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I once knew a man in Florida who told me he'd owned 24 different yachts and renamed every single one of them.
"Did it bring you bad luck?" I asked.
"Not that I'm aware of," he said. "You don't believe in those old superstitions, do you?"
Well, yes. Matter of fact, I do. And I'm not alone. Actually, it's not so much being superstitious as being v-e-r-y careful. It's an essential part of good seamanship.
Some years ago, when I wanted to change the name of my newly purchased 31-foot sloop from Our Way to Freelance, I searched for a formal "denaming ceremony" to wipe the slate clean in preparation for the renaming. I read all the books, but I couldn't find one. What I did learn, though, was that such a ceremony should consist of five parts: an invocation, an expression of gratitude, a supplication, a re-dedication and a libation. So I wrote my own short ceremony. Vigor's inter-denominational denaming ceremony. It worked perfectly. Freelance carried me and my family many thousands of deep-sea miles both north and south of the equator, and we enjoyed good luck all the way. I used the same ceremony recently to change the name of my newly acquired Santana 22 from Zephyr to Tagati, a Zulu word that means "magic," or "bewitched." We're hoping she'll sail like a witch when I finally get her in the water this summer after an extensive refit.   more...

LYONS -- Ed and Joan Will decided to spend last week relaxing in their boat on the Erie Canal.

On Friday, with Will reading "The DaVinci Code," his wife tidying up and their golden retriever, Buddy, refusing to be budged from his favorite spot on deck, all was going according to plan.

With one exception -- the boat was docked.

Persistent rain in central New York has flooded parts of the canal and the adjoining farmlands. The water level is 5 feet above the canal's normal level, a depth of 374.5 feet, and the New York State Canal Corp. has closed a 50-mile stretch roughly in the canal's middle section, from the locks of Lyons in Wayne County to Syracuse, stranding scores of boaters, many of whom had been journeying to towns, parks and museums along the 363-mile canal, until the water recedes.

Closing the section prevents more water from entering the canal and adding to the flooding of low-lying areas. Officials also said the conditions raised concerns about boating safety.   more...

WEST MICHIGAN -- Two decades ago, the only certain place to find a bald eagle in West Michigan was on the back of the $1 bill.

Today, as the effect of now-banned pesticides and industrial chemicals subside, the majestic bird is growing in numbers along the area's river corridors and forests.

"When you saw an eagle 20 or 30 years ago, it was a pretty big event," Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Nik Kalejs said. "Now, it's still exciting, but not as rare. And that's nothing but good."

The eagles' gradual resurgence in West Michigan, and across the United States, comes as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service looks to take the national symbol off the federal list of threatened and endangered species.    more...

From canoes carrying fur traders to Great Lakes steamers bringing in stone, oil and fertilizer, Saginaw Valley commerce was built on the back of the Saginaw River.

But rising levels of river sediment are threatening to do away with a way of doing business that had its beginning hundreds of years ago and continues to strengthen the region's economy.

Still, a Saginaw River dredging proposal remains an issue.

"There is a clear sense of urgency for this project," said JoAnn Crary, president of Saginaw Future Inc., Saginaw County's economic development organization. "Dock owners are coping with the increasingly shallow navigation channel by limiting their shipments to smaller freighters and barges, utilizing only a portion of their capacity."

That is costing the Saginaw Valley businesses -- and those within a 250-mile radius of the river -- money. Sooner or later, residents also will have to dig deeper into their pockets to get a new concrete driveway, fertilize their crops or put sugar in their coffee.    more...

The threat was a note found on the ship by a ferry worker and it turned out to be a hoax, customs spokeswoman Janet Rapaport said today.

Local customs officials ordered the detailed inspection of the vessel after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday raised the nation's terrorism alert level in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Newark, N.J. The alert wasn't increased across the country, but customs decided to conduct the sweep here anyway, Rapaport said.

“We're always vigilant,” she said.    more...

In the deep waters of

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Dreyer reported severe cramping of his legs during the run, which ended at 10:53 a.m., but said that it passed. He entered the water at Grand Portage, Minn., attempting to become the first to swim between Minnesota and Michigan across Lake Superior's mid-section. If he is successful, he will have completed a continuous swim across all five Great Lakes.

Dreyer hopes to land at McLain State Park near Hancock, Mich., by Wednesday approximately 55 to 65 hours after his starting time.   more...

An old salt discovers a fresh water paradise

Growing up on the waters surrounding Long Island, New York, and eventually venturing offshore along the East and West Coasts, I often used the phrase, “It’s as smooth as a lake” when referring to a particularly calm day. Whoever authored this popular catchall, though, never experienced Lake Michigan or Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay.

The quickness and severity of deteriorating weather conditions on the Great Lakes are a surprise to outsiders entering these waters for the first time. Most of us saltwater know-it-alls start out with a certain “we’ve seen it all” smugness. Well, you haven’t seen anything until you experience the Straits of Mackinac in a 40-knot blow.   more...

“A tourism industry study says that if you have three things— history, water and woods—you have a site that can become an important tourism asset,” remarked Terry Cross, president of the Starved Rock Lodge and Conference Center. “We have that and so much more here at Starved Rock State Park. Besides the lodge, we have a wonderful visitors center and museum, great fishing, beautiful canyons, scenic hiking trails and much more.” Located along the south shore of the Illinois River in LaSalle County, the park owes its existence to the glaciers that formed the land, and the torrent of flooding that shaped the river and adjoining canyons as the ice melted.   more...

On a moonlit night in February I awaken and peer outside. Snow covers the ground and smoothes the contours of the hillsides. Below me my daughter's car catches the reflection of a moonbeam and glints back up at me. Tree shadows move gracefully on the white background, cut up only by the driveway which slices between two hillocks. At two in the morning it is easy to imagine the eternity of landscape and sky. The little indentations we have caused seem insignificant. This hill which our house is tucked into used to be called "the island", a strange appellation for modern ears, like "the inch" in Scotland, which means island, and is sometimes used inland, far from water, to designate a cut-off place, a hill, or even a peninsula.   more...

The countertops in the galley on our aging vessel are perhaps a bit like the ones on yours. They have endured a number of cruising given scrapes and stains, scratches and scuffs. Hot pots inadvertently left on the counter, red wine stains, even a wet magazine that mysteriously bonded to the old Formica surface, never to come completely off. The counters were looking grubby and tired and it was time to replace them. Here’s how it all went down.

First comes the easy part: the demo. There’s a certain adrenaline rush that comes with this type of work that’s a little dangerous.   more...

Peter Van Arsdale is very good with his hands. A boat builder, massage therapist and Victorian house restorer at one time or another, he now pokes needles into his Berkeley acupuncture patients and also makes lovely violins from virgin old-growth maple and red pine plucked from the icy depths of Lake Superior.

Cut from logs that sank maybe two centuries ago as they were being floated to frontier settlements, the wood -- rot-free because there's almost no oxygen in the cold waters where it was preserved -- has a richness and density rare in younger timber, Van Arsdale says. He recently used this superior Lake Superior wood to carve a fiddle, modeled on a 1693 Stradivarius, for John Sherba of Kronos Quartet.    more...