Cape-Cod-LIFE

Gunk’holing: Small Craft Warnings

Cape Cod Life  /  June 2025 /

Writer: Brian Shortsleeve

Gunk’holing: Small Craft Warnings

Cape-Cod-LIFE

Cape Cod Life  /  June 2025 /

Writer: Brian Shortsleeve


Continuing with the Best of Gunkholing, this month we are re-running “Small Craft Warnings” from Fall 1983. It’s another true, harrowing tale about Brian and his adventures in sailing. ~ Kevin Shortsleeve


I get my head set for a week on the water and, shy of a hurricane, I go. One Monday, after several hours of what felt more like hanging on than heaving to I found myself scanning the approaching shoreline for relief from the southwest wind. I cranked my centerboard all the way up and ran dead ahead into a cove bordered by a high bluff. I anchored as close as I could in the lee of a protective hill topped by a single farmhouse.

With the engine still idling, I stood on the bow watching to see if my anchor was holding. There was a man looking down from the farmhouse porch. “Can I help you?” he shouted. “No thanks, all set,” I yelled against the wind. “The harbor is around the corner ‘ya know.” I shut off the diesel engine, waved and said, “Thanks, I know.” He just watched me for a long minute, then climbed down five of the fifty wooden steps leading to his small dock, stopped and warned, “This is a private cove ‘ya know.” I answered, “I’m not going ashore.”

For the next few hours I was busy locating supplies and returning things to the shelves they’d been on before I crossed the Sound. As I leaned over the stern fastening the cookout to a safety rail, the man’s outboard skiff passed right under my nose. I almost jumped overboard....

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Brian Shortsleeve

Brian Shortsleeve is the owner, publisher, and founder of Cape Cod Life Publications. His personal column, “Gunkholing,” has appeared in all issues of Cape Cod LIFE since the very first issue in 1979.