Photos of the Day

May 8 - La Paz, BCS

Some cats have all the luck. Take Leif, who sails aboard Bill and Sharon Jensen's Seattle-based Pelagian. As you can see from the photo, it's not chopped liver for her, not when there's Mexican lobster around.

The Jensens are currently in La Paz, where they discovered a leak in their bowsprit, and turnbuckle problems, which prevented them from heading off to the South Pacific. While in La Paz, they also experienced the typical 90+ average heat, and came to the realization that they are WWWs - warm weather wimps. As a result, they're having their boat shipped back up to the Pacific Northwest for cooler summer cruising in Alaska and Canada.

The other two photographs are of Sharon and Leif during the ever-popular 0400 to 0800 watch, and Bill with Gregorio Sanchez, the port captain for Man O War Cove in Mag Bay. We'll have more on the Jensens and their lobster loving cat in the June issue of Latitude 38.

Photos Courtesy Pelagian



Yo Ho Ho and Sixty Bottles of Rum

May 8 - Vallejo

Arv Voss, Past Commodore of the Vallejo Yacht Club, sent us this photo of the lucky recipients of five cases of Whaler's rum. The rum was hauled off by the HDA H winners of Saturday's run to Vallejo, the Express 34 Two Scoops. The original concept was to award the skipper of the first boat to finish with his or her weight in Whaler's rum, a sponsor of the regatta. Further discussion resulted in putting the names of each class winner into a drawing to award the rum. Five cases (five different flavors!) was the maximum, weighing in at 210 lbs, and the boat's skipper of record, Chris Longaker, is a big guy.

The actual skipper that day was Chris's less statuesque boat partner Tom Goodwin, the youngest 75-year-old you'll ever meet. Tom attributed the win to good maneuvering at the crowded Vallejo 1 mark and in the last leg up the river, where Two Scoops passed about forty other boats!

The crew took lots of ribbing during Sunday's race back, as every boat within hailing distance shouted out comments like, "Hey, got any rum left?"


From left to right: crew Graham Day, Ken Jones and Jeff Fraine, owner Tom Goodwin, crew Christine Weaver, owner Chris Longaker, crew Sue Routh, and Vallejo YC Vice Commodore/Race Coordinator Bob Hull
Photo Arv Voss



Blair, Joan and Capricorn Cat at Fanning Island

May 8 - Fanning Island

The Grinols, of Capricorn Cat, have checked in with this report:

"Today was a nice day - although it rained about five times. We went to visit the village where we had dinner last night. We took gifts, balloons and packs of Kool-Aid for the children, a file for the chairman of the village to sharpen his saws, and two small drill bits to drill holes in shells for stringing necklaces. I gave the Chairman a watch for his granddaughter - I had bought 20 cute little watches at the Jerrataderas Tuesday market. The Chairman insisted on giving us two eggs that one of his chickens had laid, then invited us to lunch at the Maneaba. We had fritters, deep fried sweet yeast breads, fresh bread slices with a coconut/chocolate syrup poured over them, fish, rice, shredded breadfruit cooked in coconut milk to make a mush, warm tea, and some rice/bean combos. There were just a dozen or so men and children, and one woman who traded most of the stuff. We traded an old snorkel and mask for a stalk of bananas from another native.

"Unfortunately, the anchorage here at Fanning is on the leeward side of the lagoon, so it's quite windy and rolly most of the time. Otherwise it is a nice quiet place to spend some time. On the seaward side of the pass, it is calm and some boats anchor out there. There are two boats here with guys that work here in the saw mill where they make some kind of custom decorative beams and posts for builders in Hawaii. But the biggest export from Fanning is seaweed. They grow the major portion of the seaweed shipped to Tarawa to be processed for use in cosmetics. The problem is the workers make just $10/day while Mary Kay and the other companies make the big money.

"Later we hunted down the Customs and Immigration officers to get cleared out. We are leaving for Palmyra tomorrow morning. We will be there about a week and then continue on to Penryhn Atoll, Suwarrow Atoll, Samoa, and Tonga."


Villagers prepare for an outdoor celebration.


Fanning Island waterfront


Family is the center of village life.

Fanning is a 12 mile by 4 mile island, 1,200 miles south of Hawaii, home to about 1,600 people.

To find out how you can help the Fanning Island Relief Project, or to see more photos, go to www.interpac.net/~fanning/index.html
That's where we got these pictures.



Blast off from Catalina

May 8 - Catalina Harbor

There are only two 'urban areas' on Catalina Island: Avalon and Two Harbors. And they couldn't be more different. In Avalon, everything is neat, clean and orderly. Two Harbors is much more rough and ready. As a result, you won't find the Southern California Rocket Club blasting off in Avalon, but that's what they were doing two Saturdays ago at a clearing near Cat Harbor. If we understood correctly, the rocketeers shot off some rockets that were three feet in length - probably just the size needed to bring down on the jets on wide approach to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. But when this year's rocket smoke had cleared, nobody had been injured.


Photo Latitude/Richard


YOTREPS

May 8 - 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

May 8 - 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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