Fall. This four-letter word creates passion in many, but I lament the nasty season that follows, so please excuse my disdain for the arrival of autumn.

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.

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.

Hank Garfield “This is one of the busiest and most eclectic harbors in Maine,” the man himself declares. On a rare warm day in early May, Matt Ripley, the new Rockland harbormaster, stands outside his office looking out at a placid and mostly empty piece of water. The ferries andRead More

Most people, however, are interested in the fact that the Castle – basically a fortified home – was where a thousand colonial troops from present-day Massachusetts and Connecticut massed before marching on the Great Swamp in the winter of 1675.

It was an idyllic time, on an idyllic island with perfect weather. But events spun out that changed our lives and our world forever.

Capt. Bob Brown Ultimately, this is a story about a boat. But it has to start as a story about our marina – Cove Marina, in Salisbury, Mass. For 19 of our 20 years of boating, we have begun our journeys from Cove Marina and, more or less, have endedRead More

Hank Garfield My favorite passage on the Maine Coast is between Rockland Harbor and Naskeag Point. I keep Planet Waves, my Cape Dory 25, in Rockland in the summer, but visit family on the other side of the bay once or twice a season. Their place is easier to getRead More

You often hear about, or see, dogs on boats. There is a TV ad for boating featuring dogs on boats. But no cats. A decade ago, a pot-bellied pig corresponded with Points East. But never a cat. Perhaps cats, knowing they are superior creatures, don’t feel the need to tout their cruising lifestyle.

Sometimes dumb choices work out okay. Sometimes they don’t. Mostly they don’t.