And Now for Something Different

Because Latitude is based on the West Coast, we usually feature sailing photographs from California, Mexico or the South Pacific. But here are a couple of shots taken during the Henderson, Nevada-based Esprit‘s crossing from the Canary Islands to Grenada in the Eastern Caribbean. The crew are Chay, Katie, and Jamie McWilliam, who have spent at least half a year each year cruising around the world since starting with the 2003 Ha-Ha. We’ve have complete details on their nearly 3,000-mile crossing in the January 1 issue of Latitude 38.

The McWilliams report having had a "rock ‘n roll" crossing, what with winds aft of the beam most of the time and sailing wing-on-wing. In this photo the conditions look a little gloomy. But looks can be deceiving, as when we made this same crossing with Latitude‘s Ocean 71 Big O nearly 20 years ago, the sea and sky often looked like this, but it was delightfully warm, day and night. Indeed, it was one of the great passages of our life.