South Pacific Bound

We always love spending time in our booth at the Pacific Sail & Power Boat Show as we reunite with old friends, make new friends and connect with readers and sailors from all over the West. At this year’s show, which concluded yesterday, the range of sailors we spent time with included people who enjoy doing beer-can racing on the Bay, as well as others who were about to sail across the Pacific.

Pictured here are Robert D. Tinus and Terry Berger of the Hans Christian 34 Cleo II, who attended the show to do some final preparation for a crossing from Benicia to the Marquesas with third crew member, Bruce Hutchins, as part of the Pacific Puddle Jump. Their visit to the Latitude 38 booth at the show earned them an official Pacific Puddle Jump burgee — a memento usually reserved for those who attend one of our two Puddle Jump Sendoff Parties at Mexico’s Vallarta Yacht Club or Panama’s the Balboa Yacht Club.

Meanwhile, Dutch Puddle Jumpers Wietze van der Laan and Janneke Kuysters of the Bruce Roberts 44 Anna Caroline will be setting sail — possibly today — from Emery Cove Marina bound for the Marquesas. Janneke recently authored two stories for us, Citizen Sailor/Scientists in the December issue and the America’s Cup story in our current April issue.

Unlike more formal rallies, Pacific Puddle Jump participants depart from various locations along the West Coast of the Americas, anytime between late February and early June. Many of them will reunite at the 12th annual Tahiti-Moorea Rendez-vous on June 23-25, in Tahiti.

Look for additional updates on this year’s Puddle Jump migration both here and in the pages of Latitude 38 magazine (which is always free, and downloadable from our website).