Like so many New England sailors, I have long thought of taking Preamble, my 1998 Island Packet 37, south for the winter. Typically, the idea surfaces while I’m finalizing my fall haul-out and winter storage plans.

More than 60 years ago, a young Bay Stater conceived the idea, and started planning it only a couple of years ago. Now it’s been realized in a fast Cal 2-30 named Scooch.

What an incredible week my husband Bob and I had aboard the 700-passenger m/v Adonia, the sole ship in Carnival Corp’s brand-new Fathom line.

Our mission was to deliver a 38-foot Young Brothers gillnetter from Islip, Long Island, to Portland, Maine, the week before Christmas. The pennants on her gillnet buoys snapped ominously like prayer flags.

Part 1: What do you do when you want to attempt the Great Loop, or the Down East Loop, but don’t have the time? You invent a new, shorter circle and name it after its fanciful shape.

In the spirit of minimalist David Buckman, the author embarked upon his “Epic Voyage Writ Small” in a 20-foot daysailer. But did David ever sail with two 10-year-olds as crew?

Part I: The 19th- and early 20th-century granite mining operations in Maine’s Penobscot Bay were the hooks for this trailer-boat cruise to Hurricane Island, Tenants Harbor, and the Muscle Ridge Channel.

A perfect summer day on the outer Cranberry Isles – with boat and bicycles – confirmed to us that this combination is ideal for scratching the surface of these islands.

A leisurely ramble, east to west along Maine’s Eggemoggin Reach in wet, windless and buggy conditions still delights the skipper of the 22-foot, engineless catboat Penelope.

While Middle America puts on a pretty face for those who pass by on the highway, the view from the Intracoastal Waterway is of a different stripe, perhaps a more accurate display of what America is all about.