Underway Column Editorial by Editor Bill Sisson | Soundings Online Column

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.

The storms that shape who we are, how we live

About 24 hours before Superstorm Sandy made landfall in southern New Jersey, my brother and I stooped in the drizzle and found the old mark on the front walk of the family home in southwestern Rhode Island that depicted just how far the water rose during the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. I paced it off: six good strides — roughly 18 feet — to the front steps.

Modern boat, classic boat: We all have our own style

The confederation of boating tribes in those parts of the country with clearly defined seasons — that means winter with snow — got together in early September for one last three-day gathering, dropping their anchors and wishing, if not for endless summer, then surely for a longer one.

Sandy and I met twice to do the storm dance

Underway: An ocean gypsy finally finds her way home

Shackleton, Bligh, Slocum … Queen Bee. Queen who?

OK, it’s a stretch, but when it comes to improbable small-boat voyages there should be an asterisk or footnote somewhere in the dusty annals of maritime history pointing to the unusual journey of a little boat named Queen Bee.

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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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