The Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, a Salty Southeast Cruisers Net sponsor, is a great place to visit any time.
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There is always plenty to do around Charlotte Harbor. While berthed at Fishermen’s Village Marina, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, you are certain to enjoy visiting Western Florida’s beautiful Charlotte Harbor/Peace River.
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941.639.8721
Click Here To View the Western Florida Cruisers Net Marina Directory Listing For Fishermen’s Village
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Elizabeth City sits at the southern terminus of the Dismal Swamp Canal and has the well-earned reputation of being a transient-friendly town with free dockage for 72 hours.
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Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
When all else fails, try journalism.
An Annapolis area marine technician has been arrested in connection with 32 bombs found during a search of his home. Lee Scott Wygal Ralston, 37, was charged with 32 counts each of manufacture and possession of a “destructive device.” He faces up to 25 years in prison. Ralston founded Ralston Marine in February 2025, after getting into the marine industry as a tech at Port Annapolis Marina in 2019. His website advertised him as a “mobile marine service provider,” capable of “electronics installation, fiberglass repairs, bottom painting, custom fabrication and dive services.” Maryland authorities began their case against Ralston with an investigation into allegations of illegal night hunting—deer jacking—that included a home being hit by gunfire. Apparently, Natural Resource officers were conducting a search of Ralston’s home, probably for frozen venison, when the bombs were discovered. According to news reports, they called in Anne Arundel County’s Fire Department explosives unit. Maryland media outlets reported that some of the bombs were rigged to be detonated remotely. On April 14, the same day the search was excuted, Ralston’s wife Chelsea filed for divorce. Ralston grew up in Salisbury, Maryland, and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. For four years, he worked for a pair of engineering firms before being trained and hired at Port Annapolis. “I wanted to have a job where I loved what I was doing, and sitting in an office all day wasn’t it,” he was quoted as saying by PropTalk magazine in December 2019. “The days go by quickly,” he said. “It’s nice to be granted some autonomy and be treated with some trust in your work—not every place is like that. Plus, I get to be outside, and you can’t beat the water view!” Also from PropTalk: Rich Krolak, service manager at Port Annapolis, predicted that Ralson would go far in the industry. LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Sometimes he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid. |
Scheduled closure of the South Mills Lock for electrical repairs on April 20-22, 2026. Our thanks to Sarah Hill of the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center for this information.
Please see the USACE Norfolk District’s Notice to Navigation regarding the scheduled closure of the South Mills Lock on the Dismal Swamp Canal, April 20-22, 2026. This temporary closure is for electrical repairs to be made. The lock will reopen on April 23, 2026.
Attaching image from this week at the dock. Boaters are beginning to trickle through during this early springtime period.
Looking forward to many more in this season!
Thanks,
Sarah
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| Sarah Hill, TMP Director, Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center Chairperson, Camden County Tourism Development Authority 2356 US Hwy 17 North, South Mills, NC 27976
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Click Here To Open A Chart View Window Zoomed To the Location of South Mills Lock
Click Here To View the North Carolina Cruisers’ Net Bridge Directory Listing For South Mills Lock
Scheduled closure of the South Mills Lock for electrical repairs on April 20-22, 2026. Our thanks to Sarah Hill of the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center for this information.
Please see the USACE Norfolk District’s Notice to Navigation regarding the scheduled closure of the South Mills Lock on the Dismal Swamp Canal, April 20-22, 2026. This temporary closure is for electrical repairs to be made. The lock will reopen on April 23, 2026.
Attaching image from this week at the dock. Boaters are beginning to trickle through during this early springtime period.
Looking forward to many more in this season!
Thanks,
Sarah
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| Sarah Hill, TMP Director, Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center Chairperson, Camden County Tourism Development Authority 2356 US Hwy 17 North, South Mills, NC 27976
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Click Here To Open A Chart View Window Zoomed To the Location of South Mills Lock
Click Here To View the North Carolina Cruisers’ Net Bridge Directory Listing For South Mills Lock
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
When all else fails, try journalism.
