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On DutyNovember 23 - Turtle Bay, Baja California People might think of the Ha-Ha as all fun and games, but there's work - cough, cough - to be done too. Here (above) Dona de Mallorca, Banjo Andy, the Mayor of Turtle Bay, and Wendy, discuss next year's Lobster Festival, to be put on exclusively for the Ha-Ha fleet by the four local lobster co-ops. Earlier, de Mallorca presented the mayor with one of several bags of antibiotics and other medical supplies for the small town (above right). That night, the crew of Profligate checked out the town's fire truck . . . and having sampled some of the local tequila, resolved to bring a replacement truck on next year's rally (lower right). |
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Meds Reach Kilpatrick in Southern OceanNovember 23 - Southern Ocean "Keith's condition is stable but mostly unchanged with signs of intestinal total or partial obstruction. He still needs drugs for pain relief and sleeping. He is on two heavy antibiotics. Added today a spasmolytic intravenous drug we got from the drop off. So far he has received five liters of intravenous fluids and we have his dehydration under control. He still has colic cramps as before, and we plan to get him off the boat as soon as possible. He needs better hospital care then we can offer and we are asking Race HQ how and when to get him off. We got 30 liters of fluid from the seven packages dropped down, and also we needed more syringes, needles, infusion sets, sterile water for mixing antibiotics, more morphine etc. We got it all from the Orion." Nilson went on to describe the drop itself from the Royal Australian Air Force plane: "With stunning precision, they dropped off seven packages perfectly, about 300 meters straight in front of us. The timing was critical as night was falling fast. The last box was picked up just before we totally lost daylight but the aircraft had strobe lights if needed. We took the spinnaker down and used the mainsail and engine, going bow to wind in order to pick up boxes with a boat hook we made for the job. It all went very smoothly, as the weather conditions were perfect: 12 knots of westerly wind, only two-meter swell and a well-tuned crew."
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Credit Card Fraud in BajaNovember 23 - Cabo San Lucas, BCS Thanks for the warning. There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of credit card fraud in Mexico in the last few years. Cabo San Lucas with with the Ha-Ha fleet in the background Photo Latitude/Richard |
Great American II Closes on RecordNovember 23 - Pacific Ocean Adventure sailors Rich Wilson and Bill Biewenga celebrated Thanksgiving at sea today, 1,000 miles southwest of Melbourne, with the sailing record for the passage from New York to Melbourne within their grasp. Sailing through storm conditions on Wilson's 53-foot trimaran Great American II, the pair was barely 400 miles ahead of the track of the extreme clipper ship Mandarin, the vessel that has held the sailing record for the 14,000-mile voyage for nearly a century and a half. The 400-mile lead is equivalent to about a day and a half of sailing time. Wilson, from Rockport, Mass., and Biewenga, who lives in Newport, RI, are out to beat Mandarin's record of 69 days 14 hours, set as she carried prospectors to the Australian Gold Rush in the winter of 1855-56. |
Dashews Finish First in Caribbean 1500November 23 - Virgin Gorda, BVI The 52 boats in early November's West Marine Caribbean 1500 had to cool their heels for four days while waiting for hurricane Michelle to clear the course from Hampton, Virginia, to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgins. After she did, the fleet faced a variety of conditions, from flat calm and mirror seas to winds in the low 30s and big seas. Tucson's Steve and Linda Dashew with their 78-ft ketch Beowulf smashed the elapsed time record by four hours, a record they'd established only last year. The couple completed the 1,314-mile course in 123 hours, 37 hours of which were motoring, as is allowed under the rally rules. Apparently none of the 52 entries sailed the entire course, as the largest catamaran motored substantially longer. As of press time, motor allowances and handicaps hadn't been announced, so we have no idea who might have corrected out first. Regretably, the organizers haven't even provided the most basic information on boats entered, so we have no idea what type or size boats entered, and from where. Beowulf Photo Courtesy Dashew Offshore Three of the 52 boats didn't complete the course. One of them returned to Virginia after breaking a boom, two dropped out in Bermuda with gear problems, and Bon Secour, vessel type unknown, was abandoned 250 miles from Bermuda after a bad encounter with a fishing net. A rope in her prop ripped her engine right off the mounts to begin with, then the rudder got snagged. When a diver was unable to clear the mess, the owners and crew abandoned the boat for a British naval vessel heading to Florida. One other boat was still at sea during the awards ceremony, while two arrived by dinner. A hurricane delay can really screw up a schedule. More than 600 boats have paid an average of $1,000 to do the Caribbean 1500 over the years. Generally speaking, it is a much more challenging event than the Ha-Ha on both boats and crew. |
Book of the U. S. Navy, 1905November 23 - Mill Valley
'Two Game Birds on U. S. S. Illinois' (detail). Apparently cock-fighting was an acceptable pastime aboard Navy ships. |
Although most of the ships pictured were similar to the Nevada (and mostly larger), a few toward the back of the book were tallships, such as this depiction of the USS St. Mary's under full sail. This one is aptly titled 'An Interesting Moment on U. S. S. Florida' (detail). The crew is huddled around cards, cash and dice, and an epée and fencing gloves lay in the foreground. Most of the crew were clean-shaven and slender, while the captains and admirals are pictured as somewhat portly and carrying 'soup-strainer' mustaches, after the fashion set by President Theodore Roosevelt. All Photos Enrique Muller, Official Photographer U.S. Navy Published by the A.B. Benesch Co., New York |
YOTREPSNovember 23 - The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS - 'yacht reports' - at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/ |
Weather UpdatesNovember 23 - Pacific Ocean San Francisco Bay WeatherTo see what the winds are like on the Bay and just outside the Gate right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/. California Coast WeatherLooking for current as well as recent wind and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena and the Mexican border? Here's the place - which has further links to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml. Pacific Winds and PressureThe University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds. Pacific Sea StateCheck out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
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Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.