Photos of the Day

November 26 - Pt. Richmond

In the wee hours of last Saturday morning, it blew so hard in the Bay Area that windows popped out of some of the high-rises in downtown San Francisco. It blew so hard that trees were knocked down all over Northern California. And it blew so hard that a number of Farr 40s on their cradles at KKMI in Pt. Richmond were blown over.

About a month ago, some 22 boats were blown over at Asterillos Marina in La Paz during Hurricane Juliette. Part of the reason they went over was because their cradles had no feet. But in the case of the Farr 40s, they rest on their own custom cradles. So to what extent it might have been an Act of God, the cradle designer's fault, or the boatyard's fault, we'll gladly leave to others to decide.

Cavalino appears to have fallen on a Bronco
More photos at www.SailPix.com/~carrel/GTF/turkey.html

Terrific News from Amer Sports One

November 26 - Southern Ocean

There's two kinds of excellent news from Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One in the Volvo Around the World Race. First, Southern Californian Keith Kilpatrick, who was very, very sick just the other day, has "been discharged from our onboard intensive care unit." Onboard doctor Roger Nilson reported that Kilpatrick was still very weak and hasn't been able to eat any solid food for a week, but he is certainly better than he was before. He's soon to be transferred off the boat at Eclipse Island.

The other good news is that Amer Sports One has come from way back to pull within 26 miles of the leaders. The amazing thing is that after 16 days of hard racing in the Southern Ocean, the top five boats are within 15 miles of each other, and one boat can see three others. As one observed, "It's like an inshore race."

Winter in Mexico

November 26 - Sea of Cortez, Mexico

It's winter in Mexico now, but judging from these photos of Isla San Francisco, you could hardly tell. When we were there in mid-November, it was hot, the water was 82 degrees, and the visibility was 50 feet or more. The only problem was the no-see-ums, which were wicked.

Sailing in Auckland

November 26 - Auckland, NZ

According to George Backhus of the San Francisco-based Deerfoot 62 Moonshadow, the Friday night beer can races in Auckland almost resemble the Big Boat Series in San Francisco. He offers the following photos as proof:

By the way, these photos were taken with George's new 3 million pixel digital camera - which he loves. We love them too, because the resolution is good enough for large spreads in Latitude 38. If you're going cruising, do it with a 3 million pixel digital camera - preferably one with a big zoom built in.

YOTREPS

November 26 - 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 26 - 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.