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Photos of the DayMarch 5 - Banderas Bay, Mexico In the March Latitude 38, we responded to a reader who asked for a list of boats for less than $25,000 that are capable of sailing around the world. We listed about 10 of them starting with the letter 'c' that have already done it. But what you see here is a boat for $1,500 - plus about $4,500 in gear - that is capable of sailing around the world. She is Christian Lauducci and Ali Walker's Haida 26 Blue Dragon. While they've only made it from San Francisco to Banderas Bay, a sistership of this popular Canadian boat just finished a circumnavigation. Is such a small boat seaworthy? Well, Christian and Ali, along with their friend Derek, departed San Francisco on November 31, when there were 25-foot seas outside the Gate. About the same time that Scott Smith of Loverboy was knocked overboard and lost from his Tayana 37 Sea Major on the South Bar, the young trio were sailing Blue Dragon out the main shipping channel without any problems - other than a lack of wind. In fact, there is so little wind off the California coast during the winter, it took them 10 days to get to Morro Bay. As you might expect, the young couple - both are in their early 20s - are cruising on the cheap. They spent only $16 between San Diego and Mag Bay, and have only used 2.5 gallons of fuel in the 1,400 miles between San Francisco and Puerto Vallarta. We'll have more on them and their boat in the April issue. |
 Christian aboard Blue Dragon in Banderas Bay  Ali and Christian on the bow of Profligate in Banderas Bay Photos Latitude/Richard |
The Race Is WonMarch 5 - Marseille, France In case you missed our report on Friday, Grant Dalton and Club Med finished the 23,300 mile course of The Race in just 62 days and less than seven hours. They actually covered 27,409 miles for an average speed of 18.3 knots. In addition, they set a new 24-hour speed record of 655 nautical miles, an average of 27.3 knots. At the time they finished, the second place boat, Innovation Explorer, was still 70 miles from Gibraltar. Dalton and his international crew crossed the finish line off Marseille at better than 20 knots, where they were greeted by a fleet of 400 boats and 15,000 enthusiastic spectators on land. "We won the race in the passage of the Saint Helena high," said Dalton, "both on the way down and on the way back up, because we were exactly where we should have been. This anticyclone is a real level crossing and we negotiated it well. Another key reason is that we all stuck to the strategy we fixed at the start. The work of our router and our navigator was exemplary. Moreover, we invested a lot beforehand in preparation. And really we had a fantastic crew of solid boys coming from all over the world all with varied and complementary qualities. In fact, the race went according to plan. We knew exactly what we were in for. This race round the world has been for me the greatest in my sailing career." |
 Photo Courtesy Club Med www.catamaran.clubmed.fr/ Dalton had praise for all his competitors,
and said that Cam Lewis and Team Adventure might well
have been the fastest boat, but that the boats couldn't be pushed
all out in the Southern Ocean without breaking anything. He also
said that they hadn't pushed their boat as hard as they could
have, and that the 62-day time can be beaten. Dalton saluted
organizer Bruno Peyron, and said he hopes there will be more
in the future. He joined many others in saying that this event
and these big multihulls have turned another page in the history
of sailing. Ranking of March 5, 2001, 15:00:00 GMT 1. Club Med arrived on March 3,
2001 |
Cruising AustraliaMarch 5 - Sydney, Australia |
 Photo George Backhus |
March 5 - Pacific Ocean
Is America's appetite for cocaine on the wane? Based on the fact that the Coast Guard has seized over 14 tons in just the last six days, we'd have to doubt it. The Coasties' busy week was capped yesterday when they picked off a rusty fishing boat 250 miles west of Acapulco that was carrying 8.8 tons of blow. Eight of the crew were from Nicaragua, one from El Salvador, and one from the Ukraine. Despite seizing a total of 66 tons in the year 2000, the Coast Guard figures that they only stop a fraction of the coke being shipped from Colombia to the Caribbean and/or Mexico, and then to the United States.
March 5 - Cyberspace
"Just wondering, but are you sure the 4,026 'unique visitors'
per day to 'Lectronic Latitude is a count of actual persons visiting
the page?" asks Gary Albright of the J/22 Talisman Banana.
"Or could they just be 'hits', which are often touted as
representing visits, but which can be highly misleading
since every graphic element on a page registers a 'hit' when
one person views the page. For example, if you have a logo and
10 photos on a page, one person viewing the page one time
will register 11 hits. I don't mean to challenge your statement,
as 4,000 hits per day is certainly possible. I'm just a frequent
visitor to your excellent Web site, who happens to be curious.
I'm also a 22-year loyal reader, cover-to-cover, of Latitude
38, and still have almost every issue beginning with six
or seven."
Gary and Readers: This issue arose when we made a mistake in the March Latitude, saying we got 4,026 unique visitors to 'Lectronic Latitude in the month of January. In truth, we got an average of 4,026 unique visitors per day, or a total of 120,809. As for 'hits' or 'requests', we averaged over 59,000 per day for a total of 1,709,522. And we're hoping to attract more. We haven't solicited or accepted advertising for 'Lectronic Latitude as yet, but will permit a small amount of it in the near future.
March 5 - Puerto Vallarta and St. Maarten
Both these events have concluded, and we'll have reports tomorrow.
March 5 - 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/
March 5 - Pacific Ocean
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/.
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.
Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you
might 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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