Dinghy sailors will tell you there’s nothing quite like mastering lake sailing, where constant windshifts keep you on your toes, getting doused with spray is a welcome cool-down, and handling your boat just right, especially on the racecourse, is vital…
On our fifth afternoon on charter we anchored at Caye Caulker, and then immediately re-anchored after realizing the generator on shore was much too loud for our liking. We dinghied to the dock of a small resort, tied up and walked into town…
A century ago, 300 individual communities dotted the islands of Penobscot Bay, Maine, each independently thriving off the land and sea. Today, the town of Rockland is one of 15 remaining communities, and it takes its role of culture-preserver seriously.
I like to consider myself something of a professional charter sailor. I’ve booked dozens of vacations under sail for myself and for others, and have read and written numerous articles on making chartering better, smarter, cheaper and more fun. So what could a charter broker possibly tell me that I don’t already know?
Admit it: there’s something unbeatable about sailing in your home waters. You know every tidal pattern, every obscured rock and every fluky habit of the wind. You could navigate with your eyes closed, though you’d never close your eyes, for fear of missing out on the scenery.
Eighty-some thousand miles and two children later, we crept up on Alaska from the west, sailing from Hokkaido, Japan, down the Aleutian chain in May aboard Seal, our 56-foot aluminum cutter.
When we tell folks we sail in Kansas, they are never quite sure if they should believe us. With deep roots in America’s Old West, Kansas is more likely to be associated with prairie schooners—a nickname for covered wagons—than schooners with keels and masts.
To superstitious sailors, the ocean holds many perils—some more legendary than others. There’s the Kraken, that fearsome tentacled beast that drags ships into the ocean’s depths, the ghost ship Flying Dutchman, the cursed Bermuda Triangle and, of course, the Gulf of Tehuantepec.
Sailors in the United States have become increasingly interested in environmental responsibility. Most modern marinas have up-to-date pumpout stations with fuel-spill kits and recycling containers close at hand.
One of the joys of cruising is that it enables us to visit extraordinary places, places we may not have even heard of were we not cruising: places like Selvagem Grande, the largest of Portugal’s Ilhas Selvagens, or Savage Islands: population two humans, one dog and 40,000 very noisy seabirds
Which modern synonym for “complain” originally was used to describe a ship that tended to round up into the wind due to a bad design
As the second fleet of starters get under way, a quick look at the tracker and the prep that goes into a race of over 2,000 open ocean miles.
Doubting his choices one chilly day, a sailor wonders whether he’ll have to make changes.
Catching and prepping your own dinner while underway is one of those one of a kind cruiser experiences. The process gets a whole lot better with the right gear.
In her first Marion-Bermuda Race as skipper of a Navy 44, Nancy Rhodes and her team of U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen aboard Integrity stuck to their strategy—even when things looked grim—and walked away with bragging rights and an armful of silver.
In addition to having the trophy for fastest circumnavigation named after him, what other Junes Verne reference might be found in the modern sailor’s vocabulary?A)
Managing Editor Lydia Mullan sits down with the winningest navigator in Transpac history for a breakdown of what this year’s fleet can expect.
By Tim Queeney (304pp, St. Martin’s Press, $27.00) In ancient times man responded to the urgent need for food, transportation, and trade by building all
The Marion-Bermuda Race wrapped up yesterday after a slow approach to the finish, but it certainly wasn’t a drifter for the whole way. The first
48 years after the first Marion-Bermuda race, 20 boats competed in this summer’s event, including the J42 Dianthus, on which SAIL Editor in Chief Wendy Mitman Clarke and crew won the Class A division.
