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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.


Photos Latitude/Richard & Andy


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.


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