2014 Puddle Jump Registration Opens

Given the legendary beauty of French Polynesia’s five archipelagos, its not surprising that the notion of cruising there is high on many sailors’ bucket lists.

Every year, several hundred sailors aboard a wide variety of boats make the 3,000-mile crossing to those fabled isles from the West Coast of the Americas. And many do so as members of Latitude’s Pacific Puddle Jump rally. 

Unlike the recently completed Baja Ha-Ha, the PPJ is a ‘rally’ in only the loosest terms: There’s no committee boat, there are no mandatory roll calls, and its members leave from a variety of West Coast ports anytime between February and June.

After signing up, however, ‘jumpers’ are invited to attend one of Latitude’s annual sendoff parties in Puerto Vallarta and Panama (dates TBA), where they’ll be interviewed for profiles in the magazine. They also may attend the annual three-day Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendezvous (July 4-6), and each boat’s detailed safety info will be held in a master database that is made available to Search & Rescue agencies if emergencies occur.

But the factor that boosts the PPJ roster to over 200 boats each year is that registrants are eligible to participate in a specially priced package offered by a Tahitian yacht agency, which gives them clearance in and out, duty-free fuel beginning in the Marquesas ($2/gal savings) and exemptions from having to pay the dreaded repatriation bonds for every member of the crew. (Otherwise the value of a plane ticket home must be held in a bank in cash until departure.) 

So if you’re planning to chase the setting sun over the western horizon this season, get online and sign up. It’s free, it’s fun and it will introduce you to an international array of like-minded voyagers.