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Photos of the Day

August 18 - SoCal

Today's Photos of the Day come from a little adventure we and some friends enjoyed last weekend, sailing from Redondo Beach to Avalon to Two Harbors to Newport. We had a wonderful time, and think the others did, too. If you're a Northern California sailor, you owe it to yourself to partake of the lovely sailing attractions of Southern California. August, September, and October are the best months. It's good timing, because at the end of such a vacation, it's usually easy to make it back up the coast to San Francisco.

Burn baby, burn! We love Two Harbors, the only very slightly developed area toward the west end of Catalina. One of its very many charms is that you can build a bonfire about as damn big as you want, and enjoy it with all kinds of new friends.

Laurie, one of the Profligate crew, surveys the moored and anchored out boats at Isthmus Cove. It's packed on August weekends.

Lovely Fourth of July Cove, one over from Isthmus Cove.

On the way back to Newport, we not only saw another whale up close, we got to watch some World War II fighter planes 'attack' a Victory ship in the Catalina Channel.

When sailing from Two Harbors to Newport, we've generally had good wind in the beginning and no wind once we got within a couple of miles of Newport. This time it was reversed, as we had no wind for the first 2/3rds of the way across, and a great tight reach east along the beach right up to The Wedge. In this photo David of Vegas is driving, with Nicky and Laurie looking on.

While Profligate was reaching along at up to 8 knots in the lightish winds, David and Elizabeth enjoyed reading on the starboard transom steps while taking in the warm Southern California sun. When we had similar sailing conditions the week before in the Santa Barbara Channel, British naval architect Richard Wood, who was along with us, told us, "We get one day a year of sailing like this in England - if we're lucky!"
Photos Latitude/Richard

Why Haven't I Heard About Paul Cayard in the Olympics?

August 18 - Athens, Greece

Because the Star class doesn't start racing until Saturday.

The competitors in the classes that have already started have found the sailing conditions to be troublesome, with light and fickle winds early, followed more recently by meltemi winds to 30 knots that have raised havoc with the small boats in particular.

How is the Kentfield resident Cayard and crew Phil Trinter expected to do in the Star class? Most experts pick the duo to finish about fourth in this very tough class, but nobody counts them out of medal contention - even for the gold. Good luck, guys!

What About the Ha-Ha if There Is a Terrorist Attack?

August 18 - San Diego

"This year's Ha-Ha will start shortly before the presidential election," writes Steve Timson. "Based on what happened in Spain prior to their presidential election - an Islamic terrorist bombing of trains in Madrid that changed the outcome of the election - it's likely that there could be similar terrorist attacks in the United States. Will the Ha-Ha still be held?"

Ha-Ha Honcho Lauren Spindler had this response: "It's hard to answer that question without knowing how severe such attacks might be. If there was an attack similar to the one in Madrid one week before the Ha-Ha start, I expect that we would go ahead with the event. We might, however, delay the start a day or two if it conflicted with a national day of mourning. If there were similar attacks in 20 U.S. cities, we'd certainly have to reconsider and get a sense of the feeling within the fleet. But the default plan is to go ahead with the event."

Calling Chuck Hawley, the Tech Guy, at West Marine

August 18 - Catalina Island

While at Two Harbors on Catalina Island last Sunday, we needed to pour a little fuel from a jerry jug into Profligate's main tanks before taking off for Newport. So we pulled out our brand new West Marine wide-mouth funnel with a built-in filter . . . and ended up with a mess.

The problem, Chuck, is that there's about a quarter-inch high plastic ridge around the base of the filter at the bottom of the main part of the funnel, and no matter how much you slosh the fuel around, the ridge means the last four or so ounces of fuel are left in the funnel. What's worse, now you've got four ounces of fuel in a funnel and no easy way to get rid of it. In order to pour it into the opening for the fuel tank, you'd have needed a funnel for the funnel, which doesn't make sense. We ended up having to pour the four ounces into wide-mouth glass jars, spilling a bunch of it anyway, and are now faced with the problem of how to properly dispose of it.

You know technical stuff is not our forte, Chuck, but what's the reasoning behind the ridge at the bottom of the funnel? Was it a dumb design or is the funnel for some special purpose we don't understand?

The photo of the funnel shows it as empty of fuel as it's going to get. What's with that?
Photo Latitude/Richard

Latitudes Back to the West Marine Store in Honolulu

August 18 - Honolulu, HI

The West Marine store in Honolulu has requested that we once again begin supplying them with Latitudes, and we're happy to comply. As is the case with many other out-of-state locations, there will be a charge in order to offset the cost of shipping the magazines to the islands. If you're one of those people who insists on getting your Latitude for free, that's fine - just move to California. Mahalo.