Skipper Tips For Every Day
Skipper Tips For Every Day By Fridtjof Gunkel 2021; 204 pp; Adlard Coles; Paperback $20 A friend of mine who served in the Marines used to say that the motto of his branch wasn’t Semper Fi so much as it…
Author: Robert Beringer
It’s not easy being green
How can it be that something you love to do makes you sick? The ocean is a fickle host, at times benevolent and mild, then obstreperous and cruel — often within moments of each other. One minute you’re in…
Scopolamine patches: strong medicine
The scopolamine transdermal patch is a prescription medicine and very effective in the prevention of nausea associated with seasickness and postoperative nausea. By 2017, worldwide sales of the drug surpassed $370 million and have grown since. As with most medications,…
Boat show lemonade
It’s been a tough year for the businesses of the world. There was no precedent for the COVID-19 pandemic and no instruction manual on what to do.…
Winds of change
As our world stumbles through this painful and unprecedented time, with businesses and schools closed, boat shows canceled and so many of us compelled to shelter in place, it’s frustrating to think that even our boats can only provide limited respite from the draconian restrictions of the pandemic.
The last straw
The discourse on worldwide plastic pollution is hard to avoid these days; everywhere you look, there’s another alarming story about Texas-sized garbage patches in the Pacific and pounds of plastic in the bellies of marine mammals and birds.
Calling all future boating journalists
Have you ever read a boating article in a magazine or online blog and thought to yourself, “I could do that!” Well, here’s your chance.
Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World
Talk about good timing: Just as British author Peter Moore was putting the finishing touches on his biography of HMS Endeavour and its multifarious 18th-century voyages, marine archaeologists in Rhode Island pinpointed its final resting place near Newport, where in 1778 it had been scuttled by the British to prevent the French fleet from attacking.
Spice Island safari
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to ride in a dhow, then you’ve truly experienced poetry in motion.
The sharing economy hits the water
Imagine what would happen if Airbnb hooked up with Uber and went out for a boat ride.
Vanishing lands of the Chesapeake
It’s an image I’ll never forget: a solitary wooden house floating on the waters of the eastern Chesapeake, surrounded by a small pile of sandbags and covered with cormorants and gulls.
River of fear
Somewhere in the wilds of central North Carolina on I-95, where trees grow tall and cell reception is spotty, I passed a green sign that said “Cape Fear River.”
Sails for Haiti
As mariners, we all know the importance of a good sail on our boat.
Undaunted in the deep blue sea
Isn’t it true that big things often come in small packages? Matt Kent sure believes this.
Derelict boats in Florida
Florida Statute 327.4107, which took effect July 1, is Florida’s latest attempt to deal with its intractable derelict boat problem.
No drilling for now in the Atlantic
After a long and contentious debate that pitted boaters, coastal communities and the fishing industry against Big Oil, the Obama administration has reversed its original stance and directed the Interior Department to remove 104 million acres of the mid- and southeast Atlantic areas of the U.S. outer continental shelf from its 2017 oil and gas leasing program.
Changes in vessel documentation
Way, way back when I purchased my Catalina 34, I had to make a quick decision on whether I would register the boat in Florida, or document it.
Sardine harbor
To the editor: On the NOAA chart it looked fine, albeit a little small: an almost square dredged anchorage just north of Plymouth, Mass., that services the Pilgrim-founded hamlet of Duxbury. Sailing a tight serpentine path up the sprawling sand…
Florida anchoring restrictions
Imagine for a moment that you’ve just sailed from Savannah down the coast into Mayport, Fla., and the ICW.
Doing the customs two step
Recently, I left my Catalina 34 in the Bahamas and flew back to the U.S. for some long-delayed errands and to purchase equipment for the boat.
Santa to Nassau
A voyager delivers presents to the Bahamas without a magic sled
Boatyard blues
Haul outs are de rigueur for big displacement boaters; the old fun machine must be pulled out regularly for a scrape and a fresh coat of ablative bottom paint.
That sinking feeling
Boating is all about staying on top of the water as you move from point A to point B. But gravity will not be denied here: all things will find their way to the lowest point. And if not properly attended to, boats will find their way to the bottom.
Solar night light
To the editor: Several times I have spent the night at anchor, showing a light for safety, while enjoying a movie in my lighted saloon, only to discover in the morning that my house bank was dead and that there…
