An Introduction to the 2016 Vendee Globe This Sunday, a one of sailing’s greatest challenges begins in Les Sables d’Olonne, France: the Vendée Globe. The Vendée is a solo, non-stop, unsupported race around the world. Pacific Northwest writer and photographer, Peter Marsh, is a serious enthusiast and was was in Les Sables d’Olonne to welcome one of the boats… Continue reading 2016: Every Sailor is a Winner in the Vendée Globe
Author: seamarsh
Salmon Tender Duke–Oldest Boat on the Columbia River
After 112 Years Afloat, the Duke Retires to Museum in Astoria The older a wooden boat gets, the more work it takes to keep it seaworthy. That’s a lesson that many boatmen learned the hard way. On the lower Columbia River where there are still a handful of owners maintaining and using traditional wooden gillnetters.… Continue reading Salmon Tender Duke–Oldest Boat on the Columbia River
Ole Evinrude’s Outboard Engine is 100 Years Old
How Ole Evinrude Invented his “Detachable Rowboat Engine” It has been 100 years since the first successful Evinrude machine took the boating world by storm. Ole Evinrude was born in 1877 in Christiania, Norway, and his idea was so revolutionary that it really did have a name for a while—more of a description. It was… Continue reading Ole Evinrude’s Outboard Engine is 100 Years Old
An Introduction to Collecting Early Tools
An Assignment for the National Fisherman Yearbook in 1989 “If I only had the right tool for the job”- this is often the do-it-yourselfer’s lament. When you have áll the tools you need, another problem may threaten your workspace – where to put them all! If you have ever found your tool collection expanding beyond… Continue reading An Introduction to Collecting Early Tools
Gabriola Island—B.C.’s “Isle of the Arts”
Last fall, I described the pleasure of kayaking and hiking around Newcastle Island Provincial Park, within sight of Nanaimo B.C. The next day of my visit, my goal was Gabriola Island, the big island on the north end of the Gulf Island chain. While most American cruisers make a stop in Nanaimo on their way… Continue reading Gabriola Island—B.C.’s “Isle of the Arts”
Frenchman’s Obsession with Slocum and the Spray
In the Wake of the Spray Guy Bernardin is a French racing sailor who had an impressive racing career in the 1980s sailing in the new Open 60 class in the OSTAR, the Route du Rhum, two BOC round-the-world races and the Vendée Globe in 1990. He never quite made it to the top of… Continue reading Frenchman’s Obsession with Slocum and the Spray
Salmon Fishing on the Columbia–CRFPU, CRPA, Bumble Bee
Note: I compiled this history from many online sources. Salmon was a dietary staple of Northwest aboriginal people. Large, tasty, and available at predictable times and places, the fish were an ideal source of protein, easily caught with basic fishing technologies such as spears, baskets, nets, and brush weirs. Natives harvested salmon all across western… Continue reading Salmon Fishing on the Columbia–CRFPU, CRPA, Bumble Bee
Cruising Puget’s Island and Beyond
The names of the first European explorers are “writ large” all across the charts of the northwest. Spanish, English, Russians, Americans, and a few Frenchmen are immortalized in place names. The most prolific of these navigators was Captain George Vancouver. He managed to gratify all his sponsors and friends in high places, but with true… Continue reading Cruising Puget’s Island and Beyond
100 Years of History for Seattle’s Ship Canal and Locks
The Lake Washington Ship Canal and the locks that connect Lake Union to Puget Sound is such an integral part of the city that it’s practically impossible to imagine life without them. Whether you are boating, paddling or just strolling along the water’s edge, you can appreciate that Seattle’s navigable inland waterways are an engineering… Continue reading 100 Years of History for Seattle’s Ship Canal and Locks
Is the Columbia Bar the Graveyard of the Pacific?
Whether you visit the mouth of the Columbia by boat or live here as I do, you can’t avoid the constant reminder that the Columbia Bar is the “Graveyard of the Pacific–the most treacherous stretch of water in the world,” or words to that effect. Exactly who decided this (or that a river is capable… Continue reading Is the Columbia Bar the Graveyard of the Pacific?