Threading the Needle

Starting in 1990, the Chicagoan’s 22-month, 27,000-mile journey aboard a 47-foot cutter captivated thousands of schoolchildren who followed his trip via an educational television channel. The footage was used in an award-winning documentary, “The Incredible Voyage of Bill Pinkney,” that aired on the Disney Channel, National Geographic and PBS stations. This podcast is an audio version of our profile of Pinkney that was published in the July 2021 issue of Soundings.

On a frigid day, Soundings executive editor Pim Van Hemmen and videographer Bob Krist join the crew aboard an oyster dragger and find Mainers to be as tough as the weather.

A Palm Beach 32, the third model in the builder’s lineup, gets a refresh with the help of devoted owners.

When Soundings executive editor Pim Van Hemmen learns that an old friend is staying on a nearby island, he proposes they have lunch, unaware that his little RIB will have to run across 20 miles of open water.

Meet the people who find a healthy obsession in the hunt for motors with distinctive heritage.

Capt. Peter Frederiksen has learned the hard way why it’s important to stay keenly aware of the situation around your boat at all times.

The peapod is rooted in traditional workboat design, and it is now being reimagined in cold-molded wood by Sparkman & Stephens.

Captain Carolyn Kurtz performs a very tricky maneuver as she takes a tanker off the dock and navigates it through Tampa Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

Soundings senior editor Gary Reich tells the story of the deadrise, a workboat design that has been used to harvest crabs, fish, oysters, clams and more from the bay's bountiful waters for more than a century.

Soundings Executive Editor Pim Van Hemmen joins a night patrol of Norway’s icy waters near the Barents Sea to learn just how far rescue crews will go to save a boater’s bacon