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Photos of the Day June 22 - San Francisco Bay Clear skies, warm weather and typical Bay Area breezes greeted sailors out celebrating the longest sailing day of the year, joining in the first annual Summer Sailstice. Sausalito and Raccoon Strait had warm, gentle breezes, but our quick, cool reach across the Slot to the Cityfront required a windbreaker, a reef in the main and a few turns on the roller furler. We counted at least 25 other boats out on the Bay enjoying the day. We headed to the docks at Ayala Cove, on the north side of Angel Island, with several other boats for a shoreside barbecue until the docks closed at sunset. The moorings were full, surprising for a Thursday except perhaps for these long evenings in June. Many of the moorings were hosting raft-ups of two or three boats. We had a steady breeze for the evening sail home, with Mars overhead shining its brightest in more than a decade. According to the Summer Sailstice Web site (www.summersailstice.com) sailors all over the country were out celebrating under sail as well. Reaching across the Bay in a stiff breeze Ayala Cove

Celebrating Mr. Sun Sunset at Angel Island, around 8:35pm Photos Latitude/John Arndt

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A Mid-Bay Adventure June 22 - San Francisco Bay Yesterday evening, one of the hazards of towing an inflatable became apparent as the seat from the Beneteau 321 Bella Luna's dinghy bounced out in the Slot chop. The subsequent retrieval efforts proved fruitless as the lightweight inflated seat skittered across the Bay and washed away with every attempt to catch it. A courteous fishing boat came in to help thinking the problem might be something more serious than a wayward inflatable seat off sailing by itself, but they left with the rest of us as the impossibility of recovery became clear. If you find an inflatable seat along the Berkeley shore and you can get it to our office at 15 Locust Ave. in Mill Valley, we'll get it back to its owner.

Bella Luna and the infamous inflatable Photo Latitude/John Arndt

Weekend Preview June 22 - San Francisco Bay and beyond The Woodies Invitational starts today at St. Francis YC, and the Easom Founders Trophy will be sailed on Etchells out of San Francisco YC. In Long Beach, North Sails Race Week runs today through Sunday (guess they have three-day weeks down there). If you're not into racing, check out Alameda YC's Annual Nautical Flea Market. Catalina 27s are cruising to Richmond Marina Bay, and Ericson 27s are rendezvousing at Angel Island. For specifics, see our Calendar.

This banner over Tiburon's Main Street reminds us to attend the Master Mariners' Wooden Boat Show at Corinthian Yacht Club on Sunday, 10-4. Photo Latitude/John Arndt

So What Time Is It in Greenwich?

June 22 - Greenwich, England

On Wednesday and Thursday we discussed the exact time of the summer solstice, calculating it using UTC aka Greenwich Mean Time. We figured out that here in the Pacific Time Zone, during Daylight Saving Time, we are seven hours behind GMT. We had previously stated that we were nine hours behind, based on a phone call from the Wanderer, who was in England. One thing we didn't take into account: while the official Greenwich Mean Time doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time, Greenwich itself, and the rest of the UK, does. So England is actually eight hours ahead of us, and the Wanderer's watch was only off by one hour, not two. For more on Daylight Saving Time, see http://worldtimezone.com/daylight.htm. For the current time in cities around the world and UTC/GMT, see http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/.

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Mystery Dock Answers June 22 - Sausalito Yesterday we asked where this serene early morning photo was taken. We received many answers, many of which were correct or close to correct. Some said near Anderson's Boat Yard in Sausalito (true), some said Clipper Harbor 3 or 5. A few had the spot-on answer, Clipper 4. A few of you placed this dock on San Francisco Bay, but in Richmond. Larry Mace of Truckee wrote, "I would say Richmond City Marina, which looks nice compared to the smoke in our area." Our favorite answer came from Mark Wiltz of Hood River, OR, who wrote, "The photo is unrecognizable because it is of the Hood River (Ore.) Marina during a rare calm period!!!!!! The only time the water was this 'still' was back in 1994 when the marina froze solid. But then it wasn't flat like the picture, as the 3-ft wind-chop was frozen in motion. The usual view of the marina would show waves breaking over the docks!!!!!" Mark, we'd love to see a picture of your marina. If you have one, please email it to us.

Photo Latitude/John Arndt

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YOTREPS

June 22 - 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/

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Weather Updates

June 22 - Pacific Ocean

Tropical Storm Advisory Tropical Storm Barbara is approaching the north side of the Big Island of Hawaii. Its center is near 16.7N 139.5W at 1500Z today. Barbara is moving west northwest, 290 degrees, at 12 knots. Maximum winds have been 50 knots, currently at 35 with gusts to 45, and 12-ft seas. Winds are expected to lighten to 30 then 25 knots on Saturday, and the storm is forecast to dissipate on Sunday.

Graphic Courtesy Unisys Weather http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/2001/index.html

San Francisco Bay Weather

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/.

California Coast Weather

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.

Pacific Sea State

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.