Editor’s Letter: It’s All About Perspective

In the past few weeks, I got to enjoy the ever-popular pair of September events: the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival and the Lake Union Boats Afloat Show. Each is a celebration of boats and dreams and life on the water in…

#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…

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

Shifting Gears: First Launch

Look Ma, no tiller! The author adjusting…