Time flies. I hope everyone has had a nice winter. Personally, I’m beginning to wonder if I need to be a ‘snowbird’. Really dislike being cold, especially in my own home! I have electric heat and it’s hard to keep warm without turning it up…
Long Island Boating World
All is right and good in the world again with fishing being part of my daily routine. Just to clarify though there’s a lot of baseball practices for two teams my son plays on. I have a 7ft spinning rod matched with a Van Staal…
I have always had a love/hate relationship with the month of April. On the one hand it means that the open-water fishing season is basically upon us here in Southern New England. Seasons are opening, fish are returning to local waters, and those who winter-over…
As I write this column on the last day of February, we’ve had the warmest winter in recent history. That can translate to spectacular fishing in April on all fronts as we are well ahead of normal migratory patterns. Striped bass should be packed and…
Tar, that thick, gooey, mess has been used on ships for many purposes since the beginning of ancient voyages. All types of tars and pitch formulas were used on hulls, decks, riggings, and even on a seaman’s clothing. It has always been the crew fighting…
Captain David Reed Morehouse of the barque Dei Gratia was on deck when he first spotted the Mary Celeste; she was just at the horizon. Sailing out of New York with a load of petroleum, the Dei Gratia was bound for Gibraltar. On arrival at…
When I was in high school some of the girls in my class who lived on the water had their own small boats – some had sailboats, others had earlier family boats now outgrown. Other than where they went, the young boat owners had little…
Of the many ships that have been run aground off the coast of Rhode Island the story of the tanker Swiftstar has to be one of the most unusual. She was not unusual because of her design or her being stranded, in which she was…
Each month, an interesting aspect of the world’s oldest continuous maritime service will be highlighted. The men and women of the United States Coast Guard follow in the fine tradition of the brave mariners who have served before them. As sentinels and saviors of the…
There is an incredible irony in the fact that long after the golden age of sail when clipper ships raced across the world powered entirely by wind power that once again cargo ships are turning to wind-assisted power. The new sails that are being evaluated…