The chatter at yacht clubs this past weekend inevitably turned to strategy for next Saturday's Three Bridge Fiasco. "Which way are you going to go?" is the question on the minds of the skippers (and doublehanded crewmembers) contemplating this crazy race.

This morning at 07:45 UTC, Spindrift 2 broke her own record to the equator by just over an hour. The maxi-trimaran crossed the equator in 4 days, 19 hours, 57 minutes.

The sailing ships of old carried all sorts of cargos. But perhaps the most unusual shipment(s) ever carried by an American ship were loaded aboard 540-ton square-rigger USS Supply in the Mediterranean in the summer of 1855: camels.

"The Barra de Navidad community looks forward to cruisers arriving in our port. We have prepared a week of work and fun activities."

 

Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey hosted the first 2019 US Sailing 2-day offshore Safety at Sea seminar on January 12-13. 

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Webb Chiles, 77, is about to sail from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for Panama and San Diego, in Gannet, his ultralight Moore 24, to complete his sixth circumnavigation and her first. Since leaving San Diego in 2014, Gannet's daily runs total 25,028 miles.

A core issue has been maintaining marine jobs, services and facilities for the boating community. This led to the formation of SAWW (Save Our Working Waterfront).

San Francisco Bay Ferry, aka WETA, a public agency, runs the new service. A catamaran, Cetus will cover the route to the San Francisco Ferry Building in about 35 minutes.

The Falmouth Coastguard has issued an 'All Ships Alert' for British singlehanded sailor Robin Davie. His Rustler 36 is now three days overdue on a 300-mile solo voyage across the English Channel.

It’s easy to report the news and quickly move on to the next thing.

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A Setback for the Ocean Cleanup After steaming out of the Bay in late September with the ambition of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Ocean Cleanup project has suffered a major setback and is heading back to Alameda. “Due

Jack London started sailing San Francisco Bay at age 14. He borrowed money to buy his own boat, the Razzle Dazzle, and became an oyster pirate.

Good news for sailors, the city of Richmond, the Richmond Yacht Club and the Pacific Sail & Power Boat Show! The San Francisco Bay Ferry’s Richmond-San Francisco service will launch tomorrow, Thursday, January 10, 2019.

Spaulding Marine Center hosted the christening of a seven-plus-year building project by J. Parsons, who designed and built the classic in his garage at home in Tiburon. (One of the first steps was building the garage!) The boat is the culmination of vision and hard work.

“The 50th running of the race is a great milestone, and we have an incredible turnout," said John Sangmeister. In addition to the 92 amazing teams listed on the race website, Sangmeister claims to have loose verbal commitments from several others that would push the fleet past the century mark.

On December 29, sailboats lit up the historic Aquatic Park anchorage with colorful holiday lights for the “Lighted Night in the Cove” to support The San Francisco Maritime National Park Association.

Abby Sunderland’s Boat Found After abandoning her boat in the Indian Ocean in 2010 during an attempt to become the youngest person to sail around the world, Abby Sunderland’s 40-ft expedition yacht Wild Eyes was spotted off Southern Australia.

 

While it rains in Northern California this weekend, the sunny, breezy 5O5 World Championship will continue down under in Fremantle, Australia.

Apparently, strapping motors to furniture is kind of a thing, has been for, like, a while, and is even celebrated at an annual international festival (more on that in a bit).

“What in the world is that thing?” Max Ebb asked Lee Helm. “Upwind Intuition,” Lee Helm grinned.

With the 12 months of 2018 nearly complete, this is a great moment for a look back at the 12 covers of Latitude 38 in 2018. It's easy to see why this was a great year for sailors.

Molto bene Midwinter racing continues in January.