LETTERS
LATITUDE / CHRIS
I received an email that claims notices were posted which allowed for redress, but there is nothing in the rules to address this issue. The note claimed that this race was monitored by a certified race officer. S/he should have anchored the mark to ensure that it would not drift. Get it right next year! Steve Strunk Cold Drinks II Newport 33 Vallejo
www.petersonpower.com/onthewater
Steve — We can understand your frustration. After all that time, expense and effort, the Spinnaker snafus were the least of the fleet's results aren't fair. But worries during the Jazz Cup. one of the things we remember from our eighth-grade Latin class at Montera Junior High School in Oakland was Seneca the Younger's famous quote: ''Errare humanum est,' which means 'to err is human.' We've all screwed up, haven't we? And it was Alexander Pope who had a nice addition: 'To err is human, to forgive is divine.' We're sure the person or people responsible for setting the buoy have chastised themselves enough and the mistake won't be made again next year. ⇑⇓BACK ON BOAT BIKES We picked up a nice all-aluminum folding bike inexpensively while cruising Thailand. It has 20-inch wheels. But we are getting ready to cross the Atlantic this season and found it ate up too much space on our Bristol 32, so we sold it here in the Canaries. P.S. My family and I did the first Baja Ha-Ha in 1994. Ken Stuber Sand Dollar, Bristol 32 New Smyrna Beach, FL Ken — All these years since the first Ha-Ha and you're still rolling on the ocean. Respect!
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MADE IN THE
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Page 60 •
Latitude 38
• November, 2014
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⇑⇓DETERMINED DUTCH BIKE THIEVES We took a Dahon Mariner folding bike with us when we sailed from San Francisco to Alaska in 2006. Although it took up space in our Sceptre 41, it was great to have. We used the bike everywhere on our southbound voyage through Mexico and Central America, and still had it when we reached Amsterdam in 2008. It was there our wimpy California bike locks didn't survive determined Dutch bike thieves. We weren't there three days when it was stolen. We think it would have been safe on the boat, but we'd locked it ashore with the other bikes. It was so important to have a bike in Europe that we bought a couple of serviceable but unattractive ones — and heavy-duty Dutch chains and locks to replace our lost folding bike. I still miss that bike, and I'm thinking of getting another. It has to be a folding bike in case we go cruising again. Shirlee Smith Solstice, Sceptre 41 San Francisco Shirlee — We know how you feel, as somebody just stole our custom cruising bike in San Diego. It probably wasn't the same person who stole your bike in the Netherlands, but we hope they burn in the same place.