Photo of the Day

Beaching Your Catamaran

October 2 - A Strange Beach

Proponents of cruising catamarans often claim that one of the advantages cats have over cruising monohulls is that they can be beached. Indeed this is often done, particularly by daysailers who are familiar with the bottoms of the beaches they frequent. On the other hand, the accompanying photo of a Venezia 42 cat demonstrates that beaching on strange beaches doesn't always go so smoothly. And it might be a little hard on the rudderstocks, too.


Photo Source Unknown

Weather Updates

October 2 - Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

Tropical Weather

There's been some strange tropical storm activity in the Atlantic this year, and none the stranger than Hurricane Joyce. As she marched east across that Atlantic toward the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, her winds built to 80 knots, and were expected to go higher. But then she faded southwest - quite bizarre - in the direction of Grenada and Trinidad, which are both considered to be south of the normal hurricane zone. But as Joyce approached them, she began to fall apart, and passed through the island cresent with 25 to 35-knot winds - nothing more than a good squall. Joyce may, however, reform in the Caribbean Sea as her remains head toward Central America and the Caribbean side of Mexico.

Hurricane Keith, however, did just the opposite of Joyce. After forming about 500 miles south of Havana, Keith slowly worked toward the Yucatan and somewhat surprisingly developed 115 knot winds - a Category 4 hurricane. Keith lost a lot of steam as he passed over land, but has been rebuilding since passing back over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. He's currently blowing at 80 knots and headed toward Texas. For more on the Atlantic hurricane season, go to http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/2000/index.html.


Hurricane Keith


Hurricane Joyce
Unisys Weather Graphics

San Francisco Bay Weather

To see what the winds are like on the Bay right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/.

California Coast Weather

Looking 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 Ocean Weather

You can view the new University of Hawaii Department of Meteorology satellite picture by clicking here.

Pacific Sea State

Seas are normal in the Eastern Pacific. Check out today's sea state at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.

Eight Bells

October 2 - Tiburon

Jim Enzensperger of Tiburon passed away on Friday after a long illness. Jim was a founder of the Sausalito YC, a crewmember in the '51 TransPac, and often sailed in the Windjammer, Colin Archer and Mercury class races. Jim leaves behind three children, including Steve, who is active in the Etchells class and did work on appendages for several America's Cup boats. Jim also leaves behind Annie Sutter, his companion of many years. We personally know that Jim was a great guy, as he was our neighbor for more than 20 years. His obituary will appear in the Wednesday Chronicle.


Cruising

Fiji Regatta Week

October 2 - Musket Cove, Fiji

You can tell they're not very politically correct in the Southern Hemisphere, as they're still holding wet T-shirt contests at Fiji Regatta Week. In fact, as these three women demonstrate, they even had special see-through shirts with provocative copy made up for the occasion. But hey, anything is better than a coup. More on the Fiji Sail Regatta in tomorrow's 'Lectronic.


Photo Courtesy Fiji Regatta Committee

Mexico-Only Crew List Party

October 2 - Alameda

The Mexico-Only Crew List and Ha-Ha Kick-Off and Reunion Party is Tuesday (tomorrow) night at 1800 at the Encinal YC in Alameda. It's a great place for skippers to find crew and crew to find skippers for cruises to and beyond Mexico. In addition, there will be liferaft openings and a Coast Guard Air Sea Rescue demonstration. That's right, they'll be pulling a 'victim' out of the water onto a helicopter. The latter has to be done before it gets dark so you can see, so be as punctual as you can (but not early, as the doors won't open til 6). In addition, 'Profligate', Latitude's 63-foot catamaran - and once again mothership for the Ha-Ha - will be available for boarding. If you play your cards right, in a little less than a month you too will have sailed around Cabo Falso and be heading around Los Arcos for Cabo San Lucas. Isn't it about time you did something good like this for yourself?

For more details on the Crew Party and directions, go to www.latitude38.com/crewlist/CrewParty/CrewParty.html


'Profligate' Near the Finish of the Baja Ha-Ha

Photo Courtesy 'Profligate'

YOTREPS

October 2 - 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 www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/

Racing

Olympic Update

October 2 - Sydney, Australia

The U.S. team of Mark Reynolds of San Diego and Magnus Liljedahl of Miami pulled off a tremendous comeback to take honors in the Star class at the Olympics. The #1 ranked team in the world going in, Mark and Magnus had a terrible first half of the 11-race series, often finishing in double digits in shifty conditions. Nonetheless, they entered the final race on a 1-2-4-1 streak. Both they and Brazil - the defending gold medalists and leaders of the event at that point - were over the line early, but only Mark and Magnus went back. The U.S. team then went right while everybody else but Canada went left. The split proved to be as smart a move as it was courageous, as Canada rounded the first mark in first place with the U.S. in second. The U.S. team finished the race second to take the gold - America's first since Reynolds and Hal Haenel took the gold in Barcelona in '92. Great Britain took the silver and Brazil the bronze.

In other Olympic sailing news, Russ Silvestri of San Francisco finished sixth in the 25-boat Finn fleet. He had a shot at the silver going into the last day, but finished with a 16th and a third to put him out of the medals.

For details on all the Olympic sailing action, see the November issue of Latitude 38.

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