Being designated deck boy on the family sailboat was sometimes scary, always exciting. Issue 144: May/June 2022 Dirty, difficult, dangerous. Those were the kinds of jobs assigned to me as our family’s...
Issue 143: March/April 2022 OK, so this is a test. I am kneeling—no, really, I’m in what amounts to a contorted version of yoga’s “child’s pose”—facing aft in the rather narrow passage between the mai...
Issue 144: May/June 2022 Holding an inflatable globe, I point out the equator and describe that at zero degrees latitude, it divides the earth into northern and southern hemispheres. Next, the prime m...
Maybe a good small boat and a quiet lake are all you really need. Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 One sunny Saturday afternoon found me trailering my O’Day 192 to a nearby lake for an afternoon sail and an o...
A serendipitous turn brings a small sailboat full circle. Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 “I owe Kelley a letter. I wonder how Doug and Laura are doing? I need to call Mom and Dad. I should find a new dentis...
After a brisk autumn catboat sail, a catnap invokes memories. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 The sail luffs as I round up into the wind, our mooring ball dead ahead. I stretch over the foredeck for the line...
The first launch of a Catalina 22 after bottom painting didn’t go as planned. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 I bought my first boat, a well-used 1981 Catalina 22, after moving from Alaska to the East Coast....
A small-craft sailor finds a second chance with the perfect boat that got away. Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 Most of us have been there—fallen for an early love who for one reason or another became the on...
The boat was small, but the crush was huge. Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 At the age when girls often dream of riding horses, I was falling in love with a sleek, white, fiberglass hull. And though I’ve com...
During a seven-day rally, the Salish 100 celebrates the vivacity of small boats. Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 Usually, I’m better prepared. Self-recrimination rarely does any good, but as I fumbled to stu...
Through a long friendship of sailing and writing, a particular boat weaves a steady thread. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 I wasn’t in the market for a sailboat. I already had one, a Pearson Ensign, to be e...
When life gives long-held racing plans lemons, you make cruising lemonade. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 In late 2017, I decided that it would be really neat to enter the Marion-Bermuda Race and navigate m...
New to sailing, a young couple is making the adventure happen one step at a time. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 In November 2020, Nathan and Kirra Davison-Lamb were aboard their newly acquired Cape Dory 31...
An afternoon raft-up ends in disaster when the weather turns fierce. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 It was the first day of “The Voyage to the End of the World”—the North Flathead Yacht Club’s 13th annual e...
After thousands of ocean miles, a Nor’Sea 27 finds more waters to explore via highway. Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 The burgundy-colored jug, bearing the logo of a winery somewhere on France’s Canal du Mi...
Taken from its mooring, a boat sails into a hurricane and a mystery. Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 My wife, son, and I had sailed our C&C 35-3, Secret Plans, around Nova Scotia for 11 years and made co...
Issue 146: Sept/Oct 2022 Poking and picking at a corner of worn teak on the port seat behind Yahtzee’s helm, I slowly test the wood’s integrity. Unexpectedly, a slightly upturned slat breaks free in a...
Issue 145: July/Aug 2022 I don’t know what most 14-year-old boys want for their birthdays—I could speculate, though it’s a slippery slope—but when my son, Kaeo, turned 14, his birthday request was abs...
A raven-winged friend helps a sailor count his blessings. Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 During the decade we sailed our 38-foot Cabo Rico, Triana, a sizeable black crow marked the days from season to season...
When a fellow sailor is in trouble, you help—no questions asked. Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 It has been more than 10 years since that warm summer day when I first saw a new boat at our yacht club, moored...
A mystery leak kept filling the bilge. Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 “Steve!” “What?” “There’s water in the cabin!” “There’s…what? “Water in the cabin! Lots of it!” My new girlfriend, Susan, and I were out ...
For Canadian sailor and artist Christopher Pratt, the yacht was the art. Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 Many artists have rendered the elegance of yachts under sail, but few have captured the essence and bea...
An overnight race, a 12 Metre sail, and new friends and places round out an unexpected adventure. Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 To make lemonade one must start with lemons; in our case, it was the last-minu...
Oxford’s Downes Curtis was one of Maryland’s most enduring sailmakers. Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 Maryland’s deep maritime heritage is inextricably linked to the stories and experiences of Black people o...
Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022 Sticking a sailmaker’s needle into your hand hurts. Ask me how I know. Fortunately, after the first time, I didn’t do it again…that weekend, anyway. It was the first day of a s...
A drifter evokes pioneering explorers and the eternal quest for meaning. Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 We hoist the drifter instead of the genoa, hoping the diaphanous sail will conjure a breeze. I pad forw...
Rest and relaxation on a Chesapeake Bay cruise. Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 I noticed the colorful accent pillow on a side shelf at the marine thrift shop last spring. For only five bucks, it would perk u...
Delayed engine maintenance leads to a white-knuckled sail through a slice of New York history. Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 “Whatever you do, retorque the head at 500 hours,” I was told by the previous own...
A fun night sail after a dinner out with friends turns harrowing for a father and son. Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 In the moment before disaster struck, I distinctly remember working on the foredeck of my...
For a new sailor, a fateful trip sparked a seemingly impossible goal. Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 When the sailing bug bites, it bites hard. It got me while spending 21 days aboard Selkie, a custom alumin...
