For this couple, one time around with a special boat just wasn’t quite enough. Issue 133: July/Aug 2020 It had been a rather sad Christmas; my husband and I had not yet hit on a way to resolve s...
Battered old boats deserve our love. Let us count the reason why. Issue 133: July/Aug 2020 We try to keep her in good shape, but our Catalina 30 is over 40 years old, and as the number of cracks in he...
In 1950, a friend of mine paid $7.00 for one half of a surplus aircraft wingtip fuel tank, made of aluminum. He added a keel to it, lost interest in the project, and sold the fuel tank boat to me for ...
A problematic first passage provides abundant lessons learned. Issue 133: July/Aug 2020 People often transition from smaller boats to bigger boats, but our jump from a 21-foot trailer-sailer to Roam, ...
A trip through Florida’s Okeechobee Waterway is a study in small towns and solitude. Issue 133: July/Aug 2020 I untie Sonas, our Catalina 320, from her mooring as the sun brightens the morning s...
At the 20th annual Good Old Boat Regatta in Annapolis, three Pearson Vanguards shine on. Issue 133: July/Aug 2020 There is an inside joke that some members of my husband’s family will race raindrops d...
I am the wife of an old salt who breathes a sea-misted life. He sails year-round, shoving our Catalina 320 from the dock behind our Florida condo whenever the sun shines and the wind is fair. He is ha...
Writing a cruising guide provides a new perspective on home waters. Issue 131: March/April 2020 “Just turn right at the lights,” an experienced cruising sailor told me when I first arrived in Santa Ba...
An evolving passion for sailing helps define a path forward. Issue 131: March/April 2020 The day my younger brother, Mitch, suggested that we charter a sailboat for a week on Traverse Bay, it seemed l...
Ensconced in the cocoon-like security and comfort of our home, a Freedom 38 sailboat named Her Diamond, I turn my attention away from the 24-hour coronavirus news cycle and I reflect. I am saddened by...
For me, there are few experiences as satisfying as finding a quiet, secluded anchorage where I can enjoy the freedom of a peaceful sunset and lazy morning. You’ll recognize my boat because there’s an ...
A night passage in familiar waters nearly ends in disaster. Issue 132: May/June 2020 I’m not a great sailor, not even a very good one. But I enjoy moving from one place to another in that way, and I’v...
A lifetime’s love of sailing was inspired by a most inauspicious early voyage. Issue 132: May/June 2020 The curious thing is the way it creeps up on you. One day you’re asking the old salts at the clu...
A singular voyage leads to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence’s stunning Mingan Archipelago Issue 131: March/April 2020 It was on the way back from a trip to Tadoussac—a fun adventure from Montreal on E...
Close your eyes and climb aboard your little sailboat. Hoist the sail and drop off the mooring and slip across the deepening waters, mainsheet and tiller in hand. Feel the worn cedar planks and sand g...
The ice from the previous Canadian winter had pushed, moved, and piled up a lot of rocks, wood, sediment, and lord knows what else, in the waterway. Above water, there was no way one could tell. No wa...
I get up and check the calendar. It’s late in the season and only a few days remain before the marina’s deadline for hauling out my boat. I check the weather; 7 to 9 out of the east, sunny with...
A short solo voyage comes with challenges faced and lessons learned. Issue 129: Nov/Dec 2019 When I was 12, my parents bought me a Sunfish, a little board boat with a lateen sail. I’d been reading abo...
Spicing up a marriage with a sailboat means learning some new ropes. Issue 129: Nov/Dec 2019 A few years ago, just prior to our 24th wedding anniversary, I got to wondering what made our marriage so s...
Blackberries, apples, and balancing stones grace a princess’ gift in the Salish Sea. Issue 129: Nov/Dec 2019 Somebody reminded me the other day that my wife June and I have been cruising around Puget ...
My wife, Rhonda, and I didn’t grow up around boats. But after moving to Florida and raising a family, we grew fond of the idea of buying a boat and perhaps one day sailing away. New to the world of wi...
We had been sailing the west coast of Vancouver Island over the past 30 days. Our final day dawned hot and sunny without a ripple on the water, and so we motored our 1978 Islander Bahama 30, Natasha, ...
I was still green, having only a month ago traded my Great Lakes home in Michigan for the salty sea air and hot sun of the Caribbean. Now, here I was, crewing with a bunch of strangers aboard Windy an...
A first cruise after downsizing Issue 128: Sept/Oct 2019 Like many baby boomers, my husband, Chris, and I aren’t quite as quick, strong, and nimble as we once were. Increasingly attracted to the advan...
A Bristol and her crew are schooled on the Chesapeake Issue 128: Sept/Oct 2019 It was a calm, foggy Friday morning in Rock Creek, just southeast of Baltimore. The day before, Keith, Scott, and I had s...
Life and the sailing season don’t always align Issue 128: Sept/Oct 2019 My wife sits down on the seawall above the beach. I tell her that I won’t be long. She laughs and waves me away. “Take your time...
A J/40 races celestially to Bermuda Issue 128: Sept/Oct 2019 On the way back from Bermuda after the 2014 Newport-Bermuda Race, the inevitable “What’s next?” came up. Captain Dana of his J/40, Eagle, s...
Helping the next generation of sailors to find sailing Issue 128: Sept/Oct 2019 In 2016, my family and I were lucky to witness the dawn of the resurgence of youth sailing in American Samoa. I wish eve...
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … Why is it that some sailors go quietly about their business, consistently making quick, safe, and satisfying passages, while others lurch er...
Despite the popular notion today, fiberglass and plastic resins were not “new” technology in the mid-1950s, nor was Clinton Pearson the first person to use them to build sailboats. This be...
