Photo of the Day

September 16 - New York, NY

Today's Photo of the Day, by Andreas Hanakamp, is of yesterday's start of the 2002-2003 Around Alone Race from New York Harbor, which will hopefully see all of the skippers - 12 male and one female - make it around the world in the next eight months. Of particular interest to Californians are Bruce Schwab, sailing the Wylie 60 Ocean Planet, and Brad Van Liew of Santa Monica aboard Tommy Hilfiger. In the very early going, Schwab was second in class and Van Liew first.

Photo Andreas Hanakamp

Mary Ambler has more details: "New York Harbor was transformed from a commercial port into a spectacular venue for the start of Around Alone 2002-03. From early in the morning, all the Open class yachts were towed off the pontoons of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, where they had been docked for two days after the Prologue race from Newport, RI. With the tall buildings of lower Manhattan as a backdrop and a moderate 10 to 15 knot southerly wind blowing, the 13 yachts set off for their 28,000 mile voyage around the world. As the first boats approached the Verazanno Narrows bridge, fog rolled in and a line of squalls passed overhead. The good weather held just long enough for the fleet to clear the tricky sailing in the channel. Tonight they will be well past Ambrose light sailing along the Long Island coast heading towards England. Times are being taken at the Ambrose Light. Veteran French circumnavigator Thierry Dubois was confident earlier in the day that this first leg of Around Alone could have record-breaking conditions."

For more info and details, visit www.aroundalone.com.

Sail for America

September 16 - New York, NY

The waters off Ground Zero came alive with more than 1,000 sailboats Saturday at a New York Harbor gathering that paid tribute to those killed one year ago at the World Trade Center. The Armada was overseen by former fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who lost 343 firefighters in the September 11 terrorist attack. In what was billed as New York's symbolic rebirth, flotillas of boats converged in the harbor after sailing from the East River, the George Washington Bridge and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Merry Circumnavigation

September 16 - Portland, OR

"Our Hardin 45 ketch, which we've lived on since 1980, isn't very fast for a boat, but it's pretty quick for a home," report Gordon and Joan Mery of the Portland-based Alegre, who have just completed a circumnavigation. "We left Portland in July of 1988, and spent 15 months in Puget Sound and Canada, nine months in the Bay Area and Delta, 16 months in Mexico, and then headed across the Big Pond more or less following the Milk Run. We spent two seasons in New Zealand, one in Australia, then went through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, across the Indian Ocean to Oman, up the Red Sea and to Cyprus, where we spent a year. After four years in the Med, we crossed to Trinidad and Tobago, before continuing on to Bonaire, the San Blas Islands, and to the Canal Zone. Back in the Pacific, we went to Costa Rica, and then offshore directly to San Diego. We crossed our outgoing track off Manzanillo, taking just over nine years for the actual circumnavigation. In all we visited 37 countries, and traveled about 38,000 miles before arriving back home in Portland. We read Latitude 38 regularly. It is still 'King of the Mags'."

Congratulations on your achievement - and your flattering compliment.

Big, Big, St. Francis Big Boat Series

September 16 - San Francisco

This year's Big Boat Series didn't have the biggest boats ever, but with 109 entries there sure were a lot of them - and a lot of action. Today we've got the winners and some photos, and we'll have more photos during the week. For complete standings, visit www.stfyc.com and see the October issue of Latitude 38.

1D35 Class (7 boats): Zsa Zsa, Bill Wright
Beneteau 40.7 (5 boats): Mojo Rising, Brendan Busch
Express 37 (8 boats): Golden Moon, Bridge/ Richards
J/120 (7 boats): Chance, Barry Lewis
Farr 40 (20 boats): Barking Mad, Jim Richardson
J/105 (33 boats): Good Timin, Phil Perkins/Dave Wilson
Transpac 52 (5 boats): Yassou, Jim Demetriades
Santa Cruz 52 (4 boats): Winnetou, Martin Brauns
Americap II Class A (10 boats): Pendragon IV, John MacLaurin
Americap II Class B (10 boats): Chance, Paul Kent

Stimulating Cover?

September 16 - Mill Valley

Perhaps we've spent too much time sailing in the tropics where it's common for women to wear little or nothing on boats and beaches, but we can't get over the reaction to August's cover. We now hear that it was even discussed by Rick Stuart on KFOG's afternoon radio show, who from time to time talks about sailing and even Latitude.

Frankly, we're a little miffed if anybody thinks we were trying to do a sexy cover, not because we have anything against sexy covers, but because they might think that was the best we could have done. And we can prove it. So if you're an attractive and fit young lady with an exhibitionist streak that would enjoy being sexy on the cover of Latitude, just give us a call. Because as Bonnie Raitt used to sing, "we'll give 'em something to talk about." Email Richard.

Ha-Ha Entries Finish Up Strong

September 16 - Baja Ha-Ha World Headquarters

Baja Ha-Ha Honcho Lauren Spindler reports that last-minute Ha-Ha entries poured in at such a pace that they've nearly overtaken last year's number of 132. In fact, if there's just one more entry they will equal last year's 132 paid entries. We'll have a complete list later in the week.

Shades of Secret Love

September 16 - San Francisco Bay

In an incident similar to the one that disqualified Big Boat Series competitor Secret Love in 1983, three of the top boats in the ultra competitive Farr 40 fleet - Samba Pa Ti, Crocodile Rock and Cavallino were all disqualified from a Sunday race for interfering with commercial traffic. The incident occurred at about 3 p.m. behind Angel Island when two tugs - one an 'escort' tug in front - followed by another tug towing a fuel barge, were on a collision course. Sensing potential trouble with the approaching fleet, the two tugs slowed down. The lead Farr 40s - Samba Pa Ti, Crocodile Rock and Cavallino then crossed between the first and second tugs - despite the fact that one or both tugs were laying on their horns repeatedly, indicating misunderstanding or danger. As a result, all three were disqualified from Race 6, which dropped Samba from an almost certain sweep of her class down to fourth. The tug captain reported the incident to the Coast Guard - complete with sail numbers - and there was an unconfirmed report that all three boats would also be fined.

In our opinion, the entire situation could have been avoided had there been a little cooperation between the race committee, Coast Guard, commercial interests and Vessel Traffic Service. Once the situation became imminent, it sure looked to us from our vantage point that the three boats that got chucked deserved to be chucked. We were, however, a mile or so away, so we didn't have the best view. We'll surely have more on this later.

For those not familiar with Inland Navigation Rule 34d, here it is:
"(d) Doubts or failure to understand signals. When vessels in sight of one another are approaching each other and from any cause either vessel fails to understand the intentions or actions of the other, or is in doubt whether sufficient action is being taken by the other to avoid collision, the vessel in doubt shall immediately indicate such doubt by giving at least five short and rapid blasts on the whistle. This signal may be supplemented by a light signal of at least five short and rapid flashes."

YOTREPS

September 16 - 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

September 16 - 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/.