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Photo of the Day

August 25 - Caribbean Sea

Today's beautiful Photo of the Day is an unusual one to say the least. As anyone who has been to the Caribbean can tell you, it often gets hot when sailing down there. So sometimes when a bottle of water just won't do, you've got to take a dip. In this photo we see John Beattie taking a cooling dip off the bow of the maxi Ole. His extreme concern for safety is seen by the fact that he's hanging on by both feet. Of course he's wearing a safety harness, but it's one of the new invisible ones.


Hurricane Skirts Cabo San Lucas, Heads Up into the Sea

August 25 - Sea of Cortez, Mexico

Hurricane Ignacio, which sprang up pretty much out of nowhere, has moved up into the Sea of Cortez with 85-knot winds, and is now pretty much stationary 25 miles to the northeast of La Paz. One good thing about the hurricane is that it's compact. As one weather professional reported, if you weren't near it, you wouldn't even know it was there. Nonetheless, it sent big surf crashing on the south and eastern shores of Baja. It's certain to dissipate soon, but perhaps not after working up the east coast of Baja, a popular cruising ground in the spring and fall, and over to Mag Bay, where some La Paz cruisers head in the late summer for cooler temperatures. Besides wind damage, Ignacio has been in the process of dumping 23 inches of rain, meaning lots of flash floods in the desert area. See http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/2003/index.html.


Graphic Courtesy Unisys Weather


Same Time Next Year?

August 25 - Portsmouth, UK

"I'm an avid Bay sailor and Latitude 38 reader," writes Richard Pitt of Sausalito. "While traveling in the United Kingdom this past week, I found an interesting half page article in the August 23 London Times titled 'Yachtsman Hit Twice By Dolt From The Blue.' This piece is about a Portsmouth-based sailor who is planning a circumnavigation, but has been hit twice by the same boat and skipper! The first incident caused 25,000 British pounds in damages, and the second collision caused 18,000 pounds. The odd thing is that the second incident occurred precisely a year and a day after the first, and that the offending skipper was trying to approach the victim to make amends. His rigging once again became entangled in the victim's yacht. Witnesses reported seeing the offending skipper desperately trying to untangle the boats while taking slugs from a bottle of wine."


Profligate at Catalina - Sweet in September

August 25 - Santa Catalina Island


The lawn at Descanso Bay
Photo Latitude/Richard

We still have openings for our three-day shared-expenses Catalina weekend on September 5, 6, and 7. For details, see Friday's 'Lectronic. If you're interested, email Richard. Be sure to include in your email a phone number where we can reach you.


How Long Does It Take to Get through the Panama Canal?

August 25 - Panama Canal

Tina McBride of Transcanal Yacht Services, who was such a help getting Big O through the Canal about eight years ago, says the amount of time you have to wait depends on the season. "I don't see a delay of yachts transiting north in November," McBride says. "You should be able to do it in 48 hours. The delays begin at the end of January and last until about May. By the way, I do remember Capt. Jim Drake of Big O. Please send him a warm saludos".


Pedro Miguel Locks
Photo Courtesy www.pancanal.com/eng

We'll have a lot more from McBride on Canal transits, including the new fees - and they are ugly.


Latitude Phones May Be Down Wednesday

August 25 - Mill Valley

Our new phone and voice mail systems are due to be installed this Wednesday, and phone service may be disrupted. You may also need to bear with us for a week or so while we figure out our new system and work out the kinks. We're all over our email however, so we can always be reached that way, even amidst the annoying SoBig virus deluge. For links to email for all employees and departments, see our Contacts page.

We've been told that our phone extension numbers will not need to be changed.


YOTREPS

August 25 - The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of weather are they having? The YOTREPS daily yacht tracking page has moved to www.bitwrangler.com/psn.


Weather Updates

August 25 - Pacific Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

Check out this guide to San Francisco Bay Navigational Aids: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/sfports.html.

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

The site for the Pacific Ocean sea states has moved to http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/PacRegSSA.shtml.
For views of sea states anywhere in the world, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data.


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