Seems my old acquaintance Alessandro di Benedetto, the crazy Italian guy sailing non-stop around the world on a 21-foot Mini, has run into a spot of trouble approaching Cape Horn. According to some typically brief reports on his website, Alessandro's boat, Findomestic Banca, was dismasted in "extreme weather conditions" last Tuesday (March 30) off...

Check out these pix of a very cool boat Chas., Phil, and I found tied up at the reception dock at the Radisson Marina at Anse Marcel in St. Martin the morning after we arrived there. Talk about shiny! At first we were convinced it must be made of stainless steel. I reckon it's about...

Some things you just can't prepare for. The image here, taken by photographer Peter Idoine, is believed to be of a satellite crashing into the Tasman Sea near Auckland, New Zealand, last night. Can you imagine having something like this fall on your head while making miles offshore?

  I have long marveled at how light some of the hardware found beneath a sailboat's mainsheet tackle can be. Here you see the decidedly fragile swivel that previously secured the bottom end of Lunacy's mainsheet tackle to her traveler car. Fortunately, I detected the fracture before the bit let go altogether and all hell...