August 25, 2003

Photo of the Day

August 25 – Caribbean Sea

Today’s beautiful Photo of the Day is an
unusual one to say the least. As anyone who has been to the Caribbean
can tell you, it often gets hot when sailing down there. So sometimes
when a bottle of water just won’t do, you’ve got to take a dip.
In this photo we see John Beattie taking a cooling dip off the
bow of the maxi Ole. His extreme concern for safety is
seen by the fact that he’s hanging on by both feet. Of course
he’s wearing a safety harness, but it’s one of the new invisible
ones.

Hurricane Skirts Cabo San Lucas, Heads
Up into the Sea

August 25 – Sea of Cortez, Mexico

Hurricane Ignacio, which sprang up pretty
much out of nowhere, has moved up into the Sea of Cortez with
85-knot winds, and is now pretty much stationary 25 miles to
the northeast of La Paz. One good thing about the hurricane is
that it’s compact. As one weather professional reported, if you
weren’t near it, you wouldn’t even know it was there. Nonetheless,
it sent big surf crashing on the south and eastern shores of
Baja. It’s certain to dissipate soon, but perhaps not after working
up the east coast of Baja, a popular cruising ground in the spring
and fall, and over to Mag Bay, where some La Paz cruisers head
in the late summer for cooler temperatures. Besides wind damage,
Ignacio has been in the process of dumping 23 inches of rain,
meaning lots of flash floods in the desert area. See http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/2003/index.html.

Same Time Next Year?

August 25 – Portsmouth, UK

“I’m an avid Bay sailor and Latitude
38 reader,” writes Richard Pitt of Sausalito. “While
traveling in the United Kingdom this past week, I found an interesting
half page article in the August 23 London Times titled
‘Yachtsman Hit Twice By Dolt From The Blue.’ This piece is about
a Portsmouth-based sailor who is planning a circumnavigation,
but has been hit twice by the same boat and skipper! The first
incident caused 25,000 British pounds in damages, and the second
collision caused 18,000 pounds. The odd thing is that the second
incident occurred precisely a year and a day after the first,
and that the offending skipper was trying to approach the victim
to make amends. His rigging once again became entangled in the
victim’s yacht. Witnesses reported seeing the offending skipper
desperately trying to untangle the boats while taking slugs from
a bottle of wine.”

Profligate
at Catalina – Sweet in September

August 25 – Santa Catalina Island

The lawn at Descanso Bay
Photo Latitude/Richard

We still have openings for our three-day
shared-expenses Catalina weekend on September 5, 6, and 7. For
details, see Friday’s ‘Lectronic.
If you’re interested, email Richard.
Be sure to include in your email a phone number where we can
reach you.

How Long Does It Take to Get through the
Panama Canal?

August 25 – Panama Canal

Tina McBride of Transcanal Yacht Services,
who was such a help getting Big O through the Canal about
eight years ago, says the amount of time you have to wait depends
on the season. “I don’t see a delay of yachts transiting
north in November,” McBride says. “You should be able
to do it in 48 hours. The delays begin at the end of January
and last until about May. By the way, I do remember Capt. Jim
Drake of Big O. Please send him a warm saludos”.

Pedro Miguel Locks
Photo Courtesy www.pancanal.com/eng

We’ll have a lot more from McBride on Canal
transits, including the new fees – and they are ugly.

Latitude
Phones May Be Down Wednesday

August 25 – Mill Valley

Our new phone and voice mail systems are
due to be installed this Wednesday, and phone service may be
disrupted. You may also need to bear with us for a week or so
while we figure out our new system and work out the kinks. We’re
all over our email however, so we can always be reached that
way, even amidst the annoying SoBig virus deluge. For links to
email for all employees and departments, see our Contacts
page.

We’ve been told that our phone extension
numbers will not need to be changed.

YOTREPS

August 25 – 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 Updates

August 25 – 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.