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Archive for February 2015

Team Phaedo Adds Three New Hulls

February 20, 2015
The new Phaedo3 in the trade winds off Antigua.  Team Phaedo
©2015Latitude 38 Media, LLC The need for sailing at extreme speed under sail has apparently taken a powerful hold on Lloyd Thornburg, Latitude’s friend from Newport Beach, St. More »

Howdy Partner!

A bird’s eye view of ‘ti Profligate, anchored in the aqua waters of the Caribbean. latitude/Richard
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC With our Leopard 45 ‘ti Profligate coming out of the yacht management program at BVI Yacht Charters in July — there are still a few dates open in June — we’ve been thinking about our options. More »

Who Ya Gonna Call?

February 18, 2015
If the Polar Star hadn’t been temporarily deployed to McMurdo Station, it’s not clear how the stranded Aussie fishermen might have been rescued.  © 2015 Petty Officer 1st Class George Degener / USCG We’ve got to hand it to the US Coast Guard. More »

Are the New Charts Worse?

Navionics Gold electronic charts © Cabela’s It’s not unheard of for new software to be less well liked than earlier versions of the same software. We find this to be the case with Navionics, the very popular marine charting software. More »

Sign Up for the Delta Doo Dah

February 16, 2015
Sailing past Crockett on Carquinez Strait in the 2012 Delta Doo Dah. latitude/LaDonna
©2015Latitude 38 Media, LLC Delta Doo Dah 7 had a ‘soft opening’ on Friday. This year’s rally will continue to welcome do-it-yourselfers, so that you can explore the Delta on your own any time between May 16 and Labor Day, but we’ll also include some organized activities during the season to give our fleet opportunities to meet each other, socialize, and cruise in company. More »

Three Generations of Tusitala Sailors

Before Briana’s grandpa built Tusitala, he and other family members sailed to French Polynesia. Seen here is their boat, Mariachi, in 1950, anchored stern-to in Moorea’s majestic Opunohu Bay. That’s Briana’s Uncle Roger paddling canoe in foreground. More »

Food, Booze, Sails & Safety Gear Aren’t Enough

You need some common sense, too. “We’ve got plenty of food, plenty of booze, good sails and all the safety gear you could ever need, so we’re going to be OK,” Jason McGlashan told the Newport (Rhode Island) Daily News before he and his dad Reg took off from Conanicut Marina in Jamestown, Rhode Island last Friday on what they expected to be a six-to-eight-week passage to 8,600-mile-distant Port Macquarie, Australia. More »

That Was “Boring”?

February 13, 2015
Elizabeth Ostrander. Not only does she have two long doublehanded ocean passages to her credit, we think she’s a very attractive woman. So does Doña de Mallorca. What about you? Playboy
©2015Latitude 38 Media, LLC We received the following response to Monday’s ‘Lectronic about Elizabeth Ostrander — who has cruised from California to Hawaii, and Hawaii to French Polynesia, and who intends to sail around the world with her husband Erik on their Freeport 41 Journey — being in the running for the 2015 Playboy Playmate of the Year: "That [‘Lectronic item] was terrible. More »

Cruise Ship Skipper Gets 16 Years

For days after the massive cruise ship grounded on the Giglio shoreline, divers and other rescue personnel worked exhaustively to find survivors and retrieve bodies from the Costa Concordia. EPA
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC The 18-month trial of Captain Francesco Schettino finally ended this week, with the flamboyant Italian mariner being convicted of manslaughter and other charges related to the deaths of the 32 passengers who perished when the 952-ft cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on the Italian coast in January 2012. More »