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“The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation: The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer, I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky.” — Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855, “I Celebrate Myself” It’s hard not to love autumn, especially if you live in the Northeast. The fall air is crisply cool and tinged with the scent of wood smoke, but it’s still warm enough to sleep with a window cracked. Trees wave their gold and red flags of surrender to winter, and on a brilliantly sunny day, when the sky is a perfect azure canvas for this masterpiece, there are few atheist witnesses. I’m not sure if autumn…
I’ve been hooked on Soundings ever since a friend left a copy at my house. Just received my October issue today. But is it wrong to start reading from the back of the magazine, in the classifieds section? I just love to see what is available out there. I am the happy owner of a Legacy 32, but you never know … Paul Struzziero via email BOATLESS? PERISH THE THOUGHT I am sure Mary South will be flooded with Marshall 22 offers as a result of her September column, so I will simply add mine to the list [Underway, “Good Choices”]. However, mine is located in Onancock, Virginia — a wonderful sail north, through the Chesapeake & Delaware canal and up to Philadelphia. It’s a chance for you to be that young…
SEMPER PARATUS The National Coast Guard Museum, which has been in planning since the 1990s, is moving from vision to reality. The museum will feature interactive exhibits of the latest air and sea navigation technology, artifacts and documents, simulators re-creating dramatic rescues and on-water displays. The museum site is on the Thames River next to City Pier in New London, Connecticut, where the Coast Guard’s tall ship Eagle will be home-ported. Read more about it in the December issue of Soundings. Queen Of Walker Bay’s Generation RIBs Walker Bay Boats has added a 17-foot RIB to its Generation fleet, which now ranges from 11 to 17 feet. “We found ways to build a rigid inflatable boat with the features you’d normally find on bigger boats,” says Michael Carroll, director of…
Fearing a Grinchy Christmas, U.S. retailers were holding their breath and consulting with attorneys after Hanjin Shipping Co., Korea’s largest shipping line, filed for bankruptcy protection in South Korea. The move threw global commerce into chaos as Hanjin ships became stranded outside ports without money to load, unload or dock. Hanjin, ranked as the world’s ninth-largest container shipping company, operates 140 container or bulk vessels, transports more than 100 million tons of cargo a year and runs 13 terminals, two distribution centers and six off-dock container yards in major ports. Its ships carry almost 8 percent of the trans-Pacific trade by volume. A Korean court approved Hanjin’s petition for bankruptcy protection Sept. 1, clearing the way for the company to seek stay orders in the courts of 43 countries to…
New Jersey anglers are challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over a beach renourishment plan, the latest battle in what has become a worldwide dispute about the use of sand as a natural resource. The New Jersey plan would mine sand from fishing grounds to build a 14-mile line of protective dunes seaward of communities destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. “It’s a massive project,” says Ken Warchal, vice president of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association. “The dunes will be 25 feet high.” The project identifies five sea mounts where dredges would mine almost 10 million cubic yards of sand to build a line of dunes from Manasquan Inlet south to Barnegat Inlet. Over the next 50 years, the dredges would dig another 18 million cubic yards from the sites…
Dawn Riley is one of the most successful racing sailors in the world. In 1989-90, Riley was the watch captain/engineer on Maiden, the first all-women team in the Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race). In 1993-94 she returned to the Whitbread as the skipper of Heineken, leading the only all-women team in that race. A four-time America’s Cup veteran, she first campaigned with Bill Koch’s victorious defending syndicate America3, as the only female sailor, in 1992. In 1995, Koch sponsored Mighty Mary, where Riley was the team captain for the first all-female crew. In 2000, she was CEO and captain of America True, whose parent foundation is still dedicated to putting at-risk kids on the water, and she was general manager of K-Challenge in the 2007…
