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Photos of the DayJune 11 - San Francisco Bay Today's Photos of the Day are of Bob McNeil's R/P 86 Zephyrus, which was out sailing on Sunday. Does she look powerful or what? The word on the dock is that some members of the crew of the great 146-ft Mari-Cha III think that the much smaller boat will beat them to Hawaii in the West Marine Pacific Cup that starts next month.   Photos Latitude/Andy |
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Big Starts on SaturdayJune 11 - San Francisco Bay Saturday will be the San Francisco Bay start of the Singlehanded TransPac, with 10 entries, and the Coastal Cup, with about 40 entries, including such speedsters as Magnitude, the Andrews 70, and Medicine Man, Bob Lane's Andrews 61. |
Delta Ditch RunJune 11 - Richmond to Stockton Light to no air in the first part of the Ditch Run let the ebb get ahead of the fleet and made for a later-than-usual finish for an even 100 boats in this fun-in-the-sun 67-mile run to Stockton. The bigger, more traditional boats got to practice their peels, sets and douses, while the sportboats jibed past on their way to glory, and everyone got to work on their tans in the crystal clear heat. The Melges 24 Trailblazer, sailed by Zarko Dragonic and Don Jesberg, corrected out first overall (the Melgi, including a 30 and a 32, packed the top ten). Second went to John Rickard of the Cheetah 30 Spinout, a SoCal boat. Dennis Bassano and Mario Golsh took third on the Moore 24 prototype, Summertime. For all the results, the full story, and more photos, see Racing Sheet in the July edition of Latitude 38. Organizers' Web sites www.richmondyc.org and www.stocktonsc.org should have results up soon.  Wabbits did well in the overall standings, a clump of them taking the 10-13 positions.  Once past the Brothers, the breeze shut off completely. Knotmeters and True Wind Speed instruments registered big fat zeroes while GPSs confirmed that we were drifting in the right direction at 1-2 knots on the waning flood.  The F-27 Wingit zips past Benicia. |
 The Lt1/Express 27 division catches up to the Hv1/Sportboat division at the light air, port tack reaching start.  Fortunately for Bill, Jeff and Craig on Two Scoops, their crew weight was needed right where there was a bit of shade.  The Delta Ditch Run in a word: Summertime  Sunset on the San Joaquin, and still plenty of wind. The Strait, Suisun Bay, and the river had good breeze, 17-26 knots. |
Cruising East AfricaJune 11 - Kilifi, Kenya "After six months of cruising in East Africa, we're back in the States to visit family and friends," report Rob Messenger and Mary Miller of the Houston-based 46-ft custom cutter Maude I. Jones. The couple did the first Ha-Ha back in 1994 and have been out cruising ever since. "We spent several of those months in Kilifi, Kenya. We have some bad news to report, as early this year Tony Britchford, who had been the yachties' Ham and SSB connection in western Indian Ocean for 18 years, passed away. We sure missed his weather help as we navigated down the east coast of Africa. Daphne, Tony's widow, will still be a friend to all those who visit the wonderful anchorage in Kenya." Within the next few months we'll have a feature in Latitude 38 about cruising Africa. |
Heat and GloomJune 11 - California At times this weekend and on Monday, it was 20 degrees warmer around the edges of San Francisco Bay than it was at Long Beach. The Southern California gloom is in full bloom. Photo Latitude/Andy |
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YOTREPSJune 11 - 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 UpdatesJune 11 - Pacific Ocean San Francisco Bay WeatherTo 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 WeatherLooking 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 PressureThe University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds. Pacific Sea StateCheck out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
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