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October 11 - Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
It's all quiet today in the Eastern Pacific/Mexican hurricane
region. In some years, there are no tropical storms or hurricanes
after the middle of October, but we'll have to wait and see. One
good sign is that the Eastern Pacific isn't unusually warm.
It's also quiet in the Atlantic/Caribbean. The 'hurricane season'
in that part of the world continues through the end of November,
however, so it's far too early to say it's over. In fact, last
year Hurricanes Irene and Jose, Tropical Storm Katrina, and Hurricane
Lenny all kicked up after the middle of October. Lenny, a real
nasty hurricane with winds to 130 knots, didn't come around until
November 24, so everyone must remain vigilant.
To see what the winds are like on the Bay 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 Eastern Pacific. Check out today's sea
state at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.
October 11 - La Paz, BCS
 Two delighted Mexican boys with their gifts. Photos Bill Steagall |
 Mary and Bob Penney of Capricorn IV from British Columbia, helpers for the Tree. |
| The only Christmas presents some 2,700 truly
poor kids in La Paz received last year were from the Arbol de
Navidad del Niño Pobre, or Poor Children's Christmas Tree,
report Bill and Barbara Steagall, who have lived aboard their
ketch 'Inspiration' in La Paz for 15 years. 'The Tree' is sponsored
by the La Paz chapter of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Each
year Bill and Barbara and other volunteers work to gather donations
- either in the form of money or new or nearly new toys - which
are placed under the tree in the park on the La Paz waterfront.
On Christmas Day, several thousand kids, selected because of
their particularly impoverished situation, get one gift each. If you'd like to help support this excellent program with either money or gifts, contact Bill at [email protected], or in La Paz from after mid-November on Channel 22. The 'Jaycees' is an international organization that's now in 100 countries. It would be a good thing if you helped them help the kids. |
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October 11 - 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/
October 11 - Europe and USA
Activity surrounding The Race, the no-holds-barred around the
world event that departs Barcelona on December 31, is heating
up.
Over in England, for example, Kiwi Grant Dalton and his 112-ft
maxi cat 'Club Med' caused quite a stir when London traffic had
to be stopped so the Tower Bridge could be raised to allow the
cat to pass beneath. She barely fit. They got the press coverage
they were looking for, however. A few days before, they got the
kind of press coverage they hadn't really been looking for, when
Dalton had to appear before a Southampton Magistrates Court for
violating ColReg Rule 10 - for sailing the wrong way through a
traffic separation lane in the Dover Strait! During the incident,
'Club Med' passed nearly 20 ships - several of which felt the
need to take evasive action - at speeds of up to nearly 30 knots.
Two of the vessels were ferries with 800 people aboard. What made
it all the more frightening to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency
and other ships is that 'Club Med' has an active radar reflector,
which makes it appear as though she's a ship on radar screens.
As such, it looked like ship was zig-zagging at high speeds the
wrong way through a shipping lane! Oh well, we suppose any publicity
is good publicity.
After the gig in London, Dalton and crew sailed across the Bay
of Biscay to their new Vilamoura, Portugal, base in a record time
of three days. This was something of a shakedown, as despite having
set the all-time sailing record of 625.7 in 24 hours, the big
cat suffered serious structural damage to her main beam. In fact,
Dalton brought in Kiwi engineers and ultimately spent nearly $250,000
to hopefully fix the problem. The bows were also replaced after
one failed during a second transatlantic attempt. The new bows
are also more round at the bottom "to help the boat move
through the water". As if it needs much help.
If it sounds like there's been a lot of trouble for 'Club Med',
as least Dalton, like Steve Fossett and 'PlayStation', has had
chances to break and repair his boat. Other entries, or at least
projected entries, haven't been so lucky. Of the two near sisterships
to 'Club Med', 'Code Blue' just hit the water the other day, and
'Team Adventure' for Maine's Cam Lewis isn't even scheduled for
launching until the end of the month - at the earliest! But we'll
say this for Cam, if anybody could get the most out of a not completely
shook down boat in an around the world race, it's a cowboy like
him. The accompanying shots are of Cam sailing the 86-ft 'Commodore'
- a former maxi cat which has been stretched for The Race - during
a fund-raiser two years ago on San Francisco Bay.
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 Photos Latitude/Richard |
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