An unknown schooner, looking lovely, sails out of Gustavia Harbor
on a perfect Caribbean afternoon. Boats such as this are much
appreciated on the island. Photo Latitude/Richard
Joyon Crushes Solo Record
February 4 – Brest, France
Francis Joyon and his 90-ft tri Idec
arrived early Tuesday morning in Brest after completing 72 days
around the world singlehanded.
Idec arrives at Brest.
The previous record was obliterated as
Joyon completed his 27,150-mile voyage just before dawn. He beat
the solo non-stop record set by fellow Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux
in his Open 60 monohull by 20 days. The solo multihull record,
set by another Frenchman, Philippe Monnet, was slashed by 53
days. Ellen MacArthur, putting her new 75-ft trimaran B &
Q through trials in New Zealand to attack the very record
Joyon has just broken, commented, “What Francis has done
is extraordinary. He has set a stunning pace.” For more,
see Tim Jeffery’s story in the UK’s Telegraph at http://tinyurl.com/3hern.
A joyous Francis Joyon meets the press. Photos Franck Gicquiaud / Littoral Ouest
Three Bridge Fiasco Revisited
February 4 – San Francisco Bay
While typing up the results of last Saturday’s
fine Three Bridge Fiasco (see www.sfbaysss.org), we realized that the overall
winner was not Vaughn Seifers and Nick Nash on the Moore 24 Sparrowhawk, as stated in Monday’s ‘Lectronic.
They ‘only’ beat the 34-boat Moore 24 one design class and the
approximately 200 other doublehanded boats. The real overall
winner was actually one of the 33 singlehanders – Mark Halman’s
Hobie 33 Sleeping Dragon, which finished at 3:36:33 pm,
two minutes before Sparrowhawk. Sorry about the confusion,
and congratulations to Mark!
Photo Phil MacFarlane
Profligate’s
Progress
February 2 – St. Barth, FWI
From the various reports we’ve sent, you
might get the idea that everyone who comes to St. Barth by boat
is a zillionaire. Au contraire. Because if that were the
case, it would be a very boring place. Check out the photo of
the three folks in Mistress Blue, a Transat 20. They are
Jim Green, his wife Anna, and three year old daughter Tiki.
Jim, Anna, and Tiki on the 20-ft Mistress Blue, which
they borrowed for their current visit to the island.
A true Yankee from the Northeast, Jim came
to St. Barth in the early ’70s when it was a sleepy little island
with hardly any visitors. Between circumnavigations and his time
in the Northeast, he’s been coming back to St. Barth ever since.
We say circumnavigations because he’s done three of them. You
know Hank Easom’s 8-meter Yucca? Very low freeboard, not
much room inside? Well, a 9-Metre is similar in style, just a
tiny big longer. Green has been around the world three times
in his 9-Metre, which was built more than 50 years ago in Norway.
“You go with the boat you’ve got,” he explains with
a laugh.
When Jim was 47, he passed through St.
Barth on the start of his second circumnavigation. While there,
he asked the 20-year-old Swedish gal behind the counter of Cheeseburgers
in Paradise if she’d like to sail to Panama with him. She said,
‘yes’. She’s been with Jim for two circumnavigations and a three-year
old daughter. Anna admits that going around the world in a 9-Metre
wasn’t always the most comfortable ride in the world. “Sailing
across the Indian Ocean, we were on a reach for 23 days in strong
winds. We were heeled over so far so often, we had seaweed nine
inches long growing on the leeward deck! Jim kept telling me
it was going to get lighter, but it never did. Just don’t say
anything, I finally told him.”
Anna, Tiki, and Jim
With his 9-Metre, Jim was one of the first
guys offering charters in the St. Barth area. There was room
for two people in the main saloon. When he went to greet one
of his first charter couples, the gentleman was in a wheelchair.
Jim makes the best of any situation, and the couple even came
back for a second charter.
Jim has known some bad times on the island,
too. St. Barth has always had the most basic health care. Indeed,
even today there is no trauma center, and it’s illegal for babies
to be born on the island. Many years ago, a friend of Jim’s had
a heart attack and was in immediate danger of dying. It was dark,
and the island’s already dangerous runway had no lights. But
it was a life and death situation, so a pilot volunteered, and
took off with the patient, a doctor, and the patient’s seven-months
pregnant wife. The pilot must have lost the horizon, for the
plane plunged into the bay at the end of the runway, killing
everyone. Good times and bad times, Jim’s known them all. If
all goes well, you’ll be able to read about them in the March
1 edition of Latitude
38.
