"Doing the Rendez-vous has been the most fun we’ve had on our entire trip,” said Tara Travers-Stephens with an ear-to-ear grin. She and her husband John had vowed to take part in the annual Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendez-vous aboard their Redwood City-based Tatoosh 50. But in order to make good on that promise they had to battle abnormally unsettled wind and sea conditions on their 200-mile crossing from the Tuamotus to Tahiti.
The breeze on the Seacoast was 10 to 15 knots, rustling the trees in my friend’s back yard in Rye, New Hampshire, which was just a few miles from the beach and Rye Harbor State Park.
In 1973, five men and six women embarked on a 101-day scientific sea adventure, drifting across the Atlantic on a raft called Acali. In 1989, the first all-female crew raced around the world in the Whitbread on Maiden.
The SSS Great Pacific Longitude Race, a qualifier for the Singlehanded TransPac, leads off a busy July race schedule, with a start off San Francisco on July 3. Doublehanded and singlehanded boats sail west for 200 miles…