September 13, 2002

Photos of the Day

September 13 – San Francisco

Today’s Photos of the Day are of the St.
Francis Big Boat Series (presented by Rolex) that is being held
on the Bay through Sunday. Latitude photographer Andy
Turpin, who took the accompanying photographs, reported that
there were overcast conditions with 15 to 18 knots of wind. In
other words, it wasn’t post card stuff, and it wasn’t the wild
and woolly stuff the Big Boat Series is famous for. Better luck
today – Friday the 13th – through Sunday.

Missing Cat Found in Tahiti,
Crew Missing

September 13 – Taravao, Tahiti

As reported
on Monday, former National Basketball Association player
Brian Williams, 33, who now goes by the name Bison Dele, his
32-year-old girlfriend Serena Karlan, and captain Bertrand Saldo
have been missing in French Polynesia along with Dele’s Crowther
57 catamaran Hakuna Matata. They were last heard from
on July 8, when they reported they were headed to the Tuamotus,
Marquesas, and Hawaii. The boat has now been found in Taravao,
at the isthmus of Tahiti, by Patrique Humbert, a charter boat
captain and friend of Saldo. But there is no trace of the crew.
Foul play is feared, and the FBI are looking for Dele’s older
brother, Miles Dabord, formerly known as Kevin Eugene Williams.
Dabord had sailed aboard Hakuna Matata in French Polynesia
just before the crew had gone missing. He recently showed up
in Phoenix with Dele’s credit cards and passports, and attempted
to buy over $100,000 in gold coins. He was detained, but not
arrested. Yesterday, federal agents broke into a Tijuana hotel
room he was believed to have been staying in, and seized his
car in Santa Clara. Even more ominous, Dabord, who has been estranged
from his mother for several years, called her on Thursday and
threatened to commit suicide. A San Francisco FBI forensics team
has been sent to Tahiti to help out.

Dele, who played college ball at Arizona,
was on the Chicago Bulls championship team of ’96-’97 and later
other NBA teams. When he retired, the 6’10” player reportedly
walked out on a $30 million contract. Karlan most recently lived
in New York City.

Prologue for Around Alone Underway

September 13 – Newport, RI

Thirteen skippers, including Northern Californian
Bruce Schwab aboard the Wylie 60 Ocean Planet, left Newport,
RI, yesterday in a ‘prologue’ leg to New York City. At the latest
report, Schwab and Ocean Planet – running on the thinnest
of finances – were in the top three.

Aussie Cruisers Robbed by Government Pirates?

September 13 – Mexico

“We have personally never had any
dealings with pirates,” report Rob and Mary Messengers of
Maude I. Jones, who have been out cruising their 46-footer
since the first Ha-Ha nine years ago, “but now some of our
cruising friends have. We just got the following email from our
Aussie friends Bas and Roz Dolkens of Spirit of Witchwood.
They’ve been out for three years, and were just on their way
back to Oz from the Philippines.”

“Some of you may be unaware that we
were boarded and robbed while anchored just south of Buka Passage,
Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. A pack of five bastards armed
with what Roz says were semi-automatic weapons came aboard. I
thought they had machine guns, but I don’t watch Rambo movies,
so I wouldn’t know for sure. They stole about $10,000 U.S. of
gear and equipment, including most of my clothes – but none of
Roz’s. They also took food, beer and wine, a computer and printer,
scanner, cameras, binoculars, seven of our 11 life jackets, and
other stuff. They did, however, leave all the boat equipment
so we could depart quickly and not create problems for them with
authorities. They fiddled with the computer that we’re typing
this on, but caused it to crash – whereupon Roz convinced them
it was buggered. So they left it.

“We are totally unharmed and the boat
was virtually untouched. When they left, I demanded some of the
food back because we had a long way to go to Australia and no
more money with which to buy stuff to eat. So they handed back
a crate with breakfast cereal, EasyYo Yogurt, and two flasks
of Tanduay Rum. Hic! We believe that the ‘robbery’ was orchestrated
by the local authorities acting on false information that we
were carrying a shipment of guns. Rather than search us officially
and confiscate said guns, they recruited four thugs to board
us. The fifth guy was obviously a local official. He may have
been Police or Customs, it doesn’t matter, as they are all crooks
in this ‘developing nation’, having received their training from
the politicians that ‘lead’ them. The four thugs were permitted
to rob us as payment for their part in the operation, but had
strict instructions on what they could and could not take. If
we had had the guns, the officials would have made a far greater
profit by taking them rather than by officially confiscating
them. If we didn’t have any guns – as was the case – we would
be on our way, with no problems or consequences in the country
for them.

“Anyway, we are alive and getting
over the trauma. We expect to head for Oz about September 20
with the full moon, but it all depends on the weather.”

Racing through Hurricane Gustav

September 13 – Boston, MA

After three weeks and 3,000 miles of intense
racing across the Atlantic aboard six sisterships in the Challenge
TransAt, BG Group nipped Logica at the Boston finish
by just eight minutes. The big story, however, was that the fleet
had to sail through Hurricane Gustav. Here’s a report from BP
Explorer:

“Spirits are flying high after our
extreme adventure with Hurricane Gustav. The facts are: Max sustained
wind speed: 78 knots. Average wind speed 55-65 knots. 40-45-ft
seas. Pressure: 968mb. Length of time in storm: 10 hours. Sails
carried: trysail and storm staysail.

“Supper last night was a somber affair
before we got ready for the storm. A storm watch was drawn up
by Alfie consisting of three on, three off, and the rest of the
crew retired to their bunks and lashed themselves in. At first
we could see in the dying light the hurricane approaching and
the wind slowly starting to build. Suddenly, it was upon us like
an express train.The wind went from 30 to 50 knots in a matter
of minutes, and within 15 minutes a huge sea was running.The
wind howled through the rig like a living animal while BP
Explorer was constantly lashed by huge waves breaking and
smashing across the yacht. For the first couple of hours we ran
southwest trying to keep the wind on our beam as the hurricane
intensified as the center moved closer to us – approximately
80 miles away. I had never seen anything like it. The yacht was
knocked down, but came right back up again. DJan, Patrick, Mike
and Keith all were completely underwater at some time, and I
was physically knocked over at least six times behind the helm,
once only being held by my lifeline. Dawn broke to see the system
moving away and the stars came out to reveal a fantastic sky.”

BP Explorer at the start in Southampton

John Burfitt, skipper of the winning BG
Group wasn’t quite as frightened. “I’ve been through
hurricane force winds before with Challenge yachts, so am not
too concerned. These boats are very tough and seaworthy, so long
as the crew are tough and seaworthy enough to look after the
boat, the boat will look after you.”

BG Group at the finish in Boston
Photos MarinePics Courtesy www.challengetransat.com

YOTREPS

September 13 – 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

September 13 – 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/.
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

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

For views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.