October 2010 By David Roper Faith, fear and fateThe strong southeast winds had not dropped with the sun as they usually did that time of year, and the threatening black ledges 30 yards from Elsa’s stern off barren Smuttynose Island were close enough to show their barnacles as each waveRead More

September 2010 By David Roper As they rounded the point, the fog came right back. Just then, the young boy caught the first smell of spruce and felt the warmth of the land. Despite the fog, he looked for the entrance to the cove, eager to end that day’s foggyRead More

August 2010 By David Roper The thousands of items of marine gear on the market today supposedly exist to allow us a myriad of choices to facilitate our ability to get away, go boating, relax and be happy. I wonder, though. Robert Bellah, one of today’s most influential sociologists andRead More

July 2010 By David Roper It’s 3:22 a.m. on a Friday in June and I’m sitting on Elsa’s starboard berth looking across at a small oil painting of Marblehead Harbor that highlights a handful of gaff-rigged sloops and schooners from another century. The painting has a wonderful patina, and now,Read More

June 2010 By David Roper Eight or nine miles out, in plain sight, Boon Island lifts its solitary shaft aloft like an ‘eternal exclamation mark’ to the temerity of its builders. There is no comfortable dwelling on that lonely rock, over which storms sweep unchecked. The tower is itself bothRead More

May 2010 By David Roper Why I’ve never sailed around the worldMany years ago – at age 16, in fact – I decided to run away to sea. I had been reading of Robin Lee Graham’s adventures as a globe-circling, solo sailing teenager. Seemed like a cool thing to do.Read More

April 2010 By David Roper He broke his right hip at what was then his “advanced” age of 87. He was lifting the battery out of Coda, his last and final boat, which was tied to the dock at the end of a pier. He slipped and fell, refusing toRead More

Midwinter 2010 By David Roper On Dec. 15, 2009, Kenneth Ketchum, age 80, decided to sail alone to Mexico from Houston on his Downeast 32 sailboat. He had been living in his recreational vehicle, which he sold to buy the boat. One hundred and fifteen miles southeast of Houston, heRead More

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 bubbled, cracked and peeled inRead More

October 2009 By David Roper She lay languidly between the arms of Harbor and Hall islands in the midst of ledge-strewn Muscongus Bay and, despite the disheveled condition of her captain and two mates who had not seen the likes of soap, razors or toothbrushes in days she held herRead More