If we’re a little bit bushed, we attribute
it to the fact that Chris and Carolyn Bridge, and more importantly
their three little rascals, were back at St. Barth with their
Outremer 55 Light Cheval from Corona del Mar. The two
oldest kids, Tristan and Ethan, who are about to enter first
grade and kindergarten respectively, went boogie-boarding with
us at Grand Saline, accompanied by their dad. Despite what were
overhead waves for them, they were relentless in their fun, both
when getting fun rides and when getting pummeled. We could hardly
keep the pace. They are not only very knowledgeable in the water,
they are very knowledgeable in general, too. When they were home
over the winter, Carolyn had their teachers for the upcoming
year evaluate their status relative to their peers. She was told
that the kids were far advanced. Maybe it has something to do
with all the reading instead of watching television, and the
world experience cruising in Europe and in the Caribbean. And
then there’s little Cheyenne, who is about two years old. What
a little cutie! We haven’t gotten such wonderful hugs since our
daughter Lauren was that age. We hated to see them leave the
next day, but mom and the kids have to fly home in 10 days to
get the kids back in real school, while Chris is joined by some
friends for the trip through the Canal and back to California. Bon voyage to them all!
Ethan, left, and Tristan, right, climb a tree in Gustavia.
Cheyenne bags some apples at the grocery.
Tristan’s collection of dragon art
As for us aboard Profligate, we’re
about to leave St. Barth for a few days. Even though we’re leaving
in half an hour, we haven’t decided whether we’re sailing to
Anguilla, St. Martin, or St. Kitts. So many delicious choices.
February 4 – St. Barth, FWI
Our apologies because our Monday report
didn’t make the Monday ‘Lectronic
Latitude. We’d saved and sent our document to the office
as a Word file rather than ‘text only’, and that made a mess
of everything. In any event, we decided to sail over to St. Kitts.
But before we could leave, Glenn Harman of Santa Cruz rushed
over from the Catana 47 catamaran La Vie en Rose that
he’s been running for the last year or so. “I’m glad to
hear you’ll be doing the Heineken in early March,” he said,
“because we’ll be racing in it again this year with the
Catana. Last year we were in the same division as Steve Fossett’s PlayStation, so it was really exciting at the starting
line. We corrected out in front of them. This Catana 47 is a
really fast boat.” We’re really looking forward to the Heinie,
as we know for sure that John Haste’s Perry 52 Little Wing,
the Atlantic 55 Rocketeer, La Vie en Rose, Profligate,
and a bunch of other cruising cats will be there. Doña
de Mallorca tells us there is one more slot for a couple on Profligate
for the Heinie/St. Barth week in early March, so if you’re interested, email her.
We’d darn near made it out of the harbor,
when there was a couple waving from the bow of another boat,
and the woman was wearing a Some Like It Hot T-shirt from the
Baja Ha-Ha. As we jibed and tacked around their boat, they yelled
out that they were Bob and Kristen from the ’99 Ha-Ha on Nai’a,
which appeared to be a Swan 53. “We’ve been in the Caribbean
for three years,” they yelled, “and haven’t been able
to leave.” We made plans to meet up later this week. We
had a fine close reach followed by a broad reach over to St.
Kitts in about 13 knots of wind with flat seas. In the close
reach, we were doing 9s and 10s, then for the broad reach we
hit 12s, 13s, and 14s with the little screecher. It was so sweet,
making us understand why Bob and Kristen have been down here
for three years. We enjoyed the scenery so much on the leeward
side of the island that we didn’t reach Basseterre until well
after dark, which is really stupid, of course. Nonetheless, we
managed to dodge all the ship mooring buoys to drop the hook.
A short time later, we got the perfect present – a big squall
to wash down the boat.
Landfall at St. Kitts, with the cane fields in the foreground
and the rain forest and volcano crater behind.
The next morning we woke up and looked
out the port to see . . . the spanking new Queen Mary 2,
which is on her first or second cruise ever. She’s either the
longest or the biggest or the somethingest cruise ship in the
world. She’s got the same color scheme as the Queen Mary
in Long Beach. Now we’re off to check out the monkeys and some
tree that is supposedly almost one acre in size!
