Photos of the Day

March 6 - Tenacatita Bay, Mexico

What we've got here are two photos and one question. The first photo is of the point at the northwest tip of lovely Tenacatita Bay, which is on Mexico's Gold Coast. The second is of the various palapas a little further in on the north side of the bay. Cruisers who have been to the bay know that if you go inland 100 yards from the palapas, there's a great mangrove-lined waterway that comes out about a mile further east on Tenacatita Bay. Here's our question: What's the name of the French restaurant where the waterway meets the bay? It was originally the set for the McHale's Navy film. We also have a bonus question: Is it true that the restaurant owners got the boot just a couple of weeks ago? Send your answers to Richard.

Photos Courtesy Mexico Tourism



The Race Doesn't Always Go to the Swift

March 6 - Marseille, France

Innovation Explorer, co-skippered by Loïck Peyron of France and Skip Novak of the United States, finished The Race yesterday in a time of 64 days and 22 hours, just two days and 15 hours behind the victorious Grant Dalton and Club Med. Ironically, Innovation Explorer had a faster average speed, 18.45 knots compared to Club Med's 18.3 knots. This is because Innovation Explorer sailed 5,464 more miles than the rhumb line, while Club Med only sailed 4,109 more.

Interestingly enough, sailing too far was just one of the things Grant Dalton criticized the French for in a fine interview with Ed Gorman of madforsailing.com. "God knows the extra miles they sailed on Innovation Explorer - they sailed one-and-a-half times around the world while we've been going 'man and the mark the mark' the whole way." Dalton also said he had to tell French designer and builder Gilles Ollier that he, Ollier, was wrong about certain aspects of the boat that Dalton had his own crew modify. He also drew harsh comparisons between the French and Anglo-Saxon "ethic". He described his Kiwi-Brit group of Neal McDonald, Ed Danby and Jan Dekker as his "three man army."


Photo Courtesy
Innovation Explorer
www.innovationexplorer.com

"When it broke, they fixed it - they were just bloody awesome. The French would be floundering around trying to fix something and these guys would have already fixed it and they fixed plenty. We had Jan climbing free hand inside the rig just to clear halyards and stuff like that, just to get the bloody thing done quickly . . . that's the Anglo-Saxon thing. . . we get in and do the job . . . we don't sit and talk about it for three hours." Finally, in a crack at the French press which seemed to have claimed that Dalton had learned a great deal from the French multihull sailors, Dalton said that racing multihulls was no different than racing monohulls, and that "we learned nothing new." Visit www.madforsailing.com for the entire interview, which was excellent.

Two more things. Italian Elena Caputo, Skip Novak's wife, was the only woman to have done The Race. Finally, the World Speed Sailing Record Council says they will not recognize Club Med's record because it wasn't long enough for a circumnavigation and because it didn't start and finish at the same place. Dalton says that by so doing, the WSSRC ruins their credibility, and he's correct.


Greetings from the Bahamas

March 6 - The Bahamas

We don't often get photos from the Bahamas, so we thought we'd run some from Gene and Marcia of the Manta 40 catamaran Pangaea. The one below is of their boat. The first one on the right is of Georgetown, a big cruising center in the Exumas. The bottom one on the right is of Fresh Creek on Andros Island.


Photos Courtesy Pangaea


MEXORC

March 6 - Puerto Vallarta
Banderas Bay was crawling with wildlife last week, including whales, dolphins, turtles and even a few sea snakes. Unfortunately for the 25th edition of MEXORC, humans (and boats) were somewhat scarcer. Still, 19 boats showed up for 'The Mexican Big Boat Series' - all lured by the prospect of taking home one of the five expensive Rolex watches that were MEXORC's class trophies. At a 'Rolex Ratio' of 1 watch for every 3.8 entrants, this was probably the most lavish regatta ever from a trophy standpoint.

Six windward/leewards, one rainy (and abbreviated) Olympic triangle race, and one beautiful 28-mile distance race later, the Rolexes went to Pendragon (Davidson 52, John MacLaurin, Marina del Rey), Nitissima (R/P 44, Jorge Ripstein, Acapulco), Sidewinder (R/P 43, Ricardo Brockman, Acapulco), Bagheera (J/120, Pancho Guzman, Acapulco) and Azteca (Capri 37, Flores/Myers, Puerto Vallarta). The cantaloupe-colored Nitissima won overall, with tactics by Dave 'Sr. MEXORC' Ullman and his largely gringo crew.

The boat we had the pleasure of sailing on - the Tripp 50 Falcon, on loan to Long Beach sailor Mike Campbell - ended up a distant third in the four-boat Class A behind Pendragon and Sorcery (we won at all other sports, including go-carting, pool, whale watching, and the layday golf tournament). Dale Williams' ILC 46 Wasabi came in fourth in Class A, but earned 'best party honors' for hosting a sunset cocktail/buffet dinner affair for the American contingent at a spectacular four-story, beachside villa that was straight out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.


Wasabi drifting in the Cabo San Lucas
parking lot during the PV Race
Photo Courtesy Wasabi Crew

 

Bottom line? If you're looking for hardcore competition, go straight to the concurrent SORC in Miami. If you want to have a good time (sunshine, cervezas, lots of time for socializing), you still can't beat MEXORC, even in an off year. Turning this regatta back into a biennial event, which we're told will happen after next year's San Diego-PV Race, should help MEXORC get its numbers back up - which was really all that was lacking this time. Check out the April issue of Latitude 38 for more on the PV Race and MEXORC.

We're still having trouble getting a final report and photos from the Heineken Regatta in St. Maarten. We'll post that story as soon as we get it.



Web Site Correction

March 6 - Cyberspace

In the March issue of Latitude 38, on pages 107-108 in Loose Lips, we ran a story about a TransPac documentary - TransPac, A Century Across the Pacific - you can order on DVD or VHS from their Web site. Unfortunately, we misprinted the URL of the site. The correct address is www.transpacificyc.org, not .com. The video should also be available in marine outlets sometime later this month.


YOTREPS

March 6 - 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/



Weather Updates

March 6 - Pacific Ocean

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

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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