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Peter Swanson

Spring-Fed,-Freshwater-Pool
News

The Lost Harbor of Christopher Columbus

On the hunt for one of the first harbors in the New World documented by Europeans and misplaced by modern science

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People and Places

Remembering Phil Thompson

Phil Thompson was a sailor, fisherman and author. Peter Swanson remembers the man, and the book he wrote that captured the surreal nature of Cuban-American relations.

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Loose Cannon

Robert Pirsig Graduated From Bike To Westsail 32

The author poses in front of a mural in Tuxpan on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, which shows Granma being provisioned for the invasion of Cuba. Tuxpan was the departure point for Raul Castro’s historic 1956 expedition. Among the 82 men on board was Che Guevara and Castro himself.
Loose Cannon

Was Granma Built in New Orleans?

The author grimly faces his 51st birthday with a Kalik in hand inside the Compleat Angler. Twenty-four hours later, the famed 12-room inn and saloon was in ashes.
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Angler Burns: 11 Years Ago Bimini Lost a Monument to Hemingway

Tracy Lynn Tedesco drove a truck to support her family.
Loose Cannon

Arrest Threat Recalls Christmas Past

A pair of U.S.-flagged sailboats race past El Morro castle at the entrance to Havana Harbor in 2013, two years before the Obama Administration made it legal for them to enter Cuban waters.
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Trump has Four Choices on Cuba

One Mile Swath of River: This satellite images provides a typical view of a little more than a mile of the river’s south bank. Most of these 37 residental docks are likely damaged or destroyed.
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Hurricane Matthew smashes docks in north Florida by the thousands

Marina Hemingway, which has side-tie berths for about 150 boats, was developed after the Cuban Revolution on the site of a villa development that American gangster Meyer Lansky owned.
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Cuba Policy Change Could Affect Hundreds of Thousands in Florida

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Celebrity Car Dealer Answers ‘Yes’ To Guns On Board, Faces Charges in New York

P-Nuts are boiled in brine and typically sold at roadside stands in sandwich bags.
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A Gateway To Old Florida, Green Cove Springs Boasts Unique Marine Infrastructure and Artifacts

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‘Hunger Games’ Immigration Policy Is Immoral

What looks like a container washed up in the Exumas a few weeks after El Faro sank during Hurricane Joaquin.
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Weather router Chris Parker analyzes El Faro debris movement

Novelist Ernest Hemingway used to carry a Thompson submachine gun aboard Pilar. He used it to shoot sharks when necessary and leaping stingrays for target practice when drinking.
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Keeping guns aboard lawfully; it’s complicated

Officials clear a U.S. boat into Cuba in 2002. American sportfish captains participating in a tournament in Havana last month complained about being shaken down for “hundreds of dollars” while entering and leaving the country. Loose Cannon asks why they lacked the cojones to refuse to pay.
Loose Cannon

Just say no (but if you can’t, please give a ten, not hundreds)

This newspaper image shows the start of the St. Petersburg-Havana Yacht Race in the late 1950s. The United States has begun to reverse a policy of the George W. Bush administration, which put an end to American participation in regattas and fishing tournaments in Cuba. Now one of each is happening in May.
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Door to Cuba for U.S. boats opens a crack

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Loose Cannon

Mr. President, let us help

As you can see from this chart, Sutterfield’s dinghy would have had to drift on a path athwart the powerful current of the Gulf Stream. Even without a loss of propulsion, the range of a small outboard was nowhere near the 72 miles it needed to travel from Marathon to Cay Sal Bank, even if it were powerful enough to buck the Stream.
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'Drifting' dinghy defies Gulf Stream

The clam chowder at The Grog in Newburyport, Massachusetts, is renowned in the region. Note how the butter floats on the surface of the creamy broth.
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Quit calling your pasty chowder “New England Style”

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Coddled nation

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Curmudgeons trump canines on a Jamaica run

Nearly every boat in the Bahamas and the Caribbean is directly discharging into the water, with few reported ill effects. That includes the big charter fleets.
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NDZs are not the answer

A young Larry Briggs with a friend.
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Power voyaging pioneer Larry Briggs leaves a fascinating legacy

This is a satellite view of the construction of Marina Gaviota Varadero. Gaviota is a subsidiary of the Cuban military, which has partnered with foreign companies to build a billion-dollar resort complex at the tip of the Hicacos Peninsula, about a 90-minute drive east of Havana.
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The other 'handshake'

This is the Pearson 30 that would become Pestilence — purchased for $1,000 but even at that far more than she was worth.
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Aging boats and young people — a perfect match

The “best route” on this NOAA chart for the Crooked River in Georgia suggests you cut two red marks and cross a mudbar.
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End of the line?

Resorts buy Aventura catamarans to take guests on excursions such as snorkeling, scuba diving or just taking in the scenery.
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D.R. boatbuilder thrives

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Cuba

Abandoned in Cuba (send lawyers, guns and money)

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Loose Cannon

Admiralty lawyers see Cape Wind farm as a navigational menace

Alexander Blastos poses on the bridge of the Christina.
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The Talented Mr. Blastos

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Some random boardings might be legal, but aren’t they all ‘creepy’?

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Loose Cannon

Tatts and boots: Random boardings are bad for boating because boating really is about freedom

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Feds hold sailboat hostage for a signature

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Why renew our documentation certificates annually if nothing changes?

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‘Cuban cigar’ case has a bad smell

Bruce Kessler, organizer of the West Coast FUBAR powerboat rally, discusses the possibility of a similar rally to Cuba with Jose Escrich, commodore of the Hemingway International Yacht Club in Havana, and his translator.
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Feds shoot down CUBAR rally

David Trauger and Karen Barnes
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Love and murder on the waterway

Lyngso on the bow as Lena approaches the Golden Gate Bridge.
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Viking memories: a voyage from Ensenada to San Francisco

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End the embargo

Key West

A tale of two rice bowls

The writer pilots Ho'Okele from the flybridge along Mexico's Pacific Coast.
Profiles

Taming the Tehuano

Ho'Okele enters the Gatun Locks, as seen from the deck of Continental Drifter II.
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Panama Canal: Pacific passage

Sunderland is confident she will attempt another circumnavigation. Her Open 40 was left in the Indian Ocean.
In-Depth Focus

A telling reaction

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Profiles

The Bounty Boat skipper and crew

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Profiles

Why Bligh still stands tall

The mutiny has been depicted in film (with Charles Laughton as Bligh) and in works of art.
Profiles

Adversity brought out the best in Bligh

New Boats

Stabilized or not?

Profiles

For these owners, it's wood only

Barry Terry at the helm in blue Caribbean waters.
In-Depth Focus

Delivery where trouble is a companion

With no autopilot, the boat would have to be hand-steered some 700 nautical miles to Florida.
In-Depth Focus

First, you get the boat out of 'jail'