Articles by: John Gold

Tiny boats and huge yachts

Tiny boats and huge yachts

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

  As soon as you set foot on a big yacht you belong to someone, not to yourself, and you die of boredom. -Coco Chanel   By David Roper For Points East Magazine Tiny boats and huge yachts. The allure is almost always there, despite the lack of practicality ofRead More

A solo transverse of the Cape Cod Canal

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

By Chuck Roast I had just blown in from Gloucester, Mass., the day before on Navicula, my Cape Dory 33, courtesy of a stiff breeze from the northeast. The morning would begin in Provincetown, Mass., with what may well have been the worst breakfast of my entire life; a dreadfulRead More

Photo by Jack FarrellWhite Island, much like lonely Duck Island to the east, has limited protection from the swell and no good landing options.

Thoughts from a part-time curmudgeon

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

By Jack Farrell For Points East Magazine The regular visitor to this space may recall a story from a few years back when I was given permission by a wise octogenarian (and frequently cantankerous) Star Island guest to be a curmudgeon once in a while. He declared that those ofRead More

Points East file photo courtesy Joel GleasonA very smart-looking Muscobe and her master. While the author loves Maine, this year circumstances dictated otherwise.

Muscobe to Menemsha

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

When my son and shipmate Randy, and his family, rented a cottage in Chilmark, on Martha’s Vineyard, I decided to solo my 33-foot Young Brothers Jonesport-type lobsterboat south for a visit.

When humans and hurricanes collide

When humans and hurricanes collide

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

“A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes” by Eric Jay Dolin. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020; 432 pp. Hardcover $26.96.   Review by Sandy Marsters I swear to God, I hadn’t gotten 10 words into this review when Richard Hawley began singing on the stereo: There’s a storm a-comin’,Read More

Photo by Joe BerkeleyA stricken Ensign off the coast of Massachusetts. The end of August in New England featured fast-moving, powerful storms.

On microbursts and mayhem

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

Years ago I was at a dock in Connecticut when friends of mine returned from a trip to Block Island aboard their 36-footer. They practically kissed the ground once their lines were thrown, and, to a man, were visibly shaken. The hours-old experience they described? Soon after leaving Great SaltRead More

September Mystery Harbor: Kingman Yacht Center, Cataumet, Mass.

September Mystery Harbor: Kingman Yacht Center, Cataumet, Mass.

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

View’s even better with a Mudslide This view is from the end dock at Kingman Yacht Center, in Cataumet, Mass. It’s a beautiful place to watch the sunset; even better if you are about 200 feet from this spot at the Chart Room, with one of their famous mudslides inRead More

Photo by David BuckmanSailing in company with the likes of the schooner American Eagle always adds drama to a Downeast cruise.

Sailing with schooners

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

While cruising and solitude seemed a good strategy for steering clear of the pandemic this summer, there was no sailing away from the evidence of it in the light cruising traffic, abundance of vacant moorings, folks in masks, and the absence of the Penobscot Bay schooner fleet. We missed sailingRead More

Photo by Nim MarshThe author's Bristol 27 Breakaway feels her way up Milltail Creek, which for all the world seems like a bootleggerÕs lair.

But we must be in North Carolina!

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

By Nim Marsh For Points East Magazine November 12 breaks in high overcast, 52°, wind southwest, 10. At mid-day the air is still raw, but the compass reads 180° – due south – and all is right with the world. At roughly Mile 34 on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) justRead More

Mojo: Maine or bust

Mojo: Maine or bust

September 28, 2020 at 12:00 am

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.