Editorial: Captains Pat and John Rains — Celebrating 33 Years in The Log

In 1979, San Diego-based yacht delivery skipper and author Capt. John Rains wrote the first of six free-lance articles for The Log Newspaper about delivering various yachts between Seattle and Mexico, through the Panama Canal and up to Florida. Some articles focused on cruising from one destination to the next, while others included tales of repairing breakdowns, dealing with port officials or the logistics of fueling and provisioning for long-range cruising boats.

After the first batch, The Log’s publisher at the time, Lou Gerlinger, decided he wanted more. He asked Rains to write more on this subject in a regular biweekly column called “Underway.” Rains continued to write the “Underway” column for 26 years, until 2005.

In Spring 1980, Pat Miller wrote several free-lance articles for The Log while she was cruising aboard her sailboat in the Sea of Cortez. Later that year, she was hired by Gerlinger and then-editor Leonard Ash as The Log’s staff news reporter. She held that job for five years.

Miller and Rains first met in The Log newsroom. Rains asked Miller to make an occasional local yacht delivery with him, which she did. Years later, they would marry — “but it was not love at first sight,” Capt. Pat Miller Rains recalled recently.

From 1982 to 1985, Miller wrote the “Portside” column in The Log. However, she left the paper to get her Coast Guard captain’s license and go to sea full-time, delivering yachts with Rains.

In early 1992, Miller was hired as editor of The Log by then-publisher News Corp., during the running of the America’s Cup in San Diego. After the races, she gave up the editorship to go back to sea with Rains.

Pat Miller and John Rains were married in 1994, aboard the schooner Star Pilot in San Diego Bay. That year, Pat started publishing nautical guidebooks for Point Loma Publishing.

In 2005, John Rains asked The Log publishers Duncan McIntosh and Teresa Ybarra McIntosh if (after 26 years) Pat Rains could take over the “Underway” column. It continued to run — with Pat’s byline — for two more years. In 2007, this feature was updated to focus on boating in Mexico and Central America and became “El Reporte.”

This month, Pat Rains is giving up writing “El Reporte” in order to devote more time to writing the monthly “Mexico Report” column in Sea Magazine and to her book publishing business. She will continue to write occasional news articles for The Log on major issues of interest to SoCal boaters and cruisers.

The Log wishes Pat and John Rains continued success, and we look forward to Pat’s future contributions to The Log Newspaper.

Thanks to Pat and John for 33 great years of columns and articles of interest to cruising boaters.