December 5, 2003

Email Campaign in Support of Dawn Wilson

December 5 – Tijuana, Mexico

Regular readers of ‘Lectronic Latitude
and Latitude 38 magazine
will recall our reports on the nightmarish plight of longtime
Mexico cruiser Dawn Marie Wilson. She was arrested in Ensenada
last April, ostensibly for possession of prescription drugs (for
which she had prescriptions), and was eventually sentenced to
five years in prison.

According to Dawn’s husband Terry, not only are all the charges
against her completely bogus, but the crooked police who detained
her ran up thousands of dollars on her credit card after confiscating
it.

Dawn’s case has finally been scheduled
for an appeal hearing within a higher court next Tuesday, December
9. In an effort to bolster her chances for acquittal, Terry urgently
requests that all who know Dawn please send letters in support
of her good character, via email
to her attorney, Jose
Ramirez. “Now is when we need your help to show the
court she is not alone,” says Terry.

Photo of the Day

December 5 – French Polynesia

Photo Courtesy Interlude

They say necessity is the mother of invention.
That old adage certainly rings true with this French cruising
boat. Med-moored stern to the shoaling edge of a Polynesian lagoon,
rather than to a seawall, the innovative owner simply rigged
his passerelle (gangplank) to an old sailboard to gain
easy access.

Sunny Memories of Ha-Ha 10

December 5 – Baja California

While much of the West Coast is enveloped
by heavy cloud cover and pounding rain, it’s not surprising that
those who participated in this year’s Baja Ha-Ha 10 would drift
off into daydreams of sunnier days, south of the border. Here
are a few reminders of that recent event.

Boat in a Box

December 5 – Great Britain

The novel shipping techniques employed
by Farrier Marine give new meaning to the expression ‘fresh out
of the box’.

Designer Ian Farrier reports that one of
the latest generation of F-33 trimarans has recently been launched
in England, having been shipped there in pieces within a standard
shipping container. See www.f-boat.com/f-33News.html for complete
details. And you thought it was challenging to assemble a little
red bike on Christmas morning!

Photos Courtesy Farrier Marine,
Inc. 

Profligate’s
Progress

December 5 – Caribbean Sea

As of Thursday morning, Latitude’s
63-ft cat Profligate was 230 miles downwind from Antigua,
out in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. She’s fighting the typical
25-knot winds and seven to nine-foot seas, which really hurts
fuel consumption. Even throttled back, it looks as if the best
they can hope for is to arrive at English Harbor on fumes. As
such, they may have to make a quick pit stop at Dominica, The
Saints, or Guadaloupe. The other option is to work straight east
in order to set up a broad reach to Antigua when the wind is
expected to come out of the southeast in 36 hours. On Thursday
morning, her position was 14º 28′, 64º 52′. If you
plot it, you can see they are a long way downwind from the nearest
fuel dock.

YOTREPS

December 5 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? The YOTREPS daily yacht
tracking page has moved to www.bitwrangler.com/psn.

Weather Links

December 5 – Pacific
Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

Check out this guide to San Francisco Bay
Navigational Aids: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/sfports.html.

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

The site for the Pacific Ocean sea states
has moved to http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/PacRegSSA.shtml.

For views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data.