Reigniting Sailing Memories Through the Pages of the Latitude Magazine

We love receiving letters from our readers, particularly when they share good, happy news. This letter from Jeff Hoffman did just that …

The March 2024 edition of Latitude is my favorite one ever, and I’ve been reading for about 30 years. “No Name’s First Leg” was a really good story, especially the part about the reef and almost getting washed into the ocean. But “Morpheus to Bermuda” was fantastic! I could feel the boat lifting off the water and smashing back down as I read about it and it reminded me of several incidents I experienced on the way back here from Tahiti.

The skipper and I were doublehanding from Tahiti to Hawaii with no autopilot on his Santa Cruz 50 after competing in the 1995 Tahiti Cup from San Francisco and spending some time there. Squalls in the tropics normally arise at night, but we hit a nasty one during the day. We had the No. 1 jib up and had to peel to the No. 4 right in the middle of the squall. After attempting to tie the wheel with bungee cords so that at least we didn’t tack unwillingly (didn’t work, the boat tacked anyway), I joined the skipper on the foredeck to douse the No. 1 and hoist the No. 4. After the peel was completed, we looked at each other like, I can’t believe we survived that!

The first three nights out of Oahu on the way back to San Francisco were a nightmare, despite having picked up more crew in Hawaii. The route from there to here is hard to starboard until you reach 38 degrees, then turn right. So, we were sailing hard to weather, and around 10:00 the wind started blowing 40 kts with gusts to 50 kts, right on the nose. Santa Cruz 50s are ultralight racing boats, and the boat was being thrown into the air and slamming back down. No one was thrown into the air [or] came down … submerged in water like Jim Gregory -— we had no need to be on the foredeck — but the constant pounding all night for three nights in a row was beyond unpleasant.

These are the kinds of seafaring tales I love to read. Thanks, Latitude, once again you show that you’re the best.

Jeff Hoffman, Oakland, CA.

Thanks, Jeff. We appreciate the feedback, and love that the stories you read remind you that you have your own stories to tell. Thank you for sharing! Read the full issue: March 2024.

If you have a sailing story you want to share, drop us a line at [email protected].