Current News
Reports from the South Pacific
A Red Cross volunteer on the south end of Western Samoa takes a breather from rescue and clean-up operations.
© Nick Jaffe
As rescue workers in Samoa and American Samoa continue cleaning up after Tuesday’s earthquake-triggered tsunami, the death toll has risen to 169 and counting. More »
Let the Reading Begin
Nothing to do this weekend? We’ve got the answer: The October edition of Latitude 38 is hot off the press, chock full of sailing news from around the Bay and around the world. More »
Tsunami Devastates American Samoa
Just one of many boats left high and dry after a tsunami hit Western Samoa yesterday morning.
© Cynthia Luafalealo
Yesterday at 6:48 a.m. local time, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook awake American and Western Samoa. More »
A Gathering of Geometric Proportions
No, it’s not one of our fancy Photoshop exercises. Sailors from EYC actually did this. The gap, by the way, was intentional, so dinghies could come and go. Will another club try to outdo them with an even larger raft-up? More »
Watson Undeterred by Official Warning
The Australian paper The Courier-Mail has reported that the parents of Jessica Watson, the 16-year-old Aussie who wants to become the youngest person to circumnavigate, have received a letter from Maritime Safety Queensland assessing young Watson’s skills — and it wasn’t pretty. More »
After 89 Years, Still Going Strong
Thaddeous was smitten by Cloudia’s classic lines.
© Thaddeous Blanchard
Some sailors have a soft spot for old wooden classics. Cap’n Thaddeous Blanchard of San Diego counts himself among them. While most boaters would be horrified at the prospect of replanking an 85-ft double-ender like Cloudia, Thaddeous has taken the challenge in stride. More »
Windsurfer Found Dead Outside Bay
The Coast Guard recovered the body of windsurfer John ‘Bret’ Drasky, 65, on Saturday, about two hours after receiving a report of an unmanned windsurf board. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted Drasky’s wetsuit-clad body 2.5 miles west of the Golden Gate, and was recovered by a lifeboat. More »
Staggering Response to Autopilot Problem
If the responses to Wednesday’s ‘Lectronic don’t taper off soon, we might have to outsource our email correspondence to India.
© Josh Rogan
We’ve gotten two big surprises since Wednesday. First was the statistic that 40% of the population of India — and there are about a billion of them — don’t have any electricity. More »
Driving Taxpayers to Drink Cheap Rum
The following are first three paragraphs of a story by Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten that appeared in the August 2 Los Angeles Times. While the connection between sailing and rum is somewhat tenuous, we thought the story was so outrageous, but so typical, that we couldn‘t resist. More »
Name That Boat Wreckage
Beachcombers at Muir Beach found some substantial flotsam recently. “It certainly created quite a discussion point for all the beachgoers over the hot Marin weekend,” said Craig Allender.
© 2009 Craig Allender
"While walking along Muir Beach this recently, I stumbled across some substantial wreckage," writes Craig Allender. More »
Receive emails when 'Lectronic Latitude is updated. SUBSCRIBE