Jessie, Luke and Otis: Sailing Aboard ‘Alekona’

In a recent episode of Latitude’s Good Jibes podcast, we chatted with sailor Jessie Zevalkink — photographer, storyteller, mom and wife who is currently based in San Carlos, Mexico, aboard Alekona. After sailing from Newfoundland to England in 2017, Jessie and her husband Luke were searching for a vessel that would be better suited to the higher latitudes (think ice and snow). In 2020 they discovered Alekona, a 1983 steel-hulled Endurance 44.

Alekona‘s former owner, Terry Causey, had sailed her extensively throughout Hawaii and the South Pacific before donating her to Call of the Sea in Sausalito, in 2019. Latitude contributing editor John Riise was among the crew who would deliver Alekona to the Bay Area, where she was to be sold, with the proceeds going toward Call of the Sea‘s mission to provide experiential education for Bay Area youth.

Jessie and Luke bought Alekona the following January. But she needed work. And we all know what happened in 2020 … Regardless, the determined couple weathered the storms of the pandemic, and the excitement of bringing their first child into the world, and completed the work on Alekona, whereupon they heeded the suggestions of Bay Area sailors and turned left out the Gate, not right.

Head over to Good Jibes #20 to learn more about Jessie, Luke and their son Otis’s sailing adventures in Mexico.