Photos of the Day

July 24 - Pacific Ocean

These photos come to us from Paul Kamen of Berkeley, crew aboard Ariel, Jim and Diana Freeland's Santa Cruz 52, and give a little taste of life 'out there'.

Spinnaker repair team.
Note the blue bean bag chair.

The last yacht still sailing yesterday, Gaea, a Tayana 37, has retired. She is motorsailing and her ETA is this afternoon. Her position at 05:00 HST was about 270 miles from Kaneohe. See www.pacificcup.org.

For more Pacific Cup photos, see below!

Scenes from the Finish

July 24 - Kaneohe Bay, Oahu

The Wanderer, hard at work in paradise covering the post-Pacific Cup festivities, sent us these photos from Kaneohe Bay.

Naughty Hotty hot for the finish.

The Lewises' Spirit at the raftup

Stars & Stripes Raised from Ocean Floor

July 24 - Long Beach

At approximately 7:00 pm PDT, Stars & Stripes, USA-77 was successfully raised from the ocean floor and is now back in her cradle at the Team Dennis Conner training base in Long Beach.

All of the crew are safe and have sustained no injuries. The Team Dennis Conner America's Cup program is expected to remain on schedule, with sailing in Long Beach concluding tomorrow.

"It's too early to tell how much damage the boat has suffered," said Conner. "We'll have more detailed information [once we have fully surveyed] the extent of the damage."

The boat had suffered failure in the rudder shaft area yesterday, allowing water to flood into the hull. Onboard pumps and air bags were deployed immediately. Unfortunately, the boat could not be kept afloat and she went down in 55 feet of water near the south entrance to Long Beach Harbor.

Sea Pirate Attacks on the Rise

July 24 - Indian Ocean

Marek Nowicki spotted this story on BBC News Online and shared it with us. The stats quoted are for shipping, not yachting, but could have implications for cruisers too.

"Indonesia has the most dangerous waters for international shipping, a global watchdog has reported. There were 44 pirate attacks in Indonesian waters and nine more in the nearby Strait of Malacca, accounting for nearly one-third of the 171 incidents recorded by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in the first six months of this year.

"Attacks around the world have risen by 3.6% compared with the same period in 2001, with India, Bangladesh and the southern part of the Red Sea being named as other hotspots."

For the complete story, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2148444.stm.

Yngling Worlds

July 24 - Brunnen, Switzerland

An American team is on top after two days of racing in the Yngling World Championships on Lake Lucerne. Betsy Alison, Lee Icyda and Suzy Leechare lead with 8 points, 10 points ahead of a German team, with 18 points. Three races were sailed yesterday, in an attempt to get ahead of schedule, as the forecast looks increasingly lighter towards the end of the week.

Photo Courtesy Yngling Worlds

Other American teams include Hannah Swett / Melissa Purdy / Joan Touchette, Jody Swanson / Cory Serfi / Pease Glaser, Courtenay Dey / Linda Wennerstrom / [crew name missing], and Carol Cronin / Liz Filter / Kate Fears. Racing continues through Friday. See www.yngling-worlds.ch.

Australian Circumnavigation Record Attempt Aborted

July 24 - Brisbane, Australia

Last Thursday, we reported on an attempt to break the record for circumnavigating Australia by the catamaran Raw Nerve. Unfortunately, the attempt was aborted when Raw Nerve dismasted on Sunday. A shroud fitting failure caused the rig to collapse, thus ending any possibility of continuing with the challenge. A very disappointed skipper Martyn Riley and crew were putting on a brave face stating that they will regroup and mount another challenge some other time.

After the dismasting, the crew sailed 200 nm to Brisbane, unassisted, under jury rig. However, they still managed to do it very, very quickly under the circumstances - averaging approximately 6.5 knots - arriving Tuesday morning.

Photo Courtesy Southern Ocean Multihulls

Raw Nerve is a 56-ft ocean racing catamaran. The current Around Australia record of 43 days 19 hours 29 minutes 55 seconds, was set in 1999 by Kanga Birtles, skippering his boat Magna Data. See www.somultihulls.com and www.ryct.org.au/rawnerve.

Photo Funnies Caption Contest

July 24 - The Wild Waters of Sausalito

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with suggestions for our photo caption contest.

Many responses made a play on the word 'buck' and/or 'doe', as in "Dinghy rides for a buck," from Denis Inman, "Has anyone seen my buck 'n dinghy?" (Bob C.) and "If I had some doe I would have bought a bigger boat!" "Just as soon as I collect a few more 'bucks' I'll order the sail and oars!" (both from Ted Waffa). Some, such as David Lewis, made the 'stag cruise' connection.

If there were a prize for the longest list of captions, Scott Keck would win. Our favorite of his: "The way you look just before Mari-Cha III T-bones you on port tack."

Kudos to those of you who correctly identified the dinghy as an El Toro, rather than a rowboat. Sailing writer Kimball Livingston wrote, "Everyone leads the Bullship for 15 seconds."

But the universal favorite around the office and winner of a Roving Reporter T-shirt came from Vanessa Workman, "For sale: One small boat, under a buck."

And yes, the picture was Photoshop-assisted.

Photo Latitude/Rob & Annie

YOTREPS

July 24 - 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

July 24 - 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/. The National Weather Service site for San Francisco Bay is at www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/.

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/Maps/Southwest.shtml.

Pacific Winds and Pressure

The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For views of sea states anywhere in the world, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.