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What’s Happening At the Sea Pines Resort (May 2026), Harbour Town Yacht Basin, SC AICW MM 565
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
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Her Husband Walks…for Now – Loose Cannon
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.
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When all else fails, try journalism.
Their frequent social media posts showed a happy side of cruising life, that friends and relatives aid belied a rocky relationship. 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?
Terrel Butler is a prominent Nassau attorney. She represents Brian Hooker. 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.
Late Breaking: Husband Arrested in Connection With Wife Lost Overboard
·Apr 8Read full story 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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National Safe Boating Week Is Fast Approaching – America’s Boating Club / Power Squadrons (USPS)
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You Don’t Need a Murder Motive To Explain Her Likely Death – Loose Cannon
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.
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You Don’t Need a Murder Motive To Explain Her Likely Death
Cascade of Poor Choices Appear To Have Preceded Her Loss Overboard
This is the dinghy the Hookers were riding in when Lynette Hooker went 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.
The Torqeedo kill switch is that little bit of orange at the center of the photo, just above Brian Hooker’s hand. 
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.
Brian and Lynette Hooker whose social media handle was “thesailinghookers.” 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.)
This is reportedly the last image that Lynette Hooker sent via text, purportedly showing White Sound just before the couple embarked on their dinghy. 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.
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Charleston Race Week – 4/15 to 4/19 – BEGINS TODAY
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/
CHARLESTON RACE WEEK
Charleston Harbor, SCBeginning 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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Dare’s 250 Faire to honor ‘Liberty, Legacy and Lift-Off’ Saturday April 18 – CoastalReview
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RISK – Janice Anne Wheeler, Sparring With Mother Nature
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What an honor to have all of you aboard! I’m so grateful.
If you just found our engaging little community, please read SPARS & SPARRING, .….it introduces my wonders and my wanders. ~J
DANGER. I see the word every time my worn workboot lands on the top of that eight foot ladder. Do you disregard warnings like this? And if so, under what circumstances? When you think it doesn’t apply to you? Because the warning seems without threat (those damn mattress tags)? Or because there isn’t any other way to get where you want to go, to do what needs to be done?
The worksite path containing this ladder has been traversed thousands of times and there will be hundreds more before we’re done. Here’s how it goes: with your right foot on the danger icon, you swing your left leg way up, over the top of the scaffold, down onto a crossboard, then three steps across onto a wobbly, borrowed keel block to boost you two more feet up to the top, the level with the most risk, perhaps, and then you walk out to either side of the bow, usually against the wind, always acutely aware of the stunning force of gravity. Usually, at least one of your hands is full and it’s often something expensive and/or sharp; on a really dangerous day, it’s both.
This is a theme in my last month or so; there is a certain risk in many things that we do, and also risk in not doing them. Calculated risk? Maybe, but more so simply part of whatever deal you’ve dealt yourself, and decided to hold your ground, ante up, wait it out, go the distance. Sometimes there is little choice.
Amazing how perspective changes things. That would be a dangerous tumble.The top of that scaffold looks much higher from the top than it does from the ground, and a misstep would be a mess. So we don’t misstep. And we don’t get too comfortable, either. I think that is when missteps usually occur.
The carelessness of comfort is thinking that there will always be another day.
A few months after STEADFAST arrived at this boatyard for repairs, we were joined by a well-cared-for, classic cruising vessel on its annual haul-out. John, a well-cared-for, soft-spoken, slightly quirky, caring gentleman a generation beyond me, showed up even before his boat did, and then on a very regular, sometimes daily, basis to tinker and check on her and to check on us. She was for sale, he told us uncomfortably, shrugging off the importance of such a thing that was, clearly, very important, a milestone, a seemingly practical if counterintuitive decision that was unwanted and unwelcome, at least for that particular sailor. We shared friends, Friday Happy Hours and random conversations. The next fall, 2025, he struggled with the decision and then with certainty took his vessel southward. We admired him, and secretly encouraged the one-last chance attitude.
Our boatyard neighbor hadn’t told me that he had made a dozen or so solo passages, thousands of miles, on that vessel, traveling many of the same seas that we had, distinctly remembered by folks from the Florida Keys to the exquisite Bahama’s Exuma Chain. He donated hours and hours of time to the National Park there, I learned later, too late to congratulate him on such a worthy cause. STEADFAST has spent time in that region and it is stunning, postcard-perfect, biologically diverse. A place which needed protection because it is too beautiful, too coveted, and that can destroy those sorts of destinations. There is considerable brilliance in dedicating your time and energy to a place you want to be. He knew how important it was to all involved.
John also knew he had aged before he was ready, betrayed, as many of us are, by a body that has become sporadically untrustworthy. I think other things were at work in his decisions; John’s spirit was betrayed, too, by a society that tells us we’re too old for such adventures; it’s not conventional to keep taking risks, wandering the planet, making people wonder what you’re thinking, what you’re doing, where you are. To me, he was torn between what he wanted to do and what everyone thought was best.
John left this world in early January, so suddenly and unexpectedly that the shock brought waves of grief to everyone who knew him. He was a day away from taking his sailboat back to the Bahamas one last time.
His broken-hearted family carefully planned a tribute to his life and gathered today; I was honored to contribute considering how short our relationship was; I miss John, many tears were shed. He was a welcome part of this peaceful, difficult corner of my life. It’s a risk, isn’t it? A danger. Opening up your mind and your heart to someone new, no matter the circumstances. It takes time and precious energy to find commonality, comfort, companionship. He had generously offered us those.
My impression had been that John did not take a lot of risks. We often don’t know what people are really all about do we? Most folks don’t share their stories and often, I wish both that they realized it was important enough to tell and I’d taken time to listen. My website is titled Everybody Has a Story. Many souls and stories are worthy of your time and attention.
I’m trying to finish this piece for publication and tie it all together with a little more cleverness but frankly my sadness has taken over and I’ve given all I’ve got for today. As is our SPARRING routine, I scheduled this for tomorrow, Sunday, 6am on the East Coast of the US, and though I am trying to concentrate, I thought to myself, shit. I haven’t filed my taxes. Death and Taxes— the only two things that are a certainty in this world. Now, you may be groaning but I think my friend John would have smiled his, beautiful crooked smile.
Until next week, let’s not get too comfortable with the fact that there will always be a tomorrow because that is simply not true. ~J
My painting kit. The center item may increase the risk, it also increases the joy. And the stamina. These are finally final coats I’m applying….! I so appreciate your support of my work. Have a wonderful week!
© 2026 Janice Anne Wheeler
Living aboard Sailing Yacht STEADFAST again soon!
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