I like Jimi Hendrix, but enough is enough. As the final chords of All Along the Watchtower pierced the night air and vanished into the mangroves, I waved goodnight to the rest of the crew and went below. That started an exodus. Ten minutes later the bay was as completely, spookily silent as it had been that afternoon before we steamed in, dropped anchor, popped open some cold ones, fired up the
I heard various comments about Peru from other sailors as I cruised South America, usually to the effect of Dont even go near the coast. Stay at least fifty miles off. These rumors undoubtedly date back to the 1980s heyday of Perus dictatorships and the Shining Path guerillas; Peru is now in fact a pretty tame place. Moreover, it has 1,500 miles of coastline, several key New World
I heard various comments about Peru from other sailors as I cruised South America, usually to the effect of Dont even go near the coast. Stay at least fifty miles off. These rumors undoubtedly date back to the 1980s heyday of Perus dictatorships and the Shining Path guerillas; Peru is now in fact a pretty tame place. Moreover, it has 1,500 miles of coastline, several key New World
I heard various comments about Peru from other sailors as I cruised South America, usually to the effect of Dont even go near the coast. Stay at least fifty miles off. These rumors undoubtedly date back to the 1980s heyday of Perus dictatorships and the Shining Path guerillas; Peru is now in fact a pretty tame place. Moreover, it has 1,500 miles of coastline, several key New World
Lodged in my nautical psyche I find indelible images of rafts: a boy and a runaway slave standing proud before a canvas tent aboard a makeshift pontoon of pine planks floating down the muddy Mississippi; a sun-bronzed Viking in a loincloth steering a lashed-up slab of balsa logs across the electric-blue Pacific with a massive oar. Having always wanted to be that boy and that Viking, how could
I was in St. Thomas the last week of March on a press trip organized around the annual International Rolex Regatta. The welcome party at the St. Thomas Yacht Club welcomed not only the racers, but gusty winds accompanied by rainsqualls. By the next day, when we press people were out on a spectator boat watching the downwind start of the first race, it was threatening to blow the hair off the
Echoes of a long-ago family charter reverberate in a Florida charter with grandchildren. Maybe it’s genetic. It was a long time ago—in our family’s history and in the history of chartering boats—when my husband, George, feeling in immediate need of a vacation one August, chartered the only boat available in the state of Maine. It was our first time
Thanks to the unusual nature of my jobI give thanks frequentlyIve sailed on a lot of charterboats with (often) people Id never met before in (sometimes) unusual weather patterns. Its not unusual, however, that many of these boats have been catamarans, given the proliferation of cats in charter fleets worldwide. So I can claim a certain authority in saying that, in many circumstances in
Its been a while since I sailed out of St. Vincentthe mainland to the eight inhabited (three by resorts) islands of the Grenadines, plus the Tobago Caysso I was happy to be invited on a press trip there, especially one that included two days of sailing. Its probably the most popular charter area after the Virgin Islands, and with good reason: the sailing is superb, though more
Just as we were about to ease into a quiet evening at anchor in Presque Isle Bay, on the south side of Wisconsins Stockton Island, the crowd rushed in. The procession of cruising sailboats resembled a busy airport with planes lined up miles to leeward of the main runway. We watched as the cruisers came from all over the Apostle Islands and dropped into formation, motoring one by one into the
Following on the heels of its success last year with the 510 (a SAIL Top 10 Best Boats winner for 2024), Hanse teamed up again
I was on the 1400-2000 watch on our second day at sea, sailing Falken across the Atlantic from Mindelo towards Barbados. The afternoon watch was
“Charles, are you OK?” A pause. “Charles?!” Although a stranger to us, the person’s panic was universal. Something’s wrong, said the look my partner, Phillip,
Plotting Sheets Whether you’re studying for an Ocean Navigator certificate or just interested in celestial navigation, you’ll be needing plotting sheets. The scale of oceanic
They call themselves the Vagabonds. A psychologist, a healing arts practitioner, a traveling millwright, a widowed restaurateur—this is only a fraction of the colorful characters
Sixteen years ago, I installed solar panels on my boat. At the time, the peak efficiency at converting sunlight to electricity was around 16%. Today’s
Fun fact: The island of Newfoundland is home to zero snakes, zero ticks, and zero skunks. Like a dog, I do best when kept clear
It’s a well-accepted truth of offshore sailing that things get more dangerous the closer you get to land. An extension of that axiom in chartering
My visit to the Bermuda stopover of SailGP’s Season 4 circuit came with a few revelations. I’m based in Boston, and the first surprise came
