Latitude 38 Joins Grand Marina Tenant Appreciation Party

It’s always great to be on the waterfront connecting with sailors. Latitude 38 joined Grand Marina’s annual Tenant Appreciation Party, which featured sailors plus a Southern buffet lunch of ribs, cornbread, and collard greens, an open bar with vodka Jell-O shots for the adventurous, and live music. Dessert was provided by an ice cream truck, and prizes were given out to several lucky attendees.

As often happens at events we attend, noteworthy connections were made — so different from connecting on the web! Susi Battaglia stopped by the booth to explain her history with Latitude that began when Susi and her family attended church each Sunday with Richard Spindler’s family when he was 8 years old. Richard is the founder and first editor/publisher of Latitude 38.

Another unexpected drop-in was Tom Dilworth, whose travels aboard his 1967 Ericson 30, Ellie, were amazingly featured in this month’s Latitude in Changes on page 84. Tom and his wife tell the story of their last five years part-time cruising from San Diego to Alaska. Tom and his family have made Grand Marina their winter stopover this year.

We added two Latitude 38 baseball caps to the raffle prizes, won by Sandy Crisel from the 55-ft Symbol MV Farniente and Jonny Kaplan from the 28-ft Compass SV Wanderer. [The book Wanderer, by Sterling Hayden, happens to be the former publisher’s favorite book and one of his pen names.]

Our special thanks go to our hosts Cheri Berggren, harbormaster, and Ray Corral, dockmaster, who have created a wonderful sense of community among their tenants.

Speaking of meeting in person, will we see you at the Sausalito Boat Show this weekend?