We know that tales of disasters, mishaps and general screw ups are a part of being on the water. While we don’t celebrate them, we acknowledge a powerful interest in these stories and recognize their educational value. With that in mind, we offer you some of our favorite tales of woe from years gone by.
Baptism by fire, Part II
Part 2: Some hairy autumn sea miles remained between Sea-Finn and her Midcoast Maine destination, including a forecast of 17- to 20-foot waves, 65-mph winds – and infamous Kennedy Rock.
Read MoreBaptism by fire
Part 1: With crew unavailable, the author, a relative cruising greenhorn, chose to singlehand to Downeast Maine from New York. He reached Kennebunkport, learned a lot, and nobody got hurt.
Read MoreForce 8 Cape Cod
June, 1994. 200 miles south of The Cape. Wind 40 knots, gusting higher. 20-foot waves. Water north of the Gulf Stream 50 degrees. Destination, Spain. This is the story of how we almost got there.
Read MoreTaking cover
It was a pleasant enough day when a friend and I took a new-to-me 14’ runabout down the Providence River from the neighborhood of Riverside in East Providence. At 16 years old we were venturing into the “vast open water” of Narragansett Bay south of
Read MoreCaptain Bumblebee to the rescue
By Ralph B. Pears My hapless cruising companion of many years, affectionately known as “Captain Bumblebee” because of his fondness for a yellow and black rugby shirt, was someone who was always prepared to lend a helping hand. You could always depend on him to
Read MoreOutdoor showers
By Christopher Birch Outdoor showers for the N.E. sailorSeveral years ago, on New Year’s Eve, I made a resolution: For the 12 months ahead, I would never shower without a beer. There’s something about the yin and yang of hot water and cold beer that
Read MoreInnocents abroad
By Frederick Findlen One beautiful October morning, my wife and I, both novice mariners, decided to take our last boating trip of the year. We checked the marine forecast, then launched our 17-foot motorboat in the New Meadows River in Brunswick, Maine. The plan was
Read MoreA shipyard burned, a treasure lost
A fire destroyed George W. Zachorne Jr. & Sons Boatbuilders, in Wickford, R.I., but more was ruined than structure, boats, tools and precious artifacts. A way of life was snuffed out, too.
Read MoreA crisis narrowly averted . . .
In the December issue of Points East the editor put out a call for “trip-gone-wrong” stories, so here’s one, detailing the very first time my wife Jo and I ran aground on Trinity, our 29’ Island Packet. I say “first,” as it’s happened more than
Read MoreMad dash to go-back
Experience is the best teacher, and lessons can be learned by straddling “exciting” and “really dumb.” In that spirit, I planned a 20-mile, Force 5 downwind flier from Portland to Harpswell
Read MoreLet’s talk about your fear
Fear is part of the boating experience — It’s how you handle it that counts. We asked readers to recount their experiences with fear on the water. These are their stories. “If we get through this, let’s get married” Watery nightmares turn to dream realized
Read More‘OK, Irv, you’re right!’
Guest Perspective: Paul Brown Fundy Flotilla 2004, from Northeast Harbor to Grand Manan, and then on to Saint John and the St. John River. Brownscow, my Beneteau Evasion 32, had made it to Grand Manan, New Brunswick, and then had to leave the flotilla as
Read MoreDeliverance
The schooner was pinned against 40-foot cliffs, pounded by seas that threw spray over their tops. A former owner of a towing and salvage firm, I thought I could haul her off with my 46-foot sedan cruiser.
