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Vendee questions

Dear Skip,

1.) With 16 hours and 15 minutes in the "bank", where will Jean Le Cam place?

2.) How many places, (if any) will Charal advance before finishing?

(Bonus question)
What aspects of the race have intrigued you, (if any)?

A curious reader
 
Intermission said:
Dear Skip,
1.) With 16 hours and 15 minutes in the "bank", where will Jean Le Cam place?
2.) How many places, (if any) will Charal advance before finishing?
(Bonus question)
What aspects of the race have intrigued you, (if any)?
A curious reader
Click to expand...

Exciting stuff..the first-to-finish Vendee Globe racer will not win the Race, as time is owed to the boats that returned to rescue KE. My guess is Yannick Bestaven on MAITRE COQUE IV will emerge overall winner, even after finishing 3rd boat-for-boat. But not by much, only minutes likely. Stand by to stand by.

The first-to-finish boat, in less than an hour, Charlie Dalin on APIVIA, will be finishing in the dark, literally. APIVIA's running lights have been unreliable. Hope no press boats interfere as APIVIA will be sailing at 20 knots.
 
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Just had a chat with Ken ("General) Roper in S. Carolina. His wife passed 2 weeks ago.
Be aware someone may be using his e-mail address, going by Harry Roper, and asking for a "quick favor." Bogus
 
Drama in the Vendee Globe. Boris Herrmann, on SEA EXPLORER-Yacht club de Monaco, was in contention for first overall until 100 miles out he hit a fishing boat, causing unknown damage.

Boris.jpg

So Boris, a young German, is much slowed and likely lacking a functioning foil and/or bowsprit, may not even podium. If not, Jean Le Cam, the fleet favorite, oldest skipper, sailing a non-foiling boat, and rescuer of Kevin Escoffier, may well podium finish in 3rd overall. This would be huge news in France!

No, in single-handed racing like the Vendee Globe, if you hit another boat, there is no recourse or time allowance gratuity. You are always assumed in the wrong for not standing proper lookout.

If you are reading this and entered in the 3BF, a reminder there is a Skippers Meeting this evening, Wed. Jan.27 at 7:30 pm. Check the SSS main site for details. Here's the login link to join by computer.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8698243716...Examc1a2RqUT09

Meeting ID: 869 8243 7162
Passcode: 3777
 
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Though short and sweet, another premium sunset this evening, the last day of January, 2021, as viewed from the CBC bridge.

Sunset5 (2).jpg

The bridge, built in 1993, sits 92 feet above sea level, measures 7'x8' and looks west. There is a chart table with my venerable, 11 year old, Toshiba laptop (Windows 7), an even more ancient hardwired Horizon Explorer VHF radio. A printer, file cabinet, 3 wall bookshelves, a National Geographic World Map, 2x12 volt batteries connected to a 20 watt solar panel. a recording barometer, binoculars, and a model of 72' L Francis Herreshoff ketch TICONDEROGA aboard which I sailed the 1963 and '65 Transpacs.

Ti4.jpg

Can anyone spot the glow-in-the-dark angel?
 
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Is there a tale behind the glow in the dark angel? As in...is that where you spent most of the race, Skip?
 
AlanH said:
Is there a tale behind the glow in the dark angel? As in...is that where you spent most of the race, Skip?
Click to expand...

Hi Alan,
CBC has a plethora of glow-in-the-dark angels, bronze gekkos, sailing themed mobiles, and rubber animals in the halls of the mritime museum. Junior visitors, as well as seniors, are continuously amused.

CBC4.jpg

CBC5.jpg

CBC7.jpg

You are correct that I did spend consider time lying in the net slung under TICONDEROGA's 11 foot varnished bowsprit watching in awe Big TI's clipper bow emerge for 15-20 feet as she would surf her 100,000 pounds down a Pacific roller at 20 knots. As you can see in the photo, the net, hung, from the whisker shrouds, was sometimes useful for catching sails as well as fetching up crew who might lose their footing.

Ticonderoga10044.jpg

TICONDEROGA won the Barn Door Trophy (first-to-finish) in both the '63 and '65 Transpacs. And her '65 record time wasn't broken until we did it on WINDWARD PASSAGE in 1971. Who owned TICONDEROGA and then WINDWARD PASSAGE? Lumberman Bob Johnson from Portland. OR, a master celestial navigator, and part of the legend. Johnson had chartered TICONDEROGA for the '63 Transpac, and halfway across bought the historical yacht for $50K over the SSB radio. "Next time," Johnson exclaimed, "we're going lighter and getting rid of that damned bronze bathtub." :p
 
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A bronze tub! Sigh! Now that is my idea of heaven: a hot bath aboard a moving sailboat. Since I get seasick, would I get doubly sick, d'you think?
 
