salt water in their veins will subscribe. $7 a month or $56 for the year, and you may cancel at any time.
A boat is blown aground during Hurricane Matthew in Florida.
The author is a meteorologist and research program manager at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This story was first published in The Conversation and is reprinted here with permission.
By CHRIS VAGASKY
About 600 miles off the west coast of Africa, large clusters of thunderstorms begin organizing into tropical storms every hurricane season. They aren’t yet in range of Hurricane Hunter flights, so forecasters at the National Hurricane Center rely on weather satellites to peer down on these storms and beam back information about their location, structure and intensity.
The satellite data helps meteorologists create weather forecasts that keep planes and ships safe and prepare countries for a potential hurricane landfall.
Now, meteorologists are about to lose access to three of those satellites.
On June 25, 2025, the Trump administration issued a service change notice announcing that the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, DMSP, and the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center would terminate data collection, processing and distribution of all DMSP data no later than June 30. The data termination was postponed until July 31 following a request from the head of NASA’s Earth Science Division.
I am a meteorologist who studies lightning in hurricanes and helps train other meteorologists to monitor and forecast tropical cyclones. Here is how meteorologists use the DMSP data and why they are concerned about it going dark.
Looking Inside the Clouds
At its most basic, a weather satellite is a high-resolution digital camera in space that takes pictures of clouds in the atmosphere.
These are the satellite images you see on most TV weather broadcasts. They let meteorologists see the location and some details of a hurricane’s structure, but only during daylight hours.
Hurricane Flossie spins off the Mexican coast on July 1, 2025. Images show the top of the hurricane from space as day turns to night. NOAA GOES
Meteorologists can use infrared satellite data, similar to a thermal imaging camera, at all hours of the day to find the coldest cloud-top temperatures, highlighting areas where the highest wind speeds and rainfall rates are found.
But while visible and infrared satellite imagery are valuable tools for hurricane forecasters, they provide only a basic picture of the storm. It’s like a doctor diagnosing a patient after a visual exam and checking their temperature.
Infrared bands show more detail of Hurricane Flossie’s structure on July 1, 2025. NOAA GOES
For more accurate diagnoses, meteorologists rely on the DMSP satellites.
The three satellites orbit Earth 14 times per day with special sensor microwave imager/sounder instruments, or SSMIS. These let meteorologists look inside the clouds, similar to how an MRI in a hospital looks inside a human body. With these instruments, meteorologists can pinpoint the storm’s low-pressure center and identify signs of intensification.
Precisely locating the center of a hurricane improves forecasts of the storm’s future track. This lets meteorologists produce more accurate hurricane watches, warnings and evacuations.
Hurricane track forecasts have improved by up to 75 percent since 1990. However, forecasting rapid intensification is still difficult, so the ability of DMPS data to identify signs of intensification is important.
About 80 percent of major hurricanes – those with wind speeds of at least 111 mph (179 kilometers per hour)—rapidly intensify at some point, ramping up the risks they pose to people and property on land. Finding out when storms are about to undergo intensification allows meteorologists to warn the public about these dangerous hurricanes.
Where Are Defense Satellites Going?
NOAA’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations described the reason for turning off the flow of data as a need to mitigate “a significant cybersecurity risk.”
The three satellites have already operated for longer than planned.
The DMSP satellites were launched between 1999 and 2009 and were designed to last for five years. They have now been operating for more than 15 years. The United States Space Force recently concluded that the DMSP satellites would reach the end of their lives between 2023 and 2026, so the data would likely have gone dark soon.
Replacements for the DMSP Satellites?
Three other satellites in orbit – NOAA-20, NOAA-21 and Suomi NPP – have a microwave instrument known as the advanced technology microwave sounder.
The advanced technology microwave sounder, or ATMS, can provide data similar to the special sensor microwave imager/sounder, or SSMIS, but at a lower resolution. It provides a more washed-out view that is less useful than the SSMIS for pinpointing a storm’s location or estimating its intensity.
Images of Hurricane Erick off the coast of Mexico, viewed from NOAA-20’s ATMS (left) and DMPS SSMIS (right) on June 18 show the difference in resolution and the higher detail provided by the SSMIS data. U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, via Michael Lowry
ML-1A is a microwave satellite that will help replace some of the DMSP satellites’ capabilities. However, the government hasn’t announced whether the ML-1A data will be available to forecasters, including those at the National Hurricane Center.
Why Are Satellite Replacements Last Minute?
Satellite programs are planned over many years, even decades, and are very expensive. The current geostationary satellite program launched its first satellite in 2016 with plans to operate until 2038. Development of the planned successor for GOES-R began in 2019.
Similarly, plans for replacing the DMSP satellites have been underway since the early 2000s.
Scientists prepare a GOES-R satellite for packing aboard a rocket in 2016. NASA/Charles Babir
Delays in developing the satellite instruments and funding cuts caused the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System and Defense Weather Satellite System to be canceled in 2010 and 2012 before any of their satellites could be launched.
The 2026 NOAA budget request includes an increase in funding for the next-generation geostationary satellite program, so it can be restructured to reuse spare parts from existing geostationary satellites. The budget also terminates contracts for ocean color, atmospheric composition and advanced lightning mapper instruments.
A Busy Season Remains
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, is forecast to be above average, with six to 10 hurricanes. The most active part of the season runs from the middle of August to the middle of October, after the DMSP satellite data is set to be turned off.
Hurricane forecasters will continue to use all available tools, including satellite, radar, weather balloon and dropsonde data, to monitor the tropics and issue hurricane forecasts. But the loss of satellite data, along with other cuts to data, funding and staffing, could ultimately put more lives at risk.
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.
Be the first to comment!