November 18, 2002

Photo of the Day

November 18 – Turtle Bay, Baja California

Today’s Photo of the Day (at right) comes
from the restroom at the Vera Cruz Motel and Restaurant, perhaps
the finest such facility in all of Turtle Bay, Baja. It’s indicative
of the fact that Turtle Bay, the first stop on the Ha-Ha, is
no tourist town. Just for fun, we’ve thrown in a couple of other
shots of the village, the locals, and the environs.

By the Grace of the Sea

November 18 – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

That’s the name of Pat Henry’s new book
about her life and her being the first – depending on how you
look at it – woman to sail around the world alone. When Pat started
out from her homeport of Santa Cruz aboard her Southern Cross
31 named Southern Cross, she had plenty of things going
against her – including hardly any money and very limited mechanical
knowledge. But she saw what would become an eight-year voyage
as an odyssey in search of her self-esteem after a lifetime of
difficulty and misfortune. By learning to “search for all
the gifts buried inside all adversity,” she managed to make
it around the world despite often arriving in new ports with
less than $10. It’s a fascinating story told in great detail
that we think will particularly appeal to women. It’s also a
terrific book for any cruisers or would be cruisers who are suffering
from self pity. The book is published by McGraw-Hill and is available
everywhere. Henry currently lives with her boat in Puerto Vallarta
where she is an artist – and races aboard Profligate in
the Banderas Bay Regatta.

Route du Rhum

November 18 – Atlantic Ocean

If you think the devastation of the 60-ft trimaran fleet in the
current Route du Rhum from France to Guadeloupe has rattled the
faith of the skippers in the design and construction of their
boats, or dampened their desire for ocean racing, you couldn’t
be more wrong. Here’s the view of Loïck Peyron, whose trimaran
Fujifilm is literally in pieces:

“The windward float is a trimaran’s
weak point, we’ve known that for 20 years, because when it’s
out of the water, it’s not supported anymore. If it gets hit,
it can vibrate and break. We know that we build the floats with
huge safety margins, but it does not protect us from exceptional
events, as we’ve just seen. Fundamentally, the boats are structurally
strong. Marc Guillemot’s floats are strictly identical to the
ones that were on Fujifilm, and he’s still in the race.
I would ask myself some questions if the accident had happened
to me with a two-month old boat, but here, I have no doubt whatsoever
concerning the work done by the architect, the builder, or the
team who improved Fuji all season long. My trimaran has
already covered 10,000 miles, most of them in tough racing conditions.
This first portion of the Route du Rhum has only reinforced my
conviction that Fujifilm is intelligently and perfectly
built, and that she has only been the victim of a conjunction
of bad events. I’m en route [on a trawler] to retrieve Fujifilm,
and we’ll keep on improving her. Paradoxically, I really want
to go back out there as these machines are so fascinating to
handle. I really want to start sailing again.”

Photos Courtesy Fujifilm

Oracle and Alinghi to Louis Vuitton Semi-Finals

November 18 – Auckland, New Zealand

With Prada having already dropped out of
their match with Alinghi, last Friday Oracle BMW beat OneWorld
for the fourth time in a row to earn the second spot in the Louis
Vuitton Challenger Semi-Finals for the America’s Cup. This means
that Alinghi and Oracle, both looking very powerful, will meet
in a clash of the titans on the second week in December. The
winner of that match will move to the Finals, while the loser
will move to a lower bracket to face those who have survived
the single elimination series. The winner of that lower division
will also move into the finals for a best of nine match. Those
in the lower division include Team Dennis Conner, Sweden’s Victory,
Prada, and OneWorld. GBR Challenge and Le Défi have been
eliminated.

Although Alinghi and Oracle BMW have looked
unbeatable, Prada and OneWorld are both formidable, and Team
Dennis Conner’s new boat seems much faster than their old one.
It’s been an interesting series and is getting better.

Says Oracle’s Larry Ellison of the team’s
success under skipper Chris Dickson, “I think Chris has
done a brilliant job. All of the afterguard are working better,
it’s not just the addition of Chris. Adding Chris was hugely
important but all the afterguard are communicating better because
of the facilitation of having Chris there. Everything’s going
better. I had a personal ambition to sail on that boat, but the
fact of the matter is that my personal goals and ambitions have
to take second place to the team’s goal to win and Chris is the
right guy to make those decisions.”

YOTREPS

November 18 – 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

November 18 – 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.