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January 13, 2025

Angel Island Boat Docks Closed Until Further Notice

When we wrote about the condition of the Angel Island docks last May, you could still dock your boat at one of the few slips still in serviceable condition. We’ve now received word that those remaining slips have been closed, leaving Angel Island with no boat slips until further notice.

Angel Island State Park dock aide Kati Vargas advised, “Due to significant damage from years of wear and exposure to harsh weather, our day slips are now unsafe for use. Out of concern for the safety of our visitors arriving by boat, we regret to inform you that these docks are closed until further notice.”

Angel Island docks
This dock closure, photographed last spring, now includes all the docks.
© 2025 Paul Hollenbach

The moorings remain available at a fee of $30 per night, along with a 15-minute loading and unloading zone — “open for brief stops,” and a dinghy slip — “available for visitors.”

“We understand this is an inconvenience, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption it may cause,”  Vargas continued.

There is a plan in place to commence repairing the docks. It’s estimated the work will take six months and is scheduled to commence this coming June–November.

“We truly share your frustration and appreciate your understanding as we work to restore the dock to a safe and functional state,” Vargas added.

In our May story, Tim Henry spoke with Angel Island manager and superintendent for California State Parks Gerald O’Reilly. O’Reilly explained some of the issues facing the park in regard to funding. We’re hopeful the plan for dock repairs is now locked in and the work can commence as early as June. In the meantime, hanging out on a mooring is more fun than being tied to dock. Yes?

 

Vendée Globe Finishers Face Light-Air Upwind Sailing

Have you been following along? The leaders in the Vendée Globe, Charlie Dalin and Yoann Richomme, are counting down the final miles of the 24,000-mile solo circumnavigation as they approach Les Sables-d’Olonne. They started on November 10 and, after the initial slow start, have been on a blistering pace with the chance to take almost 10 days off the current 74-day record. As of this morning Charlie Dalin is 140 miles ahead of Yoann Richomme, with both facing steady, upwind work as they approach the Atlantic coast of France.

Charlie Dalin aboard MACIF Santé Prévoyance has tacked towards the finish still almost 130 miles away.
Charlie Dalin aboard MACIF Santé Prévoyance has tacked in light air toward the finish, still almost 130 miles away.
© 2025 Vendee Globe

Sébastien Simon (GROUPE DUBREUIL) is sailing in a very solid third place, despite lacking his starboard foil since Australia, and is about 900 miles behind the leaders. That sounds like a lot until you realize the fourth- through 10th-place boats are almost 2,000 miles farther back. Thirty-four of the original 40 starters are still racing, with the potential to make this the highest finishing percentage of 10 Vendée Globes. Historically, 40–60% of the starters have finished. The first race in 1989 finished in 109 days, with seven out of 13 starters finishing. Now, improvements in boat design and build appear to be lowering the time to around 65 days and the finishing percentage above 75%.

These last few miles will be tiring for Charlie Dalin and Yoann Richard as they pace themselves for the finish. Dalin has a solid lead, but there are still over 100 miles to go, and neither has had a good night’s sleep for 64 days!

Follow to the finish here.

 

Did You Know? Exploring the Pages of the ‘Latitude 38’ Website

Have you found all the resources available on the Latitude 38 website? The insane scale of the information on the internet means it’s easy to miss all we cover in West Coast sailing. Our stories follow West Coast sailors all over the world, including Isla San Francisco, San Francisco, San Diego, Long Beach and everywhere West Coast sailors sail. As we launch into 2025, we thought we’d highlight some of the main resources available on our website:

Youth Sailing — With summer on the horizon it’s a good time to look at all the youth sailing opportunities we have listed on our website and also in the 2025 sailing calendar.

Summer is coming and kids are going to want to go sailing. Find a program on our list.
Summer is coming and kids will want to go sailing. Find a program on our list.
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / John

Heading South — If you’re planning to head to Mexico and points beyond in the fall, there are stories and resources available for West Coast sailors on our Heading South page.

Current and Back Issues — Our “Magazine” page takes you to the current issue as well as in index of all issues going back to April 1977. There was a recent mention of the disastrous 1982 Doublehanded Farallones race. You could read the original story in a scanned (not beautiful) issue here. Scroll down to find all of our back issues here.

All issues from 1977 to January 2025 are available on the Latitude 38 website.
All issues (scroll down) from 1977 to January 2025 are available on the Latitude 38 website.
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / Latitude 38

Working Waterfront — Critical to the success of sailing on the West Coast are the businesses serving the recreational marine market along the Working Waterfront. We collect stories, resources and job opportunities for those here.

