'Lectronic Index

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Photo of the Day

August 22 - Pacific Ocean

Photo John Richards

Today's Photo of the Day was taken on July 31 at 39N, 153W, which, if you don't have a chart handy, is about halfway between Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. The boat in the photo is Moondance, only identified as belonging to "Arnold of Grass Valley, CA." Arnold was on his way from Hawaii to Monterey, had already been out 15 days, was in a massive Pacific High which of course has no wind, and was down to his last 25 gallons of fuel. So when Paul Biery and crew of the Emeryville-based Catana 431 New Focus happened along on his way between Maui and Seattle, they were happy to pass along some extra fuel. You can see the orange jug in the photo being dragged from New Focus by a line. It really was light in that part of the North Pacific, as when New Focus got to Seattle, a sailmaker told him that he had two friends "1,000 miles out and going nowhere" trying to deliver a TransPac boat back to the mainland.

As for New Focus, she made it from Maui to San Juan de Fuca in 17 days, averaging a very respectful 152 miles a day in mostly light going. But her crew is interested to learn if Moondance has made landfall yet.

Fish Head at No Extra Charge

August 22 - Pacific Ocean

The mid-ocean refueling reminds us of a time we did a Long Beach to Cabo Race aboard a Nelson/Marek 55 sled. It was so light that year that we spent days on end doing two and three knots. By the time we got to Guadalupe Island - then a mark on the course - we were going to have to motor at full speed just to make the awards (ha, ha, ha) ceremony. The only problem was we only had a few gallons of fuel. Fortunately, we happened by a Mexican fishing trawler. They were more than happy to sell us 55 gallons at a reasonable price - and gave us the huge head of a very, very large fish at no extra charge.

New Schooner for San Francisco Bay and Call of the Sea

August 22 - San Francisco Bay

Looking jaunty while sailing beneath the Golden Gate from Boston yesterday was the 82-ft (LOA) schooner Seaward (ex-Edna), which will become part of the Call of the Sea youth sailing education program. The organization was founded by local sailor Alan Olson in 1984, who is partnering up with Ken Neal-Boyd, who ran a similar program out of Cape Cod. Seaward has been in transit for San Francisco since June - including a stint as deck cargo across the Caribbean because of insurance considerations during hurricane season. Expect to see a lot of the Seaward in the upcoming years - perhaps even in a Ha-Ha. More on the schooner and Call of the Sea in the September edition of Latitude 38, which will be published on August 31.

Photos Latitude/Richard

What's with all the Dolphins in the Bay?

August 22 - San Francisco Bay

We've never seen so many dolphins on the Bay as yesterday, when we saw them everywhere from the Berkeley Circle to the Golden Gate. Near, far, port, starboard - there were hundreds of them! Unusually, they didn't seem much interested in playing around under any bows, but were just playing around. Anybody have any idea why there might be so many in the Bay this summer?

We've yet to see any whales in the Bay yet this summer, but we did see a number of them between San Francisco and Santa Barbara, and then another very large one between Catalina and Newport Beach.