#TBT: Galley Essentials – Recipes from a New Friend’s Galley
In our latest Throwback Thursday, longtime 48° North columnist Amanda Swan checks in with Friday Harbor liveaboard Margot McKirdy to see what secrets her galley holds. I recently met Margot McKirdy here in Friday Harbor, and…
Editor’s Letter: The Night Before
I realize that many boaters may be thinking about wrapping up the summer boating season this month. Still, for the average cruiser, August may just as easily be the month you’ve looked forward to all year, when you’ll untie…
Casting Off: A Beautiful Sail in the Neighborhood
The whole happy crew aboard Ariel. A surprising but now obvious realization for me as a new boat owner is understanding the many functions that a boat can fill for its passengers and skippers. It can be a means of…
Editor’s Letter: The Joys of Summer Boating in the PNW
Eleven years ago this month, my wife Jill and I finalized the purchase of our beloved 1984 Grand Soleil 39 on Lake Union and couldn’t have been more excited. Starry-eyed youngsters, we celebrated with beers on the patio of…
Close to the Water: Stitch & Glue
When the need for a new dinghy arises, a reluctant boat builder goes to work "I’m going to start building a wooden boat this weekend,” I told a colleague one Friday last December. It was casual workplace chit-chat, but deep…
Port Townsend Pocket Yacht Palooza – Largest Exhibit of Small Craft in North America
Mark your calendar for the free July 29th Pocket Yacht Palooza in Port Townsend, Washington. Fifty+ small, trailerable boats will be exhibited including sail & oar, small motor cruisers, kayaks, rowing craft, and more.…
Casting Off: Snapshot of a Dedicated Puget Sound Kayaker
A few years before Ariel, our Columbia 28 sailboat, became part of our world, my wife and I explored the local lakes of Sonoma County, California on a sit-on-top inflatable kayak called an Advanced Element. When we moved to…
Three Sheets Northwest: The Homeport
When switching marinas is more sentimental than anticipated Rounder in her J Dock slip at her previous homeport of Elliott Bay Marina. For nearly 20 years, we kept a series of boats at our homeport, Elliott Bay Marina; the…
Shifting Gears: First Launch
Look Ma, no tiller! The author adjusting to the weather-protected helm of the C-Dory. Longtime sailors chart a new course on a C-Dory. It had been a long time since we trailer-launched a boat. Our past two boats — a Cal 27…
Casting Off: Sailors for Trail or Rent
For boating enthusiasts and dreamers, the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend is an annual revelation. The boat manufacturing industry, like the car and aviation industries, has its share of variety, allowing the…