Kim Beaumont is truly a person who loves what she’s doing. A native New Zealander, Kim has instilled her two kayak, stand-up paddleboard and surf shops, each called Downunder, with genuine Kiwi hospitality. From the moment you walk into either shop (one on the Five Mile River in Rowayton, CT and a new one on the Saugatuck River in Westport, CT), you’re treated like family.

“The native people of New Zealand, the Mãori, have a word called whãnau, which means ‘family,’” Kim explains. “Family is very, very special to them. It’s a collective unit so everybody’s part of the family, and that’s what we try to at Downunder. Everybody’s looking for something fun to do, and we’re here to help you and make sure you have a really good time.”

When things get busy in our lives, we often look back with fondness, or perhaps longing to when it was all a little easier. Often, it is like that with running Wind- Check. Things are definitely crazy right now, and during the last few weeks I have had occasion to look back at what we were when the magazine was new, when we were planning and when things seemed just a little easier. I know that’s not really the case; we were scrambling to make the magazine work, reach out to as many sailors as possible and learn the ropes of publishing at the same time. These days, we are busy because we have so many different events going on.We just wrapped up the SailQuest Mystic Boat Show, are in the final stages of preparing the June issue, laying out the Block Island RaceWeek News and planning the July issue. It’s really nothing new, and likely won’t change further down the channel.

By Vincent Pica Chief of Staff, First District, Southern Region (D1SR) United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

Like automobiles, there are rules about using the horn, or, per Coast Guard rules, the whistle (there are no horns on boats, just like there are no bumpers – whistles and fenders.) Rule 34 is about what are the proper maneuvering and warning signals – how to communicate in the absence of radio or voice signals. I am going to emphasize the Inland aspects of these Rules – for obvious reasons!

A Past We Forget That We Need To Know

Hailing from Providence, RI, Sharks Come Cruisin (say it with your saltiest, rum-soaked Robert Shaw brogue) has built a devoted following with their unique blend of traditional sea shanties and punk rock. Released in March, their first full-length record captures the energy and camaraderie of their rousing live performances.

A Past We Forget That We Need To Know is an 11-track collection with three original songs alongside time-honored shanties including Liverpool Judies, Strike the Bell and Rolling Down to Old Maui. “I discovered sea shanties around 2003,” said Mark Lambert (guitar & vocals). “I was searching for a New England folk music tradition. Many of my musical influences began returning to the roots music of the regions where they grew up, and these artists began producing bluegrass, blues and country. Growing up in Rhode Island, I wondered what our roots were.

44 pages paperback $20

Review by Charlie Ayla Acker, age 8

This book is about Miss Donna, who is a mermaid. She lives in the sea with Wise Mother Ocean. One day, Mother Ocean sees a lot of old bottles, cans and tires on the bottom and it makes her cry because the fish and coral are dying. She asks Donna to turn into a person and sail around the world to tell children to help the ocean.

Captain D. finds an old sailboat. She has lots of ocean friends who help fix her boat. Tommy Turtle is a sea turtle. He helps Captain D. by sewing one of her sails – he holds the needle in his mouth! There’s also a whale named Manny Minke Whale who shows her how to navigate with a sextant. She also has a friend named Dandy Dolphin. He swims next to her boat while she is sailing and shows her how to sail fast. Sally Sharkster helps her hear radio signals from far away. Captain D. plays music, and she sings a song called “For the Love of Oceans” to her ocean friends and kids she meets.

At the risk of turning this column into the paean of the month, in the last issue I wrote about Olympic Chairman Dean Brenner; in this issue I’d like to tell you about my good friend Gary Jobson.

As I was finishing last month’s column on Dean, I was invited to a book signing for Gary’s 17th book, Gary Jobson, An American Sailor. If you haven’t read it yet, it is a must read. Think of it as an autobiography with some great sea stories mixed in.

Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore. If you have ever set foot on a sailboat and never heard of Gary, you must have spent the last 30 years on Mars. Gary is a man who makes his living from sailing—lecturing, writing books, producing films for TV and the Internet (he’s won two Emmys for his works) and a monthly column for Sailing Word among other things. But unlike professionals in any other sport, Gary gives back to the sport of sailing far more than he takes away.

A shared passion for long distance sailing and sustainable living brought Teresa Carey and Ben Eriksen together. This month, these avid liveaboards are sailing from Huntington, NY to Atlantic Canada on a unique quest to see an iceberg and make a documentary film about adventure, climate change, simplicity and happiness.

“I started sailing when I was really young on Lake Michigan with my father,” says Teresa, who has worked as a professional delivery crew and charter boat captain. “We would sail nearly every day in the summer. After high school, I worked for Outward Bound for seven years, sailing on their pulling boats in Maine and the Pacific Northwest, which was a huge influence on me. I also did some schooner sailing and J/22s.”

Nine years – and three laptops – ago, I sat at my keyboard writing what would be the first of ninety-nine Editor’s Logs. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy-nine- or eighty-thousand words worth of anecdotes, alerts, appeals and acknowledgements about and for sailors in the Northeast. In that first issue, I talked about everything we hoped to accomplish with WindCheck and the community that we wanted to reach.

When I think of the great people of the boating community that I’ve come in contact with since 2002, the amazing boats I’ve been aboard and the memorable events that I’ve attended, I feel lucky. As we prepare for our landmark 100th issue next month, a few of those people, boats and events spring to mind...