Photos of the Day

November 6 - Pacific Ocean

Today we bring you some more scenes of frivolity from the Baja Ha-Ha Rally's sojourn in Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas) . . .

Photos Latitude/Richard & Andy

Golden Gate YC Midwinters

November 6 - San Francisco Bay

After innumerable (we really did lose count) general recalls, the race committee, sans RC guru Jeff Zarwell, got five PHRF and two one design divisions (J/105s and Catalina 34s) started on the Bay's first midwinter race of the season. We had wind (enough, but not too much), sun, and fog, not too much current and no chop. As usual, the clubhouse provided excellent pre- and post-race snacks. We don't have any results yet.

No, Optis weren't racing alongside J/120s, but they were doing their thing close enough to the big boats' starting area for us to take their picture.

Attrition and Carnage in the Transat Jacques Vabre

November 6 - Atlantic Ocean

The Open 60 trimaran Sergio Tacchini, an Italian entry sailed by Frenchwoman Karine Fauconnier and Frenchman Franck Proffit, is returning to home to Port La Foret in France. Their shore team explains: "The duo were up front furling the gennaker when a 40 knot gust came in and the boat luffed violently, cracking the bowsprit, which hit Karine on the head and holed the bow, ripping part of the gennaker too. Franck managed to push the bowsprit back so the boat could continue downwind sailing but then the gennaker unfurled at the top and the boat took off on a surf, and then stopped dead as the bows planted straight into the wave in front. The main sail filled out suddenly as the boat stopped and in doing so broke all the battens in one fell swoop."

Franck Proffit, winner of the last Transat Jacques Vabre, did not hide their disappointment: "We were convinced our westerly position was paying, and thought we had to hang in for just 12 more hours before escaping these terrible conditions! But we have to use our heads here and even if we could have made a stop at Lisbon it would have risked this new boat being more damaged than it already is. Also we have had to cut the lazy jack to get the main down and the goose-neck has broken."

In the Open 60 Monohull fleet, La Rage de Vivre fell victim to a broken rudder and skipper Loïc Pochet with co-skipper Patrick Tabarly abandoned the race. Says Pochet, "I was helming in 30 knots of wind, with genoa and one reef on port tack. I felt a great shock through the boat, no idea what we must have hit but the starboard rudder has just disintegrated." They are heading northwest, waiting for the NW breeze to turn towards Lorient, France.

SME-Negoceane (ex-Gartmore), skippered by Spaniard Javier Sanso paired with Frenchman Eric Dumont, stopped dead in the water during an 18 knot surf, to find that a whale had got itself stuck between the two rudders! Thankfully, Sanso reported no damage. The 'green speed-machine' is currently in eighth position, 131 miles behind the leading boat, Ecover.

Swiss entry Temenos, sailed by Dominique Wavre (male) and Michèle Paret (female), currently down to 10th position, exploded her gennaker last night. Wavre says it is totally irreparable. As the duo were bringing down the shreds, the boat bore away suddenly on a wave and the main sail hit the backstay, breaking the battens. The seas and wind are too big for them to safely carry out batten changes so they are under genoa, staysail and main with three reefs.

Bobst Group - Armor Lux, Bernard Stamm's transatlantic record breaking boat, sailed by Stamm and Frenchman Vincent Riou, has declared that it will make a technical stop to pick up a replacement spinnaker, and no doubt will sacrifice their fifth place in the fleet.

SetraBio, the ex-Cray Valley, in the Open 50 class, may also make a pit-stop in Madeira as the spinnaker has wrapped itself around the forestay and cannot be unfurled, even after a mast climb.

As of 19:00:00 GMT today, the leaders were: Belgacom, Jean-Luc Nélias & Michel Desjoyeaux, 4,148.3 miles to finish, Open 60 Multihulls; Ecover, Mike Golding & Marcus Hutchinson, 3,338.2 miles to finish, Open 60 Monohulls; One Dream - One Mission, Alex Bennett & Paul Larsen, 3,495.0 miles to finish, Open 50 Monohulls.
For all the standings and more news, see www.jacques-vabre.com/pages_uk/accueil_uk.shtml

YOTREPS

November 6 - 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

Two Atlantic Hurricanes

November 6 - Atlantic Ocean

Hurricane Michelle has been joined in the Atlantic by Hurricane Noel. Michelle has moved quickly through the Caribbean and is now at 27.5N 68.4W (as of 1500 GMT). She has weakened somewhat, now blowing at 65 knots with gusts to 80. She's tracking east northeast, and a tropical storm warning remains in effect for Bermuda.

Noel is much further north, off the coast of Newfoundland, headed north northeast, not toward land. At 1500 GMT, his position was 44.0N 48.2W. No storm warnings have been posted for Noel. A newborn hurricane, Noel is building, currently blowing at 45 knots with gusts to 55. Both hurricane regions have 12-foot seas.

To track Michelle and Noel, see http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/ atlantic/2001/index.html. Any cruisers with information on the situation in Michelle's wake can contact us by email.

November 6 - 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.