It wasn’t all bad
■ Harold Terens, 100, and his fiancée Jeanne Swerlin, 96, are planning to marry this June in France eight decades after he first traveled to the country as a U.S. Army Air Forces corporal. Terens arrived in Normandy 12 days after D-Day, and helped transport German prisoners and recently freed Americans to England. His actions earned him several recognitions, including a medal from current French President Emmanuel Macron. The couple plans to tie the knot in Normandy after Terens is honored again by French authorities. “I love this girl—she is quite special,” said Terens.
■ After 30,000 miles and 130 days on the sea, Cole Brauer arrived this month in the Spanish port city of A Coruña, becoming the first American woman to race solo and nonstop around the world. The 29-year-old New Yorker came in second out of 16 sailors who participated in the Global Solo Challenge. After setting off from A Coruña last October, Brauer sailed along the west coast of Africa, past Australia, and around South America’s treacherous Cape Horn. Along the way, 30-foot waves tossed Brauer around the 40-foot sailboat, injuring a rib. At one point, she had to insert herself with an IV to avoid dehydration. Brauer plans to continue competing professionally. “This is really cool,” she said, “and so overwhelming in every sense of the word.”
■ A gray whale, a species hunted to extinction in the Atlantic Ocean more than 200 years ago, was detected 30 miles south of Nantucket this month. In the last 15 years, five have been spotted in Mediterranean and Atlantic waters. In December, one—possibly the same whale seen in Nantucket—was observed off the Florida coast. Climate change might be responsible for the whale sightings, opening up an ice-free path from the Pacific. “My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was something that should not really exist in these waters,” said New England Aquarium research technician Kate Laemmle.