The QM2
Photos Latitude/Richard
Berkeley YC Midwinters
February 4 – Berkeley Circle
[We intended to run this story in the February
issue of Latitude 38, but somehow it ended up on the cutting-room
floor. So here it is for those of you who sailed in (or wish
you had sailed in) January’s Berkeley Midwinters.]
Berkeley YC’s third midwinter weekend,
held January 10-11, unfolded in slow motion. Saturday’s race,
which attracted an even 100 starters, began on time at 11:30
a.m. With winds from the northwest, the race committee selected
‘B’ as the weather mark for their traditional 8.8-mile triangle,
windward/leeward course.
All but two of the 15 starts had gone off
when the breeze fizzled out. With Division A already around the
last mark, there was no way the race could be shortened – sentencing
most of the fleet to a four-hour marathon, complete with multiple
lead changes. Amazingly, only 12 boats gave up and motored home.
Eventually, the entire fleet clumped up
around ‘F’ and sat until an anemic westerly trickled in around
2:20 p.m. “About 80 boats then approached the committee
boat together, all with the sun shining through their spinnakers,”
said race official Bobbi Tosse. “It was a glorious and frightening
sight!”
Sunday’s race was postponed for an hour
and 15 minutes before a light southwesterly filled in and the
35-boat fleet was sent off to ‘E’. Then, of course, the wind
shifted to the west and started to die. This time, with fewer
boats on the course, the race committee was able to pull up their
anchor and motor over to ‘E’, ending the race after one lap (5.8
miles).
Two boats – Dan Hauserman’s Melges 24 Personal
Puff and Ray Wilson’s new Olson 30 Wraith – took bullets
on both Saturday and Sunday, no small feat in the fluky going.
Also of note was that Gary Redelberger’s Tahoe-based Mumm 30 Racer X finally didn’t win a race, falling to a second
place finish in Sunday’s slow going. Other than that ‘lowly’
finish, Racer X has taken five bullets out of six races
so far, easily the best record in the BYC series this year.
First place finishers follow; for complete
results, see www.berkeleyyc.org.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10:
DIV. A (0-84): Racer X, Mumm 30, Gary Redelberger
ANTRIM 27: E.T., Liz Baylis & Todd Hedin
BENETEAU FIRST 36.7: Mistral, Andrew Costello
MELGES 24: Personal Puff, Dan Hauserman
OLSON 30: Wraith, Ray Wilson
ULTIMATE 24: White Lightning, Michael Peterson
DIV. B (87-129): Sleeping Dragon, Hobie 33, Mark Halman
SF 30s: Prime Mover, J/30, Lloyd Burns
DIV. C: Lady in Red, Ultimate 20, Stuart Wakeman
MOORE 24: Old School, Nick Nash
OLSON 25: Hamburger Haus, Jens Jensen
J/24: Snowjob, Brian Goepfrich
MERIT 25: Chesapeake, Jim Fair
NEWPORT 30: Zeehound, Gary Boell
DIV. D (171-up): Travieso, J/22, Jack Allen
SUNDAY, JANUARY 11:
DIV. I (0-87): Sensation, 1D-35, Mario Yovkov
MELGES 24: Personal Puff, Dan Hauserman
DIV. II (90-135): Wraith, Olson 30, Ray Wilson
DIV. III (138-165): Clean Sweep, Olson 35, Tom Nemeth
DIV. IV (168 only): Loose Lips, Merit 25, Phill Mai
DIV. V (171-up): Antares, Islander 30-2, Larry Telford
Panama’s Balboa YC Closes
February 4 – Panama
The Balboa YC in Panama has closed its
rather meager facilities as of January 31. Apparently the land
that they had their operation on was purchased and the new owner
wants it immediately. They gave no notice. The mooring balls
are still for rent and there is a tiny shower/bathroom under
the office at the end of the dock. That’s about it.
In order to fill the resulting happy hour
void, Nancy Birnbaum and Jann Hedrick of Saga have enlisted
the help of the nearby TGI Friday’s at the Country Inn/Suites
Hotel next door. “The manager, Eduardo has agreed to offer
a very special cruisers’ price of $1.00 beers and free appetizers!
We hope all the cruisers come take part. We’ll miss the regular
gatherings at the BYC bar, but TGI’s is air-conditioned!”
YOTREPS
February 4 – 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.
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.
