CALIFORNIANS H
aving a Latitude 38 office in the Caribbean gives us a fabulous oppoortunity to cross paths with West Coast sailors, all of whom have been out sailing for some time. Here are just some of them:
Giuliano Darbe & Linda Featherstone — Serenity Challenger 40, San Francisco Originally from Torino, Italy, Giuliano owned two restaurants in San Francisco, the second one, Giuliano's on Lomboard between Scott and Divisadero, for 13 years. Twenty-five years ago he made a move on Lisa, one of his bartenders. When we asked Lisa if they were married, she laughed heartily, but she pointed out they've been together 25 years. A born and bred San Francisco girl, Lisa never learned to drive. "But I'm great driving Serenity up to a mooring." When we asked Giuliano if the restaurant business was stressful, he pulled up his shirt to show us the scar from his heart surgery. Eighteen years ago Giuliano and Lisa bought the Challenger 40 Serenity, and in 2002 they headed for the Caribbean. They actually had a pleasant trip from Panama to St. Martin via the Western Caribbean, Florida and the Bahamas. The only nasty part was from Puerto Rico to St. Martin — the Anegada Passage. Giuliano and Lisa spend November through June of each year in the Caribbean, mostly St. Barth and St. Martin. They are pretty thrifty, so they get by on about $1,500 a month. When they get back to San Francisco, they live in their ridiculously inexpensive rent-controlled apartment in the Marina
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Latitude 38
• April, 2013
District. They also own a rent-controlled apartment, for which they hardly get any rent, so it sort of evens out for them. We asked Giuliano for five tips on the Caribbean: 1) "St. Barth, and particularly the Columbie anchorage, where the mooring buoys are free. We've stayed on them for two or three weeks at a time and nobody said anything. 2) "St. Martin. You can find and buy anything you need there, including boat parts, liquor and wine at much lower prices than at St. Barth. Oddly enough, the food isn't less expensive than in St. Barth grocery stores. But the restaurant food is less expensive, there is more variety, and it's better. 3) "My friend Max, who owns the Time Out Boatyard on the French side of St. Martin. He lets me use his car, he gives me lobster, he gives me fish. Why? Because he likes me. 4) "Trinidad, where we haul out for each summer. Actually, I don't like Trinidad, but I like Don Stollmeyer of Powerboats Ltd, where we haul. Once I had an intestinal infection, and Don put me up for free for as long as I needed in one of his rooms, and checked on me each day. I bring him as many Latitudes as I can." 5) When GiulIanio faltered on a fifth tip, we sought out Lisa, who was banging away at a computer near our 'office'. "St. Barth and the Columbie anchorage," she said. "I love to snorkel there. Yesterday I swam with turtles and calamari."
