North America

Learning to Live Aboard and Live Together

by Dennis Mullen, Posted January 30, 2013

On May 20, 2009, we were in St. Marys, Georgia, and it had been raining as hard as it could for 10 straight days. The wind was blowing a steady 30 knots with gusts over 40. Everything was soaked.

Tricky Waters: Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake

by David Schmidt, Posted January 3, 2013

When I was 11, my Dad, his buddies and I sailed Wind Dancer, his C&C 37, from Long Island Sound to Chesapeake Bay. It was my second offshore passage.

Tricky Waters: West Side of the Florida Keys

by David Schmidt, Posted January 2, 2013

“I always put the fear of God into people that this is the world’s third-largest barrier reef,” says Capt. Joe Dyll of the western Florida Keys, which have long been one of his favorite cruising grounds.

Tricky Waters: Vancouver Island

by David Schmidt, Posted December 19, 2012

When Dr. Seuss wrote these words, he must have had cruisers on his mind. Rare is the cruiser who doesn’t dream of sailing over the horizon, of exploring remote areas.

Sailing Scene: San Diego

by Lisa Gabrielson, Posted December 14, 2012

As the sailing world gears up for the America’s Cup, it seems that all eyes are on the City by the Bay. But 500 miles south, just grazing the Mexican border, lies a city where you can sail year-round, the weather is nearly perfect and sailors are friendly as can be.

Home by Another Way

by Bob Burgess, Posted December 12, 2012

It was the summer of 1946. Three of us teenagers from Grand Rapids, Michigan, all about to join the military, caught a car ferry to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and backpacked through the Porcupine Mountains on one final adventure together.

ICW by the Numbers

by Wally Moran, Posted November 25, 2012

Everyone fears the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway the first time they attempt it. I know I did. I’d heard so many stories—about shoals, rough water, tricky inlets, narrow channels, aggressive tugboats.

How a Racer Learned to Cruise

by MacDuff Perkins, Posted November 19, 2012

After working together at SAIL for two years, my coworker Christa asked me if I’d teach her to sail. Having never “learned” how to sail with either a coach or in a classroom, though, I knew my limitations as a teacher.

It's a Shoal Draft Thing

by Ida Little, Posted August 14, 2012

Few can enjoy the inner passages of the Florida Keys quite like diehard thin-water sailors, such as Ida Little and her husband aboard Thorfinn.

Sailing Minnesota's 10,000 Lakes

by Brett L. Walker, Posted August 10, 2012

During the gloomy winter of 2011, while temperatures in Minneapolis hovered around -10F, my fiancée, Christine, and I made a pledge to sail as many of Minnesota’s lakes as possible in one summer.