Close to the Water: Digital Tides and Currents
When it comes to small boat sailing, I lean luddite. I like to feel the wind, experience the changing conditions of the water, and consult my paper charts. In my last column (see Riding the Tide in the April 2026 issue), I…
Close to the Water: Riding the Tide
When I worked in marine science, we’d sometimes talk about plankton and nekton. Most people are familiar with plankton: tiny organisms that drift to and fro in saltwater, pushed by currents and wind. Nekton are larger…
Close to the Water: North of the Border
I’ve spent more time in Canada than any foreign country, nearly all of it coming and going by boat. Last summer, I attended a family reunion in Vancouver, but this time, boating wasn’t in the cards. My wife, two adult…
#TBT: Finding Awe in the New Year
In our latest Throwback Thursday, we ring in 2026 with a column by Bruce Bateau from the December 2023 issue of 48° North encouraging fellow boaters to find magic on the water in the new year. As boaters, we get to see the…
Close to the Water: Sailor’s Day Off
As the steward of three wooden craft, I look forward to the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival as a highlight of the boating year. So I feel guilty admitting that I wasn’t there this past September. Instead, my wife, Kate,…
Dan checks his chart to make sure…
The author presses bearings back into…Close to the Water: Opening Day
Opening Day means different things for different sailors. For some, it means practicing maneuvers and parading past judges while steering in formation. For others, it’s a sailboat race that starts the spring series. Since I…
Close to the Water: Boat Ramp Champs
I was on one of my early camp-cruising trips in a 15-foot rowboat when I approached the tiny marina at Blake Island State Marine Park. Two sailors from a 40-foot trawler climbed down from their deck chairs to the dock. “Do…
Close to the Water: Small Boats, Big Influence
A 16-foot Jim Michalak-designed Scram Pram,…