J Class Sailing On Pacific Puddle Jump

(Los Angeles, CA)- Speaking of J/46s and long-distance sailing!  The J/46 BOLERO with crew of Tom Perry, Eric McClure and Jorge Morales (owner) left Dana Point, CA on Wednesday, April 20 to participate in the Pacific Puddle Jump.

According to Eric, “we are participating in the Pacific Puddle Jump which is supported and sponsored by Latitude 38.com.  Jorge is a member of Dana Point YC, he is a four-time Transpac veteran and has many ocean races to his credit.  Eric has owned a J/24, a J/29 and currently has a J/35 and has done five Transpac’s and many offshore races, too.  Eric is member of Alamitos Bay YC.  Tom is rock star crew with many years of racing to his credit.  The boat has been impeccably prepared to do this voyage. We plan to sail to the Marquesas Islands and cruise those islands and then sail to Tahiti!

By the way, after leaving on the 20th, our voltage regulator to the stove wasn't working properly so we stopped in to San Diego to fix it. As you can see from the stern of the boat, we have all the comforts of home!  So far, the boat speed is pretty amazing, in 19 knots of breeze, were reaching along doing 9.5 knots all day!

Also, we are leaving about the same time from San Jose del Cabo in Mexico is the J/130 ITAJIME from San Francisco, CA with owner Alan Robin and friends.”

And, here’s a timely note we just received from Alan Robin, the proud owner and skipper of the J/130 ITAJIME, hull #29, also sailing the Pacific Puddle Jump! 

Alan said, “I am the third owner of #29 and am preparing to leave from San Jose del Cabo to cross to  French Polynesia. I thought that you would be interested in knowing that although this is my first Pacific Crossing, it is Itajime's third. #29 was first purchased by John Moore and commissioned as Breakin' Wind in the San Francisco Bay and sailed through the South Pacific to New Zealand. Robert and Kim Milligan purchased #29 in New Zealand, renamed her RAM and sailed and raced it throughout Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific sailing back to the SF Bay in 2012.

I purchased her in January, 2014 renamed her ITAJIME and have been actively sailing her up and down the Pacific Coast and am now preparing to cross again in the next day or two.

I love ITAJIME and continue to be blown away by her performance, stability, and comfort. Unlike many cruisers, she is a joy to sail and very comfortable. I love passing other sailors with my sails up while they are motoring muttering about the lack of wind. She is truly a sailor's cruising boat. You can follow us on our blog at itaji.me  Thank you for designing and building such a lovely, durable and fun boat!”

Please be sure to follow along with BOLERO and ITAJIME on their great adventure across the South Pacific- more information here!

J/40 HERON REACH Sailing Blue Planet Odyssey!

(Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)- If some of you recall, Virginia and Jerry from Bellingham, Washington did an extensive refit on their J/40, called HERON REACH, set sail from San Diego to the Marquesas Islands to join the “Blue Planet Odyssey”. They recently made it to the Marquesas, here’s a recent excerpt from their blog:

“On Sunday, March 29th at 6:15pm, we morphed from Pollywogs into Shellbacks! In other words, we crossed the equator into the South Pacific!  We celebrated with a toast of gratitude to Neptune.  Not  surprisingly, it doesn't look any different out there, but we have a powerful sense of the accomplishment for crossing this imaginary line!  Tonight we saw the  Southern Cross  for the first time, the smallest of the 88 named constellations. It points to the south celestial pole and feels like a different world. But the next day, it was back to squalls coming on the horizon.

We  have traveled 4,223 nautical miles since we left Bellingham, all on the largest body of water in the world.  The Pacific Ocean (North and South) cover more area than all of Earth's continents put together.  It is surrounded by the Ring of Fire, hundreds, if not thousands of both active and dormant volcanoes.  There are over 20,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean, most of which are concentrated in the south or west where we are headed.  Some of the islands are associated with their neighboring continent, like Japan, in the east, the Aleutians in the north, or Vancouver Island and the Gulf and San Juan Islands in our own backyard.  Another type is the high volcanic island such as the Hawaiian Islands or the Marquesas.  Finally, there are the sandy coral  atolls like the majority of the islands of the South Pacific.  It is this type most in danger by the rising seas of climate change.  It is astounding to us, as we cross this vast ocean, to realize that we have raised the temperature of such a gargantuan mass and changed its acidity level with our high carbon uses!”   Read more about their adventures here.