Cruising Grounds

It's the End of the World

by David W. Shaw, Posted June 14, 2010

The sun shone a milky white. Its weak rays were barely able to drive off the damp chill of the early afternoon as we made our way eastward in the Deer Isle Thorofare, a passage snaking between Deer Isle and the beautiful smaller islands of Merchant Row in Down East Maine. I carefully checked the chart against the red and green buoys marking the channel, mindful that straying off course could mean

Cruising the Channel Islands

by Abner Kingman, Posted June 15, 2010

We got a late start departing Ventura Harbor that Memorial Day weekend. Arriving at their Swan 40, Blue Moon, on Thursday, my hosts Mark and Christine Mohler discovered there was a problem with the shore-power main breaker. The Mohlers hadn’t been cruising for a couple of months, and now found their dead house batteries needed replacing.We finally got underway late on the Friday

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,

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

Pirogues and Dhows

by Duncan Gould, Posted December 9, 2010

I can’t say it was an easy passage. True, the weather was so benign we had to motor for four days to complete the 1,500-mile trip from the Chagos Archipelago to Cap d’Ambre, at the northern point of Madagascar. But Irene and I, aboard Moose, our 39-foot steel cutter, were tense the entire way. Somali pirates, forced south by international policing of the Red Sea route, were now striking shipping

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

A Taste of the East

by Nigel Calder, Posted January 4, 2011

You know you are in for a different kind of cruising experience when a) the guide book says: “Do not go ashore onto either of the Koh Liang islands. They are sites for the collection of swallow’s nests to make bird’s nest soup. They are patrolled by local Thais armed with automatic weapons;” and b) the charter base manager (ours was Andy Middleton, who runs the Sunsail base in Langkawi, Malaysia)

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

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

Dry Tortugas Adventure

by Jack Foard, Posted January 24, 2011

Drop your hook in crystal clear turquoise water, walk these white sandy beaches under the bright warm sun and blue sky, and you might just think you are somewhere deep in the Bahamas or Caribbean. It’s hard to believe the Dry Tortugas, my favorite sailing destination in Florida, is only 70 miles west of Key West.It was 2000 on a warm September evening when my wife, Desir, my sister Jane,