Read MoreThe glittering darkness
The first time I nearly died in a boat was an occasion of sublime and terrifying beauty. I was in Woods Hole aboard the research schooner Westward, about to go to sea for the first time. I had joined the ship in Gloucester to supervise
Read MoreBoating and a big slice of humble pie
Many years ago, in the late ’90s, I had an old Star that I loved in a way that was inversely proportional to the aggravation it caused me. One of my top-five epic sails was aboard this boat, as was one of my top-five epic
Read MoreCapt. Bumblebee and the stadium blanket
Guest perspective/Ralph Pears Over the course of 30 years, during which time I frequently sailed in company with the ill-fated Capt. Bumblebee, so-named by my children because of his fondness for a yellow and black rugby shirt, he was always ready to come to the
Read MoreThe misadventures of Capt. Bumblebee
Guest perspective/Ralph Pears Whenever sailors get together and have a few drinks, their talk invariably turns to the adventures they’ve had aboard boats. Sometimes these stories involve dangerous conditions and overcoming difficult situations. Other times they focus on the reminiscences of beautiful journeys, or the
Read MoreThe libation of salvation
Guest perspective/Michael Long What good is a 1,000-mile delivery run without a bit of melodrama? Creature comforts and picturesque anchorages are in short supply when you leapfrog down the coast from Portland, Maine, to Jacksonville, Fla., in October. So some compensatory excitement is a welcome
Read MoreAground on New Year’s Eve
“We could have at least looked at the chart . . .” someone said. “Or we could have turned on the GPS,” I said, reaching across to the boat’s Garmin unit and pushing its little red button. “Well,” said Beth, reaching into her canvas bag
Read MoreBanned from Brewster
Guest perspective/Larry Wardwell The following is an excerpt from the book “Confessions of a Closet Yogi” by Larry Wardwell. In this true account, which took place in 1959, 18-year-old Larry is on leave from the Air Force, hanging out in his hometown of Natick, Mass.,
Read MoreDismasted!
Guest Perspective / Hank Garfield Sailing is the ultimate slower traffic. When I’ve got the boat trimmed just right in a fresh afternoon sea breeze, with spray flying and my crew laughing in exhilaration, it’s doing maybe seven miles an hour. Nonetheless, I do occasionally
Read MoreEarly sailing lessons
Guest perspective/Paul Brown I bought my first sailboat in 1987, when I was 52 years old. It was a Thunderbird 26 sloop, a pretty little one-design built for cruising and racing. One could sit on the un-enclosed marine toilet and touch all four berths, the
Read MoreLife as a human spar
Can a sail across Maine’s Casco Bay qualify as a cruise? Yes, when the vessel is a nine-foot Nutshell Pram with a podiatric whisker pole and the skipper has prehensile toes.
Read MoreI, too, have been somewhere
I blame it on the fried clams. Yes, like Captain Queeg and his strawberries, I’ll prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with geometric logic, that it was my fondness for fried clams that caused us to run aground that fine August day.
Read MoreThe dumbest (boating) decision ever
Sometimes dumb choices work out okay. Sometimes they don’t. Mostly they don’t.
Read MoreA bridge too short
Michael Camarata’s article, “Dumbest Boating Decision Ever,” about a bridge too narrow, published in the Midwinter issue of Points East, hit very close to home for me. I have also made a dumb boating decision involving a bridge.
Read MoreBeware the last sail
A fall delivery to the boatyard seemed such a simple thing. It was only a few miles. What could possibly go wrong?
Read MoreA long day’s journey into fright
April, 2005 By Bob Knecht For Points East Tiger Rag, our Beals Island 22, is one hell of a seaboat for her size. She was born in Calvin Beal’s boat shop and designed for Maine waters, and that’s why I bought her. On this day
Read MoreA close call and a story to tell
The tourists cheered. The locals loved it. The tanker crew cursed. And we had a boating story to tell. Big deal.
Read MoreShakedown cruise
Even with everything going wrong, a Downeast shakedown leaves a father and his teen-age daughters with a deeper appreciation for the joys of cruising – and of engines.
Read MoreRemind me to call those forecasters
February, 2000 By Carlene M. Grossi For Points East It had been a relatively uneventful August cruise for the two sailboats from Newport, R.I., a Catalina 30 and a Pearson 30. Oh sure, there had been fog, and the broken spreader, and the calls in
Read MoreA gift of calm in mid-ocean gives cruiser confidence to undertake new ventures
I was flabbergasted. It was hard to believe this was the ocean I had feared just a few months ago. Here we were 200 miles offshore plopped in a circle of velvet seas.
Read More“If we get through this, let’s get married”
We were 124 miles off Bermuda in 70-knot winds and 30-foot seas. A pressure gradient created by Hurricane Gordon lingered indecisively off Cape Hatteras, and a characteristically decisive Bermuda high hovered over Bermuda. For 48 hours, we struggled to keep our boat in one place
Read MoreWatery nightmares turn to dream realized
A near drowning incident in a swimming pool when I was a child left me fearful of the water. It wasn’t until I was about 34 years old that I was forced to confront the fear and deal with it.
Read MoreFor the new boatowner, the butterflies are never far away
Whenever I see kids wearing the “N0 Fear” caps and T-shirts that became popular a year or two back, I remind myself to get one of those caps for myself, to wear whenever I’m aboard my Pearson 303, Treasure.
Read More