In the wee hours of last Saturday morning,
it blew so hard in the Bay Area that windows popped out of some
of the high-rises in downtown San Francisco. It blew so hard
that trees were knocked down all over Northern California. And
it blew so hard that a number of Farr 40s on their cradles at
KKMI in Pt. Richmond were blown over.
About a month ago, some 22 boats were blown
over at Asterillos Marina in La Paz during Hurricane Juliette.
Part of the reason they went over was because their cradles had
no feet. But in the case of the Farr 40s, they rest on their
own custom cradles. So to what extent it might have been an Act
of God, the cradle designer’s fault, or the boatyard’s fault,
we’ll gladly leave to others to decide.
There’s two kinds of excellent news from Grant Dalton’s Amer
Sports One in the Volvo Around the World Race. First, Southern
Californian Keith Kilpatrick, who was very, very sick just the
other day, has “been discharged from our onboard intensive
care unit.” Onboard doctor Roger Nilson reported that Kilpatrick
was still very weak and hasn’t been able to eat any solid food
for a week, but he is certainly better than he was before. He’s
soon to be transferred off the boat at Eclipse Island.
The other good news is that Amer Sports One has come from
way back to pull within 26 miles of the leaders. The amazing
thing is that after 16 days of hard racing in the Southern Ocean,
the top five boats are within 15 miles of each other, and one
boat can see three others. As one observed, “It’s like an
inshore race.”
Winter in Mexico
November 26 – Sea of Cortez, Mexico
It’s winter in Mexico now, but judging from these photos of Isla
San Francisco, you could hardly tell. When we were there in mid-November,
it was hot, the water was 82 degrees, and the visibility was
50 feet or more. The only problem was the no-see-ums, which were
wicked.
Photos Latitude/Richard
Sailing in Auckland
November 26 – Auckland, NZ
According to George Backhus of the San Francisco-based Deerfoot
62 Moonshadow, the Friday night beer can races in Auckland
almost resemble the Big Boat Series in San Francisco. He offers
the following photos as proof:
By the way, these photos were taken with
George’s new 3 million pixel digital camera – which he loves.
We love them too, because the resolution is good enough for large
spreads in Latitude 38. If you’re going cruising, do it
with a 3 million pixel digital camera – preferably one with a
big zoom built in.
Photos George Backhus
YOTREPS
November 26 – 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/
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 Winds and Pressure
The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology
page posts a daily
map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.
