Cruising Grounds

Out the Gate to the Giant Dipper

by Sail Staff, Posted May 7, 2009

Sailors and non-sailors alike respectfully refer to the ocean beyond my home waters of San Francisco Bay as “Outside the Gate.” Along the northern California coast there are miles of rocky coastline separating the few harbors of refuge, which often have challenging entrances. Along the way you had best be prepared for strong winds, fog, and sizable seas. Of course, it may also

Heading Home

by Fred Bagley, Posted April 13, 2009

It’s not because you can’t get there. Or that it’s dinky. In fact, it’s the biggest city on the biggest freshwater lake in the world. It’s just that it is the farthest end of the biggest and baddest freshwater lake in the world.H.O.M.E.S: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. Childhood mnemonic for memorizing the five Great Lakes.By now all you Carmen Sandiego

IntraCoastal to get money after all?

by Kimball Livingston, Posted August 6, 2004

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association now runs a message board of updated information regarding the waterway. We have a link at the bottom of this story. Meanwhile, we have more good news ...Are you a racer? A cruiser? Doesn't matter. If you transit the Eastern seaboard, you probably use the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, and the food news is that the great letter-writing

The Lakes Effect

by Kimball Livingston, Posted December 20, 2006

Once you’re out of sight of land for a while, you understand why they speak of “offshore sailing” in the Great Lakes.Once you’ve been through a few sail changes, you might think of the prevailing wind as “variable.”And once you’ve gone the length of Lake Michigan, you will be, in a small way, a veteran of sailing in the heart of America. I say “in a small way” because there is a lot of

Split Decision

by Sail Staff, Posted August 8, 2008

A thousand islands, a balmy climate, friendly people: Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast knocks the socks of most other cruising groundsWith my wife, Roz, and my old Scottish mate, Patrick, I’d bought tickets on a low-price airline from London to Split. Two and a half hours later we were losing altitude over a fairytale fortress on a tiny island. We’ll sail there for sure, I

Driving The Interstate ICW

by Sail Staff, Posted August 8, 2008

Unfavorable winds turn an offshore adventure into a sleepy crawl down the DitchBy Dave BaldwinWe emerged from the darkness of an overnight passage 10 miles off the North Carolina coast when Joe asked an ordinarily easy question: “Should we turn off the engines and sail?” The light breeze had finally clocked around so that it wasn’t hitting us on the nose and—having spent

A Sense of the Journey

by Kimball Livingston, Posted August 11, 2008

There’s always an anchorage around the bend when you’re cruising the rivers and sloughs of California’s Central ValleyMuch of our world has lost a proper sense of the journey, but not the world of sail. A friend of mine once told me how he sailed his two boys 80 miles up the Sacramento River from San Francisco. “We went when the boys were 14 and 12,” he said. “Along the way we

Glimpses of an Alternate Reality

by Irene Gould, Posted August 11, 2008

Palmerston Atoll, in the Cook Islands, delivers hospitality unheard-of in the real world.We were six long days out of Bora Bora. The wind was like a baby’s breath, and the rolling swells frequently knocked it out of our sails. Progress was slow but peaceful until the western sky filled with the rapidly lowering cumulus of an approaching cold front. We were soon hunkered down in

Crossing More Than Miles

by Sail Staff, Posted August 11, 2008

Mother-daughter bonding on the high seasAs I dialed my mother’s number on the Panama City pay phone, I told myself not to be disappointed if she’d changed her mind. My father, who’d been worrying ever since I’d announced my decision to sail the 3,200-mile passage from the Galpagos to the Marquesas alone, had e-mailed me the night before. Subject line: “Crew for your

The Joy of Gunkholing

by David W. Shaw, Posted August 11, 2008

There's more to cruising than wide-open spacesI glanced to port at the anvil-shaped cloud rising high over the mainland to the west, then at the genoa eased to catch a southerly breeze blowing anemically up the Johns River off Elizabeth's stern. My heavy full-keel Bristol 24 barely moved. More to the point, I was losing the race with my friend's Tartan 27 as he glided toward