After a decade of sitting idle in Suisun Bay, the USS Iowa is underway to become a museum — the last of her class to receive such an honor. © 2011 Goose Gossman For a decade, the USS Iowa has languished away as the largest and most prestigious member of the Navy’s "reserve fleet" — a.k.a, More »

You just never know what kind of experience you’re going to have when you’re out sailing on San Francisco Bay. Val and Greg Gillen enjoyed a very memorable one aboard their Cal 39 Grimsby on Friday, when they were buzzed by a couple of cats. More »

With the Ha-Ha start just three days away, and the weather having been resolutely cold and gloomy in Southern California for a long time, we can’t wait to get out of town and head south. More »

This Spectra mainsail has seen 11 years of great service in California, Mexico and the Caribbean. Despite her age, she still has decent shape. Unfortunately, she’s not only got plenty of mold stains, but is also molting taffeta at such a disturbing rate that, while parts of her are fine, she’s absolutely useless as a mainsail. More »

Readers may remember that Latitude contributors Ed and Sue Kelly of the Iowa-based Catalac 37 Angel Louise were on hand when Hemisphere, the humungous new 145-ft by 54-ft catamaran designed by Marc Van Peteghem & Vincent Lauriot-Prevost which was started at the Derektor yard in the Northeast and was completed at Pendennis in England, had her private launching party in Plymouth, England a while back. More »

The bizarre attack on this German cruising couple has shocked local Marquesan residents as much as French authorities and cruisers. Bayu
©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC We know this sounds too ridiculous and horrific to be true, but the mainstream media is reporting that Stefan Ramin, 40, a German cruiser and uber waterspsorts athlete from Hamburg, was murdered recently, and may have been eaten by a cannibal or cannibals on the Marquesan island of Nuku Hiva. More »

Leading Lady’s ignominious departure from the dance floor. © Neil Weinberg Back in mid-August, Leading Lady, the old Peterson 40 that Bob Klein owned in the early ’80s, gave her last performance. More »

Many of the older restaurants along the beach at Barra were built on sand and had very substandard foundations. It’s no wonder many were damaged despite the fact the beach wasn’t hit by major storm surge or extremely large waves. More »