Blog
“Inspire me a bit.”
A roundabout giving appeal, and Ed Ricketts’s roundabout approach to ecology. In 1940, Jack Calvin wrote a long letter to Ed Ricketts, urging him to come to Sitka on a […]
View Full ArticleWestern Flyer Restoration Episode 35
The original wheelhouse is installed back onto the Western Flyer.
View Full ArticleHunt for a lost book from the Ed Ricketts collection
In this episode of Stories, Shorts, and Outtakes, we hear from Don Kohrs, head librarian at the Harold A. Miller Library of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station. Don tells the […]
View Full ArticleA letter from the Board President
Dear Supporter, We need your help! We are oh-so-close to getting the boat in the water and ready for her trip to her new home in Monterey, California, but there […]
View Full Article“Let’s go wide open.”
Susan Shillinglaw, professor of English at San Jose State Univeristy and founding board member of the Western Flyer Foundation, reads her favorite section from the introduction to the Log From […]
View Full ArticleThe Western Flyer Foundation’s Community Journal Project
This school year, the Western Flyer Foundation is piloting the Community Journal Project with students in Monterey County. This project focuses on environmental literacy through the integration of art, science, […]
View Full Article“All things are one thing, one thing is all things.”
In this episode of Stories, Shorts and Outtakes of the Western Flyer, artist and Western Flyer Foundation advisory board member, Ray Troll, reads from The Log from the Sea of […]
View Full ArticleIntroducing Stories, Shorts and Outtakes of the Western Flyer
Chris Chase introduces a new playlist on the Western Flyer Foundation’s YouTube channel, where you can find stories from folks who are involved in the Western Flyer Foundation and the […]
View Full Article“A man builds the best of himself into a boat.”
In this episode of Stories, Shorts and Outtakes of the Western Flyer, Dr. William Gilly, a founding board member of the Western Flyer Foundation and professor at Stanford University, reads […]
View Full ArticleNotes from a Visit to the Western Flyer
I had the good fortune to tour the Western Flyer in Port Townsend with Chris Chase on the misty morning of September 9, 2021. This was my first time seeing […]
View Full ArticleWFF T-Shirts Designed by Andrea Dingeldein
Support the Western Flyer Foundation with a donation of $35 (or more) and receive a t-shirt with original artwork by Andrea Dingeldein. You can find more of Andrea’s work at […]
View Full ArticleHow Resilient is the Gulf of California?
“The very air here is miraculous, and outlines of reality change with the moment.” ~John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts, Sea of Cortez (1941) Although we may still think of […]
View Full ArticleWFF Update on Baja – A Mexican Perspective
Notes from Baja California Sur What would John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts find if they were able to return to the Sea of Cortés* today? What is the same and […]
View Full ArticleJoin the WFF Intertidal Zone Bioblitz
In 1940, writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts chartered a purse seiner, the Western Flyer, for a 6-week expedition to the Sea of Cortez. They captured and catalogued […]
View Full Article View Full ArticleVisit to Port Townsend
Before COVID-19 hit, Western Flyer had hundreds of visitors a month. These days, not so much. Access to the yard has been strictly limited for the past year — all […]
View Full ArticleEd Ricketts: by Katharine A. Rodger, University of California, Davis
When Ed Ricketts left for the Sea of Cortez aboard the Western Flyer in March 1940, he hoped the trip would be the basis for a new book
View Full ArticleAn Explanation of Why I Can’t Contribute to This Narrative
It has been one of the great, unexpected pleasures of the Western Flyer restoration process that I get to work with notable scientists and authors.
View Full ArticlePower & Motoryacht
In 2013, the fishing vessel Gemini, a purse seiner built in 1937, was hauled up from the bottom of the Swinomish Channel in the Pacific Northwest
View Full ArticleRighting the Ship
A team of shipwrights resurrects a purse seiner with a Nobel connection for a noble cause.
View Full ArticleThe Western Flyer
The Western Flyer was made famous when legendary writer John Steinbeck set sail on her inspiring him to write two books
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