Stormy Weather

While I have made many hundreds of trips from Portsmouth Harbor to the Isles of Shoals across the full range of weather and seasons (wind, rain, fog, snow and freezing spray) I had never been thoroughly scared until one afternoon a few weeks ago.

Years ago I was at a dock in Connecticut when friends of mine returned from a trip to Block Island aboard their 36-footer. They practically kissed the ground once their lines were thrown, and, to a man, were visibly shaken. The hours-old experience they described? Soon after leaving Great SaltRead More

The surreal aspect of Aug. 4 didn’t begin until 3 p.m. This was the Tuesday that Tropical Storm Isaias rolled through New England, and I was listening to the radio, one eye on my computer screen and the other on the wildly cavorting trees outside my window. Suddenly, this interruptionRead More

June, 1994. 200 miles south of The Cape. Wind 40 knots, gusting higher. 20-foot waves. Water north of the Gulf Stream 50 degrees. Destination, Spain. This is the story of how we almost got there.

A lot of coasters curse the fog. I miss it. Though a lifetime of sailing may be too brief a span to draw any reliable conclusions, it seems that the Gulf of Maine fog stocks are in decline, particularly during the last decade. During one cruise back in the ’80sRead More

The last big weekend of the year promised a full house at the Oceanic Hotel. A two-day island wedding extravaganza was also on the schedule.

A severe thunderstorm, covering many square miles of ocean, stalked our old gaff-yawl as she sailed home to Bristol, R.I., from Block Island.

The locals told us not to worry. The forecasters said Charley would run up through the Gulf of Mexico well off shore.

Belhaven seemed like a fine place for a couple of southbound New England cruisers to ride out a hurricane. Then Isabel decided she’d like to visit too.

So nasty that “In the middle of the sound, and the rain is coming down in torrents. The thunder and lightning are simultaneous. No sense trying to count the seconds to see how far off the storm is – it’s here! ”

August 2003 By William E. Macdonald For Points East Without a doubt the worst weather I ever encountered on the water was a snowstorm during the winter of 1983, on my way home to Frenchboro during the early evening hours on my 26-foot Trojan. And just what was I doingRead More

So nasty that “Lightning had struck about 100 feet off the port side of the boat. A 50-foot circle of sizzling, boiling white water expanded from the spot of the strike and dissipated into the surrounding water. ”

So nasty that “the wind clocked around and before the boat could answer the helm, the boom jibed hard with a force that shook the entire boat.”