As the October/November issue approached, I thought about how exceptional these two months have been for me over the years. These 61 days constitute a distinct season unto itself – part of the autumn quarter, but of even greater significance. When a youngster in Massachusetts, duck hunting with my father,Read More

The day’s forecast was five to 10 southwest, gusting to 20 in the afternoon, but as we crested the hill over the marina, all we could see was a flat, mirrored surface on the bay, with an Opti fleet seemingly riveted to it. “Hope you find some wind out there,”Read More

You could call her a jack-of-all-trades, but if you honor her thus, you must add that she’s a master of most of them, too. I met Julia Doyle-Kingsbury at the 2015 Boatbuilders Show on Cape Cod. She was working the Squeteague Sailmakers exhibit, and I was so delighted by theRead More

I already can hear the wharfside wags hurrumphing, but I am going to say it anyway: Recreational boating is not warfare. Sure, at times it may seem so but if we’re on the right boat, for all the right reasons, with the right seagoing experience, and with plenty of seaRead More

The name Ray Hunt has been a presence since my earliest days on Duxbury (Mass.) Bay. I first heard it when my father showed me, nestled in Duxbury Beach dunes, the remains of the Hunt family’s waterfowling camp, near which my great-uncle had a similar structure. Then there were theRead More

She was born in New York City – her father was an architect there – and she lives in Norwell, Mass., but Leslie Silvia’s spiritual wellspring has always been Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. Her grandfather, Alex Bies, who’d emigrated from Poland in 1889, was assigned to the island’s ArmyRead More

Ask Piero “Peter” Biancani how many boats he has built and he’s likely to respond with a bemused expression as though he’s never thought of counting. When pressed, he’ll probably answer, as he did one bluebird mid-February day on the shore of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, “Oh, maybe a dozen.”Read More

A lady who sat next to me . . . said, “Do you reef in your gaff-topsails when you are close-hauled or do you let go the mizzen-top-bowline and cross-jack-braces. . .” I hadn’t the slightest idea what she was talking about . . . One reason for this wasRead More

Points East ad rep Lynn Whitney keeps an eagle eye out from her perch over the Fox Islands Thorofare.

Of what? Kindness, friendliness? Or the joy that comes from being on the water, and savoring the camaraderie of other mariners? This August day, it likely was a combination of all of these. Naomi and I were sailing our 79-year-old catboat Chessie on a glorious bluebird day in Narragansett Bay.Read More