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Photo of the DayFebruary 7 - SoCal Ouch! Susan and Peter Wagner report that a freighter hit a sailboat that was anchored in The Flats off Colon, Panama - which is on the Caribbean end of the Canal. |
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| "At about 3:30 pm on February 1, 2001, the freighter 'Sierra Leyre' pulled away from the dock near The Flats anchorage in Colon, Panama. A tug pulled the bow of the freighter around in order to position the freighter to head to the Panama Canal. The line from the tugboat came off. The 20-knot wind pushed the empty freighter sideways toward The Flats anchorage. The freighter hit an anchored sailboat. When we saw the boats, the freighter was dragging the sailboat. No one was aboard the sailboat, 'Diana', from France. The anchor chain of the sailboat was caught on the bulb of the bow of the freighter. Andy from the sailboat 'Webegone' boarded the sailing vessel. The anchor chain became tight and the sailboat began to be dragged under the bow of the freighter. Andy let out the anchor chain and then cut the line at the end of the chain to free the sailboat. The freighter then went on to catch the anchor chain of two other sailing vessels before departing The Flats for the Panama Canal. Five or six dinghies from other sailboats in the anchorage arrived and towed the sailboat to an anchorage zone buoy. They tied the sailboat to the buoy before the owners returned and reanchored the boat. |
 Photo Susan Wagner "The sailing vessel 'Diana' sustained damage, but the Panama Canal Commission decided that 'Diana' will not be compensated for damage because 'Diana' was anchored just outside of the designated anchorage called The Flats. The Flats anchorage held nearly 40 closely anchored boats at the time." |
February 7 - Ft. Lauderdale to Jamaica
Keith Taylor reports: "Jim Dolan's 76-foot maxi-boat 'Sagamore' was first to finish in the Pineapple Cup/Montego Bay Race today when Roy Disney's 75-foot sled 'Pyewacket' withdrew from competition in the home stretch after leading all the way from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 'Sagamore', a 76-footer designed by Bill Langan, crossed the finish line off the Montego Bay Yacht Club at 6:05 pm local time, this evening after staying in contact with 'Pyewacket' right up until the time she retired. Robert MacNeil's 75-foot Reichel/Pugh sled 'Zephyrus IV', a companion Reichel/Pugh design to 'Pyewacket', was the second boat to finish, 51 minutes after 'Sagamore'.
"Disney, who was shooting to break the 29-year-old race record of 3 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes and 7 seconds, pulled into Ocho Rios, Jamaica, this morning after the fleet was becalmed overnight in the Windward Passage. He phoned the Montego Bay Yacht Club to announce his retirement. Disney said he had run out of time, and a prior business engagement dictated his return to the United States. Two years ago, his Reichel/Pugh-designed sled finished in dying tradewinds, just two hours and three minutes short of the mark, after maintaining a record-breaking pace for the first two-thirds of the race. Today he promised to return for another attempt at the record in two years' time.
"Seventeen boats in two classes, including 12 maxi-boats, started the race to Jamaica from Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades last Friday afternoon. One boat, Marty Fisher's 48-foot J/145 'Strabo' from the Rhode River Boat Club in Chesapeake Bay, withdrew on Saturday and docked in Nassau, Bahamas, after hitting a reef." Visit www.montegobayrace.com.
FINISH TIMES: 1. 'Sagamore' (1805 39) 2. 'Zephyrus IV' (1856 17) 3. 'Magnitude' (1918 38) 4. 'Grins' (2049 17) 5. 'Blue Yankee' (2058 00) 6. 'Trader' (2059 59) 7. 'Carrera' (2131 19) 8. 'Zaraffa' (2155 16)
Skip Allan of Capitola says that 'Windward Passage's elapsed time record is not the only Pineapple Cup record that still stands after 29 years. "There is another record from that same race that also still stands: 'Improbable', the Gary Mull 42, still holds the corrected time record of 2 days, 22 hours. The fire-engine red downwind flyer beat all the 50-footers boat-for-boat that year, and had an all Bay Area crew of owner Dave Allen (later of 'Immp' fame), Commodore Tompkins, Chan Chrisman, Ron Holland, Jim Gannon, Dave Wahle, and Skip Allan. 'Improbable' was a boat years ahead of her time, and still wins races under the ownership of Bruce Schwab's father Len up in Washington State."
February 7 - Southern Ocean
Grant Dalton and 'Club Med' have had a good 24 hours. First they extended their lead to 722 miles over 'Innovation Explorer', in part by sailing a shorter course far to the south. Then they turned on the radar just in time to realize they were approaching an iceberg 100 meters tall and a half mile long. They hope to reach Cape Horn by Saturday, and are currently reporting conditions almost ideal for another 24-hour sailing record. The current record is 629 miles held by 'Innovation Explorer', but co-skipper Skip Novak of that boat says he can see one of the boats doing 700 miles in one day.
1. Club Med / dtf 8,927.6 miles to finish.
2. Innovation Explorer / dtl 767.3 miles
3. Team Adventure / dtl 4,884.7 miles
4. Warta Polpharma / dtl 5,682.1 miles
5. Team Legato / dtl 6,632.6 miles
February 7 - Atlantic Ocean
With just 1,496 miles to go to the finish of the 23,000-mile
Vendée Globe, Michel Desjoyeaux aboard 'PRB' now has a
126-mile lead over Ellen MacArthur on 'Kingfisher'. As a result,
Desjoyeaux says he's keeping one foot on the gas and one on the
brake, wanting to go fast but not unleashing the full power of
his boat. He's in control and playing it smart. Even MacArthur
concedes that the only thing that will keep the Frenchman from
winning is a breakdown.
STANDINGS: 1. 'PRB', Michel Desjoyeaux, 1,496 miles to finish;
2. 'Kingfisher,' Ellen MacArthur, +126 miles; 3. 'Sill Matines
La Potagère', Roland Jourdain, +432; 4. 'Active Wear',
Marc Thiercelin, +616, 5. 'Sodebo Savourons la Vie', Thomas Coville,
+1,343, 6. 'Union Bancaire Privée', Dominique Wavre, +1,360.
See www.vendeeglobe.com.
February 7 - 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 www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
February 7 - 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.
Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you might check out the
Pacific Ocean sea states 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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