Pre-Kickoff Party for West Marine Pacific Cup

July 3 - Alameda

The Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda is the host for tonight's pre-kickoff party of next week's West Marine Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Hawaii. That 2,000+ mile event will include entries as small as Robert Ward and Mike Robinson's Pt. Richmond-based Dogpatch 26 Moonshine - which was the overall winner about 10 years ago - and Robert Miller's Briand 147 Mari-Cha III. By the way, that's Mari-Cha, not Moonshine, in the accompanying photo.

Photo Latitude/John Arndt

More on Net Access by Cell Phone

July 3 - Southern California

"I want to preface this with my title," writes Stephen Hollen of Network Operations for Sprint PCS in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. "Sprint PCS has all the equipment in place necessary to provide customers nationwide with high speed Internet access. For example, I'm sending you this mobile from Ontario, but it could just as well be from the Isthmus in Catalina. I will be testing that site Fourth of July weekend from our boat - but no, there will not be a mileage reimbursement. Sprint PCS plans to roll out this feature to customers 'nationwide' next month at the same pricing as the competition - who will not be nationwide until January of next year. So pick whichever provider you wish, but they will be the ones with the limited coverage. A little bit about our system. Yes, it is high speed. My monitor is noting an average of about 115Kb/s, with peaks at 153Kb/s. All sites in our system have the hardware installed now. Sprint PCS.com would be your provider, and you are always connected directly into the network when logged on - which is instantaneous. We - my crew and I - have been using slow speed mobile Internet access (14Kb/s) for over three years and many times at the island. Yes, the graphic downloads were slow, but if you use Yahoo mail, speed is not an issue. Also the price is only $5.95, plus your minutes."

"We use Verizon Wireless all the time on the water here in SoCal - even out to Catalina - to connect 'S Mine to the rest of the world via the Internet," reports Ron Killian of the Catalina 30 'S Mine. "We use a Dell Pentium 4 laptop and Motorola cellular phone - which the laptop thinks is a modem - to connect to AOL. We download weather maps as well as GRIB files using MaxSea, which the Dashews are distributing in the United States. By the way, we'll be at the Isthmus for the Catalina Rendezvous on July 12 to 14 - perhaps Profligate will be there."

Profligate won't be getting to Catalina until after the August 2 Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race.

Baja Ha-Ha Entries To Date

July 3 - Baja Ha-Ha World Headquarters

1) Glory / Catalina 42 MkII / Rob Cline / Benicia
2) Mudshark / Express 37 / David Fullerton / San Francisco
3) Interlude / Deerfoot 74 / The Braun Trust / Alameda
4) Bravado / Elliott 46 / Charles Breed / Dublin
5) Dunamis / Challenger 40 / Dick & Dotti Olsen / Tucson, AZ
6) Wings / Capricorn 48 / Davenport Browne III / Jupiter, FL
7) Sara Anne II / Litton Trawler 41 / Don Mitchell / Sunnyvale
8) Unknown Soldier / Cal 39 / Doug & Josette Schmer / El Dorado Hills
9) Tout Suite / Beneteau First 40.7 / Tim & Laurie Merrill / Vallejo
10) Pacific Jade Seawolf / Hardin 40 / Michael Clark / Ventura
11) Tamara Lee Ann / Celestial 48 / Doug & Tamara Thorne / San Francisco
12) Gato Loco / Seawind 1000 Cat / Lowell McCulley / Phoenix, AZ
13) Mykonos / Swan 44 MkII / Myron & Marina Eisenzimmer / San Francisco
14) Pure Chance / Brewer Cutter 37 / Scott T. Hufford / Rancho Cucamonga
15) Sonsie / Southern Cross 39 / Douglas W. Sterrett / Eugene, OR

So far, 20% of the Ha-Ha entries are boats that have done it before. For more information, see www.baja-haha.com.

More and More Overboard

July 3 - Gotlund Island, Sweden

What's the deal with so many sailors going overboard? First there was an overboard death in the Block Island Race, then four of the top boats in the Bermuda Race had sailors go overboard - but were thankfully recovered. And now, in the recently completed Round Gotlund Race, which is a really big deal, 65-year old Mauri Luukkala, an experienced sailor and owner of Argon, was washed overboard by a wave from behind and drowned. He was the first casualty in the long history of the race.

Meanwhile, in the Vic-Maui Race, a crewmember aboard Surt, who wishes to remain anonymous, did an accidental backflip over the lifelines while folding sails. Thankfully he was tethered to the boat, and was quickly recovered.
Be careful out there.

Vic-Maui Race

July 3 - Pacific Ocean

"With the Pacific High adopting a better configuration at this stage of the race, all boats are moving well, though there are some 500 miles between the leaders and the afterguard. The front-runners are now working their way around the southeastern corner of the High, most of them sailing in increasingly northerly winds of 15-20 knots. Atalanta moved up to first on corrected time in A and Overall. Icon, however, is further down the line toward the finish, with 1,267 miles to go. Renegade put away another 289 miles today, and is closing the distance between herself and the leaders. Mojo Riding, a Beneteau from the Richmond YC is leading Division B." - Peter Bennett, www.vicmaui.org

Can't Point

July 3 - Around the World

If the super wide Open 60s that singlehanders use to race around the world are so fast, how come crewed yachts don't look more like them? One reason is that the Open 60s aren't made to point. In fact, a boat like the one in the accompanying photo tacks in about 110 degrees - not any better than an average cruising catamaran.

Photo Latitude/John Arndt

More Photos from Last Weekend

July 3 - San Francisco Bay

City bound

A cute little ketch lays for Alcatraz

YOTREPS

July 3 - 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 3 - 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/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 views of sea states anywhere in the world, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.