September 4 – San Francisco Bay and Carquinez
Strait
Today’s Photos of the Day are from Saturday’s 25-mile, mostly
light air Jazz Cup from Treasure Island to Benicia. We’ll have
more photos later in the week.
All Photos Latitude/Richard
Mac and Mary Shroyer to Sell Marina de
La Paz
September 4 – La Paz, BCS
“Soon after Mac and I left La Paz for our summer vacation,
we received an offer to purchase our Marina de La Paz, which
has vaguely been for sale for about a year,” reports Mary
Shroyer. “The purchaser is serious, and interested in the
transaction taking place soon. Mac went to La Paz this past week
to meet him and sign an agreement to sell. Should all go well,
the sale will take place at the end of December. Mac and I will
continue to work for the new owner during a transition period
of up to a year, and the rest of our staff will remain indefinitely.
Why are we selling? We are of that certain age when it seems
the thing to do. What are we going to do? Winter in Mexico just
like the rest of the sane people we know and spend the summers
somewhere cool, traveling, spoiling the grandchildren, and so
on.
“Once the year is over, the new owner
can tell you himself the changes he has in mind. He is young
and full of energy. He states that he wants to maintain the good
client relations which we have always worked for, and we think
he can do so.”
Swiss America’s Cup in the States?
September 4 – Switzerland
When Herb McCormick of the New York Times asked Ernesto
Bertarelli, who put up $50 million for the Swiss Alinghi Challenge,
where the next Cup would be held if his Russell Coutts-led syndicate
won, Bertarelli replied, “I would consider the United States
or even Cowes.” But then he confessed it would probably
be held in the Med, which is where he learned to sail and where
his heart is.
Although still a young man, the Harvard-educated
Bertarelli, CEO of the biotech conglomerate Serono, is one of
the richest people in the world. Sailing is his passion. During
the recent America’s Cup Jubilee in Cowes, he was aboard while
Coutts and many Kiwi crew won the Grand Prix division of the
12 Meter racing.
McCormick’s article on Bertarelli appeared
in the Sunday New York Times.
Up the Mast
September 4 – San Francisco Bay
While hanging out on the boat this weekend, we noticed some folks
up their masts. Since our Nikon was handy, we decided to snap
a couple of photos. The one with the man up the mast was interesting,
because the green hills and houses in the background made for
such a contrast. The second photo was interesting, because it
was the youngest person we’d ever seen go aloft – well, semi-aloft
– in a bosun’s chair.
From the Caribbean to the Pacific via
Nicaragua
September 4 – Nicaragua
While it may no longer be possible for typical sailboats to make
it up Nicaragua’s Rio San Juan and across Lake Nicaragua almost
to the Pacific, it apparently can be done in shallow draft boats.
Dale Dagger reports doing it with a 34-ft Vietnamese-style sampan
powered by a Perkins 4-107. There was trouble with the bar on
the Caribbean side and at some rapids, and naturally the boat
had to be trailered the last 20 miles from Lake Nic to San Juan
del Sur, but he made it. He now uses the sampan for surfing charters.
Check out his story at www.nicasurf.com.
Paris Tropical Restaurant No More?
September 4 – Tenacatita Bay, Mexico
Cyril and Vinciane, the French couple who
ran the extremely popular Paris Tropical Restaurant at the old
McHale’s Navy movie set in Tenacatita Bay, report that contrary
to some reports, the fate of their restaurant is in grave doubt.
“If nothing changes, it’s the end
of the Paris Tropical,” they told Tom Hayward and Susan
Hamilton of Limerick. “The Blue Bay Hotel wants to
recover the place. We are so small! In fact, the problem of the
ownership hasn’t been solved. For sure, we think that for the
season 2001-2002, we don’t have any chance to be in Tenacatita
Bay. We have some other propositions in Manzanillo, but nothing
for sure yet. We return to Mexico in October, and we’ll send
more news at the end of that month.”
What a bummer for all cruisers visiting
Tenacatita Bay.
YOTREPS
September 4 – 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.
