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This Week in Pandemic Sailing News . . .

“Tuesday, April 28, was a sublime day for a sail on the Bay, with brisk breeze in The Slot and temperatures in the 80s in the lee of Angel Island,” wrote David James, the ‘current custodian’ of Leda, a Lapworth 36 (#71) sailing out of Belvedere. “With the park closed and no boats permitted to dock in Ayala Cove, the sea lions appear to have reclaimed it as their own.”

There have been reports of wildlife enjoying many of the spaces now abandoned by humans. Sea lions have long lounged on the docks at Ayala Cove, as well as other piers, channel markers, buoys, etc. Still, seeing animals instead of humans on a human-made space adds to the weirdness of these times we live in.
© 2020 David James

Knock, Knock. Who’s There? The Government. We’re Looking for Illegal Barnacles.

While sitting at a mooring during New Zealand’s lockdown, we heard a knock. A little startled, we stuck our head out the companionway. Nothing.

“Down here,” came a voice. It had finally happened. Weeks of self-isolation had caused us to lose our minds.

“Helllllooooo . . .?” We peered over the transom. Two men in wetsuits were swimming around the boat. Was this some kind of polite Kiwi piracy?

“We’re from the City, and we’re checking for invasive species on boats’ bottoms.” The gentlemen explained that this was standard procedure in New Zealand. “We’re not trying to give you a hard time, we just want to make sure you haven’t picked up anything you shouldn’t have. May we have a look?”

The boat we were on was, apparently, in good shape. They showed us a small sample of outlaw seaweed, but said not to worry about it. “That stuff is invasive, but it’s everywhere.” The divers also told us that they were thrilled to be back on the job — and considered an essential service — after a few weeks of being stuck at home.

“We love diving. We’re usually in the water all the time.”

These Kiwi water ninjas were characteristically polite and charming, even while enforcing New Zealand’s strict boat-bottom biosecurity.
© 2020 Latitude 38 Media LLC / Tim

Keeping Creative

A few weeks ago, we got an email from Darrell Caraway. It read, “Painting as plein air,” and had the following image:

How are you keeping creative during COVID?
© 2020 Darrell Caraway

Well done, Darrell.

Cartoon of the Week/Month/Year/Time Is Now Meaningless

A Pop Quiz for Latitude Nation

One thing about a pandemic: You sure do watch a lot of movies. We were ewatching one of our all-time-favorites, which we won’t go so far as to call a ‘sailing movie’ (it definitely is not). But the film is full of pirates. Curious if there were any cameos, we did some Googling. Sure enough, one famous sailor from the Latitude pantheon has a brief moment of swashbuckling.

Do you recognize that buccaneer on the left? We’ll have the answer for you soon. Oh yeah . . . bonus points if you can name the movie.
© 2020 TriStar Pictures

Got a guess? You can comment below, or email us here.

3 Comments

  1. Ants 4 years ago

    Is the actor Sterling Hayden in The Golden Hawke?

  2. Kim Paternoster 4 years ago

    That actually looks like Dave Wilhite.

  3. Ken peg leg brinkley 4 years ago

    Is that a ? parrot on that pirates left shoulder? TyronePower in The black swan ? Or Barrymore in treasure island ?

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No Inter-Island Sailing
All State harbors are closed. No new boats. Inter-island travel is prohibited. One of our Waikiki YC neighbors scored a $5,000 fine for violating this.