Local Surveyor and Circumnavigator Jim Jessie at the Oakland Yacht Club

Jim Jessie’s daughter, Jill Facciolla, sent a note and photo to catch us up with the Bay Area surveyor, sailor and cruiser. She reports, “At 93, Jim is still active in Oakland Yacht Club. For the second month in a row, he has attended the Wednesday lunch.”

“Jim was an active contributor to Latitude 38 during both of his trips circumnavigating the globe. Jim recently donated Nalu IV, his Alaskan Grand Banks, and is living his best life at Elders Inn in Alameda with his new 93-year-old girlfriend, whom he met there. He is living only two miles from his beloved marina.

“Much to Jim’s surprise, two of his very longtime friends showed up to see him. John Buestad has been friends with Jim for over 60 years. They had many years of racing on his Bird Boat, Falcon. Mike Kelly has known Jim even longer. Mike has been sailing and worked with Jim 65 years ago.”

Jim Jessie and his wife Diana, who passed in 2011, circumnavigated from ’85 to ’92 aboard their 48-ft cold-molded Lapworth sloop Nalu IV, then went on to circumnavigate the North Pacific in the late ’90s. All told, the Jessies sailed more than 120,000 miles aboard Nalu IV. Diana wrote quite a few stories like this one from 1986 over their years of cruising.

Jill also let us know that anyone is free to visit Jim at Elders Inn in Alameda. He will remember all of his famous sailing stories.