Local Readers:
Nat Benjamin reads another chapter from his memoir in process.
Gary Maynard will read from his book Plumbelly.
Joining via Zoom
Mark Duffield’s latest book is As I Recall: Wings of Remembrance. He was director of business development for WGBH for many years, co-owner of Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill, and executive produce of the “Talking’ Birds” radio show. In his younger days, he worked on the ships and docks of Nantucket.
Craig Moodie is the author of 10 books Such as A Sailor’s Valentine and Seaborn. He has worked as a deckhand on commercial fishing vessels in the waters off Cape Cod and as an advertising copywriter. He now toils as a creative director to support his family and his vocation as a fiction writer—and to keep a small catboat in varnish and paint.
Elizabeth Tucker has a new essay on whales and their language. More info coming.
This evening focused on Memoirs as part of our season theme, Motive for Memoir. These are stories from sailors and experiences in and around our oceans.
Nat Benjamin
I’ll read an excerpt from my book, The Wide Sea, a story about my year aboard an old gaff rigged schooner that I skippered from Malta to Gibraltar to the Canary
Islands and across the Atlantic to Newport, R.I. in 1968 – ’69. I was
21. To say the least, it was a learning experience.
Anthony Lefeber, with his father Richard and brother Andre, lived on the sixty-five foot Alden ketch “Farfelu” from early 1973 through 1975. Sailing from NYC to Belize, then living on the boat in Belize for two years. Anthony writes about the three years living aboard and about his childhood in NYC.
Cole Powers – A story about a community spontaneously coming together to make a huge effort possible. On October 28 2022 the new owners of Bob Douglas’s 1920 sailboat “Raider” was moved out of his 5 corners building. It had been in there for 45 years.The volunteers helped move the boat out of the building and down to the beach where it was loaded onto a vintage WW2 landing craft and shipped off to RI to be made seaworthy.
Sam Low will talk about discovering and exploring the wreck of the Port Hunter, a freighter that sank during World War I off Hedge Fence shoal between Oak Bluffs and Woods Hole.
Harry Ricciardi A sailor and boat-builder will talk about his adventures sailing solo, offshore.
FROM OUR 2021-2022 SEASON…
Invited Guests:
Nat Benjamin – reads from his new book in process, The Wide Sea.
Steve Ewing – reads from his new self published book, Waterfront Poems, Vineyard Seasons. His poetry is richly illustrated local artists’ work and with vintage images, many from Old Sculpin Gallery. His book will be available for purchase.
Mark Alan Lovewell – is welcomed back to Pathways. He’s a wonderful storyteller, whether in prose or song. A writer and folk singer, Mark is a man of many talents. He enjoys sharing his passions for folk singing, journalism, sailing, and stargazing. This spring Mark will be releasing a CD of maritime songs and stories with Molly Conole, an Island singer and beloved performer. They will be performing a song from that CD, a song that was written a year ago called The Herring Song. The song is a celebration of the one productive Vineyard fisheries. River herring are not doing well. The song draws attention to this big part of the Island lore. The herring fishery is in trouble up and down the coast from Newfoundland down to the North Florida coast.
Sam Low – tells the story of how Hawaiians built a replica of an ancient Polynesian sailing vessel and voyaged in the wake of their ancestors, to revive their culture.
Anthony Lefeber – talks about a paid (it wasn’t much!) boat delivery he did with then girlfriend Alison Murray. In 1978 (they were 18) the two sailed a thirty foot wooden sloop from Malta to Holland, then down through the Dutch canals to Ostend, Belgium – over two thousand miles in two months that summer.
Robert MacLean – reads his work reflecting his deep attachment to the ocean.