January 4, 2001

By Grzegorz | January 4, 2001

Cruising

YOTREPS

January 4 – 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

Vendée Globe Update

January 4 – Pacific Ocean

At 1445 hours French time today, Michel Desjoyeaux, who is
still leading the Vendée Globe singlehanded around-the-world
race in ‘PRB’, announced he has been able to restart his engine.
He is exhausted, due to hand-steering from 9 am to 6 pm yesterday
in order to save power. For details on his ingenious starting
method, see www.vendeeglobe.com.

Mike Golding of ‘Team Group 4’ is experiencing communications
and other equipment problems. He reports that, “I have no
comms at present, I think it’s just a blank spot in the B coverage
– hope so anyway… It is gray, cold and rather dreary, though
no rain which would help top up my stock of fresh water. I still
haven’t tackled the watermaker problem – I want working pilots
before burying myself in that one… Worst of all is the inability
to use the heater – it’s frustrating knowing that the boat would
be warm at the flick of a switch but being unable to afford the
fuel.”

Roland ‘Bilou’ Jourdain, skipper of ‘Sill Matines la Potagère’,
the second place boat, has seen a new iceberg today. He immediately
sent a brief message to the Vendée Globe office and the
other competitors: “Big ice tracked by 55°40 S, 131°45
W. Water temperature: 4°C.” Jourdain was the first to
spot icebergs and growlers (floating ice), closely followed by
Ellen MacArthur, in third place on ‘Kingfisher’. MacArthur reported,
“Six large icebergs, spotted in a line 58º36 S, 143º
36 W and 58º07 S, 145º07 W.” She commented that
her radar had only picked up one of the strings of icebergs she
has seen, although all of them have been enormous. The icebergs
drift up from the Ross Sea. Both MacArthur and Jourdain soon jibed
from a heading of110º to turn north on a heading of 50º.

The Race Update

January 4 – Gibraltar

While three boats must put in at Gibraltar for repairs, the
other three are clumped together less than 50 miles apart, and
the leader has changed for the first time since the start. “After
a little more than four days at sea, ‘Club Med’ has taken the
lead from ‘Team Adventure’ in The Race. As of 1700 GMT, ‘Club
Med’ had a lead of 21 miles over the American boat and 44 miles
over ‘Innovation Explorer’. This is welcome news for the team
as they head south towards the Canaries and the trade winds.
“Everybody’s searching for wind,” said Franck Proffit
of ‘Club Med’.

Meanwhile, ‘PlayStation’ is in Gibraltar to exchange the mainsail
and solent and is hoping to leave today, after putting in 48
penalty hours for an assisted stop. Tom Weaver, aboard ‘PlayStation’,
reports that, “We are required to wait this out in Gibraltar
before we can set off after the other competitors. This will
mean we will have about 1,000 miles to make up, a big blow at
such an early stage of the race. However, from what we have seen,
we have the boatspeed. Now we will need all the luck we can muster
to mount a comeback and
win the race. Steve and the ‘PlayStation’ crew are determined,
and the shore team has sprung into action with a massive [successful]
effort to relocate sail containers to Gibraltar. The Race is
far from over.”

‘Innovation Explorer’s Loïck Peyron assessed ‘PlayStation’s
chances of catching up to the leaders: “‘PlayStation’ is
a very impressive boat to windward. She points very high and
is impressively fast. She has very sleek lines and longer hulls,
and foresail handling is made easier with furlers. They are going
to wait for the front to pass through and quietly leave with
some wind.”

‘Warta-Polpharma’, which is 300 miles behind the leader, has
announced that they will be stopping for Inmarsat B problems.
The Polish boat will not be penalized, because they will not
be receiving any assistance, so they will be able to leave again
right away.

‘Team Legato’ also intends calling in for a hardware problem
with their mainsail headboard. Tony Bullimore’s boat will be
subjected to the 48 hour penalty.”

After a brief delay, we were able to access www.therace.org
today. Dave of the Cal 35 ‘Running Late’ in Redwood City writes
that he had found The Race site overloading, but says that, “The
‘Team Adventure’ and ‘Club Med’ sites are providing decent updates.”
They are at www.adventurelearning.com/
and www.catamaran.clubmed.com/index.cfm?LANGUAGE=UK.

Barcelona
Photo Courtesy ‘Team Adventure’

The three leaders: ‘Team Adventure’, ‘Innovation
Explorer’ and ‘Club Med’
Photo Courtesy ‘The Race

What to Do When You Can’t Do
The Race

January 4 – London

With the loss of the maxi-catamaran ‘Team Philips’, Pete Goss
is not sailing around the world in The Race. However, this gives
him the opportunity to announce the latest Goss Challenge, the
Goss Atlantic Row, at the London Boat Show today. Along with Goss,
Mark Stubbs, Atlantic Row team leader, and Sunseeker Chief Executive
Robert Braithwaite will unveil Atlantic Spirit marking a campaign
to break Atlantic rowing records in June 2001 using a new streamlined,
lightweight, aerodynamic 33-ft boat designed by Adrian Thompson
and built by Goss Composites in Totnes, UK.

Overall Winner in the Sydney-Hobart

January 4 – Hobart, Australia

‘Ausmaid’, Kevin Pearce’s Farr 47, claimed the Tattersall’s
Cup, the top prize in the Telstra Sydney to Hobart Race, for
winning the IMS division overall and completing a three-year
hat trick. Second overall was won by the British boat ‘Quest’,
skippered by Chris Bull from the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and
third the 1999 winner ‘Yendys’, a Farr 49 owned by Geoff Ross.

Ausmaid, owned by Kevan Pearce of South Australia, sailed
with a mix of Pearce’s South Australia crewmen and an experienced
Sydney group, headed by Roger Hickman, the four-time winner of
the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s bluewater championship.
Under her original owner, Giorgio Gjergja, ‘Ausmaid’ won the
Hobart race in 1996. Under the ownership of Pearce, she was second
in the disastrous 1998 race and third in 1999.

For Bob Ross’s complete story and all the Sydney-Hobart results,
go to www.quokkasailing.com/.

IMS and Overall Winner Ausmaid
Photo Courtesy Quokka Sports

Weather Updates

January 4 – Pacific Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

To 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 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 University of Hawaii Department of Meteorology
satellite picture by clicking
here.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

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

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