The author and his wife Pam are cruising the South Pacific aboard Roam, a 2001 Catana 472 designed by Christophe Barreau and built by Catana. You can follow their adventures on Substack. The story was first published in April 2024. Some days are more eventful than others. Today, we witnessed a total eclipse of the sun and crossed the equator on a small boat. Thus far, we have been blessed with a fast and uneventful sail across the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) or “doldrums.” This is an area marked by calms, lightning, and otherwise squally weather. Ships would often get stuck here for weeks waiting for the wind to fill in. We’ve sailed the entire time and only dealt with one significant rain squall, which was a welcome rinse for Roam. The Solar EclipseBack when we started planning this trip, John pointed out that it was conceivable we might be able to view the total solar eclipse during our voyage. He promptly ordered some eclipse glasses for us, and they’ve been sitting in the nav station since last summer. None of us thought much about it beyond that. A lot would have to come together for it to work out.
With a day to go, it became clear we might be able to make it into the path of totality and maybe to the transit longitude of the eclipse itself. A longitude we calculated to be W132:43’. We tried valiantly to reach the equator at the eclipse transit longitude, but 9-10 knots the night before was just too fast, and we opted to reduce sail and the loads on the boat (and my anxiety). But we got close enough. We enjoyed more than two minutes of totality and several hours of partial coverage. We believe we are the only humans to have witnessed the eclipse in the vicinity of the equator today. There was nobody on radar or AIS around us that we could see. It is nothing short of an awe-inspiring experience. Near-complete darkness. I wonder what the ancients thought when all of a sudden the sun randomly shut off during the middle of the day. Crossing the EquatorCrossing the equator is a celebrated rite of passage for every sailor. Yesterday was our time, and we crossed at 2306 UTC.
Pollywogs who cross are eligible to enter the court of King Neptune and become shellbacks. John was the lone shellback among us, and he held a truly epic and memorable ceremony as King Neptune. He had crossed many years ago as a seaman aboard the USCG cutter, Steadfast.
The ceremony itself is classified, but it includes atoning for one’s sins against the sea, entertaining the king, and committing to stewardship of the kingdom. This is a longstanding maritime tradition, widely practiced even today. And we were all duly awarded our certificates (suitable for framing). If you find yourself crossing the line and in need of King Neptune, you can do no better than John! 500 miles to go. We should be in the anchorage at Hiva Oa on Friday the 12th. Until then, I remain profoundly grateful for this wonderful crew and this magnificent boat that has taken such good care of us.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid. |
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There is always plenty to do around Charlotte Harbor! While berthed at Fishermen’s Village Marina, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, you are certain to enjoy visiting Western Florida’s beautiful Charlotte Harbor/Peace River.
Fishermen’s Village’s Day of Celtic Music
Special Events & Community Relations
941.639.8721
Click Here To View the Western Florida Cruisers Net Marina Directory Listing For Fishermen’s Village
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window Zoomed To the Location of Fishermen’s Village
There is always plenty to do around Charlotte Harbor. While berthed at Fishermen’s Village Marina, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, you are certain to enjoy visiting Western Florida’s beautiful Charlotte Harbor/Peace River.
Special Events & Community Relations
941.639.8721
Click Here To View the Western Florida Cruisers Net Marina Directory Listing For Fishermen’s Village
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window Zoomed To the Location of Fishermen’s Village
BoatUS is the leading advocate for boating safety in the US and A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR.
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Harbour Town Yacht Basin, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, is ready for your reservation with newly renovated docks, upgraded electrical service and onSpot WiFi, also a CRUISERS NET SPONSOR. And, as always, numerous activities at the Sea Pines Resort are offered for your enjoyment, as you will see in the Event Schedule below. Hilton Head Island is absolutely marvelous any time of year.
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Kerry Maveus
kmaveus@hunter-pr.com | www.hunter-pr.com
mobile: 831-917-2878
P.O. Box 1049 | Pebble Beach, CA | 93953
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
When all else fails, try journalism.