Boat-In Dining — If you’re looking for a sail-in destination near the Bay Area waterfront, we have a fairly comprehensive list of opportunities here. Let us know if you have a suggestion or an update.

Calendar — It’s full of monthly events and races along with a link to our annual Northern California sailing calendar. There are lots of sailing events and activities on the West Coast. Find some fun here.

Charter Boats and Sailing Schools — A list of party boats, charter clubs, sailing schools and six-pack sailing charter boats can be found here.

West Coast Circumnavigators List – We have a list of every single West Coast sailor who’s ever lapped the planet, except those we’ve missed (though we suspect we haven’t missed many). See them all here.

Jeanne Socrates is on the West Coast circumnavigators list and has done it four times!
Jeanne Socrates is on the West Coast circumnavigators list. She has circumnavigated four times!
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / LaDonna

Crew List — There are well over 2,000 boat owners and crew on our Crew List, creating opportunities for more people to sail more often. You can add your name to the list for cruising, racing or daysailing crew and skippers. See the Crew List here.

Resources — The resources page is a grab bag of stories, links and other things; we couldn’t figure out where else to put them. Explore the resources here.

Sailagram — A gallery of your sailing photos, published each month. View the galleries and add your photos here.

Moe Roddy's recent conversation with John Vandemoer was excellent.
Moe Roddy’s recent conversation with John Vandemoer is excellent.
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / John

Good Jibes Podcast — A new episode of Good Jibes pops up on our website every Tuesday. You can hear over 170 episodes covering the hijinks and adventures of West Coast sailors on Good Jibes here.

Classy Classifieds — Last, but not least, is one of our favorite sections, the Classy Classifieds. Buy or sell a boat or boat gear, or find a job or a new recruit in our Classifieds here. There’s a nice little Bob Perry-designed 1986 Tashiba 31 that was just posted for $57,500.

Check out all the stories back to 1977.
Check out all the stories back to 1977. Scroll down on this page.
© 2025 Latitude 38

OK, that’s more than enough. There’s lots more to explore, so dive in. The size of the website is vast, so if you find something that needs fixing or updating, let us know and we’ll do our best to repair it.

‘Rosie G’ — Cruising South to St. Somewhere

It’s been a little more than a year since Rosie G, with her crew (Jim Antrim, 72, Françoise Ramsey, 65, Samantha (Sam) Spanier, 74, and Barry Spanier, 77), sailed out the Gate with perfect light wind, reaching conditions, and a glorious sunrise while we went under the Golden Gate.

It was a three-and-a-half-day adventure beginning with good whale sightings and a comfortable, building breeze. Sam had never done a night watch, Françoise had done many, so they posted together and had an uneventful night, going faster by the hour, the wind almost perfectly splitting the transom. The Hydrovane was already tuned in and there was hardly an adjustment for the next 48 hours. It drove the boat better than we could. Jim even tested that and finally gave up to let it do the work.

'Rosie G' — Cruising in the South Pacific
More than 3,000 miles from home — the 40-ft, scow-bowed, junk-rigged ketch Rosie G made landfall in the South Pacific.
© 2025 RICHARD POSTMA

The wind steadily increased until we were often surfing at 8 or 9 knots, the vane still in control. The ladies had the record for top speed at 9.7 knots, recorded by Garmin. There were periods when the wind simply shifted away from us and we were forced to improvise a sort of “motorsailing,” using only 1.5 to 2.0kW, in order to keep steerage and a nicer motion.

On night two, we were settled into the watch routine and hadn’t been doing much because of the crew for 8 p.m. to midnight shift. I woke up for the midnight watch feeling as if we were going pretty fast, and while Jim got his foul weather gear on, we were discussing the speed. We went into the cockpit to find the crew standing, having a gam, not holding on to anything, while we surfed along in the dark doing 9s and 10s. And they proudly showed us the recorded speed of 11.7 knots and challenged us to try to match that! So much for Sam’s maiden overnights. She also started remarking when we would drop below 7 knots, as if going faster than that should be normal. I suppose that’s one of the reasons I love her.

The remainder of the sailing to Point Conception was mostly stable and fast, but when we got around the corner, there were many more AIS hits, and, as Sam called them, the “sand people” (offshore oil rigs), warning sounds, lights like a city, and a bad smell. It got very light and we were drifting into one of them and had to burn some electrons to stay clear. By morning, the wind was back, but light, and we were down to 4 to 5 knots, still self-steering. About 2:00 in the afternoon we aimed for Santa Barbara, saw lots of seals — then the fog dropped onto us, and we thanked modern technology for our chartplotter.

Sam was on the bow and heard some yelling. It was three young guys on two kayaks, maybe six miles offshore, totally lost in the fog.

Continue reading.

 

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