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Photos of the Day
April 16 – Newport Beach
Last Friday we were putting around Newport Harbor aboard Profligate,
and came across an always welcome sight: the 72-foot Windward
Passage. Designed by Alan Gurney – whose other hit is the
Islander 36 – and built on a beach in the Caribbean way back
in the ’60s, Passage is a legendary yacht. It’s been our
good fortune to see her all over the place: San Francisco Bay,
both as a ketch and later a sloop; Hawaii, for the TransPac finishes
and Clipper/Kenwood Cups; and Antigua, where she was hanging
out for Antigua Sailing Week on the hook just a boat length ahead
of us on Big O. In recent years in particular, Passage
seems to have been maintained in bristol condition, as befits
such a yacht. Just seeing her brightened up our day.
While down in the Newport area, we decided
to take a stroll around Lido Isle. We’ve never seen housing so
tightly jammed together – at least outside of Isla Vista. If
you play your stereo a little loud or make love to your sweetie,
we can imagine you’d get complaints from neighbors four houses
down. At least Lido Isle doesn’t have much graffitti, and what
they do have is unusual. Walking down the street, we noticed
that some person had carefully drawn arrows on the pavement in
crayon. After hundreds of yards of it, it had the most unusual
tag line – as seen in the accompanying photograph.
Our little time in Lido ended with a surprise:
a woman calling out our name. “I’m Trish – remember, from Marilyn on the Ha-Ha a couple of years ago.” There
have been so many Ha-Ha boats, it took us a minute, but it soon
came back.
Photos Latitude/Richard
Puddle Jump Report
April 16 – Mid-Pacific
Blair and Joan Grinols of the Vallejo-based
46-foot cat Capricorn Cat are part way into their Mexico
to Marquesas crossing. Here’s their latest report:
“Well, we had a couple of failures
yesterday. First, the drive pins on the autopilot clutch sheared
off. That wasn’t too hard to fix. Luckily it was still daylight.
Then about 2200 the spinnaker halyard let loose. Bad shit always
happens at night, right? We had fun getting the chute back on
the boat. This morning Joannie hauled me up the mast [editor’s
note: Blair is 68 years old] and I
jury-rigged a new halyard that will do till I can spend some
time up there and thread in a new one where it belongs. If you
want a tiring, hair-raising – if I still had some – thrill, try
that at sea some time. We ran all night on the genoa led out
to the cleat on the side of the boat. Still averaged about six
knots, making 165 miles in 24 hours.
“We’re now 950 miles out. It is still
100% clouds and cool. We have been on our way for seven days
now. Stopped two days at the Revillagegedos. I stand watch most
of the night. I snooze on the settee or on the floor in front
of the radar, and set the kitchen alarm for every 30-45 minutes.
Joan usually relieves me for about four hours so I can get some
good uninterrupted sleep. Sometimes not so uninterrupted. Everytime
the wind shifts, I have to get up and retrim. I take a long nap
(or two) during the day. We haven’t had to un-pickle the watermaker
yet. We topped off with water before we left, and even after
taking showers every other day, we’ve used only about 25 gallons.
Joannie has not fallen in the shower yet. We have had to run
the generator about one hour per day to keep up with the electrical
demands. If we ever get some sunlight, the solar panels will
cut that run time in half.”
Photo Latitude/Andy
The Race Finally Ends
April 16 – Marseille, France
Brit Tony Bullimore and the catmaran Team Legato, ex-ENZA,
arrived in Marseille on Sunday morning. She was the oldest boat
in The Race and, in a time of 104 days and 20 hours, the last
boat to finish. Actually, she was beyond the time limit to be
an official finisher.
Team Legato
crosses the finish line off Marseille Photo by Barry Pickthall
Reports Of OneWorld’s Demise
April 16 – Seattle
Madforsailing.com – one
of the biggest sailing Web sites in the UK – is reporting that
“it has now become clear that the project [Craig McCaw’s
OneWorld America’s Cup effort for the Seattle YC] is close to
foundering.” McCaw, like a lot of Americans, has seen his
telecommunications-based wealth plummet in the last year. Last
week, OneWorld announced that they were looking for private and
corporate partners to help out with their effort. Some reports
say they are looking for $20 million.
Madforsailing.com may be right that “it
does now appear that there is a very strong chance that the project
will fold”, but based on the evidence they’ve provided so
far, it seems they might be jumping to conclusions. If, however,
the syndicate does fold, there will be some interesting implications.
OneWorld signed contracts with a number of foreigners, including
Kiwis, at very high salaries. Thanks to residency requirements,
these folks won’t be able to sail for any other foreign teams,
and in the case of the Kiwis, it’s unlikely they’ll be welcomed
back with open arms.
Easter at Avalon
April 16 – Santa Catalina Island
While most religious folks went to the sunrise service in the
hills above Avalon, not everyone did. Check out this Railingist,
prostrating himself before the green railing that lines the Avalon
waterfront. As best we can figure, Railingists believe railings
provide guidance through a sometimes otherwise confusing existence.
After the various services, this is what
the Avalon anchorage looked liked. Crowded and peaceful. On the
main street, Avaloners Arnie and Sussana Gonzalez had already
been up for hours, Easter Bunny ears on, passing out little chocolate
eggs and such to everyone they met. They’ve been doing this for
decades. Good on them!
Photos Latitude/Richard
YOTREPS
April 16 – 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/
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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
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