Articles
From the Deck: Eclipse
Back in 1932 when I was only 15, astronomers predicted a total eclipse of the sun. The moon was to pass between the sun and the earth and for a moment cover completely the face of the sun. My father decreed this to be an event of historic, cosmic significance that would not recur in
From the Deck: Hand-lining from a sloop
In the good old days before inshore fishing was strictly regulated, our family used to go fishing in our sloop, Dorothy. We were summer people, cottagers, not tourists. We were my wife, Mary and our three boys: twins Bob and Bill, 14, and John, 12. We sailed out of Newagen on the tip of Southport
From the Deck: Determination
We were tight-lipped determined, as determined as one can be, to sail across the Bay of Fundy from Boothbay, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. We had failed in the last two years because of fog and light airs, but not this time, in 1973. We had fitted out in desperate haste and had even signed
From the Deck: New mate
After a few elementary instructions, the new mate learns by experience. For instance, never tie up the peapod painter with a slippery hitch. Having her go adrift once is sufficient experience. We were beating out of the harbor with a full load of six passengers in our Friendship sloop. The mate was on the foredeck
Clamming law change allows diggers, like Ken Bailey, to sell to restaurants
Ken Bailey’s Chevy 12-passenger van has no back seats. Two broken plastic sleds and a variety of junk rattle in the back as he bounces down the rutted path to the shore to pick up his clams. Cigarette butts overflow from the ashtray and soda bottles litter the passenger side. Sharp white lettering on the
From the Deck
In 1969, The National Geographic Society sent some of its writers and photographers with their families on vacations quite new to each. Dean and Lee Conger and their three boys chose a week on the Maine coast with us on our Friendship sloop, Eastward. She is a 32-foot, wooden, sloop, gaff-rigged, and carrying gaff topsail
From the Deck
You have a new boat! She is a neat little sloop of which you are sinfully proud. You need a good picture of her. Surely you have a friend with a small power boat and a camera. On the appointed day subject to proper conditions of sun, wind and water, be ready. Scrub off any
From the Deck
Ploughing up Vinalhaven Late one calm August afternoon, my wife and I in our Friendship sloop Eastward anchored in Carvers Harbor, generally known as Vinalhaven. We felt secure on a quiet night in a good harbor lying to a 35-pound CQR plough anchor, 3 fathoms of chain and a stout rode. We enjoyed the lovely
From the Deck
On a warm summer afternoon, Mr. Alfred West, among several other sightseers from away, stood on the co-op wharf watching the two “quaint” lobster boats lying alongside the lobster car below. A faint smell of salt bait pervaded the scene. The boats were each about 30 feet long with high, sharp bows, a little coop
Serious Scientists
Scientists are a serious lot.. Sines and tangents, exponents and roots of radical equations, offer little in the way of humor, and scientific conclusions are rarely cheery. If you catch a fine fat mackerel, “Don’t eat it. It is loaded with mercury.” “Lobster tamale is pure poison.” ” The average global temperature is rising at