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Morning spilled open with rain, dissolving islands into ether and blistering the water with tessulate undulations. But the wind was elusive. It was a day to go below and wrap yourself in rumination. Instead, we were on the move.

I was awake in the dark, still hours, easing the stern tie and taking in anchor chain inch by inch to haul us into deeper water as the tide ebbed and the rocks loomed.

Nudging the boat a few hundred yards at a time required careful, patient helming followed by a lazy gybe, and a muttered prayer to eke out a little more southing.

It took seconds for wind to catch the beam and start pushing us toward danger while, simultaneously, I began a confused grappling with the line connecting me and the dinghy to the boat

A haunting and poetic interplay between sea and land made even more dramatic and strange by the use of these waters as overflow moorage for tankers

Imagine driving to a beautiful campsite. You park and set up your gear and everything is just right. But instead of engaging the emergency brake, you chuck out a weighted hook attached to a couple hundred feet of chain.

The large mainsail and boom can swing quickly across the boat generating mind-bending, as well as skull-crushing, amounts of force.

Our goal was a crossing known for rapid weather changes, tidal rips, and gale-force winds piling against heavy currents

We have gone to find those frequencies that resist radio tuners, to tunnel below television, usurp URLs, and try to develop the senses to feel around the edges of another perspective, where intuition and the unexplained can be more provocative than the daily infotainment doom feed

Strange Monkeys is a project of the writer Zane Fischer, with support and collaboration from wife and partner, the painter Katherine Lee. It is an ongoing account of the way he (and sometimes they) see and experience the world. Reports come mostly through the lens of sailboat-oriented travel, emphasizing