Bill Nork Sails the Pacific Puddle Jump with the Latitude 38 Crew List

You never know where you’ll end up if you put your name on the Latitude 38 Crew List. We just got a note from Bill Nork, past president of Encinal Yacht Club, who sails his Islander 36 Zenith on the Bay with wife Susan and twin sons Paul and Tom. His recent success with the Crew List took him to the Marquesas.

Bill wrote in saying, “This spring I put my name on the Latitude 38 Crew List to find a crew position for the 2019 Pacific Puddle Jump, and things couldn’t have worked out better. Tim Hogan and Anna Wirth from Sausalito were looking for a couple of crew to help them sail from Puerto Vallarta to the Marquesas on their beautiful Tayana 48DS Pakele Loa. They contacted me and another crew lister, Paul Hedberg of San Diego, a retired high school teacher and marine biologist. Since Tim and Anna were already in Mexico, they conducted ‘interviews’ with us electronically using What’sApp, and also did a lot of reference-checking. Once the crew was settled, we held weekly three-way video conferences which got to be pretty fun and interactive — by the time we all met in person in PV we felt almost like old friends.”

He continued, “The trip to the Marquesas went well. Except for some expected squall activity around the ITCZ, winds were mostly moderate, around 8-15 knots. We had a quick 21-day crossing, averaging about 6 knots overall. The food was great, as Anna is a gourmet cook, and, when fresh food got a little scarce toward the end, we had decent luck pulling in some tuna and mahi mahi. Tim is an electrical engineer, so we had great weather info from PredictWind and connectivity from the Iridium Go! Tim also ran the Pacific Puddle Jump SSB net once a week, so we felt pretty well connected the whole time.”

Bill went on, “The Crew List worked so well that I’ve got my name back on it now looking for a ride in this year’s Baja Ha-Ha.” You can email Bill here.

“P.S. – I made a little YouTube video of our trip. Check it out here:”