Destinations

Joseph Conrad once wrote, “The sea never changes.” And while this may or not be true, something most definitely not open for debate is the fact we sailors, “wrapped in mystery,” as Conrad put it, are continually changing—whether we like it or not. I found myself thinking these ...read more

We didn’t get off on the right foot sailing into Hawaii. It was our own fault, of course. We should have known better. It’s never a good idea to assume that just because procedures were a certain way one year, they will be the same the next. It was an especially bad idea given ...read more

Almost anywhere a sailor drops the hook someone else has been there before. We are hardly ever the first. That remote Maine harbor without a soul in sight: there’s a lobster trap. The south coast of Newfoundland: the crumbling remains of a fisherman’s cabin lie hidden among the ...read more

The much-anticipated opening of Lovango Resort and Beach Club, on December 20th will mark the first time in nearly 30 years that a new resort has opened in the US Virgin Islands. "Lovango" as the locals call it is a private island just across the bay from St. John, and the ...read more

After a year off in 2020, the United States Boat Show in Annapolis is back. From the diminutive Areys Pond Cat 14 XFC to the massive Lagoon Sixty 5, many of the SAIL’s 2022 Best Boats Nominees are on display for the public to get a firsthand look at, and SAIL’s Best Boats panel ...read more

The saying “Nothing goes to windward like a 747,” is one of my favorites. I actually once took a 747 upwind, retracing my earlier downwind sailing route across the Pacific. I’ve also done a fair bit of ocean sailing to windward. The 747 was a lot more comfortable. But then ...read more

Thinking of spending cyclone season in the South Pacific? Plenty of sailors take the chance every year, with the recent travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic making this an especially popular option in 2020. Cyclone season in this part of the world runs from November to ...read more

Four years after being decimated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the Bitter End Yacht Club is set to reopen for the Winter 2022 season. Hailed as one of the best anchorages in the Caribbean and built by sailors, for sailors, this island outpost in the BVI has been a favorite with ...read more

Florida Bay is located between the southern tip of mainland Florida and the Florida Keys. The Backcountry as it’s called consists of a triangular area generally north of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW); south of the mainland and east of a line from Flamingo to Lower Matacumbe ...read more

They said it couldn’t be done, but damn it, we did it! We sailed the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, in light winds, no less. Everyone else just motors. Like many other cruisers, I have also transited the canal twice under power and can tell you from personal experience that none of ...read more

I didn’t come up with the title to this story on my own. I actually saw it on a T-shirt in downtown Bayfield, Wisconsin. At the time as we were roaming around town after returning our boat to the Superior Yacht Charters base (superiorcharters.com) there following five days ...read more

Few bodies of water have such a fearsome reputation—or have exerted as powerful an effect in shaping the course of history—as the Bay of Biscay. Enclosed by the Atlantic coast of France and northern coast of Spain, the bay measures less than 350 miles from headland to headland ...read more

Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, with its teal-blue waters and balmy breezes, beckons many a West Coast sailor. Good anchorages, desert islands, huge game fish, colorful towns and delicious street food—there’s something for everyone. To get there, though, requires surmounting the hurdle ...read more

In my experience, every charter has a kind of a theme to it, often encapsulated in a single moment. For me, during a recent weeklong charter off the coast of Belize that moment came toward the end of our first day out. We’d left the Sunsail base (sunsail.com), located part way ...read more

After a hard 33-day crossing in the Roaring Forties from Cape Town, South Africa, Jeannie, my wife and shipmate of over four decades, and I arrived to kiss the dock in Albany, a small but well-serviced Victorian town on Australia’s southwestern coast. We were glad the trip was ...read more

In a way, the Inside Passage is to the Pacific Northwest what the Intracoastal Waterway is to the East Coast—a protected waterway used by mariners to reach distant destinations. However, that’s about where the similarity ends. Along the Inside Passage, for example, there is not ...read more

She is small, but she is mighty. I have to keep telling myself that. It can be easy to forget when you’re alone, 400 miles offshore, and green water is pouring over the deck with every swell. My singlehanded trip from Fiji to Australia aboard the 26ft Contessa, Crazy Love, ...read more

