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Latitude 38

• July, 2007

LETTERS emotions to be singled out of a crowd by someone in uniform and told that you can't continue on the rest of that flight. Eventually, we married her, and it ceased being a problem. Once she got a green card, she was in the country for good, even though we later divorced. It's too bad you're not a terrorist or one of the other 10 million or so people in the country illegally, because then you'd have it made. If you were like them, you could simply ignore the one-month time limit you've been given, and stay — laying low — until you took off after hurricane season. After you left, you'd 'lose' your passport, so there was no evidence that you'd stayed in the States longer than the month you were given. Your other legal option is to quickly set sail for Bermuda, the Bahamas, Mexico or Guatemala. We know it's hurricane season, but if you don't wait too long, and watch the weather carefully, you should be able to make it without any trouble. As for us, we'd probably just lay low, like millions of others, until the end of hurricane season. It would make every day a little more exciting. Good luck to you. ⇑⇓LET DOGS BE DOGS! My partner and I have been cruising for the past year on our DownEast 38 with two malamute/border collie mixes. We've done both long passages and offshore work in heavy weather, but have made absolutely no adjustments to our boat in terms of pet boarding ladders and so forth. We tried the whole system of trying to make our dogs 'comfortable' on a boat by doing things like putting fake turf on the foredeck, building a ramp down our admittedly steep companionway, buying special harnesses for lifting them aboard and so forth. Plus, we listened to all the heartfelt advice from dog lovers about their infinite concerns about our animals' welfare. We realized the absurdity of all of this when our dogs began carefully maneuvering around all of this stuff we had built for their comfort! We tore it all out, and have found that our dogs do fine with no adjustments whatsoever to our boat. One of my favorite moments in all of our cruising took place in Mazatlan, when a group of Mexican fisherman watched in awe as our dogs walked by them down the dinghy dock, hopped into our tiny 7-ft fiberglass dinghy, and sat down in their respective spots without a word spoken by us. One man incredulously turned to his Mexican counterpart and said, "Those dogs know how to board a boat!" We smiled, hopped in behind them, and went on our way. Our dogs have traveled from Kodiak through the Inside Passage, down the North Pacific Coast, and along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. They have lived on our boat for four years, and have never been a problem for us or any other mariners. Dogs have been going to sea since man has been going to sea, and I truly do not understand the preoccupation with making them 'comfortable' and being so paranoid that they are not happy. They are dogs! The don't even have the brain capacity to think about the things that worry humans so much! Saesha Carlile Sea Heather, DownEast 38 Kodiak, Alaska / Mazatlan ⇑⇓WHERE DO I FIND COMMODORE DANGERFIELD? My wife and I are thinking about joining a yacht club. The idea of a yacht club has always sounded pretentious to us, but I think I've heard and/or read enough that I'm starting to believe that it's not really the case. We have a number of reasons for wanting to join a club: 1) We want to meet other sailing couples, 2) It would present us with more sailing-re-