• Photo courtesy David RoperDavid Roper’s Elsa, on her mooring.
    September 27, 2021

    Thoughts of separation – a confession

    “I can’t keep it from you any longer,” I told my wife. It was a tough message to deliver, but I had to do it, for her sake.

  • Photo by Christopher BirchHeidi, under tow, with some very nice Shaw & Tenney oars clamped in place with their special Edson oar clamp. The clamp wasn’t used and one of the oars is gone.
    September 27, 2021

    The lost oar

    My father coached me to “Never get run over by the same trolley car twice.” Regrettably, I failed to abide and managed to accidentally set oars free in Buzzards Bay for a second time.

  • The shallow waters of Essex Bay do not keep out all sailboats. The near boat is a Pearson 42 that draws 5 feet 3 inches and the distant boat is Mike Roger’s Hunter 34 that draws 5 feet 5 inches. Our boat draws 4 feet 4 inches. Photo courtesy Hamer Shannon
    September 27, 2021

    Cruising in the shallow end

    That’s what Massachusetts’ Essex Bay offers – an attractive place to gunkhole – but with a fixed keel boat and a draft over three feet, the experience is both a challenge and a pleasure.

  • At right, fabric can be seen tearing away from the genoa. More deferred maintenance that was not spotted before the journey began.
    September 27, 2021

    Gullivers travails, Part II

    I looked aloft at the flogging genoa, saw that it was tearing, and a sad epiphany materialized: I should start an Excel file to inventory my burgeoning list of oversights and misdeeds.

  • Photo courtesy Richard SchultzThe author’s Catalina 42 Little Wing on her home mooring in Pepperell Cove. The fog would persist throughout the journey.
    August 23, 2021

    Casco Bay fog daze

    “When in doubt, go out,” was the plan, and to outrun the soup, we headed farther offshore. The gloom seemed to lighten eight miles from home, but this was Maine, and we knew better.

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