Imagine an ocean of islands spanning ten million square miles. Now imagine you must navigate that world without charts or instruments ­— without even a compass — to find a tiny island...

The island was tiny. As we sailed closer, we smelled the sweet aroma of land. We saw a crowd on the beach. Then the singing reached us — a soft, undulating sound blending with surf and wind....

Chad Baybayan stands about five feet, eight inches tall. He has a swimmer’s body, suggesting a capability of delivering powerful strokes and a strong finishing kick. He is dark, both by genetic...

To a modern sailor’s eye, she appears strange. Her twin hulls are joined by laminated wooden crossbeams and fastened to them by six miles of rope lashings woven into complex patterns...

Hokule’a is a replica of the vessels used by Polynesians to settle the Pacific Ocean, a third of our planet, a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans. Launched in 1975, she has sailed...

On Feb. 26, 2000, we departed Tahiti, bound for the big Island of Hawaii. As we sailed beyond the reef and into the deep ocean, the sea turned azure, then almost black. On shore, the people of...

Learjets on final approach ride wakes of noise, the whoosh of traffic throbs off the seawall and the wail of the lumpen mob soars over Circuit avenue. It’s summer.It’s time for the...

At first glance it would seem that allowing folks in seaplanes to zoom into any of our great ponds is a bad idea. And maybe it is. But, according to a knowledgeable bush pilot friend, the pilot who...

In a 1967 Life magazine story, the late William Stryon was quoted as saying: “Writing is a cruel and wracking pursuit. I hope none of my children follow in my path.” Alexandra Styron has...

The wind over Lucy Vincent Beach has to be just right, from the southeast and maybe 10 to 15 miles an hour, so that it strikes the cliff there and forms a column of rising air. When that happens, if...