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That’s the beautiful Bloodhound, shot here by friend Philippe Gadeyne.

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Are the leprechauns out and about playing Irish tricks on us all? Has anyone seen any bearded little men wearing green coats and hats skulking about in the office? Who woke up yesterday morning to find a ‘Welcome Aboard’ email from ‘Lectronic Latitude, even if you’ve been aboard for years? We did. And we see hands up throughout the West Coast, and beyond.

Maybe this was an early St. Paddy’s Day trick. Or maybe there are some other gremlins afoot. Either way, something set off our new “Welcome Aboard” email to everyone on our ‘Lectronic Latitude list. Despite the panic we (the Latitude crew) felt when we first realized what had happened, we ended up using the glitch to get some great insight.

First of all, most of you read the emails we send. Hooray! And thank you! Secondly, hundreds of sailors now have the Free Cruising Guide that we’re offering to first-time subscribers. Hooray, again!

And here’s something else. Now that we have your attention, this is a good opportunity to make sure that everyone has their best email address registered to keep receiving the three-times-weekly newsletter, and to let us know if you’re having any problems with the email delivery — maybe you signed up and haven’t been getting the emails; maybe you’re getting more than one to the same address; maybe you have too many email addresses signed up. Whatever it is, you have our attention and we want to make it right.

So, here’s the link to sign up to receive the ‘Lectronic Latitude emails, if you don’t already: Sign Me Up!

Alternatively, if you’re having a problem with the email, or, if you have a great suggestion for the email, please write to us directly at monica@latitude38.com.

The post What’s Going On With All the ‘Lectronic Latitude’ Emails? appeared first on Latitude38.

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Smuggling

Over the weekend, two migrant smuggling vessels capsized off San Diego’s coast, killing multiple occupants in one of the region’s worst maritime migration accidents in years.

Late Saturday, San Diego’s 911 center received a call for assistance from a woman aboard a migrant smuggling boat. She described a distress situation off Black’s Beach, a popular surfing destination just north of La Jolla, involving two pangas. Her own boat was safe at the time of the call, but the other boat had capsized with 15 people aboard.

At about 2330 hours, San Diego Fire-Rescue’s responders found two boats capsized within about 150 yards of each other, and they recovered eight bodies from the beach. No survivors were found nearby, and heavy fog hampered SAR efforts overnight. The U.S. Coast Guard launched a search with a small boat, a cutter and a SAR helicopter on Sunday morning, but suspended its participation that afternoon. More here.

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It’s probably the first world history lesson that U.S. kids get in elementary school: In 1492 America was “discovered” by Christopher Columbus in the Niña, Pinta, and the flagship Santa María. He was lost and would never set foot in America, but to his dying day believed that the indigenous people of the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Central America were residents of India. He spent several months exploring the New World on that first voyage, but the Santa María was never to see Spain again, as it ran onto a reef near Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, and sank on Christmas morning.

But a version of the Santa María is sailing again. In 2018, the Fundación Nao Victoria in Huelva, Spain, launched a 200-ton, full-scale replica of the Santa María, which has spent the last few years touring North and Central America and the Caribbean, acting as a floating museum and goodwill ambassador. During 12 months of construction, the shipwrights, carpenters, ropemakers, and mechanics were faithful to the design and dimensions of the original wherever possible—a painstakingly difficult task, as the Santa María was never found and its plans lost to history.

When I first see her resting at the pier in Jacksonville, Florida, the sight is equal parts breathtaking and unsettling. Nothing outwardly betrays the ship’s 21st-century construction, right down to the whip staff at the ship’s helm and the bridge where Columbus wrote his log. There it rests in front of the Hyatt Hotel—a time traveler from the Age of Discovery.

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The ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix 18-19 March will be the platform for launching reZHIKle, a program created by Zhik to recycle all makes of old wetsuits.

Working with UPPAREL, leaders in textile recovery and garment recycling, SailGP’s long-awaited New Zealand debut will act as the pilot for the new reZHIKle scheme, where people can drop off any brand of used wetsuits or skiff suits to be recycled or repurposed and used again.

Anyone who plans to attend ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix is encouraged to dig through your kit bags and bring your old wetsuits for recycling. Visit either of the Zhik booths located in the Race Village at Naval Point, or at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix Live Site, powered by Enable, situated opposite Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre in the city center. ..

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Heading to the South Pacific is always a big adventure. The pandemic closed most island nations to incoming cruisers, and the variety of national responses only made it more challenging and uncertain. All the signals from the South Pacific indicate normalization continues. and the chart below shows that the first few early starters in the 2023 Pacific Puddle Jump are underway.

Shawna and Kevin Walker aboard their Transpac 49 Meraki 2 from Victoria, BC, started heading west from the Galápagos, and on February 26 reported their latitude as 0 as they crossed the equator! They broke their self-imposed no-alcohol rule aboard to toast the moment with champagne. They’re now continuing on their way south and west toward the Marquesas.

Rob and Nancy Novak left their Oyster 485 Shindig buried in a hole at Vuda Point Marina in Fiji for 30 months before they could return in spring 2022. They’re finally sailing again in Fiji, and many more are again moving freely around the South Pacific. You can read their story on page 96 of the March issue being delivered to our magazine distributors today.

March and April are the peak months for Pacific crossings, so these first few starters will have many more cruisers following in their wake…

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Not sure how this could be any closer! The MOD70 Zoulou sailed by Erik Maris (FRA) has taken Multihull Line Honours in the 2023 RORC Caribbean 600 in an elapsed time of 30 hours 55 mins 45 secs. Zoulou’s time was under two hours outside the Multihull Race Record.

Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70 (ITA) was the second multihull to finish the race just 11 SECONDS behind Zoulou! Photographed by James Tomlinson…

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Sailing cargo ships are making a genuine comeback. Japanese bulk carrier MOL is operating a wind-assisted ship. American food giant Cargill is working with Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie to deploy WindWings on its routes. Swedish shipping company Wallenius is aiming for Oceanbird to cut emissions by up to 90%. The French start-up Zephyr & Borée has built the Canopée, which will transport parts of European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket this year.

I researched the decarbonisation of the shipping industry. While doing fieldwork aboard the Avontuur, a wind-propelled cargo ship, I even got stuck at sea for five months – because of the pandemic, not because the winds failed.

Like every other sector, the shipping industry needs to decarbonise in line with the Paris Agreement, but its emissions continue to grow. In 2018 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) set a first-ever target of halving shipping emissions between 2008 and 2050.

It was an important, but inadequate, first step. Climate Action Tracker calculates that halving emissions is not nearly enough to keep global warming below 1.5? Read on.

Title inspiration thanks to LL Cool J.

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