Latitude 38 November Issue Out Now
Welcome to the November issue of Latitude 38! This month’s magazine is packed with stories covering everything from world match racing to spinnaker tangles to taking the helm after 10 years as crew, even to Captain Ron and everything in between and beyond. Here’s a preview.
Kite Night — Tangling With a Spinnaker
Here we go again. This time at midnight. My spinnaker continues to play tricks on me. It has already fallen into the water twice on this passage, and both times I have had to climb the mast to rethread the halyard. Now it is tying itself into a most interesting-looking knot about the masthead and forestay. The trades are blowing 15 knots. Gusts are 20. A 6-foot swell is rolling through from the SW. About 1,300 miles from land, I have no option but to climb the mast and see if I can still save my kite.
Taking the Helm After a Decade at Sea
If you’ve read my past articles in Latitude (February 2014, June 2017, July 2017), you’ll know my partner and I spent 10 years sailing more than 20,000 miles across the South Pacific. We crossed oceans. We sailed through storms. We navigated reefs and channels. Made ports in Hawaii, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Wallis, French Polynesia and more (not in that order and often multiple times). And half the time, we did it with a baby. That sailing journey ended in 2020.
Fast-forward to 2023, when someone told me I could skipper a Capri 22. My first reaction was doubt. All my years on boats, but I’d never actually been the person in charge.
There are sailing films that make you want to cross an ocean. There are sailing films that make you check your life insurance. Then there is Captain Ron, which makes buying a neglected boat and hiring a man you would hesitate to lend your lawn mower seem like a good idea. Somewhere between the first questionable decision and the last narrow escape, the sensible objections lose their authority. The boat needs work. The captain needs investigating. The family should probably go home. Yet home begins to look suspiciously like the least interesting outcome.
In this month’s regular columns:
Letters: 50th Moore 24 Nationals; Fleet Week; Circling Back to Lifejackets; Past = Future; and many more discussions.
Sightings: A Sacramento River Cruise; A New Skipper at SEA; I’m Glad I Said Yes; Cuauhtémoc on the Bay; Looking to Latitude 38’s Future.
Max Ebb: “Under a Ladder”
Racing Sheet: The fall on San Francisco Bay is championship season, and that is reflected in this month’s Racing Sheet. We start with the Women’s Match Racing World Championship at StFYC. Then we move across the Bay for Express 27 and Olson 25 nationals at SFYC. We take a brief break from championships for a meaningful Red Bra Regatta at South Beach Yacht Club before diving right back into national titles with Wylie Wabbit Nationals on Tomales Bay, and then wrap up this month’s Racing Sheet with the 2026 Tahoe Cup.
Changes in Latitudes: With reports this month from Aldabra’s visit to the islands of Indonesia; the hard way home for Flyer; Part 2 of catching up with Marc Hightower; and a seabag full of Cruise Notes.
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Pick up your copy today at any one of our West Coast distributors.
