In the January and
February issues of Latitude 38, you’ll find little forms
to fill out if you want to do just about any kind of sailing
(short of the type covered in the stories below!) The idea is
to fill out the coupon and mail it to our office with a small
advertising fee, and we’ll put you on our world-famous Crew List.
We have lists for boat owners who need crew, for sailors who
need a boat, for racers, cruisers, daysailers, charterers and
boat swappers, at all levels of expertise. If you’re a racer,
the deadline to get your form in is February 15, as the racing
list will be published in the March issue. Everyone else has
until March 15, as the ‘big’ crew list comes out in the April
issue. To get started, pick up a copy of Latitude or go to our Crew List pages online.
And while you’re thinking about it, mark your calendars now
for the Spring
Crew List Party. The date for this fun event, which is open
to everyone (and sometimes it seems like everyone is there!)
has been changed to Tuesday, April 10. As always, we will
pack the ballroom at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon from
6-9 pm with sailors of every stripe.
Most racing on the Bay requires lots of bodies. Photo Latitude/Richard
Racing
The Race Update
January 9 – Atlantic Ocean
Stuck in the dreaded Doldrums, ‘Club Med’ and ‘Team Adventure’,
the two leaders in The Race, are steering a zigzag course to
exploit the slightest breeze and dodge the squalls. Their objective
is to make progress at all costs, as far as possible heading
south.
‘Club Med’ is sailing at about 8 kts, no comparison with the
20-25 knot average of ‘Innovation Explorer’ who adopted a more
westerly strategy. If the leading three maintain their present
speeds, ‘Innovation Explorer’ could catch the first two in the
next eight hours, although she would still be 270 miles to their
west.
The stakes are high: the first to escape the Doldrums will
have the advantage of the southeasterly trade winds which will
let them pull away from the other giant cats.
Skating along at 18.7 knots, ‘PlayStation’ is tracking ‘Innovation
Explorer’ at a distance of 475 miles. ‘Warta-Polpharma’ is steadily
passing to the east of the Cape Verde Islands. ‘Team Legato’,
heading into the wind, is making slow progress at 5 kts.
In the nine days since the start of The
Race, the current leader, Club Med, has encountered a
variety of weather conditions. Photos Courtesy The Race/France Telecom
Vendée Globe Update
January 9 – Pacific Ocean
Vendée Globe around-the-world alone race leader, Michel
Desjoyeaux on ‘PRB’, this morning lay just 355 miles from Cape
Horn and was still finding himself propelled along by favorable
winds to maintain a 13-kt average speed. He expects to round
the Horn tomorrow afternoon (January 10). This will be his first
solo rounding, although he passed the Cape during the Whitbread
as crew on board ‘Côte d’Or’. “Last time it was dark
and we were further offshore. This time I hope to pass near it
as I have a fascination about actually seeing this famous rock.”
Ellen MacArthur of ‘Kingfisher’, in second place, is about
500 miles behind Desjoyeaux.
After having a terrible time aground, Yves Parlier phoned
his shore team today to indicate that he has successfully floated
‘Aquitaine Innovations’ again after running her aground. While
beached on a sand bar at a South Pacific island, Parlier filed
this report: “I’ve run aground and been battling with my
anchors since this morning. I hope to get myself off by 0200
hrs local time it’s 2200 hrs right now. My keel bulb is
resting on the silty sand bed. My mistake was to want to get
back into the river and now I’ll have to go further inshore as
it’s deeper. I re-anchored this morning with my main anchor and
about 300 meters of rope. I pulled up my little anchor using
a piece of the mast and some small rocks. I threw one end towards
land where there was more depth. I shall be able to pull myself
over in order to get off the bed.”
“I’ve been sunk nearly twice in my raft. The end of the
anchor was stuck in the bed. I managed to pull it out without
diving but when I tried to pull vertically I fell out of the
raft. Trying to anchor the boat was hell, just impossible to
get it to hold. Thankfully I ran aground on the sandy instead
of rocky side.
“The one plus point is that I’ve opened my mussels for
dinner tonight. They’re larger than my hand span, like mangoes.
I gathered ten in one minute.
“There’s a journalist on one solitary boat out here.
Thierry Martinez (a French photographer) is also there taking
the odd
picture. But this place is entirely wild. The only trace of civilization
is a wall. There was a gate here until around 1940. The vegetation
is totally unfamiliar: dense and richly green. You’d need a machete
to tour around this island, but if you like shellfish it’s paradise!”
More that 350 sailors, from 16 colleges and 45 high schools,
competed in the 2001 Rose Bowl Regatta over the weekend in Long
Beach, California. The event, co-hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht
Club, the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the University of
Southern California Sailing Team, was sailed on two venues on
Alamitos Bay.
In collegiate action, St. Mary’s College of Maryland eked out
a one-point win against Dartmouth College of Hanover, NH; UC Santa
Barbara took third.
The 45 high schools, all from California, were divided into
two groups. Coronado High School of Coronado, with an “A”
team of Brian Haines and Blaire Herron and a “B” team
of Mikee Anderson-Mitterling and Lauren Usrey, were first in the
24-school Gold Division. Servite High School of Anaheim, with
an “A” team of Ryan Mulvania and Dustin Delgado and
a “B” team of Jamie DeWolfe and Ryan Gautshi, won the
21-school Silver Division. A local note: in the High School Gold
Division, Marin Catholic took fifth place. For all the results,
see www.ussailingctr-longbeach.org/uscsailing/
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.
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/
The Wanderer reports from St. Barts (where the phones are
working again) that he will return on Thursday with scads of great
photos and tales from the Caribbean.
