Sonya David and Jack Patton met while sailing, and really haven’t stopped. They live together on their Passport 42, along with their cat Fathom, and together run Spirit Marine Services a business they started to do boat projects and maintenance for others. They have sailed extensively all around the Bay Area and plan to head off further afield in the near future. You can follow their adventures at TwoTheHorizon.com.

The former editor of Good Old Boat magazine got into sail ing when his mother mistakenly subscribed to Cruising World when he was a kid. He met his wife Windy through a Latitude 38 crew list and ended up cruising together aboard an Newport 27 down to Mexico, through the Panama Canal and around the Caribbean. Later, they set sail again, this time with their two daughters, aboard a Fuji 40 and sailed up to Alaska, down to Mexico and across the Pacific to Australia. Along the way he started writing for sailing magazines and ended up running Good Old Boat.

This week we go below the waves to learn more about how what we humans do on the water while fishing, sailing, or shipping impacts humpback whales and other marine mammals. I’m joined by Kathi George and Bekah Lane both of whom work with the Marine Mammal Center in Marin. Kathi, Director of Field Operations and Response at the Marine Mammal Center, works on whale entanglement prevention. Bekah is a graduate student researcher at the Marine Mammal Center studying the risk of ship strikes to humpback whales in the Bay.

Cree Partridge started building boats in his parents front yard while still in elementary school. His passion for being on the water started at a young age and continues to this day. In college, he channeled his desire to be on the water into racing and traveled all over the world to crew aboard big, fast boats. He then got into boat building. For the past twenty years he’s run the Berkeley Marine Center, where he helps bring many a dream to life.   

Ben Pedersen-Wedlock grew up on boats and is an experienced ocean sailor. Anna Behrens had little to no sailing experience - until she met Ben. About a year after meeting, the two took off cruising in a 28-foot, ferro cement, William Atkins designed boat named Inga. They sailed south from San Francisco, down around South America and back up to New England, all without an engine. We talk about their 50-plus day passages, transiting the Beagle Channel, getting arrested in the Falkland Islands, running low on food and power in the dead of winter, and more.

Kevin Wasbauer is an experienced sailor, having competed in the Fastnet, the Heineken Regatta, the Transpac and many other races. In 2020 he purchased a Farr 53 named Atalanta and refit her during the pandemic in order to launch a charter business out of Monterey called Shearwater Sailing. I recently joined Kevin for a chat and a sail aboard this beautiful boat.

In 1967, my father Sidney Shaw was shipwrecked on a small reef just south of Vietnam while sailing aboard an 87-foot steel schooner named Dante Deo. The crew of seven, including a young child, were attempting to navigate the reef strewn South China Sea when they struck the Bombay Reef. Over 50 years later, my dad’s memories of the disaster and survival are still vivid as he recounts the story.

When Bianca Bahman and Fernanda Schlender, two Bay Area women decided to go on a surfing trip in Indonesia together they had no idea what kind of adventure they were in for. The small boat carrying them to the island resort where they were to vacation hit a reef in the middle of the night, forcing the two to take charge of the situation and fight for their lives. The two share the harrowing tale with me. Bianca also wrote the story up for the December 2020 issue of Latitude 38.

Erden Eruç is an accomplished ocean rower who is the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation by human power and the first to row the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. In the spring of 2021 he launched his boat from Crescent City with the goal of reaching Asia and climbing Mount Everest. He stopped in Hawaii to fix some gear and better time his crossing. That’s where I caught up with him before he departed on the next leg of his adventure. During his crossing , he’s partnering with the Ocean Recovery Alliance to raise awareness about plastic in the ocean. He’s currently in the Pacific and you can track his progress at westboundrower.com

Ryan Foland, together with John Arndt, the Publisher of Latitude 38, recently launched a new sailing podcast called Good Jibes. The podcast, hosted by multiple members of the crew at Latitude 38, features stories and tips from west coast sailors and is focused on community, cruising, and racing. Ryan and I talk about the show’s origins and where its headed. Ryan grew on the water in Southern California and spent most every summer anchored off Catalina Island.