Being a cruising sailor, one is already practicing a kind of social distancing. But coastal cruisers, and those transiting the Intracoastal Waterway, in particular, still have to return to land for re-provisioning and things like water, fuel, and pump-outs. When you dock in a ...read more

There are many mantras experienced cruisers like to pass on to those less experienced. First and foremost among these is: “Never sail to a schedule.” After that comes: “Choose your weather window carefully.” Unfortunately, this past spring, my husband, Brian, and I violated both ...read more

Panama is truly the crossroads of the world, bridging the North and South American continents, with the Caribbean and Europe to the east and Asia and the Pacific to the west. We’d already crossed the Pacific aboard Distant Drummer, our Liberty 458 sloop, and after spending three ...read more

Last summer, I was delighted to be invited to join two of my girlfriends on a sailing trip—my third, no less! This trip would surely herald my promotion from nautical novice to savvy seafaring expert. I was to join them on a charter in Southwest Florida and sail along the ...read more

It had been seven years since I’d taken my Westsail 32, Antares, out for more than an afternoon day sail. Such is the reality when taking care of an elderly parent. However, a year ago my dad passed away at the age of 100, and after we sold the family home, I found myself living ...read more

My goal, I thought, was modest: two weeks from Cyprus to Mykonos and then two more weeks for the return via Santorini and Rhodes. Not too much to ask of a boat, skipper and crew that had crossed the Atlantic. I had even envisioned the article I would write: Five Best Isles of the ...read more

It was an early alarm. My wife likes it loud, and loud it was. The clanging clanged my nerves. I was suddenly wide awake and, looking out my bedroom window, I noticed that a soft snow was falling. Icicles had formed on each window pane and the pre-dawn view was bleak. Gray on ...read more

The magenta line was first added to charts in 1913. It was created to aid commercial navigation up and down the East Coast and around the Gulf Coast. To aid pilots running through the convoluted mix of waterways, a magenta colored line was drawn on the charts to indicate which ...read more

For years, I’d been wanting to visit Grenada. There are many things that fascinated me about this island: its rugged, mountainous interior, its rainforests and waterfalls, and the fact that it’s less traveled than some other Caribbean sailing destinations. My photographer ...read more

It was the last week of May and the hurricane season was fast approaching. My wife, Carla, and I made plans to take our Lagoon 40, Ocean Fox, west from Grenada to the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao—better known as the ABC Islands. The first leg from St. ...read more

The Bahamas is a vast country consisting of over 700 islands spread out over an area 25 percent larger than New England. Attracted by year-round sunshine, the lure of excellent fishing, world-class diving and calm waters, thousands of boaters of all ages and nationalities visit ...read more

Travel on the ICW is made simpler if you follow the mantra “half tide rising”. If you are headed towards and planning to transit one of the infamous ICW “trouble spots,” the advice is: enter the area on a rising tide and exit the area before the tide starts to drop precipitously. ...read more

If you like the thought of easy sailing, affordable travel costs and a low hassle factor, you can’t beat the Virgin Islands for a wondrous winter charter. Whether you’re headed to the Spanish, British or U.S. Virgins, here are some tips on chartering in a tropical paradise ...read more

The chart showed 45ft of vertical clearance, and I knew the boat should be able to pass under the bridge. Still, there was that nagging voice in my head that wouldn’t let me be. “What if your air draft calculations were wrong?” it said. “And if you’re just a little too high the ...read more

My husband, Neil, and I had left Mexico in March on board Distant Drummer, our Liberty 458 sloop, with a plan to spend the rest of the year on a leisurely cruise down the west coast of Central America. It was in this way that, after enjoying the delights of El Salvador and ...read more

There is something exciting about the extended anticipation of making landfall in a faraway place for the first time: the imminent meeting of expectations and reality, the inevitable differences from the mental pictures you’ve shaped. Through our decade of offshore sailing, my ...read more

For a few sweet years, American cruisers had the freedom to sail to Cuba. It was good while it lasted, says Addison Chan Cuba has assumed near-mythical properties in the community of sailors around the world. It is almost impossible to utter the name without conjuring up images ...read more

One of the most wonderful childhood vacations I can remember was back in 1971 when my best friend invited me to his family’s summer home on Nantucket Island. For a 10-year-old kid, this was a thrilling trip for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact it was also my ...read more