Philpott said:
A bronze tub! Sigh! Now that is my idea of heaven: a hot bath aboard a moving sailboat. Since I get seasick, would I get doubly sick, d'you think?
Click to expand...

Ernest Shackleton claimed his ponies got miserably seasick in rough weather on their voyage to Antarctica. And though I am skeptical, a German scientist supposedly proved fish in a mini-aquarium in zero gravity exhibited human signs of motion sickness.

Seasick.jpg

I do know, Jackie, that you can't get seasick if you are steering, no matter if it be a boat, car, or plane. So if we theoretically a fix DM's nice new tiller to the bronze bathtub, you should be fine.

Speaking of gripping a tiller in a bathtub, in the early 90's WILDFLOWER coincidentally arrived in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, at the same time as the finish of the Vancouver-Nanaimo Bathtub Race, 40 miles across the Straits of Georgia. And you thought the 3BF exhibit indications of insanity?

seasickness2.jpg
 
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Given the nature of the crowd that participates in the R2AK, that bathtub race up there in the Pacific Northwest seems par for the course. But I must say that I am not as skeptical as you regarding fishies. That fishie in your post looks similar to (the very few) people I've taken aboard Dura Mater who lunged for the leeward side. Bulging eyes, changing skin color ... What would fishie barf look like?
 
Hal Holbrook, 95, sailor and acclaimed thespian, has died. In 1980 Hal Holbrook entered his Garden design, Gulf 40, YANKEE TAR in the Singlehanded Transpac. Unfortunately he finished after the deadline and his time was not recorded. After cruising YANKEE TAR to the S. Pacific and New Zealand, Holbrook went on to a highly successful career in acting, and is well known for his recreation of Mark Twain over 60 years of solo performances, yearly since 1954.

Holbrook won an Emmy in 1974 and is the oldest actor nominated for an Oscar. Here is Hal Holbrook on stage with actress Cicely Tyson with their Emmys. Tyson also died recently.

holbrook.jpg
 
Great. Do we know if this container is from one of the last two big container spills in the north Pacific? I suppose the drift is similar to that of the debris field generated by the Fukushima tsunami....
 
WBChristie said:
Great. Do we know if this container is from one of the last two big container spills in the north Pacific? I suppose the drift is similar to that of the debris field generated by the Fukushima tsunami....
Click to expand...

Though I have no proof, my guess is this is not a container from the three recent mega-spills north and west of Hawaii. Judging from the barnacle waterline on the container, it is likely empty and not a candidate for a passage eastbound.

The MAERSK ESSEN did recently lose 750 containers overboard mid-Pacific on Jan. 20, 2021. But the rate of drift to Central California would have been too fast for this particular container to wash ashore less than 2 weeks later. If butterflies, birds, and turtles can be tracked, it would seem relatively simple to have ID on a container?

One thing SSS can track is 3BF finishers, all 125 of them. Congrats to the SSS RC, and to Scott Sellers on the J-70 "1FA" for finishing this year's 3 BF 1st at 3:37 pm. Scott, if you are reading this, which way did you go?
 
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Skip2.PNG

Gentle Skippers,

This morning, at 7:30 a.m., at Coffee Club on the Santa Cruz Harbor breakwater, there were 4 planets and a prominent star rising behind me and beginning to poke their heads above the Crows Nest restaurant's tent.

I looked up, and there near its apogee to the south, looking like half a slice of big pizza pie over Monterey Bay, was the moon.

For a bag of Tom's Best Ever Granola, tom's.jpg

What is/was this morning's moon, supposedly 53% full, called in formal terms:

1. Half moon, waxing.
2. Gibbous moon, waning.
3. Quarter moon.
4. Gibbous quarter moon.
5. Bear Moon.
6. Waning gibbous moon.
7. 1st quarter waning moon.
8. 3rd quarter waning moon.
9. 3rd quarter waning gibbous moon.
10. 3rd quarter, waxing half moon.
11. Sidereal, waxing, synodic moon.
12. Blue moon.

PS: Multiple guesses allowed, but only 1 every 4 hours.
 
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