Photos of the Day

July 15 - San Francisco

Today's Photos of the Day are from Friday's last start of this year's West Marine Pacific Cup to Hawaii. If you read today's Chronicle, you'll be told that "software tycoon Philippe Kahn [and his R/P 77 Pegasus] had a great start - charging out of the Golden Gate on Friday afternoon in 20 knots of wind, well ahead of her top contenders." Baloney. First of all, it wasn't blowing anywhere near 20 knots - don't they wish? - and secondly, both Robert Miller's 147-ft Mari-Cha III and Bob McNeil's R/P 86 Zephyrus V were clearly ahead of Pegasus under the bridge and past land's end.

Anyway, check out these shots of the two biggest and fastest racing boats to ever sail out of San Francisco.

Mari-Cha III

Zephyrus V

As for the event overall, 68 of the 73 entries actually started, and four of those have dropped out. Of the dropouts, the most serious is the San Diego-based Ericson 41 Mimos, whose crew left the boat for a ship 500 miles out after rudder problems. Several other boats are babying rudders or having problems.

With only one full day of reports from the big boats, the race is just beginning to shape up. The rocket fast Class G boats nearly died outside the Gate, making only 80 miles in the first 16 hours - a pathetic pace. The next 24 hours, Mari-Cha and Zephyrus turned in runs of 360 miles. Check out today's noon report at www.pacificcup.org for more about the possibility of a new course record and how the corrected times will suss out. By the way, the next time around the Pacific Cup needs to do a much better job with publicity and news updates, as very little is being produced for a very hungry audience.

Mimos

Photo Funnies

July 15 - On the Water

Grrrllll Power

Californian Sold

July 15 - San Diego

The Californian, the California State Tall Ship, has been donated to the San Diego Maritime Museum. She was built at nearby Spanish Landing in 1984.

Bones VIII in Tahiti

July 15 - Tahiti

Stockton's Bill Chapman and his crew of three aboard the Swan 47 Bones VIII had a good sail from California to Tahiti, reports Angela Konig, Chapman's lady friend. Bill and his late wife Diana had done a seven year circumnavigation with Bones. Angela will be joining Bill in Tahiti for the rest of the cruise to New Zealand.

YOTREPS

July 15 - 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

July 15 - 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/. The National Weather Service site for San Francisco Bay is at www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/.

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/Maps/Southwest.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 views of sea states anywhere in the world, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.