March 5, 2001

By Grzegorz | March 5, 2001

Photos of the Day

March 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 Won

March 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.

Loïck Peyron and Innovation Explorer are currently
about 50 miles south of Ibiza, and if they don’t stop to party
at that always wild island, they should cross the finish line
on Tuesday afternoon.

Ranking of March 5, 2001, 15:00:00 GMT

1. Club Med arrived on March 3,
2001
2. Innovation Explorer / dtf 239.1 miles
3. Team Adventure / dtl 5,346.1 miles
4. Warta Polpharma / dtl 6,077.3 miles
5. Team Legato / dtl 8,774.5 miles

Cruising Australia

March 5 – Sydney, Australia

“Attached is a photo of one of the spots where we were hanging
out for the last couple of weeks,” reports George Backhus
of the Deerfoot 62 Moonshadow. “Is this spot gorgeous
or what! This little cove is on Smith’s Creek off of Broken Bay
in the Kuring Gai Chase National Park. According to the GPS,
this mooring is only 12.7 nautical miles from the Central Business
District of Sydney! The wildlife is awesome, and during
the week – when the personal watercraft are sitting safely in
the garage – the quiet is almost deafening.”

Photo George Backhus

This
Is a Bust!

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.

Unique Visitors or Just Hits

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.

MEXORC
and Heineken St. Maarten Regatta

March 5 – Puerto Vallarta and St. Maarten

Both these events have concluded, and we’ll have reports tomorrow.

YOTREPS

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/

Weather Updates

March 5 – 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 Sea State

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.

Top

 / Index of

Stories / Subscriptions

/ Classifieds

/ Home