Thanks to intel from SSS correspondent red roo in Cambridge, MA, we know the 144' rowing scull STAMPFLI EXPRESS is unlikely to break apart in waves. Each of the four sections of boat is joined together by heavy duty springs, so she "snakes" to windward.
Happy 50th Birthday to SSS stalwart Ruben Gabriel! Ruben finished the 2008 SHTP aboard SPARKY with no mast at all. Just a very simple but ingenious jury rig. That's guts and determination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWt5KG54vTM
Thank you, Skip! Here's another quick video I recently made from the '08 race. The SHTP definitely tests us, as well as giving us the treasure of some amazing life experiences! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5jTBHMWdO4
WILDFLOWER's composite construction is marine plywood glued and screwed to Douglas-fir stringers, As owner/builder of a "timber" catamaran sloop it's fun to explore different woods, their history, qualities, and sustainability.
On a recent trip to the Bristlecone Wilderness in Inyo National Forest in the White Mountains of Eastern California, we had the unique experience of driving 24 miles up a windy road to 10,000 feet to visit the ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Unlike Douglas-firs, which are also of the pine family and grow near the coast, sometimes to great heights (>300 feet) and volume, mature Bristlecone pines, 10-30 feet high, are knarled survivors of difficult living conditions. The harsher the climate the better for Bristlecone pines, for these "underprivileged" trees thrive at elevations and in rocky ground where few other species could grow. Windy, cold, hot, dry, snowy, are all good for the black barked Bristlecone, which starts life as a tiny winged seed dropping from a small pine cone.
The really cool thing about Bristlecones is their incredibly ancient age.
No one knew until 1953 that the Bristlecone pines of the White Mountains were the oldest living things on Earth. It was in that year that Dr. Edmund Schulman, on leave from Cal-Tech and a hunter of long lived trees, visited this lonely forest in the White Mountains.
With great difficulty because of the Bristlecones knarled and battered shapes, Schulman was able extract core samples with a long hollow drill bit. Over the next four summers, Schulman's surprise was so great when he found more than 17 Bristlecones over 4,000 years old that he dedicated the rest of his life to the documentation and preservation of this ancient forest.
The Bristlecone is an amazing story of discovery, their climatic history preserved in their growth rings. The growth rings are so compact and compressed that only an inch, or less, of growth rings are added each century, and a microscope is needed to count accurately. In dry years, the Bristlecones "close shop" and don't grow at all, only to reawaken to add growth rings in favorable years.
It was Schulman and the geologist M.E. Cooley that discovered the "Methuselah" Tree during a long hike to the dry and rocky edge of the Bristlecone Forest. That evening in their tent, Schulman found his excitement rising as he made a ring count under a microscope from the long core sample of the Methuselah Tree. The Methuselah Tree was 4,844 years old in 1957, the oldest known living thing and more than a thousand years older than the General Sherman giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park.
There's an interesting subplot to the story of Bristlecone dating, with controversy that continues to this day. In 1963, the geologist Donald Curry, studying the most recent Ice Age for his thesis, somehow got permission from a local ranger in the Wheeler Range in Eastern Nevada to cut down a living Bristlecone to age date by counting ring samples. (Curry's core samplers had broken in the dense and resinous wood.) When the "Prometheus" Tree was chainsawed at it's base, Curry, and the world, were stunned to learn the "Prometheus" tree was not 2,000 years old as surmised, but 5,000 years old. They'd cut down the oldest living thing.
Since Schulman's time, the Methuselah Tree has become the second oldest known living thing on Earth. The new oldest known tree, 5,065 years old and discovered in 2013, also lives in the Bristlecone forest of Eastern California. But they are not saying where.
Back in the White Mountains, a walk in the Bristlecone Forest is a spiritual pilgrimage. I could feel the energy being surrounded by living things that were really, really old.
It's been a busy summer on the North West Passage. After completing an East to West crossing, a solo French skipper, with his cat tucked in his sweater, yesterday made a dramatic leap onto a rolling Shell Arctic drilling support ship/tug, the TOR VIKING II. It was a ballsy thing... reportedly the 30 foot sloop, LA CHIMERE had "lost its rudder and rigging "400 miles south of the Aleutians. These are inhospitable waters this time of year. Meeeow-oui.
I heard there was some weirdness in display of images -- the neverending problem.
First, there are definitely some minor issues displaying images in Firefox (at least some versions) and vBulletin, the software that runs this forum. I have read a lot on the support forums, and there are issues seen by lots of other people. Right now, I'm using FF and your images look fine, at least on a big monitor. It is probably good practice to reduce the sizes of images to 1200 pix or below before posting.
Second, I looked at some of your posts, and I think you may be adding images as 'attachments' without then doing the 'insert inline' step.
