Latitude 38 March 2017

CHANGES

she'll do the St. Thomas International Regatta, and on April 10 she'll do her third Voiles de St. Barth.

But wait, there is more! Following the Voiles, all the cruising gear in storage in St. Martin will be piled back on and she'll begin the 4,000-mile trip to Long Beach, with a cruising stop at the San Blas Islands. Why Long Beach? Because she's going to compete in the Los Angeles-to- Honolulu Transpac in July. Only after the Transpac will she finally get a chance to see her nominal homeport of Seattle.

Two other multihulls spending the season racing in the Caribbean are also intending to do the Transpac. They are the lightning-fast MOD70 trimarans Phaedo3 and Maserati, owned by Lloyd Thornburg and Giovanni Soldini, respectively. Both boats are capable of 40 knots and setting a new Transpac elapsed-time record. The Phaedo crew is really nuts, however, because after finishing the Caribbean 600 they have but 18 days to cover the 4,000 miles — and make a Canal transit — in order to make the start of the Newport to Cabo Race. That's not cruising!

It hasn't been the best of seasons for Latitude friend/hero Jeanne Socrates of the Victoria, B.C.-based Najad 380 Nereida. It started when a series of storms thwarted the start of the 74-year-old's attempt at yet another singlehanded around-the-world record. Early on, fortunately, in her second attempt a critical part of her genset's cooling system failed. Repairing it took so long that any record attempt was out of the question for this year. So she decided she'd sail to La Cruz to rest, relax and regroup. She was chased all the way down Baja by some of the worst weather to hit south of Point Conception in years. And she had issues with the top of her roller furler. But she made it.

Chuck Naslund of the Mazatlan-based Catalina 36 Alhambra was recently honored by other mariners in the area for providing "clear and concise" daily weather reports for the last seven years. Chuck and his wife Diana were given a certificate for "El Chayito, the great

Sinaloan restaurant."

Well done, Chuck! We still remember the time you brought Alhambra a down to the Banderas Bay Regatta and took class honors.

Jason Hite of the Long Beach-based Caribbean 50 Volare reports that a group of locals and cruisers managed to free a whale shark that had gotten stranded on a sandbar in Bahia de La Paz. Swimming with whale sharks is one of the favorite cruiser attractions in Baja.

The Wanderer is pleased to announce that the Latitude winter office in St. Barth will be open from March 1 through the end of April. 'Ti Profligate will generally be anchored next to the last green buoy off Corossol. de Mallorca sundowns at Le Select, while the Wanderer normally keeps tabs on her and the rest of the riffraff while enjoying a bottle of Pellegrino at L' Oubli. Stop by and say 'hello'.

The Wanderer is delighted to learn that Jim 'Twinger' Tantillo, one of his all-time favorite Profligate crewmembers, has chartered a boat to come to St. Barth to watch the Bucket. Can't wait to see you, Jim. And all the rest of you!

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Page 128 • Latitude 38 • March, 2017

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March, 2017 • Latitude 38 • Page 129