July 24, 2000

By Grzegorz | July 24, 2000

Photos of the Day

July 24 – St. Barths


Photos Latitude/Richard

Will you take a look at the size of those clevis pins?
They’re not being held in the hands of a child to give them the
illusion of being big, they just are big. Real big, as in suitable
for a sailboat of 100 feet or more, and costing about $100 – ouch!
– each.

Now take a look at the second photo, and you’ll see there is
a whole wall of similar ultra-sized stainless steel fittings.
Take a look, for instance, at the stainless swivels on the lower
left.

Because these fittings are so big, there is just a tiny market
for them. As such, you’d have to assume that these photos were
taken in a chandlery at Antibes, Palma de Mallorca, or perhaps
the south coast of England. But on the contrary, they were taken
at a little island in the Caribbean with a population of 5,000
– and probably no large boats at all at this time of year. That
island is St. Barths.

We have just two questions. What was the guy thinking who ordered
such specialized and expensive parts? What’s he’s doing for a
living now?

Weather Updates

July 21 – Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean Weather

The trades continue to push the Pacific Cup fleet slowly but
steadily toward Kaneohe. Winds are generally light along the
Baja Coast.

California Coast Weather

For details on today’s California Coastal weather see:
www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml

University of Hawaii Meteorology Graphic

Click here to see enlarged
graphic.

Pacific Sea State

It’s fascinating to compare sea states in the North and South
Pacific. For a complete picture, check out: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.

Tropical Disturbances

The center of Hurricane Daniel is currently located near 13
N, 115 W, roughly 900 miles WSW of Acapulco. It is currently moving
toward the WNW at about 18 knots. Tropical depression Upana is
located roughly 300 south of the Hawaiian Islands, moving toward
the WSW at about 10 knots, with maximum wind speeds of 40 knots.

Racing

West Marine Pacific Cup

July 24 – Oahu

The first few boats in the 63-boat fleet have begun trickling
across the finish line. First in – no surprise – was Philippe
Kahn’s Andrews 70+ ‘Pegasus’, which finished at 10:26 Saturday
night after eight and a half days on the 2,070-mile course. “It
was a slow race, almost boring,” was navigator Mark Rudiger’s
take on the 11th edition of the Pac Cup.

‘Rage’ came in second, finishing at 3:45 a.m. Sunday morning
and correcting out over the pros on ‘Pegasus’ by about four hours.
Five other boats are also tied up at the Kaneohe YC docks now
– ‘Lina’ (Sunday, 11;23 p.m.), ‘Taxi Dancer’ (Sunday, 11:43
p.m.), ‘Octavia’ (Sunday, 11:45 p.m.), ‘Ingrid’ (Monday, 6:47
a.m.) and ‘Triumph’ (Monday, 8:09). Five other boats should be
finished by the time you read this – ‘Warpath’, ‘White Caps’,
‘Black Knight’, ‘Cha Ching’, and the tiny ‘E.T.’. The trickle
of finishers will turn to a torrent over the next few days, and
the excellent race website http://www.pacificcup.org/
is accordingly being updated several times a day.

The overall winner is currently projected to be Shepard Kett’s
veteran SC 50 ‘Octavia’, and you can bet that Shep, navigator
Gerry Swinton and their talented Santa Cruz-based crew are nervously
watching the clock between mai-tais. We’re told it’s not that
windy on the homestretch at the moment, which will work in ‘Octavia’s
favor. Stay tuned – the fun’s only just starting!

‘Pegasus’ led the charge out the Gate on July
14
Photo Latitude/Andy

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