The off season is the best time for boat projects. But doesn’t it just frost your cookies when you’re all set to finish that piece of trim, and you open the half-full can of varnish you thought you’d sealed up tightly last year only to find the contents rendered to goop? Experiences like that are …
“Pole up!” our skipper shouted from the foredeck as the helmsman eased off the main. We had just rounded the windward mark, and another crewmember and I scrambled for our positions at the spinnaker sheets and launched the chute from the bag. What a beautiful sight. It was a brisk and sunny …
There were two things I disliked about my 1987 Pearson 39-2 from the outset—the anchor locker and the forecabin. The former was a shallow tray, long enough to accommodate the 25-pound Danforth that came with the boat, its 20 feet of chain, and 200 feet of nylon rope, but at 14 inches it wasn’t …
As the year winds down, there are a few last events capping off the season, including this autumn’s Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), the first finishers of which have begun to trickle in to Saint Lucia. This is the 38th edition of the rally which has run annually since 1986. This year’s edition …
There are some places we sail where just one look at the sky, or the way the air feels, lets us know that we’re probably going to be in for a thunderstorm shellacking sometime that day—the summertime Chesapeake Bay comes to mind. But if we’re looking for a more precise way of determining the …
Annapolis to Iceland. This was the voyage facing me, our crew, and our Farr 65 Falken this summer—3,000 miles that I knew would be challenging. The trick would be to make it look easy. The essence of seamanship is in fact just this, making the difficult look easy, making the extraordinary routine, …
High in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming lies Yellowstone Lake, an inland sea surrounded by evergreen forests. Frozen most of the year, the water temperature rarely reaches 60°F, even with the dozens of hot springs flowing into its depths. At 7,733 feet above sea level, the weather changes quickly. …
Before #boatlife. Before TikTok and Youtube sailors were raking in millions of views. Before the rise of influencers, daily vlogs, brand deals, and giant followings, we were using social media for something other than marketing; we were using it for socializing. Instagram was still Instagram when …
There’s no question that sailboats require a lot of kit, and that reality often makes gift giving for the sailors in our lives as easy as a trip through the latest gear catalogue or a clean sweep of the specials at the fall shows. But the best gifts are about doing stuff, rather than getting stuff, …
Rather than shoot from Portsmouth to Newport all in one go, as has been my past practice when heading south for the winter, I wanted this year to make a little cruise of it and see some sights along the way. After 10 days at the Wentworth Marina seeing to this and that, I struck out solo on October …