As soon as they saw puffs of smoke rise above the trees at the river’s bend and heard the blast of a ship’s whistle, townsfolk rushed at breakneck speed to the wharf. From farmers, watermen and preachers to housewives and especially children, everyone knew when the steamboats of the Chesapeake Bay arrived in the remote Read More
Imagine a five-masted wooden schooner hailing from British Columbia that hauled millions of feet of lumber to Australia in the final years of World War I. Carrying a cloud of sail, with a length overall of 246 feet, 44-foot beam and 21-foot draft, she sailed a stately 5 knots, perfect for the dressed lumber trade. Read More
Unless you cruise the Chesapeake Bay, the Historic Triangle may not ring a bell, but it should. Located close to Hampton Roads, at the southern end of the Chesapeake, it is a 22-square-mile triangle with Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown at each corner. These three communities, nestled together on the Virginia Peninsula represent the beginning, apex Read More
The Florida Keys, a coral rock archipelago and accompanying barrier reef, stretch 200 nautical miles from Key Biscayne to the Dry Tortugas. The first European to see Biscayne Bay and sail through the Keys was probably Juan Ponce de Leon, during his voyage of discovery in 1513. He named them Los Martires, or the Martyrs, Read More
Long before the first contact with American fur trappers and settlers in the early 1800s, the Washoe tribe of Native Americans claimed Lake Tahoe as their summer home. The shores of the lake served as part of their annual migration for at least 2,300 years before the U.S. government surveyor, John Fremont, gave the first Read More
In 1970, during my first visit to the Canadian Maritime Provinces, I spent a week touring Prince Edward Island. At that time, a sailor could pass the day ashore at the community lobster dinner at St. Anne’s Church or buy a postcard depicting a giant potato resting on a flatbed railroad car to mail back Read More
Jagged shorelines and peninsulas shaped like crooked fingers make the Chesapeake a gorgeous place to explore. Some people are content to gaze at the scenery and enjoy what Mother Nature gave us. Others choose to alter the master plan. Tinkering with the Bay’s land and waterways started centuries ago, driven by the need to transport Read More
The Gulf of Maine stretches along the Eastern Seaboard northeast from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. To seaward, the gulf is bounded by the Georges Bank, which is part of the chain of shallow fishing zones along the continental shelf ending at the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. When John Cabot, the Italian explorer in English Read More
Today’s the day!” was internationally known treasure hunter Mel Fisher’s daily mantra. Every morning for 16 years, as his family and crew came aboard to begin the day’s dive to discover a sunken Spanish galleon, Mel set the tone by affirming that this was the day they would be successful in their search. Mid-day on July 20, 1985, after a decade Read More
“We are at the mouth of the well of the people of Itza,” proclaimed the Maya tour guide 35 years ago on my first visit to Chichén Itzá. Since that time, Chichén Itzá has been named as a UNESCO World Heritage site, been placed on the new seven Wonders of the World list and is Read More