Latitude 38 Magazine

With sailors aged 7 years old to 70 years young, 31 teams faced light, fluky conditions on September 26, for this year’s Santa Cruz Yacht Club Jack and Jill Regatta. Participation has grown, with a multiple-division format: Spinnaker, Jib and Main, Families, and Double Date with two couples. The spirit of the regatta is to encourage more women, couples, friends and families to sail and race together.

Run every four years, the Vendée Globe singlehanded around-the-world race will start on this Sunday, November 8, at 1 p.m. local time off Les Sables-d’Olonne, France. The boats are all box-rule IMOCA 60s of varying ages and technologies.

We all love getting up close and personal with whales. But what happens when we get too close? According to a report on abc7.com, two kayakers almost found themselves on the whales’ lunch menu while enjoying a peaceful paddle at Avila Beach, CA. More on today's 'Lectronic Latitude.

The Vendée Globe starts early Sunday morning and, amongst the starters, is Pip Hare sponsored by San Francisco based Medallia and its CEO, local sailor Leslie Stretch. You can read more in our August issue here: https://www.latitude38.com/issues/august-2020/#52

The International Association of Cape Horners has taken on the mantle of maintaining an official register of those who have completed solo circumnavigations via the Three Great Capes Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn. Thirty-three potential Cape Horners are preparing for the start of the ninth Vendée Globe solo nonstop round-the-world race from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, this Sunday, November 8.

Daydreaming of sailing away right about now? Us too! Who is sailing this cruising season? And who is in the process of winterizing? Tell us about your November sailing plans in the comments and tag us or #wegowherethewindblows to be featured.... Sailing Avocet

David Smyth’s Olson 40 Euphoria shows us the promise and possibilities of electric auxiliary propulsion on a sailboat. David is president of the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology, and younger brother of Randy Smyth, two-time Olympic medal winner and Sailing Hall of Fame inductee.

How good is small-boat sailing? We know West Wight Potters aren’t the only small sailboats in existence, but since early September, when we ran a story about the Potters, we’ve been receiving photos from Potter Yachters throughout the Bay Area.

The Petaluma River has been waiting for a dredge for quite a long time. Or, to be precise, the city of Petaluma, the Petaluma Yacht Club, and Bay Area sailors have been waiting. The river is one of the Bay Area’s great North Bay boating escapes that’s been ‘off-limits’ for anything but paddlers, due to silting in the channel and around the docks in the main turning basin. So we were happy to get a call from Sarah Sass, owner of Boulevard Barbers, Petaluma Ca, telling us the river is now dredged and reopened.

We boated! Did you?

On Friday we posted the photo below of a somewhat ‘off the radar’ Bay Area marina, under the heading ‘Guess Where.’ It didn’t take long for sharp-eyed Latitude 38 readers to correctly identify the spot. Ron Witzel, of the Tripp Javelin 38 Harpoen, was the first to point out it is Point San Pablo Harbor, hidden around the bend from Point Molate on Richmond’s western shore.