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May 8, 2017

San Francisco Bay Whale Sighting

Mel Ellison sent this shot with a note, "I managed to snap a photo of a humpback whale coming under the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday and thought your readers might be interested. The backdrop is Fort Point and the mega yacht Air as she was transiting out of the Bay. The buildings in the Avenues look close because of the compression of the high-powered lens I was using. We saw the the whale for just a few moments before it disappeared."

“Perfect” Vallejo Race

The crew of Daniel Thielman’s Melges 32 Kuai, seen here at the start, told us that they’d won PHRF overall in Saturday’s Great Vallejo Race, aka the YRA Season Opener.

latitude/John
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC

"Perfect" was one of the descriptions of the Great Vallejo Race we heard on Saturday evening from sailors who were boat-hopping, visiting friends in the big raft-up at Vallejo Yacht Club. Fears of near-gale-force winds and nighttime rain were unfounded, and both the race itself and the post-race gathering were pleasant as could be.

Bob Novy’s PHRF 3 division winner Frers 40 Jeannette enters San Pablo Bay on the run north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

latitude/John
©2017Latitude 38 Media, LLC

Sunday’s race, from VYC to a new finish line south of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and east of the Tiburon Peninsula’s Paradise Cay, had moments of high wind, particularly in the North Bay, where stiff breeze and big chop are staples of mid- to late-afternoon summer days. Most of the race was in light air, however, so the ability to change gears for the last couple of miles was critical.

On the heels of Bob Harford’s Express 37 Stewball, John Robison’s J/105 Lightwave jibes away from a dilapidated wharf on Richmond’s Point Molate.

latitude/John
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC

Check results on Jibeset, then see much more coverage of the sun-and-fun weekend in the June issue of Latitude 38.

Waves and smiles from Saturday’s PHRF 7 winner, John Rook’s Ranger 33 Liquid Asset.

latitude/John
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC

Pacific Crossing Question

Malcolm Leth of the Jeanneau 39 Dancia from Brisbane, Australia, is getting ready to join the Pacific Puddle Jump currently underway from the West Coast. He wrote in to ask, "Do you have longitude degrees that most sailors prefer to transit across the equator to the south in the PPJ? I will leave in the next few days from La Paz."  

We have one report from Puddle Jumpers Glenn Howell and Bona Hebert aboard their Atlantic 55 Rocketeer, who’ve already arrived in the Marquesas: "We made it in 17 days from PV with white sails. We went west toward Hawaii to about 128°W and turned left to the Marquesas.  

"The gendarmes required a bond even though we have long-stay visas. We were told that this practice started a few weeks before we arrived, perhaps at the beginning of April. We had to go to the bank and post a $3,700 bond for two people."

Glenn and Bona had a quick and pleasant trip from Puerto Vallarta to the South Pacific. More are following in their wake.

latitude/Andy
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC

Cruisers leave the West Coast of the Americas from many different departure points and on many different dates but all converge, at some point, in the Marquesas. If you’re also already there where did you ‘turn left’, and were you required to post a bond?

Sailboats Rule the Northwest Passage

The New York Times recently reported that as ice continues to subside in the Arctic, cargo companies are considering using the Northwest Passage, "potentially a faster, more direct route between Asia and ports in Europe and eastern North America," according to the Times — as a regular shipping route in the next few decades.

But let’s not forget that sailors both pioneered the Northwest Passage and have been cruising it for decades. In fact, we’re pretty sure more sailors have done the Passage (some even in fiberglass boats) than mega-container ships or icebreakers.

The Northwest Passage was first navigated successfully by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, after several famed and failed expeditions. With a crew of six, Amundsen’s 70-ft gaff-rigged sloop Gjøa made it through the Passage in 1906 — a three-year voyage. The Gjøa did have a small engine, as the Northwest Passage is just as famous for its summer calms as it is for its ice. 

In 1977, Willy de Roos became the first person to skipper a yacht — the 45-ft steel ketch Williwaw — through the Passage. Matt Rutherford navigated the Northwest Passage in a 27-ft Albin Vega, then went around Cape Horn and back to Annapolis in his Solo Around the Americas Challenge in 2011.

In the fall, local San Francisco sailor Randall Reeves — featured in Latitude 38’s May issue’s Sightings  plans to attempt the Figure 8 Voyage from the Bay Area to Cape Horn, around Antarctica, up the East Coast to Greenland, through the Northwest Passage, and back to the Bay.

Randall Reeves sailing Moli in Kauai.

© Kim Kirch

In 2014, Reeves crewed with a couple who had attempted and failed to navigate the Passage the year before in their 45-ft Bruce Roberts-designed steel sailboat. The Roberts became one of seven boats that made the complete passage in 2014. "Thirty boats gave it a shot," Reeves said. "That’s a lot. But only seven made it."

The behavior of the ice in the Northwest Passage varies from year to year. It is (almost) universally agreed that ice in the Arctic is melting rapidly. "Scientists say global warming is largely responsible for the changes. Parts of the Arctic are warming twice as fast as elsewhere," according to the Times. But the melt doesn’t equate to a more navigable route. 

Reeves said that while there’s less ice in the Arctic, it doesn’t mean there’s less ice in the Passage itself. "It’s not necessarily easier every year," Reeves said. "It’s not linear." The erratic nature of the ice is one of many reasons that the Northwest Passage is not yet ready for full-time shipping.

"Just because shippers could make greater use of Arctic routes does not mean they will," the Times said. "Ice conditions will still vary greatly from year to year, which would discourage shipping companies for which precise timing of shipments is crucial."

And making the Northwest Passage is not easy or a barrel of laughs. "It’s not a fun passage," Reeves added. "It’s a lot of work, and it’s really cold and stressful; you can get 2,000 miles in and have to over-winter, because you can’t get out."

The Tartan Ten Tartanic and Olson 911S Shanti sail under the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge bound for Vallejo in the 2015 YRA Season Opener.
After one of the longest, wettest winters in a hundred years, we can only imagine that the to-do lists for Bay Area sailors are miles long.
With Harbor Sand’s Nikki Beach-like palapas, Two Harbors is gentrifying.  Harbor Sands
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC For the last couple of years the Santa Catalina Island Company has put a lot of effort and money into updating the Avalon visitor experience.