Photos of the Day

November 28 - Bahia Santa Maria, BCS

Memories are made of times such as this, with the Ha-Ha fleet starting the final leg from Bahia Santa Maria. The 0600 start is the earliest of any race we know of. In fact, the sun had barely come over the horizon before the gun went off.

Kilpatrick Hungry and Apparently Healthy

November 28 - Southern Ocean

Keith Kilpatrick came off Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One entry in the Volvo mid-leg having lost nearly 35 pounds because of an intestinal obstruction. After having been unable to keep anything down for nearly a week, Kilpatrick was reported to be eating everything in sight - starting with the chocolate chip cookies he found in his wife Tara's handbag.

What caused the blockage? According to Rich Robert's article in yesterday's L.A. Times, Tara Kilpatrick says having been thrown violently against the stove might have caused Keith's intestines to become inflamed, or perhaps it was a chunk of partially prepared freeze-dried food that hadn't been adequately hydrated which got stuck. In any event, all of the Long Beach sailor's friends are delighted to hear he appeared to be fine.

Meanwhile on the race course, the racing continues to be incredibly tight. With 1,667 miles to go in this leg, Team SEB has a very narrow lead over four of the other six boats, and Amer Sports One is still within striking distance.

Rich & Bill's Record Setting Adventure

November 28 - Melbourne, Australia

A finish gun fired from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, at 1:29 pm today signaled a new New York City to Melbourne sailing record. The 53-foot trimaran Great American II completed the 15,000-mile voyage to Australia in 68 days, 10 hours, 7 minutes and 52 seconds, breaking a record that had stood for 146 years. American adventurers Rich Wilson, from Rockport, Mass., and his co-skipper Bill Biewenga, from Newport, RI, broke the record of 69 days, 14 hours, set by the American extreme clipper ship Mandarin as she carried prospectors to the Australian Gold Rush in the winter of 1855-56.

All in Just a Month

November 28 - Puerto Escondido, Mexico

"We claim to be the first 2001 Ha-Ha boat to have sailed as far north as Puerto Escondido," report Dave Gilman and Tint Khine of the F-31 trimaran Prime Directive. We arrived on November 16 after overnights at Frailes, Muertos, Caleta Partida, Escuela, and Agua Verde. At Muertos, we traded some Pringles chips for some fresh tuna from fellow Ha-Ha participant Desperado, as those guys were still hooking them. At Partida, there was great swimming and a potluck with Ed and Daisy of the CSY 44 Siesta, another Ha-Ha boat. Agua Verde saw us completely secluded into a shallow cove with a stern line to a rock ashore.

"Though we only used one gallon of gas during the entire Ha-Ha, going around the Cape and heading north required lots of motorsailing! I nominate our 9.9 hp auxiliary outboard as the hardest working northbound piece of gear on our boat, after bravely pushing us through through lots of steep chop, the prop sometimes biting only air. (Southbound, the hardest working piece of gear was the autopilot struggling to straighten us out after we accelerated on the crests of some big swells. Whoa!)

"Puerto Escondido was our destination for meeting friends who brought our truck and trailer down to us, so imagine rounding the corner to the inner harbor to find . . . another F-31! After being the multihull baby in the Ha-Ha fleet, we're freaked to find Al and Cindy Pagel with UFO, getting ready for a southbound romp. Another Ha-Ha boat, Air Ops, the Amel Maramu 46, pulled into Puerto Escondido on the 20th while we were busy de-rigging for the long drive to home. We finished up November 25 back in our parking spot at Alameda, exactly four weeks and a day after leaving. I guess that makes us one of the the fastest Ha-Ha boats to make a round trip - though not exactly a Baja Bash. Have we crammed enough into this vacation as possible?"

YOTREPS

November 28 - 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

November 28 - 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 Winds and Pressure

The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.

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.