June 14, 2004

Photos of the Day: SSS In-the-Bay Race

June 14 – San Francisco Bay

Today’s Photos of the Day come from a weekend
of spectacular sailing on the Bay. We started Saturday morning
doing the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s In-the-Bay Race, during
which time we saw the Coastal Cup fleet take off for Santa Barbara.
We followed things up in the afternoon with the Catnip Cup multihull
cruiser event to Vallejo, and the Catnip Cup return on Sunday.
What great weather! What a great place in the world to be able
to sail!

Today, we feature action from the 20-mile
In-the-Bay Race.

Mark Deppe and his J/120 Alchera leads another boat on
the last leg from Blossom to the Corinthian YC finish.

Three boats beat to Blossom.

Jay Capell’s beautiful Cal 40 Leilani, reaching across
the face of Angel Island.

One of the Moore 24s on the beat from Southampton to Blossom
Rock.

Friends Dave Reed, owner of the Peterson 34 Bacarat, and
Robert Sutherland, are either giving us ‘the bird’ or indicating
they’ve won their division.
Photos Latitude/Richard

Arab Airline to Support Kiwi America’s
Cup Effort

June 14 – Auckland, New Zealand

Is this a weird world or what? It’s just
been announced that Emirates, an up-and-coming airline based
out of the Middle Eastern Arab country of Dubai, has signed a
contract to become the lead sponsor and have naming rights for
the New Zealand Challenge for
the America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain, in ’07. For this, they
ponied up $21 million. Based on that, the Kiwi government is
going to throw in another $19 million. The America’s Cup was
a boon to the New Zealand economy.

All this comes on the heels of Qatar giving
something like $50 million to Brit Tracy Edwards to build and
campaign a new maxi cat, and to host two around-the-world races
for maxi cats: the Oryx Cup, which will start and finish in England
in 2005, and the Qatar Cup, which will start and finish in that
Middle Eastern country in late 2006.

What’s next, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda
funding a New York YC entry in the America’s Cup?

GPS to Be Jammed . . . But Don’t Worry
on West Coast

June 14 – Southeastern U.S.

As part of NATO training exercises on the
East Coast, the U.S. military is testing a system for jamming
signals from navigation satellites through June 20. The only
possible side-effect is that it will disable mariners’ GPS devices
and force them to rely on dead-reckoning. Yikes! Fortunately,
the effects will be limited to waters 60 miles off the coast
of North Carolina, and along the coast of Northern and Central
Florida. Cell phones may be affected, too.

Surge in Interest in the Ha-Ha

June 14 – Tiburon

“As of today, we’ll have sent out
147 entry packs for this fall’s Baja
Ha-Ha,” reports Ha-Ha Honcho Lauren Spindler. “We
can’t recall having so much interest so early, so we expect to
have more than 100 boats hit the starting line again on October
25.

“By the way, did anybody catch Tom
and Vicky Jackson’s Rookies in Mexico article in the June issue
of Yachting World? It was an overview of a winter cruise
to Mexico, with some fine photographs. I was chuffed when they
called the Ha-Ha, ‘the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) of the
Pacific.’ What a neat compliment.”

Mike Golding Sets Transat Monohull Record

June 14 – Boston, MA

Arriving in Boston yesterday from England
in the 2,800-mile singlehanded Transat, Brit Mike Golding and
his Open 60 Ecover set a new singlehanded transatlantic
monohull record of 12 days and 15 hours – an average speed of
9.23 knots. What’s even more remarkable is that Golding lost
the hydraulics necessary to move his canting keel from one side
of the boat to the other, and had to do it manually – a long
and difficult process in an already exhausting singlehanded race.
To make things easier, in storm force conditions of the North
Atlantic, he’d lay the boat over on her side, and let gravity
swing the keel down before securing it in position. It was Golding’s
first major victory in many attempts, and was well deserved.

Dawn Wilson Needs Your Help!

June 14 – Ensenada, Baja California

“Thank you for your continuing series
of articles on the plight of American cruiser Dawn Wilson stuck
for so long now in an Ensenada jail,” writes Sue Counselman
of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. “I realized that while
I faithfully followed your series and continued to hope for an
article on her release, I had still done absolutely nothing to
help! Yesterday I logged on to Dawn’s Web site (www.dawnwilson.com), clicked on ‘how you
can help’, and did something about it. I also clicked onto the
email address of U.S. Representative to Congress Bob Filner,
who is actively involved in the fight to free Dawn, and wrote
him a brief three sentences expressing my gratitude and support
for his efforts. I emailed a link to Dawn’s Web site to everyone
in my address book and asked them to log on. Then I wrote a check
and mailed it. I write this letter in the hope that other good-hearted
but idle people will recognize themselves and take action as
well. My activities on behalf of Dawn Wilson took very little
of my time, and I was able to manage it all in the comfort of
my beautiful home with a cup of coffee at my desk. It was the
least I could do.”

Folks, Dawn really needs everyone’s help
now. It was expected last week that she would be released, but
she was not. There’s still a slight opening before they ‘throw
away the key’, but it’s a short one. Currently there are people
and organizations – Sacramento Bee, Dateline NBC, KFI
radio, and Fox News – fighting for her, but she also need your
support now. Visit www.dawnwilson.com
to learn how to help.

Rules of the Road and Float Planes

June 14 – St. Thomas, USVI

“Greetings from St Thomas in the U.S.
Virgins,” writes Kirk McGeorge of the Hylas 47 Gallivanter.
“I reckon you’ve gotten plenty of response to the question
posed about seaplanes and right of way rules in the Friday
‘Lectronic Latitude. Allow me to draw your attention to COLREGS
Rule 18 – Responsibilities Between Vessels (International &
Inland) which reads, in part: ‘A seaplane on the water shall,
in general, keep well clear of all vessels and avoid impeding
their navigation.’ A seaplane is the ‘most burdened’ of all vessels,
and must give way to every other sort of vessel.”

Funny, it was while at Charlotte Amalie
in the U.S. Virgins with our Ocean 71 Big O that we learned
about seaplanes – and that they are at the bottom of the right-of-way
list.

“My understanding,” writes Chris
McKesson of the electric powered 36-footer Sundance in
the Pacific Northwest, “is that while landing float planes
are the ‘give way’ vessels to almost everybody – probably because
most of us aren’t looking up. However, there are designated Marine
Aerodromes in areas like the inner harbor of Victoria, BC. As
a practical matter, it’s common courtesy even when outside of
designated areas to try to give a float plane circling for a
landing a clear shot at an upwind ‘runway’. It’s a common – and
interesting – experience in this part of the world to share a
fuel dock with an airplane.”

Dona Lee
Robbed Near Barranquilla, Colombia

June 14 – Barranquilla, Colombia

Jim and Kate Bondoux report that according
to the Panama Connection Net, Bob and Dana of the vessel Dona
Lee were robbed while anchored near Barranquilla, Colombia,
on June 7. Apparently six men fired shots as they approached.
Bob and Dana went below and locked their companionway hatch.
The men reportedly boarded the boat and stripped what they could,
taking the couple’s ditch bag, which had passports and other
valuables. The couple put out a Mayday, and the Colombia Coast
Guard arrived a half hour later.

As we’ve reported many times before, other
than Cartagena, the coast of Colombia – particularly around Barranquilla
– is considered quite dangerous. It was less than a year ago
that we had a long article in Latitude 38 about a South
African couple having thieves posing as police come aboard their
boat in this same area.