Skip to content
Archive for October 2010

Join the Club!

While surfing the interweb looking for racing results recently, something on two yacht clubs’ websites caught our attention: offers of waived or discounted initiation fees for new members. For a limited time, the Berkeley YC will be waiving what’s typically a $500 initiation fee, and the Santa Cruz YC is offering a "drastically reduced" fee — which would normally range from $1,000 to $2,000. More »
Default Thumbnail

How to NOT Win Friends

Maybe it’s because we’ve been banging on the keyboard since before the sun came up, but we’re getting a little grumpy with cheap-shot artists who recently have been so quick to wrongly accuse Latitude of managing the news for the sake of money. More »

New Mexico Cruising Guide

Cruising guide authors are a rare breed. Oh sure, it’s tough to feel too sorry for them — they get paid to go cruising, after all — but if you stop to think about all the work that goes into those books, not just the initial printing but the updating as well, you’ll realize that the authors are really paid a pittance for the valuable information they deliver. More »

Crime — or Lack of it — in Cabo

Folks about to start the 17th Annual Baja Ha-Ha from San Diego next Monday morning might be interested in the opinion of Ha-Ha vet Mike Miller on personal safety down around Los Cabos, which is the name for the Cabo San Lucas-San Jose del Cabo corridor. More »

Mild Hurricane Season Off Mexico

We’re not knowledgeable enough to know if cooler than normal water temperatures are the cause, but it sure has been a mild hurricane season for Mexico. Consider this: In ’09, there were 8 hurricanes and 12 tropical storms off the coast of Mexico. More »

Van Liew Leads Velux 5 Oceans

Three days out from La Rochelle, the lone American entry in the Velux 5 Oceans Race, Brad Van Liew, has already amassed a 50-mile lead over his nearest competitor. As the boats search for the northeasterly trades off the coast of Portugal, Van Liew’s Le Pingouin has taken a hitch out to sea, no doubt to close the east-west separation between him and his nearest competitior, Polish sailor Gutek Gutkowski aboard Operon. More »

Photo of the Day: In the Pink

“Look at those abs!” says Julie. © Julie Newton In the October issue of Latitude 38 we profiled the crews of several cruising boats passing through the Bay. Paul Smulders and Julie Newton of the 43-ft Laurent Giles-designed woody Mia II, one of the couples we featured, are on their way south again after having cruised from British Columbia to Cape Horn and back a few years ago. More »
Default Thumbnail

Piracy in Costa Rica

"October 12 was both exciting and costly for us here in Costa Rica," write Bruce Stevens and Clark Nicholson of the Dana Point-based Gulfstar 50 Two Amigos. "We were anchored off the beach at a resort town of Quepos. More »