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December 14 - Point Richmond
If you're serious about having some warm water sailing fun this
winter, may we suggest the 21st annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta
March 2-4 on St. Maarten in the Eastern Caribbean. The water is
warm and blue, the trades blow steady, and the people are super
friendly. Furthermore, as the photos indicate, you can race just
about anything you want, from a beach cat, to a small racer/cruiser,
to a 155-ketch. And as the fourth photo shows, you can also have
too much rum and fun at night after the races. One of the cool
things about the Heinie is that you'll never see an island in
which the government, people and businesses are so thoroughly
supportive of a regatta. They care. If you're trying to decide
between the Heinie and Antigua Sailing Week, which is at the end
of April, one of the considerations should be how much racing/sailing
you want to do. Antigua is a week of full on hard racing and partying,
so you need a week for the event and a week to recover. As for
the Heinie, you can race for three days, then sail 16 miles over
to St. Barts for some world class R&R.
For complete details, visit www.heinekenregatta.com
- and tell them 'Latitude' sent you. Perhaps some of the photos
below will encourage you to participate:
 One of the big boat entries  Snazzy racer/cruiser |
 There's even a beach cat class  Too much rum, fun and sun |
December 14 - 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/
December 14 - Europe
2001 will begin with some great races. The Race, of course, will
have started on midnight December 31, 2000. And then on January
2, the Cadiz to Havana Race will depart Spain. We don't have many
details on this event other than it's for IMS and IRC boats, and
should be a good one.
Speaking of The Race, a break in the North Atlantic weather
means most of the fleet will finally get a chance to leave England
or the Atlantic coasts of France or Spain for the Med and the
start off Barcelona. Tony Bullimore's 'Team Legato', the old 'ENZA',
is now in the Bristol Channel. Steve Fossett's 'PlayStation' just
left Falmouth, England. Roman Paszke's 'Warta Polpharma', the
old 'Explorer', left France and headed across the Bay of Biscay.
Cam Lewis and 'Team Adventure', which had battled high winds and
big seas, left La Coruña, Spain, after taking on lots of
stores. Grant Dalton's 'Club Med' and Loïck Peyron's 'Code
One' are already in the Med, and will stage some match racing
off Marseilles, the finish line for The Race.
That leaves only Pete Goss's 'Team Phillips' heading the wrong
way. The abandoned Adrian Thompson 120-foot cat is currently 650
miles west of Ireland. Possible salvage efforts will require a
vessel that can sustain the worst North Atlantic winter weather
and be able to cover 2,000 miles without refueling.
In any event, it appears that The Race will have six entries -
and good ones, too.
December 14 - Pacific Ocean
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/.
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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
You can view the University of Hawaii Department of Meteorology satellite picture by clicking here.
Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you might check at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.
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