The husband whose wife disappeared during a dinghy ride has been released from Bahamian custody without charges being filed against him. Brian Hooker, 59, may be guilty of poor judgement or worse, but his choice of local lawyers appears to have paid off. Attorney Terrel Butler said police questioning suggested they were trying to obtain evidence that Hooker had murdered his wife Lynette, 55, on Saturday, April 4. Hooker told police she fell out of the dinghy after they left the Abaco Inn on Elbow Cay and were enroute back to their Morgan sailboat Soulmate, anchored about two miles away down by Lubbers Cay. Winds were blusterly, the water was choppy and, according to her husband, Lynnette somehow took the magnetic shut-off device for the motor when she went overboard. A magistrate approved Hooker’s detention for 96-hours—the maximum for someone not charged—to give police time to gather evidence and question their suspect. Why, for example, did it take 8 1/2 for the engineless dinghy to reach Marsh Harbor, 4 miles dead downwind?
Butler said her client underwent intense questioning Friday and earlier today, but never wavered in his insistence that what happened was a terrible accident, not a murder. “I am happy to see justice, that justice is really working in this country. They had no choice but to release him,” she said. Hooker can be re-arrested if police find evidence of a crime in the future—for example, if Lynette’s body were found and yielded incriminating information.
Brian Hooker got little support from social media, where many commenters voiced their certainty that he was a killer, particularly after stories about their rocky marriage were published in the subsequent media frenzy. Lynnette Hooker’s daughter voiced her own doubts about her stepfather’s account of events. Some of the coverage being amplified by social media was completely false, a phenomenon that many of us have not gotten used to. CNN and the tabloid New York Post had solid coverage but one of the best stories was published by Fox News, which included this map as its reporter traced the dinghy’s route that night:
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
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Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
When all else fails, try journalism. You Don’t Need a Murder Motive To Explain Her Likely DeathCascade of Poor Choices Appear To Have Preceded Her Loss Overboard
“Never ascribe to conspiracy that which can be explained by simple incompetence.” Most of you must have found the news coverage of the American woman who fell off a dinghy in the Abacos at least mildly annoying. She went overboard on Saturday and hasn’t been seen since then. Brian and Lynette Hooker had been spending time at the Abaco Inn, which is on White Sound at Elbow Cay. Many news accounts describe how the couple then got underway and headed to Elbow Cay, where of course they already were. They were actually heading to where they had anchored their boat somewhere along the Elbow’s western shore, reportedly about 2 1/2 miles away. To make the whole episode even more confusing, many of the news reports had Lynette Hooker failing overboard with the keys to the outboard. Nobody bothered to explain to the writers that the woman was probably attached to the motor’s emergency kill switch by a lanyard, so when she tumbled into the water the thing went with her. Turns out, the outboard was an electric Torqeedo, so the kill switch wasn’t really a switch as per conventional gas motors. It was a magnet, coated in orange plastic, that nests atop the tiller causing a connection to happen inside. Unlike the button switch on conventional outboards, you cannot use a pair of needlenose vice-grips or tightly wound string as workarounds if that type of cut-off device gets lost, that little yoke thingy and lanyard.
If the news media was sloppy, the social media reaction to the story descended almost instantly into speculation that 58-year-old Brian had somehow murdered his 55-year-old wife while tooling along a couple hundred yards from the beach. This theory got a little bit of traction after Lynette Hooker’s daughter was quoted about a prior violent act on Brian’s part. “There’s history of him choking her out and threatening to throw her overboard. So, the fact that this is actually happening makes me believe there’s more to the story,” Karli Aylesworth told the New York Post. Aylesworth also said that the coulple had a “history of not getting along, especially when they drink.” There were frequent references on Facebook to the incident being the subject of a TV “Dateline” episode. There were comparisons to the mysterious death of actress Natalie Wood, who drowned near her husband Robert Wagner’s yacht while anchored off Catalina Island in California. The Hookers had become social media butterflies after they went a’cruising, so there are plenty of images of them online in their eight-foot—I’m going to say it’s a Boss—dinghy. That’s a type of dinghy that’s shaped like a RIB but entirely made of fiberglass, no hyperlon tubes. Only one photo (that I could find) showed them wearing inflatable PFDs. Images of them in the Bahamas don’t even show any lifejackets in the boat with them, although they could be tucked into the bow locker. They liked to venture out with cold canned beverages in hand. All the pictures (that I could find) showed Brian Hooker at the tiller. Yet, when Lynette went overboard, the kill switch went with her, suggesting that she was driving. According to news report, the left the Abaco Inn around 7:30 p.m., a few minutes after sunset, so it was dusk. The forecast for that day called for hazardous conditions with a “near-gale warning/watch.” Weather router Chris Parker, renown for his ability to customize forecasts for discrete areas of the Bahamas, estimated that the winds were blowing from the east or southeast at 20 knots, gusting to 30.
