December 19, 2003

Photo of the Day

December 19 – St. Barth, FWI

Photo Latitude/Richard

Today’s Photo of the Day was taken earlier
this month at the fantastic chandlery at St. Barth in the French
West Indies. For some reason, we’d taken Profligate to
the Caribbean without any of the 70,000 Caribbean guide books
and charts we have of that area, so we were on a shopping trip.
Specifically, we were looking for the Imray-Iolaire yachtie’s
chart for St. Martin and St. Barth. As we were fumbling through
the stack of them, we spotted an iconic figure of the Caribbean
standing off to the side – Don Street, skipper for zillions of
years of the ancient and engineless Iolaire, author of
many cruising guides, creator of most of the great Imray-Iolaire
yachtie charts for the Caribbean, and famous for almost never
being without a Heinie in his hand.

Despite having not seen Street since 10
years ago when we both had our boats hauled out in Venezuela,
we said, in our best stage whisper, “Too bad Don Street
wasn’t here, for he could surely tell us which of these damn
charts we were looking for!”

Street raised a sleepy eye and replied,
“A-24.”

While posing for a photo with Doña
de Mallorca, he told us that Iolaire is for sale in London,
but that he’s cruising Lil’ Iolaire – which looks almost
like the big one. In fact, we’d seen her just that morning being
smartly sailed into the harbor under jib and mizzen.

One of the great things about the Caribbean
is that you can’t help but bump into sailing legends.

Standing by for Launching!

December 19 – France

Frenchman Bruno Peyron has announced that
his new, second generation maxi multihull will be launched on
December 22, and will be named Orange in honor of the
French telecom company for an attempt on the Jules Verne around
the world record this winter.

The new Gilles Ollier design built by Multiplast
will be 124 feet, making it about the same size as Cheyenne
(ex-PlayStation), and about 15 feet longer than the three
first generation maxi cats that competed in The Race. Peyron,
who organized The Race, later renamed one of them Orange,
and sailed around the world in 64 days to set a new Jules Verne
record. His attempt in the new boat will be to lower the benchmark
even further.

Bringing Utopia to the Caribbean

December 19 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL

“We did the ’99 Ha-Ha aboard our Jeanneau
40 Utopia,” reports John Tindle, “and cruised
Mexico until 2002. We then sold that boat and bought a Jeanneau
Sun Odyssey 45 in Martinique, naming her Utopia also.
From January to May we – including my wife Cynthia and the famous
cruising Aussie Mattie the boat dog – sailed in the Bahamas.
I’m now in Ft. Lauderdale getting the boat ready for our trip
down to the Caribbean via the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
We hope to be sailing with Neener3 and Mistral,
a couple of other California boats. We’d hoped to join Profligate
and Little Wing in St Martin, but we don’t think we’re
going to make it. We’ll try for Antigua Sailing Week this year
and St. Barth for New Year’s of next year. Happy holidays to
all!”

Around the World in 21-Ft Mini-TransAt
Boats?

December 19 – Honolulu, HI

That’s what Brian Caldwell of Honolulu
is proposing for 2006-07. You might remember Brian, who at age
20 became the youngest solo circumnavigator, having sailed the
Contessa 26 Mai Vavau around the globe. That was about
five years ago. More recently, he acquired the Magnen-designed
Netcarrier 6.5 meter, and has been competing on the other side
of the Atlantic. He turned in a very credible fifth in the Doublehanded
Mini Fastnet, and 11th in the Open Demi Clé. But doublehanded
around the world in this most extreme and most tiny of racing
boats? When England’s Daily Sail first heard about it,
they thought Caldwell was pulling some sort of April Fool’s joke.

Caldwell isn’t completely crazy, as he’d
proposed a ‘tradewind route’ that will make use of the Panama
Canal. While he wants to make another circumnavigation, he wants
to do it “without getting hammered by a Southern Ocean gale
every couple of days.”

Waiting for the Bridge

December 19 – Sint Maarten

The biggest big boat yachting center in
the Caribbean has become Simpson Bay Lagoon, which is surrounded
by both the Dutch and French halves of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin.
The only way in and out of the lagoon is when the drawbridges
open. There is one on the French Side and one on the Dutch side.
Each opens three times a day for outgoing traffic, and three
times a day for ingoing traffic. It can be quite a show.

Here’s a couple of shots from when we entered
on the Dutch side earlier this month. The first photo is of just
part of the lineup of yachts making their way up the channel
to the bridge. These are big boats. The dark hulled sailboat,
for instance, is the 164-ft Princess Zeynap, and the yacht
in front of her is an 86-ft Swan. In the second photo, the big
motoryacht trying to squeeze through the 56-ft wide opening is
over 200 feet long. What happens if you miss the last bridge
opening of the day? You’re screwed until the next day, so you
might as well drop the hook in Pelican Bay and pour yourself
a stiff Mt. Gay and tonic.

Photos Latitude/Richard

YOTREPS

December 19 – 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 19 – 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.