If you want to use the Manage Attachments method for images (from the Advanced, full editor) first you select and upload the files, and then, hit the 'Insert Inline' button, and the attached pic should show up wherever your cursor in the edit window might be, usually at the bottom of your post.
As shown below:
A bit simpler way to add pics would be to just use the little picture icon as shown in the edit icon bar at the top of the edit window (either in Quick Reply or Advanced mode), seen here:
This is simpler and there is less to fuss with.
It would be better in some respects to turn off Attachments all together, and just use the little pic and video icons for media, but we want users to be allowed to upload text and .pdf documents as well.
There are limitations on sizes of uploads, as some digital cameras produce images that are 8000 pix wide and 25MB, and not everyone checks on that before hitting 'post'. We just need to be sure that people don't choke the server with really big uploads. This is common practice; in fact many sites do not allow site-hosted attachments at all, but make you use imagebox or some other pic hosting site.
Local excitement yesterday, with an extended power outage caused by a dirty power pole insulator arcing, catching the old wood spreaders on fire. This outage pales by what is forecast for the Mexican Coast south of Cabo Corrientes and north of Manzanillo.
In the U.S. National Weather Service Hurricane Center in Florida, forecasters are reporting never having seen a hurricane in their area of responsibility (Atlantic and East Pacific Basins) as strong as approaching Hurricane Patricia, currently 200 miles south of Cabo Corrientes and headed for landfall this evening approximately 40 miles south of that infamous point on the southern tip of Banderas Bay.
Three separate passes into the eye of Patricia by U.S. Hurricane Hunter aircraft have established Patricia's record setting numbers: currently, Hurricane Patricia has 175 knot (200 mph) sustained winds, with 215 knot (245 mph) gusts. The central low pressure of 25.99 inches (880 millibars) is off the scale. This is officially a record breaking Category 5 hurricane and should not weaken significantly until it comes ashore into the rugged mountains of that section of coast, just north of Bahia Chamela.
We have our fingers crossed for dear friends and their homes in Yelapa, 15 miles southwest of Puerto Vallarta. Fortunately, the center of Patricia is curving north, and looks to make a closest point of approach (CPA) of 30-40 miles to the Yelapa/Puerto Vallarta region this afternoon. Puerto Vallarta's port and airport are closed, and the Mexican Navy is in Yelapa, taking aboard volunteer evacuees, a mixed proposition.
The problem will be rain as well as wind, as 8-12 inches of precipitation is forecast, with 20 inches locally. Mountains are steep south of Puerto Vallarta, near El Tuito, and will funnel torrents. We don't know what the local fisherman of Yelapa will do with their outboard pangas except drive them full speed onto the beach, then pull them as high as they can up the sand. These guys are tough hombres.
Prayers to the community of Yelapa and others in Harm's Way.
Having had winds of (only!) 72 MPH overhead, my heart constricts just thinking what people might be going through soon especially in areas most affected by storm surge or mud slides. Be safe.
As quickly as she unexpectedly intensified from a late season Tropical Storm to a record Category 5 Hurricane, Patricia made landfall yesterday afternoon about 50 miles south of Cabo Corrientes, and began to rapidly degrade as her small but intense eye left the warm Pacific waters and encountered the steep terrain of southwest Mexico.
Things were a bit puckered here in Capitola much of yesterday as we tried to glean accurate weather info for friends in the seaside village of Yelapa, just east of Cabo Corrientes. The position plot and forecast, satellite photos, and four U.S. Navy Hurricane Hunter flights into Patricia made this one of the most accurately recorded storms in history. But communications and power were flickering on and off south of the border.
The Mexican government wasted no time in preparation. The main highway out of Puerto Vallarta was closed, as was the airport and harbor. Businesses were boarded, and tourists were bused out of town. Puerto Vallarta became almost a ghost town, and to the disappointment of many, no alcohol was being sold at restaurants, bars, or hotels.
What the weather talking heads missed in their rush for a news story is, although Patricia may have had the lowest recorded barometric pressure and strongest sea level winds ever recorded, she was a tightly wrapped storm with an eye less than 5 miles in diameter, and hurricane force winds extending out approximately 30 miles from the center.
Banderas Bay to the north of Patricia's eastward curving path benefited from the hurricane's small footprint. In talking with Chrissie last night in Yelapa, where she had taken refuge under the stairwell with her puppy, we were able to ascertain Hurricane Patricia had passed by 50 miles to the south with little effect. Chrissie reported only light rain and gentle winds when the forecast was 100% chance of Tropical Storm force winds at her location. For this we are grateful and is good news for the residents of Yelapa and nearby Puerto Vallarta. However, it is likely coastal villages further south towards Manzanillo suffered devastating damage.
So everyone is safe, and there was no storm damage in Yelapa, except for Chrissie's disappointment in her two days of hurricane preparation only to learn the strongest hurricane in history had passed her by. Chrissie at least wanted a story to tell for all her work.
