March 29, 2002

Photo of the Day

March 29 –
San Francisco
Bay Area

Today’s Photo of the Day is of the new
Latitude 38, which is hitting the stands today. In one
sense, it’s our 25th anniversary issue, because we started this
month 25 years ago. In another sense, our 25th anniversary won’t
be for another two months, as we skipped two December issues
in the early days. So we’re going to ‘smear’ our anniversary
over the next few months. Included in this month’s edition is
the 48-page four-color guide to Pacific Sail Expo in Oakland
April 17-21. Check it out.

Photo Latitude/Chris

Maverick
in Egypt

March 29 – Red Sea

The first boats to have sailed up the Red
Sea since 9/11 seem not to have run into an unusual problems.
Tony Johnson and Terry Shrode of the Richmond-based Ericson 39
Maverick are among them. They’re now safe and resting
in Egypt, but describe what it was like during the worst of the
always rough Red Sea passage:

“It was blowing a full gale. What’s
that like? Well, with fairly regular seas, it’s not that much
of a problem. You don’t like it, because even though you’re reefed
and the rig isn’t likely to fail, the sheets are hard as rebar
and the strain on what’s left of the sails is worrisome – particularly
when a wave changes the boat’s angle to the wind and some flogging
results. The seas get pretty big, and once in a while will break
aboard, though that night not more than 10 gallons ever occupied
the cockpit. One particularly high one caught the foot of the
jib and caused the furling line to part, which created a bit
of a hassle for a while, but we managed to save the sail. You’d
kind of stare in awe when one of the steep, bigger guys came
rolling your way, like a wall 15 feet high, looking quite deadly.
But then Maverick would just sort of magically levitate
herself right over the top of it, no problema. The violence
of the scene and the sound is a bit viscerally stressful, but
intellectually you know that you’re pretty certain to be OK.”

Orange
Finally on a Southern Ocean Conveyor Belt

March 29 – Southern Ocean

You could hear real relief in the voices
of Bruno Peyron and Gilles Chiorri during the chat session today,
Friday March 29. Indeed, the maxi-catamaran Orange has
at last found normal sailing conditions in the fickle Southern
Ocean – that’s to say a reaching wind of 30/35 knots and a tidier
sea pushing them from astern.

“We have a steady flow allowing us
to speed,” declared Bruno. “But above all it’s going
to continue tidying up the sea. It’s going to do us all good,
both the boys and the boat!”

And while the giant is still 300 miles
to the north of Olivier de Kersauson’s route, Bruno doesn’t think
they will be able to catch that up in the next few hours:
“We’ve a huge low to the southeast of our route, and we
risk encountering extremely heavy seas again. So we did a bit
of northeast in the night to slightly distance us from the center
of the low, and now we’re back on a due east route. Moreover,
we know that for us the best winds are 30/35 knots, and that’s
what we’ve got right now.”

There’s nothing like excess speed to make
for a relatively relaxed skipper and crew. After 27 days, Orange
has sailed 1,955 miles further than Sport Elec, the current
Jules Verne record holder.

YOTREPS

March 29 – 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 29 – 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 has moved
to 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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.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 another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.