Guest Columnists

Photo courtesy Marilyn Pond BrighamThe author’s boat on her mooring in Quissett, Mass.

Great expectations

February 5, 2024 at 12:00 am

Sailors always seem to be looking on the bright side of life.

Photo courtesy Dave AshtonThe author’s Nordic Tug 37 SkipStone underway. Even after 60 years of boating, there are lessons to be learned.

Still learning

February 5, 2024 at 12:00 am

The manual had offered a warning of the problem that was to come.

Photo courtesy Chuck RadisThe author’s 16-foot C-Dory beached at Fort Gorges in Portland Harbor.

A whale in Lowell’s Cove

November 20, 2023 at 12:00 am

Making the best of a difficult situation.

Photo courtesy Hank GarfieldThe author at the tiller of Planet Waves.

The last waltz

September 25, 2023 at 12:00 am

It was my last sailing trip of the summer: late August, with the school year looming and syllabi still unwritten for my fall classes at the University of Maine. But one piece of business on the water remained.

Photo courtesy Mike CamarataThe author and his wife and co-captain Carol Zipke enjoying yet another quiet moment.

The fine art of doing nothing

September 25, 2023 at 12:00 am

The question we get asked most about this lifestyle is, hands down, “What do you do all day on a boat?”

Photo courtesy Pat BroganTilly Twin flying her large genoa and small genoa staysail, on the way into Cuttyhunk.

Racing Horace Beck

July 24, 2023 at 12:00 am

August 2023 By Pat Brogan We started cruising in Tilly Twin, the 35.5’ Laurent Giles-designed ocean racer in the spring of 1962, when I was nine years old. We cruised the same harbors that we previously did while sailing Flame, the Herreshoff 23 that kicked off our family cruising tradition,Read More

Photo courtesy Chuck RadisAuthor and recreational lobsterman Chuck Radis poses with a keeper in Casco Bay.

Confessions of a recreational lobsterman

July 24, 2023 at 12:00 am

Lessons learned — the hard way.

A fortuitous pierhead jump

May 22, 2023 at 12:00 am

June 2023 By Donald Street In mid-September, while in Rhode Island, I happened to spot a massive sailing yacht at a marina in Jamestown. I love to wander through boatyards and marinas, looking at the variety of vessels, so I walked to the end of the dock, discovering that theRead More

Photo courtesy Paul BrownThe author, right, with Preston.

Chesapeake to Maine

March 20, 2023 at 12:00 am

That first delivery was an adventure and a lesson in different cruising styles

I walked from the shore to the site of our picnic; sure enough, there was a dirty, shaggy, totally disreputable-looking sheep standing with his head buried in our huge bowl of fresh fruit salad, and quite a crowd standing back watching him.

In sheep’s clothing

January 30, 2023 at 12:00 am

An unexpected wildlife incursion tested the mettle of this new captain.