North America

Cruising the Panhandle

by Adam Cort, Posted May 9, 2011

Walking down the dock to the Beneteau 393 Splendid Adventure I felt like I was arriving at the scene of a crime. It was late October, and the overcast night sky was pitch black. The air was sweltering hot, absolutely still. To the right I could see the lights of the port of Pensacola, Florida, to the left the lights of the city’s historic Seville Square district. What I was really looking for,

Sailing the Arctic

by Nicolas Peissel, Posted May 5, 2011

Since my partner, Edvin Buregren, and I started planning to sail the Northwest Passage this summer aboard our 31-foot fiberglass sloop Belzebub II—on a shoestring budget, no less—we have realized that a polar voyage is unlike any other.Route Planning: Picking a route through the Northwest Passage requires methodical planning. The majority of charted Arctic waters were surveyed with

Great Lakes Solo

by Charles Scott, Posted April 25, 2011

I have always been drawn to solo sailing. I’m not sure if it’s the challenge, the peace and solitude, or just the difficulty of finding good crew. Singlehanding has its risks, but I’ve also found sailing alone very rewarding.Aboard my Westsail 32, Antares, I cruised from Detroit up Lake Huron and into Lake Michigan. The first leg, from Port Huron to Mackinac

One Fine Bay

by Meredith Laitos, Posted March 11, 2011

The great thing about sailing in a new location for the first time is that you have no idea what to expect. Without a laundry list of hot-spots-we-always-visit, your itinerary is a blank canvas, ready to be painted and repainted as you see fit.This was the case last April when a crew of comrades and I chartered a boat from Annapolis Bay Charters in Annapolis, Maryland, for a week of

It's Not All Cocktails in the Cockpit

by Nan Scrimgeour Weston, Posted January 24, 2011

Ten days gone, five things wrong…forget it!” How often have these words been uttered by a captain in a state of complete frustration?We’d said our goodbyes at Georgia’s Brunswick Landing Marina and cast our lines. All was bright until we headed across St. Andrew’s Sound. The sunny weather changed quickly, and we were surrounded by patchy fog for the half hour we had to point our bow into

Port of Call: Beaufort, North Carolina

by Peter Nielsen, Posted January 13, 2011

For cruisers bound south from points north, the long slog down the Intracoastal Waterway often ends at Beaufort, North Carolina, on the Crystal Coast, at the southern end of the Outer Banks. For some weary sailors, this backwater (in the best sense of the word) provides a chance to recuperate, repair, regroup, refuel and re-provision before firing up the diesel once more and plugging on down

Three Hulls on the Road

by Peter Nielsen, Posted January 5, 2011

To Tony Smith, the word "retirement" doesn't have quite the same connotation it might have for less energetic people. There'll be no pottering around in the garden for this longtime boatbuilder and designer. Instead, Tony and his wife Sue are heading for the Pacific Northwest, towing a 28ft Telstar trimaran that's been modified for an unusual cruise.For nearly 30 years Tony owned

Locking Through The Soo

by Fred Bagley, Posted January 4, 2011

Many Great Lakes sailors make the pilgrimage to Mackinac Island at the junction of lakes Michigan and Huron. But those who want real adventure head north to the St. Mary’s River, the border between the United States and Canada, and check out the twin towns of Sault St. Marie, which lie in Michigan and Ontario and are known collectively as “The Soo.”The St. Mary’s River drains Lake Superior

Sailing Eden Again

by Bob Burgess, Posted December 9, 2010

It is a warm moonless night in northwest Florida. A whiff of late spring wisteria wafts across the lake. In the distance, cicadas drone their night music. Overhead, every star in the galaxy is shining. Their reflections on the black waters of northwest Florida’s Lake Seminole create the illusion that we are sailing through outer space. In truth we are ghosting along on my 16-foot Hobie Cat, soft

Cape Crusaders

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2010

It started, as so many of these things do, over a beer. At the time, a circumnavigation of Cape Cod sounded easy. After all, it’s our home territory.That conversation took place sometime in 2003, and here we were last summer, still planning this epic voyage. Not that we hadn’t tried. Twice, SAIL editors had set off in Corsair F-24 trimarans borrowed from the Multihull Source in Wareham,