SIGHTINGS puddle jump — continued
the golden globe
and Banderas Bay — where both the Marina Riviera Nayarit and Paradise Village Marina promote the PPJ through frequent seminars. What started 22 years ago as a Latitude 38 editorial project with the simple aim of getting to know a wide diversity of world cruisers, has grown into an internationally famous event that has ushered several thousand sailors into the South Pacific's watery wonderland. It's also become this writer's legacy project after 25 years as a Latitude editor. Most who have been part of previous Puddle Jumps have applauded the fact that it is minimally structured, with each skipper taking total responsiblity for his crew, and several radio nets being organized by cadres of sailors leaving from the same point. There has been no mandatory daily check-in — until now. Despite the fact that some proudly self-sufficient crews claim they're "not rally types," there's been zero resistance to At any age, making landfall in the Marquesas after weeks at sea is a breathtaking experience. this year's requirement that all boats check in daily, preferably electronically. That's probably because every year, more and more boats carry some sort of satellite messaging device such as an inReach, Spot, Iridium GO! or satphone. And most boats equipped with only SSB or Ham radios for offshore comms also have special modems that allow them to send email via satellite. The check-ins this year are being facilitated by CruiserSat.net, which was developed by a clever Russian cruiser named Kostya Marchenko who has customized various features for the PPJ fleet such as a special fleet-tracking page, group messaging and more. Armchair voyagers back home will be able to follow the fleet's progress all the way to the Marquesas, except for those boats whose skippers may opt out of having their boat's track made public. Another nifty feature is that individual skippers can request occasional lat-long positions of all PPJ boats within a 200-mile radius of them. If they're feeling social, they can opt in to receiving the check-ins and 'status' comments from other passagemakers. The idea of all this, of course, is to make the crossing a lot safer, while re-establishing some of the fleetwide camaraderie that was common before HF radios were replaced by high-tech gadgetry. There's a $75-per-boat-participation fee this year that helps to cover some of the costs of administering the Puddle Jump. But the cost to enter is outweighed by a $50 discount on a special clearance, bond exemption and duty-free fuel package from the Tahiti Crew yacht agency; a special discount card that gives crews substantial price reductions at many businesses in Tahiti, including at the two largest marine supply stores; a 20% refund on PredictWind forecasting subscriptions; an official PPJ burgee; invitations to PPJ Sendoff Parties in Mexico and Panama; and more. You may think every sailor who is lucky enough to do the Puddle Jump is a wealthy yachtsman who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Not so. Having gotten to know hundreds of them over the years, we can tell you that many have worked their tails off, and made enormous sacrifices — including selling their homes and abandoning established careers — to pursue a dream that they cultivated for decades. That is, riding the trade winds beyond the horizon into a new life of challenge and adventure in the timeless archipelagos of the South Pacific. We wish them all the best of luck. — andy
LATITUDE / ANDY
SANGVIND
ter making repairs at sea, VDH limped up the Atlantic, and Slats started slowly chipping away. The Dutchman got to within 50 miles of Van Den Heede, but it was all for naught. Even as his lead diminished, VDH still seemed, somehow, untouchable, and too experienced and wily to be reeled in. The 73-year-old became the oldest person to win a singlehanded nonstop circumnavigation, beating Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who was 68 when he sailed the Velux 5 Oceans Race in 2007. Let's recount: There were 12 dropouts, and something like four rescues from the far corners of the sea. Meanwhile, Uku Randmaa, Istvan Kopar and Tapio Lehtinen are battling it out for third. We wish them a speedy, safe finish. — tim
March, 2019 •
Latitude 38
• Page 59