I thank god for my life And for the stars and stripes May freedom forever fly, let it ring. Salute the ones who died The ones that give their lives So we don't have to sacrifice All the things we love --Zac Brown Band
Photo of the Week:
Let There Be Light
I watched through envy-filled eyes as boaters who had done hardly an hour’s work were lowered from the travelift to the resting river below. “How!? I mean, gahhhh, another one,” I’d stammer, pointing wildly at the carefree looking family sailing off into summer. Karen rolled her eyes and went back to varnishing. We had accomplished [...]
Finding Solitude in an Empty Metal Shed
The gravel road rumbles beneath my tires as my headlights illuminate the deserted boatyard. I shift into park, pull one last long swig from my coffee cup and walk into the empty metal shed. Rain begins to dance atop the large roof; the light pinging is a soothing soundtrack.
Boating Season 2015: A Look Back
With the holidays in our wake and a New Year creeping ever closer, it seems a fitting time to reflect on the past boating season while updating ASailingStory’s followers on where we left off. On a bone-chilling morning in late October, Karen and I motored from a nearly deserted Essex to our winter home of [...]
Destination Micro-Adventure
A colleague recently turned me on to the Twitter account for Alastair Humphreys, a British adventurer whose four-year around-the-world bike trip is just a single bullet point on his expedition-filled résumé. Despite living a life most would deem clinically insane, he champions a concept that he calls the microadventure, which is just what it sounds like: [...]
Deep River: A Place So Nice We Went There Twice
A few days after our last weekend cruise to Deep River I asked Karen what she wanted to do next weekend. Here's how that weekly conversation usually plays out: "Mmm, I don't know. What do you want to do?" "Uhhh, I don't know. Go somewhere on the boat?" "Ok, but where?"... And it goes on like that for [...]
Discovering Deep River
On a typical day most of us drive through a dozen towns, maybe more. But how many of us can say that we’ve stopped, walked around or explored any of those towns to see what they have to offer? Probably not many. Even one rainy weekends where complaints of boredom are echoed, the odds are unlikely that [...]
Savoring Summer in Shelter Island
Leaves along Connecticut’s Route 9 had begun to trade their deep green for hints of orange and yellow; nature was showing its hand. Fall is here. With a long holiday weekend on tap the Karen Marie would be chasing the horizon at full throttle trying mightily to catch back up to summer. That’s how it [...]
5 Lessons In Having Fun on a Boat
Swinging on a mooring on a beautiful sunny Saturday in Hamburg Cove, just a few minutes from Essex, Karen and I were enjoying some quiet time reading in the cockpit. Our afternoon entertainment would be provided by our neighbor in an express cruiser with a cockpit filled with kids. At first glance they didn’t appear [...]
Breaking Murphy’s Law
I like to think that there’s an alternate universe where best laid plans actually come to fruition; a place where anchors set on the first try, seas lie flat on travel days and spare parts stay sealed and tucked away in the bottom drawer. In short, if such a universe existed, it would be the [...]
