The new year is a time for reflection and fresh starts. Each January we reflect on the top stories of the previous year in our Year In Review feature. If you haven’t picked up your copy of January’s Latitude 38 yet — delivery started on Friday — they should be available at your favorite pick-up spot by now (or will be soon). More »

‘Tis the season for lighted boat parades, gatherings with friends, and catching up with all the latest sailing news in Latitude 38. latitude/Annie
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC Here in the Bay Area it’s due to be cold, cold, cold for the next couple of days, so we assume only heavily dressed diehards will be out sailing. More »

If you’re stumped — or perhaps in a near-panic — over what to get your favorite sailors for Christmas, we’ve got a few suggestions. First, take off your raincoat, set down your car keys and pour yourself a tall glass of egg nog (yeah, the spiked version). More »

Although Cyclone Evan passed on the opposite side of Fiji’s Viti Levu Island, its force was strong enough to ground the container ship Captain Tasman and another ship at the Suva harbor entrance. More »

As this NASA satellite image reveals the storm winds were very tightly packed as it slammed into Viti Levu yesterday. © 2012 NASA Although the islands of Fiji are often referred to as a tropical paradise, they’ve been more like a tropical hell for the past 24 hours, as Tropical Cyclone Evan battered the island nation’s western portions — including Nadi, the third largest population center, and nearby Vuda Point Marina, where many cruising boats lay over for the season. More »

Authorities in Washington are warning mariners of a massive dock that was spotted by a fishing boat on Friday about 16 miles northwest of Grays Harbor. The dock was reported to be about the same size as the 66-ft beast that grounded itself on an Oregon beach in June. More »

Walkway to nowhere? No, it’s a pedestrian ramp at the St. Francis YC boat basin during last year’s King Tides. © Matt Richardson If you woke up this morning and saw that sea water had encroached onto roadways and walking paths where it doesn’t normally travel, you may have been tempted to think those much-publicized doomsday predictions — asserting that the world will come to an end in late December — might actually be true. More »

Sailor James Blackford is making an unplanned trip to Japan this week aboard the motor vessel Global Explorer. Although a visit to that island nation probably wasn’t part of Blackford’s original cruising itinerary, we’ll bet he’s not complaining. More »

Peyron may be one of the oldest competitors in these AC events, but few if any have more experience racing multihulls. © Gilles Martin-Raget / ACEA The 34th America’s Cup is among the strangest ever for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Loïck Peyron, the great French sailor, is not only the helmsman for the French Energy Team in the America’s Cup World Series, but he’s also the "test pilot" for the Artemis Racing’s new AC72. More »