Sea

It started as the kind of delivery Pat Schoenberger, an Annapolis sea captain, had made many times: Pick up a client's motor sailboat, ferry it to Florida and return home in a few weeks' time. A brilliant morning sky beckoned as Schoenberger and Jim Southward, his friend and first mate, left Severn, Va., for Pensacola, Fla. Thirty-eight hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter rescued them off Cape Lookout, N.C., amid pounding rain, 55-knot winds, 30-foot waves and the sensation, Southward said, that the ocean was tossing their 15-ton craft, Andante II, "like a cork in a hot tub. " What happened in between was a story of how, even in an era of high-tech sea mapping and navigation, the wisdom of seasoned mariners still can be no match for an angry sea. Schoenberger, 38, and Southward, 40, seemed dazed and relieved in an interview as they sifted the choices they'd made along the way, including the one no sailor wants to make: to declare Mayday, call for rescue and abandon ship.

Salisbury is the torchbearer for NCAA tournament semifinals, making 10 of the last 11 Final Fours. But Stevenson is beginning to establish itself as a regular in the semifinals. The No. 4 Mustangs (20-2) will be making their fourth Final Four appearance in the last five years when they play host to the reigning national champion and No. 12 Sea Gulls (17-5) this Sunday night at Mustang Stadium in Owings Mills. It is a badge of honor for a program that had not qualified for the NCAA tournament until 2009.

If there is magic to be found on this planet, it is contained in water.7+ -- Loren Eiseley, "The Immense Journey"BY THE time the screen door swings back to make its thud, already I have bounded down the wooden steps. A moment later, on the path leading over the dune line, I pass stubborn tufts of saw grass hedged in by battered snow fences.I cover the hundred yards of sand between dune line and ocean like a weary man finishing a desert crossing. Then, an awkward dive, the shock of cold water, a few strokes to move me beyond the breakers, and I am over taken, consumed, returned to the sea.I hear the ocean's surfy, slow, deep mellow voice.

The cards did not look stacked in Salisbury's favor as the reigning national champion took on the unenviable task of trying to upend undefeated Dickinson. But that is exactly what the No. 12 Sea Gulls did as they evicted the No. 2 Red Devils, 11-9, from a NCAA tournament quarterfinal Wednesday. Salisbury improved to 17-5 and will meet No. 4 Stevenson (20-2) this Sunday night for the right to advance to the title game in Philadelphia on May 26. It is a development that coach Jim Berkman is thankful for. “It was a great win on the road against a team that had an unblemished season,” he said Thursday morning.

"You can't stop the tides and wind," said Ocean City Mayor Roland "Fish" Powell philosophically after Saturday's nor'easter of near-hurricane force blasted his resort town. The strong gales and pounding waves washed away the protective dunes and left Ocean City vulnerable to the next unpredictable storm that meanders up the coast.Such is life on a barrier island. Maryland's popular resort community fared pretty well from this nor'easter. The beach took a shellacking, there was considerable flooding and many homes near the ocean got clobbered.

British songstress Corinne Bailey Rae burst into the pop charts like a bright ray of sunshine with her breezy 2006 single "Put Your Records On." Her self-titled debut, which featured the song, would go on to sell millions in the U.S. Rae's latest album, "The Sea," is a complete about-face, filled with darker, more complicated songs and imagery. In 2008, Rae's husband, Jason, died of an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol. Rae withdrew from songwriting and performing for about a year, before re-emerging to finish "The Sea," which was released in January.

The problem with "And the Sea Will Tell" is that it can't decide what it wants to be. Just when you think you've tuned into a good, solid murder mystery, this four-hour CBS production turns into a courtroom drama.And even then, it's not a drama about a crusading prosecutor using scanty shards of precious evidence to prove to the jury that this decidedly creepy villain did the misdeed, but one about a well-paid defense attorney trying to persuade a jury that the creepy villain's girlfriend didn't do it.Of course, even if she didn't, Jennifer Jenkins is in the innocent-but-still-real-stupid category, making it hard for the audience to work up a great deal of passionate sympathy for this potential victim of injustice.

Sea levels are rising faster along the Atlantic coast - including in the Chesapeake Bay - than elsewhere around the world, and the increase appears to be accelerating, according to federal scientists. In a paper published online in Nature Climate Change , the U.S. Geological Survey reports that sea level rise is increasing three to four times faster than globally along a heavily-populated 600-mile stretch of coast from Cape  Hatteras, NC to north of Boston.  Since 1990, the rise has increased 2 to 3.7 millimeters per year in the "hotspot," as the federal scientists call it, compared with a global increase of 0.6 to 1 millimeter per year.  That hotspot includes the Chesapeake Bay, according to USGS oceanographer Asbury H. Sallenger, lead author of the report.

"A Passion for Life," the current exhibit at Quiet Waters Galleries in Annapolis, celebrates the beauty of the sea and its life through the works of its two artists. Bobbie Burnett, of Annapolis, creates stained glass sculptures in two and three dimensions of fish, birds and mammals, such as the heron seen here. They depict life in and over the sea. Andre Laban, a French painter who worked for years with undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, depicts the sea as seen from above and below the surface.

Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans, by Richard Ellis. University Press of Kansas. 312 pages. $29.95. This is a wonderful, complicated grab bag of a book. Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans will appeal to paleontologists and to people who never saw a taxonomic puzzle they could resist. It may attract casual readers, who should feel free to dip in, as it were. Here and there, it also might entice the child or teen-ager who, by contemplating the book's murky wonders, may be drawn into the exhilarating exploration of the natural world.

Dickinson, the top seed in the South region, will make only its second appearance in a NCAA tournament quarterfinal when Salisbury visits Carlisle, Pa., on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Sea Gulls, a 10-time national champion, will play in their 16th consecutive quarterfinal. Advantage, Salisbury? Coach Jim Berkman declined to declare that, but he did agree that the tension and pressure is turned up as a team advances deeper into the postseason. “Being at this point, there is more at stake, there is more tension, there is more urgency into the game,” Berkman said Monday.

Grand Cru, a mainstay of Govan's Belvedere Square, is a quiet little secret of a good cocktail joint. You associate the place with wine, I'm sure. But they have a pretty nice little drink program and a team of bartenders who can make you just about anything your heart desires. But if you'd rather let the menu do the ordering for you, let me suggest you try The Old Man and the Sea - the drink not the acclaimed novel, though both are Hemingway crafted. Cuba 1935. As bartender Constante "Constantino" Grande's mixed drinks at his bar, El Floridita, "a scruff, bearish man entered and asked to use the bathroom.

The wake-up call came at 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, but Midshipman Alberto Salabarria was ready well before then. Anticipating a grueling, thrilling, muddy day of Sea Trials at the Naval Academy, Salabarria and some of his classmates couldn't wait. "Everyone was listening to music, trying to motivate themselves," Salabarria said. Staying upbeat is a key to surviving Sea Trials, a 14-hour test of strength, endurance and will that marks the end of the freshman, or "plebe," year at the Naval Academy.

No. 12 Salisbury's 7-4 upset of No. 8 Washington and Lee in the second round of the NCAA tournament last Saturday was immensely gratifying to the reigning national champion for two reasons. The Sea Gulls earned their 15th consecutive appearance in the quarterfinals since the tournament added a round prior to the quarterfinals for the 1998 tournament, and they made amends after dropping a 7-6 double-overtime decision to the Generals on Feb. 20. “It was nice to win the game because it obviously gets us to the quarterfinals,” coach Jim Berkman said Monday morning.

Heavy Seas Alehouse is opening a second location in Rosslyn, Va. The new Heavy Seas will occupy nearly 6,000 square feet at the base of an office tower at 1501 Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn, two doors down from Roti Mediterranean Grill. The restaurant is scheduled to open later this year. Heavy Seas Alehouse is part of $2.5 million in capital improvements planned to renovate the lobbies and retail spaces at 1501 and 1515 Wilson Boulevard, according to a statement released by Monday Properties, the Arlington, Virginia-based real estate investment firm that manages the properties.

While Johns Hopkins' streak of 41 straight appearances in the NCAA tournament came to an end Sunday night, Salisbury maintained its Division III-leading streak of 25 consecutive showings in the postseason. The team will play host to Susquehanna (12-6) this Wednesday at Sea Gull Stadium in Salisbury. Unlike Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala who downplayed the end of his program's streak, Sea Gulls coach Jim Berkman said his team's streak is meaningful to the players and coaches. “It was definitely something that we've been very proud of here to have that long of a streak and to play at such a high for a long period of time,” said Berkman, who has guided Salisbury to 10 national championships including the last two. “I don't know how else to explain other than to say that we always take pride in playing what we call the real season now. To have that opportunity again for the 25th year is special.” But the Sea Gulls (14-5)

The death at sea of the British publishing magnate, Robert Maxwell, recalls an earlier occasion when printing ink and sea water proved an unhappy mix. Some 60 years ago a similar fate overtook the publisher of this newspaper. But first, Mr. Maxwell.His death was natural, authorities announced, and foul play is not suspected. Still, the precise cause of death has not been revealed, and other questions remain unanswered. Mr. Maxwell apparently had joined his 430-ton yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, named after one of his daughters, in Gibraltar on October 30. Five days later, on November 5, to be precise, the yacht, cruising off Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, reported that he was missing.

The gulls above, the wind upon,The sand beneath, the sea beyond:I've come a pilgrim fifty yearsto nurse my starving, summoned earsAnd vision on this restless sceneAnd wonder what its wonders mean.Over and over I seek the sea --always loved a mystery:I like the ones within, without,That patient thought can puzzle out.But those I worship most of allAre much too deep, too wide, too tall.And so the breakers draw me backTo elemental deeps I lackThe depth to comprehend, but stillCan make my dulling spirits thrillWith vast, hypnotic murmuringsOf ageless, awesome, fathomlessthings.

Now that Salisbury secured one of the few coveted at-large berths in the NCAA tournament, Jim Berkman feels secure enough to stand on a limb and proclaim that the team can win the national championship for the third consecutive year and the 11th time in the program's history. Sounds crazy? Maybe, but aside from SUNY-Cortland, the top seed in the North region, and Dickinson, the top seed in the South, no other team in the field has less than two losses. “The crazy thing about this is, I really believe that we can still win the whole tournament,” the Sea Gulls coach said Monday morning.