Friends, family, lovers. Relationships created and lost. This is what so much of our life on the water is all about.
Dudley and sailing evermore
From an early age, the author was drawn to the mystical act of propelling a sailing vessel by harnessing the wind; and his wife, Dudley, also felt the magic. But it wasn’t all “tailwinds and flat seas.”
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Boothbay, by gosh!
Part 3: The J/30 Mojo finally found some wind, and Mark and Diana sailed efficiently from Portsmouth, N.H., to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, despite a nav-bungle and a minor piloting error.
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Retirement: Shouldn’t it have been easier?
Midwinter 2021 By Joanne Milke In the summer of 2017 my husband and I had just finished a long, lazy summer weekend on the hook aboard Kindred Spirit, our 36-foot Saberline trawler, and were packed into the dinghy headed back to the dock. My anticipation
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Traveling with family
“Letters from the Sea, 1882 – 1901: Joanna and Lincoln Colcord’s Seafaring Childhood” by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr. Tilbury House Publishers, 2000; 192 pp. $29. By Sandy Marsters I also recommend “Letters from Sea,” by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr., and published by Tilbury House and
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The Gulf, golf and the kid
How do you get a teen-age boy to go cruising in Maine with his father (no, this is not the lead to a new joke), to share in the joy of quiet nights under a blanket of stars, to be away from his friends, from
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Mojo: Maine or bust
Part 2: Contending with windless seas, tipsy restaurant diners, and the threat of leisurely breakfasts and shopping sprees, the J/30 Mojo finds herself near the doorstep of the Maine coast.
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Mojo bound for Maine
Mark and the indomitable Diana set sail from Buzzards Bay’s Red Brook Harbor aboard the J/30 Mojo, destination Mount Desert in Downeast Maine. The first leg, to Gloucester, was almost flawless.
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A new boat for Diana
I promised I’d buy a bigger boat, with a standing-headroom cabin, if she survived a summer cruising on my J/24. She not only endured, she thrived. The ball was in my court. Big time!
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The liveaboard life
By Mike Camarata For Points East I am a full-time liveaboard. I am also a snowbird. I have been called plenty of other names, but we’ll stick with those two for now. A liveaboard is a person who owns a boat and – wait for
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Cruising with Diana, Part II
On their first short cruises as a couple (see “Cruising with Diana, Part 1,” December 2019), it was two boat-lengths forward/one back for Mark and Diana as they set courses – often divergent – to perceived common grounds on which they might sail constructively, as
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Cruising with Diana
Part 1: I had this great, new girlfriend, and I wanted to take her cruising, but my boat was a 40-year-old J/24 with minimal, claustrophobic accommodations. Well, one step at a time.
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Ladies, does this sound familiar?
Guest perspective/Capt. Laura Tecce Surely, many long-suffering spouses have heard this: “No one talk to me while I’m docking.” (But, if you can’t talk to him, how are you supposed to know what he’s doing or where he’s going?) Or how about this: “Throw the
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Holy Cannoli! I like to sail
Smitten by the Masefield “Sea Fever” romance of sailing vessels, but hesitant to embrace the recreation of moving small boats with the wind, Tricia espouses powerboating. Years later, epiphany.
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Miles and memories under the keel
I watched as the canoe was lashed to the truck. The new owner used a long length of heavy rope he threw over the upturned hull and pulled down and around the truck’s racks, knotted at various stages. This was repeated until the boat was
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A love story and a ghost story
For three years, Barry was my crew chief aboard a 135’ Mississippi sternwheeler I used to captain on the Upper Mississippi. But he was more than that. He was an incorrigible practical joker and a daredevil. He rode his 1000cc motorcycle at insane speeds, pulling
Read MoreA harrowing adventure (and eventually a love story)
“Second Chances” By Greg Coppa; Stillwater River Publications, 2018; 246 pp. Last summer, longtime Points East contributor and Wickford, R.I., resident Greg Coppa published, after many years of false starts, his novel “Second Chances.” The book follows a young man named Skip Thornton, a former
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My dad’s skiff
May 2018 By Lawrence Smith It looks like skiffs are making a comeback. The Maine-based website, Off Center Harbor, is running a video series that features bright-eyed youngsters engaged in the communal building of some fine 13-foot wooden skiffs. Plans for the homebuilder are advertised
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His & Hers
Transitioning from a 22-foot sailboat to a Pearson 30 wasn’t as easy as we’d thought. The larger boat had copious stowage, but the “Venus/Mars” syndrome transpired – then morphed us into a team.
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Live aboard? Why not?
The timing was right for the semi-retired couple and although there have been some challenges, they wouldn't have it any other way.
Read MoreMen are from Mars . . . the marine version
As I was rigging some new jib sheets on board Elsa last week, a fleet of little 420 sailboats, each crewed by two young teens, sailed by me in Marblehead Harbor, headed in after a race. These kids were happy, smiling, and very polite to
Read MoreChang Ho’s most romantic evening
This month’s column was tight on deadline because I had to wait until June 5 for the release of critical information regarding Chang Ho’s mystery evening abduction in 1999. I have now obtained that information, which reinforces the phrase “the truth is stranger than fiction.”
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The last sail
December 2009 By David Roper The boat was very tired, and the thought of getting her out of the shallow Maine cove, and sailing her to Massachusetts, made me feel weak and jittery. The paint on the sides had lost its high-gloss finish, and had
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Back on the land
After five years of roaming the seas, the Martin family has found a spot of land on which to live, at least for now.
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