June 21, 2002

Photos of the Day

June 21 – San Francisco Bay

Today’s Photos of the Day are from Rob
and Lorraine Coleman, who left Berkeley to cruise in Mexico aboard
their Columbia 30 Samba Pa Ti many years ago, and who
have had many adventures since. In any event, they took these
shots during the recent Tahiti Nui Cup in French Polynesia. We’ll
have a full report in the August issue of Latitude
38. The Colemans are still living aboard their Angelman
ketch South Cross at the Ko Olina Marina on the tip of
Oahu.

Tevea slicing the sapphire Pacific

It’s the Summer Solstice

June 21 – Northern Hemisphere

That means it’s the longest day of the
year, because the sun has moved as far north – right over La
Paz – as it ever will. Despite the fact that it’s the first day
of summer, the days now start getting shorter. In any event,
get out there and enjoy it.

If it’s summer here, it’s the height of
winter in Auckland, which is at 38º South. A few America’s
Cup teams are trying to get some practice in, but it’s been very
windy and nasty. In fact, the City of Sail just got nailed by
a storm with gusts to 100 knots – well over hurricane force.

One Reason Baja Bashes May Have Been so
Bad

June 21 – San Diego

Steve and Linda Dashew have just completed
the Baja Bash with their 79-ft Beowulf, completing their
return from the East Coast to California. Steve thinks he knows
why it was such a nasty year for Bashing:

“We noticed abnormally cold water
from about 75 miles southeast of Cabo to Ensenada. 60ºF
right on the Baja tip, 53ºF 10 miles off Mag Bay, and nothing
over 61ºF until just south of Ensenada. This really cool
water would create a semi-permanent thermal low over the Baja
peninsula, and/or the Sea of Cortez, which would reinforce the
sea breeze gradient. This is probably why folks had so much wind.”

We don’t know about that, but we do know
the water off Baja was extremely cold – which is really odd given
that this was supposed to be an El Niño year.
Dashew’s other interesting news is about getting email on your
boat. He reports that he and Linda got a Verizon phone and are
now able to download their email at 19K. “Very cool,”
they say. Anybody else doing this?

Bad Blow in Polynesia

June 21 – Huahine, French Polynesia

Mark and Sandi Joiner sent the following
report from their friends aboard Pura Vida in French Polynesia:

“We left Moorea yesterday evening
for what we anticipated to be a quick overnight passage to Huahine.
The weather reports we received indicated nothing out of the
ordinary, and we were worried that there wouldn’t be much wind
and that we would have to motor most of the way. To our delight,
the wind picked up to about 20 knots, and we made very fast progress,
averaging about 7 1/2 knots. Because of this we got to Huahine
just as the sun was coming up. I thought the prudent thing to
do was to heave-to for several hours until the sun got higher
in the sky before entering the pass.

“As we were preparing to approach
the island, a band of clouds began to approach us that was pretty
ominous looking. There was a lot of thunder and lightning, but
it didn’t look like anything we hadn’t dealt with before. Boy
were we wrong! We had a reefed mainsail and just our staysail,
but when we saw the wind line approaching we wished we had even
less sail up. We saw a line of whitecaps, froth, and spume coming
from about a half mile away, and we knew we didn’t have time
to reduce sail before it hit us – so we sheeted out and waited.
When the wind hit us, we were about as close to experiencing
a knockdown as is possible without actually going over. Our mast
was horizontal to the water and we were perched on the high side
looking straight down into the water. When the boat righted itself,
we were in full fledged storm conditions. Laura managed to furl
the staysail. We had started the engine just before the wind
hit and we tried to point into the wind to get more of the main
down, but the wind was too strong. We did our best to maintain
control and wait for the wind to subside, as we watched a small
tear form in the sail, three battens go flying, and our dinghy
take flight, never to be seen again.

“The winds calmed down a bit after
a half hour and I asked Laura to have a look at the wind speed
indicator. It was still blowing in the 40s!!! The wind slowly
died down into the high 20s over the next three hours as we tacked
back and forth in front of the pass. We finally entered the Huahine
lagoon at around noon in 20 knots of wind. There was only one
other boat at the anchorage and he immediately called us when
he saw us. It was a man aboard his 52′ boat Soujourner who
had left Moorea when we did. He was within a couple of miles
of us when the storm hit and said that according to his wind
indicator, the wind peaked at 62 knots – just two shy of hurricane
force. We’re sure we experienced the same. Fortunately the worst
of it lasted less than an hour. Needless to say, we’re glad to
be anchored in Huahine. Laura said it was about the most scared
she’s been in her life. By the way, Huahine is breathtaking.”
– Bradley of Pura Vida

All Brits at Sea

June 21 – Isle of Wight, UK

Tomorrow is the start of the Around the
Island (Isle of Wight) Race in England, which is expected to
attract more than 1,600 boats. Leading the way should be Tracy
Edward’s maxi cat Maiden II, fresh from establishing a
new 24-hour record of 697 miles. The current course – 50 miles
– record is held by maxi cat rival Steve Fossett – who is ballooning
around the world again – in a time of 2 hours and 33 minutes.

While many Brits think their race is the
biggest in the world, that honor goes to the Italians whose Gulf
of Trieste Race attracted a staggering 1,968 boats last year.
If you think that’s amazing, here’s the real shocker – they only
have one start. Picture hitting the line with 2,000 other boats.
Now that’s Italian!

Not All Irish at Sea

June 21 – Ireland

The same days the Brits are racing around
the Isle of Wight, 30 mostly Irish boats will start their Around
Ireland Race. The record for the 700-mile course is 3 days and
7 hours by the Volvo 60 Toshiba.

YOTREPS

June 21 – 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

June 21 – 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/.