Photo of the Day

November 18 - Turtle Bay, Baja California

Today's Photo of the Day (at right) comes from the restroom at the Vera Cruz Motel and Restaurant, perhaps the finest such facility in all of Turtle Bay, Baja. It's indicative of the fact that Turtle Bay, the first stop on the Ha-Ha, is no tourist town. Just for fun, we've thrown in a couple of other shots of the village, the locals, and the environs.

Photos Latitude/Richard


By the Grace of the Sea

November 18 - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

That's the name of Pat Henry's new book about her life and her being the first - depending on how you look at it - woman to sail around the world alone. When Pat started out from her homeport of Santa Cruz aboard her Southern Cross 31 named Southern Cross, she had plenty of things going against her - including hardly any money and very limited mechanical knowledge. But she saw what would become an eight-year voyage as an odyssey in search of her self-esteem after a lifetime of difficulty and misfortune. By learning to "search for all the gifts buried inside all adversity," she managed to make it around the world despite often arriving in new ports with less than $10. It's a fascinating story told in great detail that we think will particularly appeal to women. It's also a terrific book for any cruisers or would be cruisers who are suffering from self pity. The book is published by McGraw-Hill and is available everywhere. Henry currently lives with her boat in Puerto Vallarta where she is an artist - and races aboard Profligate in the Banderas Bay Regatta.


Photo Latitude/Annie


Route du Rhum

November 18 - Atlantic Ocean

If you think the devastation of the 60-ft trimaran fleet in the current Route du Rhum from France to Guadeloupe has rattled the faith of the skippers in the design and construction of their boats, or dampened their desire for ocean racing, you couldn't be more wrong. Here's the view of Loïck Peyron, whose trimaran Fujifilm is literally in pieces:

"The windward float is a trimaran's weak point, we've known that for 20 years, because when it's out of the water, it's not supported anymore. If it gets hit, it can vibrate and break. We know that we build the floats with huge safety margins, but it does not protect us from exceptional events, as we've just seen. Fundamentally, the boats are structurally strong. Marc Guillemot's floats are strictly identical to the ones that were on Fujifilm, and he's still in the race. I would ask myself some questions if the accident had happened to me with a two-month old boat, but here, I have no doubt whatsoever concerning the work done by the architect, the builder, or the team who improved Fuji all season long. My trimaran has already covered 10,000 miles, most of them in tough racing conditions. This first portion of the Route du Rhum has only reinforced my conviction that Fujifilm is intelligently and perfectly built, and that she has only been the victim of a conjunction of bad events. I'm en route [on a trawler] to retrieve Fujifilm, and we'll keep on improving her. Paradoxically, I really want to go back out there as these machines are so fascinating to handle. I really want to start sailing again."

Photos Courtesy Fujifilm


Loïck Peyron has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean 37 times, 15 of them singlehanded.


Fujifilm


Oracle and Alinghi to Louis Vuitton Semi-Finals

November 18 - Auckland, New Zealand

With Prada having already dropped out of their match with Alinghi, last Friday Oracle BMW beat OneWorld for the fourth time in a row to earn the second spot in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Semi-Finals for the America's Cup. This means that Alinghi and Oracle, both looking very powerful, will meet in a clash of the titans on the second week in December. The winner of that match will move to the Finals, while the loser will move to a lower bracket to face those who have survived the single elimination series. The winner of that lower division will also move into the finals for a best of nine match. Those in the lower division include Team Dennis Conner, Sweden's Victory, Prada, and OneWorld. GBR Challenge and Le Défi have been eliminated.

Although Alinghi and Oracle BMW have looked unbeatable, Prada and OneWorld are both formidable, and Team Dennis Conner's new boat seems much faster than their old one. It's been an interesting series and is getting better.

Says Oracle's Larry Ellison of the team's success under skipper Chris Dickson, "I think Chris has done a brilliant job. All of the afterguard are working better, it's not just the addition of Chris. Adding Chris was hugely important but all the afterguard are communicating better because of the facilitation of having Chris there. Everything's going better. I had a personal ambition to sail on that boat, but the fact of the matter is that my personal goals and ambitions have to take second place to the team's goal to win and Chris is the right guy to make those decisions."


Oracle BMW Racing and Alinghi
will meet again in the Semi-Finals
Photo Bob Grieser/Louis Vuitton Cup


YOTREPS

November 18 - 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

November 18 - 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.


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