By Gayle Keck
Welcome to our nation-state. It is 43 feet long and 23 wide — a bareboat catamaran, if you prefer. We are plying the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, wandering at will among bays and coves, tying up where we like, doing whooping cannonballs off the bow. Our chartered craft flies the French flag, […]

By Cristina Topham
As the new chef aboard a 120-foot sailing yacht, I learned quickly that feeding a crew of six South African sailors is no small feat. Like a pack of roving hyenas, they’re always hungry and will eat anything in sight. Nothing is safe. I had made a lamb curry which was intended for […]

by Cecilia Worth
Except for the gangway’s frenzied chunk-chunk against the flank of the anchored ship, the Antarctic blizzard furies around us in eerie silence. The captain of our converted ice-breaker has sought shelter in the flooded caldera of Deception Island, an ancient volcano north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Despite this safer anchorage, the Polar Star […]

by Peter Mandel
Ecuador. The Equator. The Galapagos Islands.
There is unusual magic in these words. You can read and read about the blue-footed boobie. About Darwin’s five-week visit here and about the seals that yawn when you go near them and that will not scare.
Blue feet. Animals that are not afraid. […]

by Michele Bergstrom
Fog. Like delicate tatting, it weaves silver filigree between white birches and gnarled cedar roots, coating with the tiniest of drops the spider webs and orange-and-pink woods orchids along its soft path. It makes no sound but all things are aware it has arrived.
Floating wild and unpredictable in Lake Superior mists […]

by Kevin McCaughey
1. Go
For a long time I scorned the idea of a Love Boat-style cruise. From what I understood heard, all you did was eat. Well, occasionally you called at ports, but only to explore the crooks and grannies of duty-free shopping malls. Then you hurried back on board for […]