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Posts by John Riise

Testosterone Returns to World Record Sailing

July 23, 2010
With the flurry of attention over teenage girl circumnavigators having at least temporarily subsided, we’re thrilled to note the successful completion of a very ‘manly’ round-about. Yesterday, 39-year-old French/Italian geologist Alessandro di Benedetto sailed Findomestic back into Les Sables D’Olonne Harbor after a nonstop circumnavigation that took 268 days, 19 hours and 36 minutes. More »

The Oddest Odds

July 21, 2010
Don’t look now, but Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, recently took civilization another circle closer to the drain by offering odds on which Gulf of Mexico species will be the first to go extinct due to the big oil spill. More »

It’s Every Man for Himself

May 26, 2010
Last month marked the 98th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Not to take anything away from the horror of that night, but come on — hasn’t the whole Titanic thing been pretty well beaten to death? More »
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Quake Anniversary in October

September 16, 2009
Believe it or not, October marks the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Although the ‘big one’ for San Francisco will always be the 1906 quake, the 1989 Loma Prieta temblor is the one most of us alive will remember. More »

Unseasonal Rain

September 2, 2009
We all know how the rain falls in Spain, but in Northern California, the rain mainly falls in the winter. So it was a bit of a surprise to be awakened by the whisper of a summer shower on the cabin top during a recent visit to the Delta. More »

Tawodi Returns

June 26, 2009
Kathleen and Stephen at Pitcairn Island, one of many places they hadn’t planned to stop but did. Tawodi
©2009 Latitude 38 Media, LLC The first time we wrote about Kathleen Torres and Captain Stephen Mann of the custom 39-ft Tawodi was last fall, when we noted that the young couple had departed San Diego on a planned ‘race pace circumnavigation.’ More »

We Stand Corrected

June 24, 2009
On Monday, we reported on the fun and succesful Summer Sailstice celebration at Treasure Island Sailing Center. In covering the event, we mentioned that there were "up to six boat raft-ups" in Clipper Cove, which was true as far as it went — that’s what we saw when we looked out there in the early afternoon. More »

All A Cause Celebre Should Be

June 22, 2009
Dozens of boats rafted up in the pirate-infested waters of Clipper Cove for the 9th Annual Summer Sailstice this weekend. latitude/JR
©2009 Latitude 38 Media, LLC In ports around the world, they came, they saw, they sailed — some for the first time in their lives. More »