Underway Column Editorial by Editor Bill Sisson | Soundings Online Column

A sea of change over these last 50 years

After 50 years and somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 issues, what do you do for an encore? If you’re in the publishing business, you’re conditioned to look ahead to the next issue, the next set of deadlines, tomorrow’s blog, story or e-newsletter.

Century-old lessons from the 'bottom of the world'

"I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave. During 26 years experience of the ocean in all its moods I had not encountered a wave so gigantic.

“It was a mighty upheaval of ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped seas that had been our tireless enemies for many days. I shouted, ‘For God’s sakes, hold on! It’s got us!’ ”

— Sir Ernest Shackleton, “South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage”

Better boats, smart standards and the one that got away

In our watery world, the pièce de résistance of a happy boating lifestyle is a well-built, well-maintained, safe and reliable boat.

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You don’t need to learn every lesson the hard way

By chance, I recently opened a notebook containing some thoughts and scribblings I made more than five years ago as I was researching a column. This is what I wrote, in part: “One of the most important safety decisions you may make this season is whether to leave your slip or anchorage or to stay put and let a bit of weather pass, the fog lift or to do a bit of maintenance that is overdue.”

Sandy and I met twice to do the storm dance

I first met Sandy in South Florida, where I was running around like mad in squally conditions, trying to cover the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Her wind gusts and rain were no more welcome there than they were to be in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

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William Sisson, Editor

A 1981 Phi Beta Kappa journalism graduate, Bill has been writing about boats for more than two decades. His boating travels have taken him from the Persian Gulf to the Baltic Sea, and always back home to Little Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. As editor, Bill is responsible for planning and executing the publication's boating coverage each month, and his Under Way column starts each issue. Bill has been with Soundings for 20 years and in 1997 won the Moulton H. "Monk" Farnham Award for Excellence in Editorial Commentary.

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