Regardless of sea conditions, spray in the face is nearly constant aboard VO 65s. Here, Dongfeng Race Team is on its way to a first place finish at Newport.  © 2015 Sam Greenfield / Dongfeng Race Team / VOR Maintaining their previously unthinkable level of parity and competition, the Volvo Ocean Race’s fleet has just come storming into Newport, Rhode Island with the leaders again separated by just three minutes after 17 days of close and intense racing from Brazil. More »

If you ever wanted proof that a newspaper article can be mostly true, yet very misleading, you only need to visit this Daily Mail site. The article is about Latitude‘s old friend Liz Clark of the Santa Barbara-based Cal 40 Swell, whom we knew and wrote about before she took off on her cruise 10 years ago. More »

More than 30 skippers have signed up for the 22nd annual Baja Ha-Ha since registration opened last Friday. The Ha-Ha is the 750-mile cruising rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, with stops at funky Turtle Bay and magnificently beautiful Bahia Santa Maria. More »

The final days of Kaiwo Maru’s nearly 6,000-mile crossing from Japan saw punishing gales. Having arrived yesterday, the merchant marine training vessel will remain in San Francisco Bay until Wednesday.  Sea Training Institute
©2015Latitude 38 Media, LLC When is a sailing vessel considered to be a tall ship? More »

Randy and Dawn Ortiz in happier times. Randy Ortiz
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC As reported earlier, Pacific Puddle Jumpers Randy and Dawn Ortiz were forced by circumstance to abandon their Canadian-flagged S&S 42 Nirvana Now on April 8, after rescuers Bob and Mona Jankowski of the North Carolina-based Caliber 40 Continuum arrived on the scene, roughly 1,200 miles from the first possible landfall. More »

The 87-year old schooner was in the middle of her most successful charter season yet in the British Virgin Islands when she was rammed and nearly sunk by a landing craft. The impact rolled her and did damage to her underbelly as well as to her rigging and spars. More »

A place as dreamy and stunningly beautiful as Tahiti gets plenty of press. But the headlines made there last week were completely unique: The French Overseas Territory will soon be honored in the Guinness Book of World Records for having performed a song with the largest ukulele ‘orchestra’ ever. More »

A body found last summer has been identified via DNA as a missing sailor, but the cause of his death as well as the whereabouts of his sailboat and companion remain a mystery. More »

 The almighty Phaedo3 rolls over the top of San Franciscan Peter Aschenbrenner’s Irens 63 Paradox. A greatly toned down ORMA 60, Paradox still beat Comanche boat-for-boat two out of three times. More »

Easter Sunday was especially festive at Jalisco, Mexico’s Tenacatita Beach, as federal officials finally removed fences that had blocked public access to this formerly popular beachfront for nearly five years. Nearby lagoon anchorages, which had been immensely popular with cruising sailors prior to the August, 2010 shutdown, were also reopened.  More »