Soundings is the news and feature publication for recreational boaters. Award-winning coverage of the people, issues, events -- and the fun -- of recreational boating. Check out our generous boats-for-sale section and our gunkholing destinations.
A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. — John Steinbeck About a month ago, I closed the sale on my Cape Dory FB 28 and moved her from Maryland to Connecticut. I brought along the family: two old Jack Russell terriers and a wonderful first mate, who is invaluable for moral support but otherwise inexperienced at sea. It was a great trip, though it got off to a rocky start. About two and a half hours after we left Annapolis on a Monday around noon, the boat went from a happy 3,000 rpm to dead in the water, quite suddenly.…
Great story by Mary South on Blake Mycoskie and his company, TOMS, [“Keeping it Real,” August]. I am a member of Lions Clubs International. One of the primary goals of the Lions is sight. There are 7 million Lions members in almost every country. I saw a film at a golf tournament of the Lions and their doctors in Central or South America. Children and 50-, 60-year-old people were tested and fitted with glasses. It was the first time in their lives they had seen. Pretty neat stuff, brought tears to the room. If these two organizations were to get together, what could happen? John Schaal St. Paul, Minnesota SHARED PASSIONS I enjoyed Mary South’s “Underway” column in the August issue. Indeed, I believe E.B. White said it best: If…
With a price tag that’s less than $20,000, the Robalo R-160 should appeal not only to first-time buyers, but also those looking for a small coastal fishing boat or thinking about getting their teenagers into their own boat. For $19,795, you get a versatile center console with a Yamaha F50 4-stroke and an aluminum trailer, says East Coast sales manager Joe Pegg. The R-160 can also be powered with an F70 ($20,795) or F90 ($21,995). The boat is all about value and simplicity, says Pegg. “We have a high-quality boat with loads of value, and part of the value is that it’s easy to store, clean and maintain,” he says. The R-160 has an optional collapsible console windshield, and the standard trailer tongue folds to shrink its footprint in the…
Test your knowledge with these Coast Guard license exam prep questions from the National Captain’s Institute captains.com 1. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Rules concerning lights say that they shall be displayed from sunset to sunrise and: A. are to be displayed during daylight B. may be displayed during daylight C. may not be displayed during daylight D. none of the above 2. INTERNATIONAL RULES: In restricted visibility, you hear one prolonged and two short blasts. It is: A. a motorboat underway, making way B. a vessel not under command C. a vessel being towed D. none of the above 3. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Which of the following is not a vessel restricted in ability to maneuver? A. working dredge B. vessel constrained by draft C. towboat with a tow preventing deviation from course…
An Australian coroner’s inquest into crewmember deaths aboard the 800-foot coal carrier Sage Sagittarius is looking as murky as an Agatha Christie mystery, exposing the dark underbelly of flag-of-convenience ships that employ people who are desperate for work, under appalling conditions. Nicknamed the “Death Ship,” the Japanese-managed, Panamanian-flagged Sage Sagittarius was on its regular run from Kudamatsu, Japan, to Newcastle, Australia, to pick up a load of coal when the ship’s 42-year-old chief cook, Filipino Cesar Llanto, vanished, presumably lost overboard, 450 nautical miles northwest of Cairns, Australia, on Aug. 30, 2012. On Sept. 14, the ship’s chief engineer, Hector Collado, 57, also a Filipino, fell 36 feet down an engineering shaft after a blow to the head as he prepared to disembark at Newcastle, where the ship was docked.…
Eighteen years ago this summer, Capt. Charles Moore was sailing home aboard his 50-foot catamaran after the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, and he discovered a plastic debris field in the North Pacific that was twice the size of Texas. It has since become known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic,” Moore, the founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, later wrote in an article for Natural History magazine. “It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of…
