November 23, 2001

On Duty

November 23 – Turtle Bay, Baja California

People might think of the Ha-Ha as all
fun and games, but there’s work – cough, cough – to be done too.
Here (above) Dona de Mallorca, Banjo Andy, the Mayor of Turtle
Bay, and Wendy, discuss next year’s Lobster Festival, to be put
on exclusively for the Ha-Ha fleet by the four local lobster
co-ops.

Earlier, de Mallorca presented the mayor
with one of several bags of antibiotics and other medical supplies
for the small town (above right). That night, the crew of Profligate
checked out the town’s fire truck . . . and having sampled some
of the local tequila, resolved to bring a replacement truck on
next year’s rally (lower right).

Meds Reach Kilpatrick in Southern Ocean

November 23 – Southern Ocean

Southern Californian Keith Kilpatrick continues to suffer from
an acute intestinal blockage aboard Amer Sports One in
the Volvo Around the World Race. His condition is reported to
be stable, thanks in large part to Roger Nilson, a trained physician
who is navigator on the boat, and additional medical supplies
dropped by an Australian Orion P3 airplane. Nilson described
Kilpatrick’s condition:

“Keith’s condition is stable but mostly
unchanged with signs of intestinal total or partial obstruction.
He still needs drugs for pain relief and sleeping. He is on two
heavy antibiotics. Added today a spasmolytic intravenous drug
we got from the drop off. So far he has received five liters
of intravenous fluids and we have his dehydration under control.
He still has colic cramps as before, and we plan to get him off
the boat as soon as possible. He needs better hospital care then
we can offer and we are asking Race HQ how and when to get him
off. We got 30 liters of fluid from the seven packages dropped
down, and also we needed more syringes, needles, infusion sets,
sterile water for mixing antibiotics, more morphine etc. We got
it all from the Orion.”

Nilson went on to describe the drop itself
from the Royal Australian Air Force plane:

“With stunning
precision, they dropped off seven packages perfectly, about 300
meters straight in front of us. The timing was critical as night
was falling fast. The last box was picked up just before we totally
lost daylight but the aircraft had strobe lights if needed. We
took the spinnaker down and used the mainsail and engine, going
bow to wind in order to pick up boxes with a boat hook we made
for the job. It all went very smoothly, as the weather conditions
were perfect: 12 knots of westerly wind, only two-meter swell
and a well-tuned crew.”

Keith Kilpatrick with wife Tara at the
start of the Volvo Race in Southampton
Photo Courtesy Nautor Challenge

Credit Card Fraud in Baja

November 23 – Cabo San Lucas, BCS

“I recently returned to San Diego after a great trip to
Cabo in the Ha-Ha,” reports Chucki Bellitti. “I stayed
an additional four days, during which time I used my Visa card
twice; once in a restaurant and once in an art store. Yesterday,
I got a call from Visa saying that thousands of dollars of charges
had been made on my Visa all over Baja. My card number had been
used to create another card, and a red flag went up with Visa
– which quickly canceled my card. If I had been cruising on my
own boat, it would have been virtually impossible for Visa to
have contacted me, and I probably would have found out the hard
way when my card hit the limit.”

Thanks for the warning. There has been
a dramatic increase in the amount of credit card fraud in Mexico
in the last few years.

Cabo San Lucas with with the Ha-Ha fleet in the background
Photo Latitude/Richard

Great American II
Closes on Record

November 23 – Pacific Ocean

Adventure sailors Rich Wilson and Bill
Biewenga celebrated Thanksgiving at sea today, 1,000 miles southwest
of Melbourne, with the sailing record for the passage from New
York to Melbourne within their grasp. Sailing through storm conditions
on Wilson’s 53-foot trimaran Great American II, the pair
was barely 400 miles ahead of the track of the extreme clipper
ship Mandarin, the vessel that has held the sailing record
for the 14,000-mile voyage for nearly a century and a half. The
400-mile lead is equivalent to about a day and a half of sailing
time. Wilson, from Rockport, Mass., and Biewenga, who lives in
Newport, RI, are out to beat Mandarin’s record of 69 days
14 hours, set as she carried prospectors to the Australian Gold
Rush in the winter of 1855-56.

Dashews Finish First in Caribbean 1500

November 23 – Virgin Gorda, BVI

The 52 boats in early November’s West Marine
Caribbean 1500 had to cool their heels for four days while waiting
for hurricane Michelle to clear the course from Hampton, Virginia,
to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgins. After she did, the fleet
faced a variety of conditions, from flat calm and mirror seas
to winds in the low 30s and big seas.

Tucson’s Steve and Linda Dashew with their
78-ft ketch Beowulf smashed the elapsed time record by
four hours, a record they’d established only last year. The couple
completed the 1,314-mile course in 123 hours, 37 hours of which
were motoring, as is allowed under the rally rules. Apparently
none of the 52 entries sailed the entire course, as the largest
catamaran motored substantially longer. As of press time, motor
allowances and handicaps hadn’t been announced, so we have no
idea who might have corrected out first. Regretably, the organizers
haven’t even provided the most basic information on boats entered,
so we have no idea what type or size boats entered, and from
where.

Beowulf
Photo Courtesy Dashew Offshore

Three of the 52 boats didn’t complete the
course. One of them returned to Virginia after breaking a boom,
two dropped out in Bermuda with gear problems, and Bon Secour,
vessel type unknown, was abandoned 250 miles from Bermuda after
a bad encounter with a fishing net. A rope in her prop ripped
her engine right off the mounts to begin with, then the rudder
got snagged. When a diver was unable to clear the mess, the owners
and crew abandoned the boat for a British naval vessel heading
to Florida. One other boat was still at sea during the awards
ceremony, while two arrived by dinner. A hurricane delay can
really screw up a schedule.

More than 600 boats have paid an average
of $1,000 to do the Caribbean 1500 over the years. Generally
speaking, it is a much more challenging event than the Ha-Ha
on both boats and crew.

Book of the U. S. Navy, 1905

November 23 – Mill Valley

At its best, Thanksgiving is a family holiday,
and family reminiscences tend to come up around the dinner table.
Last night, the Webmistress’s father got out this priceless relic,
a yearbook of the U.S. Navy (above), when his father served as
a Coxswain aboard the steamship USS Nevada (below). The
dedication page has Grandpa’s name, rank, the name of his ship
and the date, June 10, 1905, in calligraphy. The book is filled
with full size photos, of the highest quality, showing ships
and men of the era.

‘Two Game Birds on U. S. S. Illinois’ (detail). Apparently cock-fighting
was an acceptable pastime aboard Navy ships.

YOTREPS

November 23 – 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/

Weather Updates

November 23 – 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 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

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.