February 20, 2001
Photo of the DayFebruary 20 – Cap Lizard Wicked! This is what it looked like earlier |
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Cruising
in Mexico
February 20 – Mexico City and Baja California
Port Captains and Despachos
Yesterday, we told you that Mary Shroyer
of Marina de La Paz and Heidi Grossman of Marina San Carlos seemed
to have conflicting ideas of when and how cruisers in Mexico were
required to check out of a port. It turns out, neither one was
wrong, as the current law is so vague that port captains are interpreting
it differently. In La Paz, the port captain is saying that as
long as you stay within his region of jurisdiction, you only have
to check out over the radio. In Guaymas, however, the port captain
is saying that everyone needs to check out just to leave the harbor
proper. But trying to be a nice guy, he says he’ll only require
boats to get one despacho a month. To further complicate things,
the law allows for marinas to become ‘honorary delegates’, which
would allow them to check boats out for everywhere – except out
of the country. Heidi Grossman is trying to get that status, and
if she does, she’ll do it for free, saving everyone the trouble
of having to go to the port captain, the bank and immigration.
The Future
of Recreational Boats in Mexico
Despite the current flap over checking out
procedures, Mexico wants more boats to come south from California.
Tourism and Fonatur are pushing for it harder than any other agencies.
In fact, it’s already been announced that Fonatur will be creating
a ‘nautical stairs’, or series of small ports with shelter and
fuel along the Baja coast to encourage folks with small boats
to come south. This idea has been around a long time, but apparently
it is now being implemented. We’ll have more details soon.
Terri Grossman
Addresses President Fox
Today in La Paz, Terri Grossman, president
of the Mexican Marina Owner’s Association, will give a speech
to Mexican President Vicente Fox, the Secretary of Tourism, the
governors of the various Pacific Coast states and other officials.
Grossman will tell the President that Mexico’s efforts to attract
more American boats – see above – will all be for nothing if they
continue to require boat owners to go through ‘the stations of
the cross’ in order to enjoy their boats. She will propose that
the whole business of having to repeatedly stop at port captains
and immigration be dropped in favor of something like a long term
cruising permit.
Grossman will also be seeking encouragement
and approval for a concept to more easily return boats from Mexico
to California. Years ago, Ed and Terri Grossman spent their honeymoon
trying to delivery a 65-ft Chris Craft from Acapulco to San Diego.
While off the coast of Baja, the bow was split open by heavy seas
and sank. Survivors Ed and Terri have since spent a lot of time
trying to figure out ways of avoiding the notorious ‘Baja Bash’.
First, they came up with the idea of trucking boats back to the
States from San Carlos, and have been doing that for years. But
they’d always had this dream of trucking boats – with their masts
up – from Bahia Los Angeles, across the Baja Peninsula, to Santa
Rosalita on the Pacific side. They figure it would take three
hours. From Santa Rosalita, the boats would almost be back in
California. Heidi Grossman says this dream is closer than ever
to becoming a reality.
In the BeginningFebruary 20 – The Delta After a file of photos fell off a shelf |
 Photo Latitude/Richard |
Puerto
Vallarta Race Update
February 20 – Pacific Ocean
Today’s positions and standings won’t be out until about noon,
but yesterday the boats were finally able to cover some ground.
Phillipe Kahn’s Pegasus turned in 248 miles, easily the
best in fleet, nonetheless she’s correcting out second behind
John MacLaurin’s Pendragon 4 in AA. The Open 50 Etrange
covered 217 miles to lead Class A on both elapsed and corrected
time. For the latest results, check out www.dryc.org.
The Race UpdateFebruary 20 – Atlantic and Southern Oceans With just 3,700 miles to the Marseilles finish line, Grant Dalton Ranking of 20 Feb 2001 15:00:00 GMT |
 Green Innovation Explorer Orange Team Adventure Yellow Warta Polpharma Magenta Team Legato  Graphics Courtesy Club Med www.catamaran.clubmed.fr/ |
YOTREPS
February 20 – 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 www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
Weather Updates
February 20 – Pacific Ocean
San Francisco Bay Weather
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/.
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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
Pacific Sea State
Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you
might check out the Pacific Ocean sea states at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.
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