Yesterday being Sunday, the day of rest,
we got an early start on the fun. The first order of business
was getting a couple of photos of Moonshine, John and
Lynn Ringseis’ new Lagoon 41 catamaran, on which they are about
to start doing crewed charters here in the Eastern Caribbean.
Moonshine on a romp in the Caribbean off St.Barth.
We met John and Lynn a couple of days after
arriving in St. Barth, and were surprised to learn they are from
Bel Marin Keys in Novato. Having since become good friends, we
learned that they’ve done two tours of duty crewing on charter
boats for The Moorings. The first session was in the British
Virgins Islands aboard a monohull. It was a lot of fun, but it’s
very hard work, so like a lot of folks they got burned out. What
lured them back two years ago was friends telling them how much
easier the job is aboard a catamaran. So they returned for a
second session, this time aboard a Moorings 45 cat down island.
Although they burned out again after a season of this, they learned
that chartering was indeed a lot easier on a cat.
After taking a break from sailing for a
year, they decided the really cool way to live life would by
sailing in the Caribbean seven months a year, chartering some
of the time, then returning to their Bel Marin Keys home for
the remaining five months of the year. This, they figured, would
be much more interesting than leading a comfortably retired life
12 months a year in Marin. Lynn was actually the big instigator
behind the idea. She got her start sailing after hitchhiking
around Europe with her boyfriend. At age 22, with no sailing
experience, the two of them joined four others on a Gib Sea 33
– what a crowded boat – in Marseilles for a 4,000 mile trip to
the Caribbean. “We had a blast!”
A year ago the couple started looking at
every cat in the world to find the ideal one for them. After
detailed investigations, their choice somewhat surprised them
– a new Lagoon 41. They picked her up in La Rochelle, France,
and spent the summer cruising the Atlantic coast of France and
Spain – where, they assured us, it can be every bit as foggy
as the coast of Northern California. Late in the year, joined
by a couple of friends, they sailed across the Atlantic to the
Caribbean. Although they expect to do most of their chartering
in the British Virgins because it’s such a natural, they’ve spent
most of their time in St. Barth. “We hate to have to leave
this place.”
We get ourselves in such ruts that it’s hard to remember it’s
possible to enjoy life in January – such as on a charter cat
like Moonshine.
These folks are instantly likable, are
very experienced with crewed charters, and know the great cruising
grounds and activities – so we would highly recommend them. They
can take as many as six guests, but plan on specializing in taking
between two and four. For more details, visit their website at www.moonshinecat.com.
Lynn is a real sweetheart, and is great in the galley. You should
taste her Painkiller Pancakes the morning after a wild jump up.
John, at the helm of Moonshine.
Well, that took care of until about 11
a.m, when the Wanderer and Doña de Mallorca found Profligate
pointing at 28-mile distant Saba, which looks like a steep
pyramid pointing out of the ocean. We’ll have more details on
this unique island in the print version of Latitude
38. It was a brisk screecher reach to the island, with
lots of 13s and 14s on a bouncy sea, followed by a slow sail
around the leeward side of the island, then a beat back, initially
in the direction of St. Barth. In the early going, we were able
to lay the island and there was good wind. Alas, halfway back,
the wind dropped to seven knots and we took a big header. When
darkness fell at 7 p.m., we were still eight miles to leeward
of St. Barth, but decided it was best to drop the sails and motor
the rest of the way back. It turned out to be a good call, as
20 minutes later we were hit by the first of a series of nasty
squalls in the pitch black.
Saba pronounced Say-Bah – juts right out of the ocean and
almost always wears a halo.
The old customs house at Saba. Check out the stairs.
Only a couple of miles in diameter, Saba is 3,000 feet tall.
Saba is world renowned for great diving -and a bad anchorage.
To give you some reference, the mast of this Perini Navi is nearly
200 feet tall.
In the past we’ve questioned the usefulness
of navigation programs such as Nobeltec. We’re changing our minds.
Although we didn’t need it last night, it would have made things
a lot easier – and therefore safer.
Despite the squalls, darkness, and unlit
boats, we dropped the hook perfectly in the best spot in the
whole damn harbor. Très bon! After sleeping like
a rock, we awoke to a dawn as lovely as could be. There’s nothing
quite like an early morning dive into the warm and clear Caribbean
to take the sting out of January.
After a night of squalls, it’s another beautiful Caribbean morning.
Now all we have to do is find our crew
John. Last we heard, he had hopped aboard the 65-ft classic Lone
Fox yesterday morning when he learned there were a bunch
of models aboard for a fashion shoot. Ah, life in the Sunny Caribbee!
Mystery question of the day: It’s been
3.5 months, 4,500 miles, and two emergency haulouts since Profligate
last had her bottom painted – and there’s been absolutely nothing
that has grown on her bottom. Why is that? The same, obviously,
can’t be said for her dinghy, which was hauled yesterday for
a bottom scrub. That leads to question number two. It is better
to lift the dinghy and scrub once a week, or put bottom paint
on her?
That’s one nasty bottom, which wastes gas and prevents planing. Photos Latitude/Richard
For crewing possibilities on Profligate
in the Caribbean this winter, see the end of the January
5 edition of ‘Lectronic Latitude.
Conserving Mexico’s Marine Life
January 12 – La Paz, BCS
Gene Kira writes a Baja Beat column each
week in Western Outdoor News, a weekly newspaper for hunters
and fishermen. He reports in that publication: “A
wave of euphoria swept through the Baja conservation community
last week, in the wake of a watershed visit to La Paz and Cabo
San Lucas by Mexico’s newly appointed fisheries chief, Ramón
Corral Ávila.
Ramón Corral Ávila.
Photo courtesy El Peninsular
“In a series of public and private
meetings lasting far into the night, Corral Ávila broke
new ground when he declared for the first time ever that the
official policy of Conapesca would henceforth include:
Banning of drift gillnets in all Mexican waters.
Banning longlines inside 50 miles by boats longer than 27 feet.
Banning of foreign factory ships from Mexican waters.
Banning ‘shark research’ boats from taking dorado, billfish and
other gamefish as ‘bycatch’ inside 50 miles.
“One highly-placed source in Mexico
said last week, ‘Baja California Sur is the only state in Mexico
that cares about conservation, because it is the only state whose
economy is based on sportfishing and tourism. In every other
state, even Baja California, the northern state, nobody gives
a damn.’
“As evidence of this statement’s veracity, I offer the city
of Ensenada, gateway to Mex 1 and the Baja California peninsula,
which has become a port of convenience for foreign ships plundering
the Mexican coast with gillnets and longlines. Or, the state
of Sinaloa, overwhelmed by outlaw shrimp pangas, or the city
of Acapulco, whose public fish markets are filled to overflowing
with sailfish – stacked like cordwood, every morning, everywhere
you look.
“One fervently hopes that the new
head of Conapesca can actually deliver even just a portion of
what he appeared to offer. Even that much would be an auspicious
beginning of a new era of sustained, coordinated management of
Mexico’s marine resources for the equitable benefit of all its
citizens.”
YOTREPS
January 12 – 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.
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.
