Just a reminder – tonight is the Latitude 38 Crew List
Party at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon, from 6 to 9 pm.
For more info, check out our Crew Party Web page. For directions
and a map, go to www.cyc.org/map.html.
Come to the Crew List Party and you never
know where you may end up. These sailors, from the Mahina
Tiare, were photographed in front of the Rescue Station at
Dorian Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.
Photo Courtesy John Neale
Tonight’s Crew List Party is featured in a nice big article by
Paul McHugh in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, on the
back (Outdoors) page of the Sports Section, E10. It’s appropriately
titled ‘Schmoozing Can Lead to Sailing’. Check it out! Photo Latitude/John Arndt
Pacific Puddle Jump
April 5 – Nuevo Vallarta
The most popular way for North American
cruisers to get to the South Pacific is to leave from Mexico
and sail to the Marquesas. That’s what the Pacific Puddle Jump
Class of 2001 are doing. We’re introducing them to you in a continuing
series of profiles. Check back for more in tomorrow’s ‘Lectronic,
and you’ll find all of them in the pages of the April issue of Latitude 38,
which came out on March 30.
El Gitano
– Westsail 32
Bruce & Sarah Durrant, Sedro Woolley, WA
“About a third of this group is from
the Northwest,” notes Bruce. “And most of us came down
from the coast about the same time a year and a half ago.”
No doubt those friendships will continue to grow as they work
their way around the world.
In addition to the
typical stops on the South Pacific ‘milk run’, The Gypsy (as
the name translates) will be seeking out remote locations with
spectacular diving like the Tuamotus. Another motivation for
Bruce and Sarah is to visit some of the less-traveled islands
of the North Pacific like Tinian and Saipan, where her father’s
U.S. Marine battalion fought during WWII. The family back home
is intensely curious what those islands are like today.
The couple used their time in the Sea of
Cortez to fine-tune their seamanship. “We highly recommend
it. Living out in the uninhabited anchorages teaches you about
self-sufficiency, while mainland Mexico does not.”
Inetora – Woods/White
35-ft catamaran
Xen and Shelaine, Sidney, BC
Inetora
is aptly named. It translates as “the time is now.”
Shelaine, who hails
from Canada, met English-born Xen (pronounced Zen) in the late
’80s while on a carefree sailing vacation at a Sunsail resort
in the Greek Isles. Xen was working there as an instructor and…
well, you get the picture.
Turned out they both had similar dreams
of sailing around the world. As young folks tend to do, they
hatched a roundabout means of fulfilling their sailing fantasies:
They moved to Saskatchewan (where her parents had a farm) and
began building their own boat – which inspired neighbors to rib
them with endless Noah jokes.
“We thought we could build a nice
boat and save money. But after years of hard work we had a boat
similar to ones we could have bought for a lot more money!”
They plan to work as they go, hopefully completing a circumnavigation,
someday.
Photos Latitude/Andy
YOTREPS
April 5 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace
Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS –
‘yacht reports’ – at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
Looking for current as well as recent wind
and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena
and the Mexican border? Here’s the place – which has further links
to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
In addition to the
Shelaine, who hails