The Hookers were in the lee of Elbow Cay, but they were likely experiencing a short chop, as happens even on a lake when the breeze is up. Brian was quoted as saying that his wife “bounced” out of the boat, which tracks as true. But why was she driving, if she was driving? (Or else we must believe there was some other reason she was attached to the kill switch instead of him.) With a dead motor, Brian Hooker said he paddled. Brian Hooker said the last time he saw his wife, she was swimming toward land, which had to be Elbow Cay. She would have been swimming in an easterly direction. Brian also said she was being carried away by current. Any current in this area would have had to parallel the beach. That is, either northerly or southerly. The dinghy however had enough windage to have been driven by the 20-knot-plus wind toward the west and Marsh Harbor, where it eventually arrived. There is no mention in the news accounts of a VHF radio or a radio call. There was no mention of a cell phone except that Lynette had shared a picture online just as they were leaving the resort. Photos of the dingy show that it had oar sockets, yet apparently the Hookers did not carry oars and oarlocks (a Loose Cannon pet peeve). That style of dinghy probably would not row well, but it would surely row better than it would paddle. (The only way for a single paddler to make headway would be to straddle the bow and draw the paddle midships. One way to achieve the best rowing performance from an inflatable is to adapt the set-up for longer oars. Inflatable manufacturers provide placebo oars that are at least a foot too short.) One news outlet actually reported, “Satellite tracking data captured the powerless eight-foot hard-bottom dinghy drifting a staggering 178 meters in just 12 seconds.” First, what “satellite tracking data?” And staggering, yes. Staggeringly impossible. But that little boat had to have been moving pretty quickly The search for Lynette Hooker did not begin until after 4 a.m. on Sunday when Brian and his dinghy reached Marsh Harbour. That’s almost nine hours after Lynette supposedly went overboard. What took so long for the dinghy to travel just four nautical miles downwind in Force 5 conditions? (Maybe it got hung-up for a while on the shallows around Porgee Rock.)
One guy quoted by the news media seemed pretty sensible. Richard Cook, team leader with Hope Town Volunteer Fire and Rescue, told reporters that he thought foul play was unlikely “It was just a lot of bad decisions,” Cook said. “Night time, very windy, no moon out yet, so it was pitch dark and very rough conditions for the small boat they were in.” Sure, no one can rule out the possibility of murder, not yet, but more likely this horrible event resulted from a cascade of poor choices, maybe including too much to drink. As I used to tell my reporters, “Never ascribe to conspiracy that which can be explained by simple incompetence.” And, as I told my wife, that’s certainly not how anyone with a brain would plan to murder their spouse. LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid. |
Charleston Harbor: Beginning (TODAY) Wednesday, April 15, 2026, through Sunday, April 19, 2026, the Charleston Race Week regatta will be held in Charleston Harbor from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm each day. https://charlestonraceweek.com/
Beginning Wednesday, April 15, 2026, through Sunday, April 19, 2026, the Charleston Race Week regatta will be held in Charleston Harbor from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm each day.
This event will consist of a variety of sailboat races in the areas illustrated. Per 33 CFR 100.704, Table 1, Item No. 2, there will be regulated racing zones in effect for each day of racing. When hailed or signaled by on-scene safety boats, all vessels in the immediate vicinity of these racing zones shall comply with directions given. Failure to do so may result in removal from the area, citation for failure to comply, or both.
All mariners are urged to use caution while transiting the area and should coordinate with on-scene race committee and safety boats via VHF channels 13 and 16.
For questions or concerns regarding this MSIB, please contact the Sector Charleston 24-hour Command Center at (833) 453-1261.
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