Tom Snyder is a friend of Points East Magazine and wrote a funny and very popular column for us from the magazine’s inception in 1998 until 2009. We’ve archived his columns below.

While I have made many hundreds of trips from Portsmouth Harbor to the Isles of Shoals across the full range of weather and seasons (wind, rain, fog, snow and freezing spray) I had never been thoroughly scared until one afternoon a few weeks ago.

Part 2: Some hairy autumn sea miles remained between Sea-Finn and her Midcoast Maine destination, including a forecast of 17- to 20-foot waves, 65-mph winds – and infamous Kennedy Rock.

“Sea of the Bear: Journal of a voyage to Alaska and the Artic, 1921” by M. A. Ransom, U.S. Naval Institute, 1964; 119 pp. $35; Free on Google Books. By Sandy Marsters Stuck inside? Stuffing disinfectant-soaked towels under the door to keep out cold and COVID-19? Need an escape? Well,Read More

By Pam Humbert For Points East The new year was still young and unsullied back in mid-January when our club met to unveil their summer cruising plans. The room was abuzz with dreams and the anticipation of a fresh new year and a season yet to unfold. Wearing a genuineRead More

The fates conspired against me in my attempts to visit Fishers Island, as though an invisible force was blocking my access to it. Last summer, I broke through, with an emotional epiphany.

“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 the Penobscot Marine Museum inRead More

A 21-year-long relationship meets a soggy, although predictable, ending

By Tim Plouff For Points East It was to be a glorious summer day in Maine, and the promise of making new discoveries – as always, to us – was as exciting as the forecast. Our boating friends Allison and Andy Moorwood had proposed a trip Downeast to Jonesport, Maine,Read More

By Capt. Michael Martel For Points East I was a man on a mission. I wanted a fish. A whole fish. A cold, firm-fleshed winter codfish. I was obsessed with the goal of making a sturdy fish chowder, and to make a proper one, you need to begin with aRead More