Patricia is not yet finished. Her remnants are traveling quickly northeast over land and will combine with colder air to the north to bring flooding to southwest Texas.
Just received an update from Bill Lee. His legendary MERLIN, First-to-Finish in the first SingleHanded Farallones Race in 1977, and Transpac Race elapsed time record holder for 20 years, is westbound, crossing the Nevada Desert, and expected back Tuesday in Santa Cruz, where she was built in the Chicken Coop, on Hilltop Rd. in Soquel in 1976-77.
I'm sure there will be some sort of welcoming party for MERLIN's return. How could there not? This is Santa Cruz, home of "Fast is Fun."
Word is filtering in from Banderas Bay, 55 miles north of Hurricane Patricia's landfall, as things are returning to normal (no damage reported except to egos.) It seems guests at luxury beach front hotels were evacuated to Puerto Vallarta's new Convention Center, and given cots to sleep on.
In an unclear on the concept realization, someone happened to notice that overhead, the Convention Center's roof is all glass. That's when evacuees started hiring taxi drivers $400, and up, to drive 8 hours inland to Guadalajara, the only airport remaining open in that part of Mexico.
Happy B-Day to our dedicated webmaster! Glad to hear TEMERITY has escaped the boat hospital.
Many are familiar with legendary seaman (Warwick) Commodore Tompkins. Commodore grew up afloat on the German pilot schooner WANDERBIRD, and has probably sailed and raced more miles than anyone alive.
Commodore is the only one I know who has singlehanded a WylieCat 30 back from Hawaii sans autopilot or windvane. That's confidence in being able to balance the sail plan so the boat steers on its own.
For the last five years, Commodore and wife Nancy have been cruising their custom Wylie 39 FLASHGIRL in the South Pacific and have homeported in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
Now they are headed home to SF Bay, via Tonga, French Polynesia, the Marquesas, and Hawaii. Commodore has great confidence and no fear of sailing upwind. FLASHGIRL has water ballast, a tall rig, is close winded, and fast on all points of sail.
For some reason Commodore chose to approach a dangerous section of the Tuamotus, "the Dangerous Archipelago," relying on a chartplotter, and carrying only one small scale chart. At night.
The Tuamotus are low atolls, nothing higher than a palm tree, with dubious charting, steep-to reefs, strong and unpredictable currents, and visible 5-7 miles in good conditions during daylight. Even with modern navigation, many vessels have been wrecked in the Tuamotus, most notably Sterling Hayden's classic schooner WANDERER on the SE corner of Rangiroa, during a night time passage.
Here is Commodore's recent account:
~~~~~~~~/)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FLASHGIRL'S sail from Fakarava to Makemo
FLASHGIRL was anchored in Hirifa, the SE corner of Fakarava for a week, waiting for the fresh easterlies to subside. Hirifa is a broad sweep of coral sand backed by the low scrub and coconut palms typical of the Tuamotu atolls. The shallow waters near the beach liberally sprinkled with coral heads give way to deeper water where all the yachts were anchored. This anchorage had anywhere from 3-7 yachts at any given time. In this anchorage, the colors were spectacular. Water deeper than ten meters was a rich sapphire blue, while the shoals up to the beach were a vivid green and then the white of the coral sand and the green of the bush and the coconut trees topped by the beautiful pure blue of the sky and the white of the clouds. There were almost no inhabitants at this part of the island, hence, no lights at night save those of the anchored yachts. No roads, no cars, no noise at all. The only sound to be heard was the booming of the surf of the sea side of this atoll. This was a near perfect anchorage and one tended to stay longer than initially planned.
Many of the yachts, including us, intended to visit more eastern atolls enroute to the Marquesas, some 600 miles to the NE. In consequence of these plans, there was nearly daily sharing of weather information and predictions. Cruising vessels we have encountered have varying degrees of sailing capability. There is a strong tendency among this group to avoid headwinds and seas. During the last days of our visit in Hirifa, the collected wisdom was that there would be a shift from east to NE to N and finally NW and diminishing to calm. Welcome news indeed.
We awoke on FLASHGIRL the following morning and noticed immediately that the wind had shifted into the NE about a day prior to the prediction. An expedition went out to the windward shore to check the sea state, actual wind direction and velocity. This party returned with encouraging news. We in FLASHGIRL recognized the opportunity and quickly got the boat ready to leave. FLASHGIRL recovered her anchor within the hour and headed for the South Pass, eight miles away. There was some talk about swimming through this pass which is famous for its underwater beauty. On arrival at the pass, however, there seemed to be too much wind and flooding current to make swimming attractive. Accordingly, FLASHGIRL departed the pass about an hour after the flood began, at which time there was about 2.5 knots of current. We hoisted the mainsail and prepared the staysail inside the pass. We cleared the pass at 10:45.
It was bright and sunny, the wind direction was about 60 degrees magnetic at 18 knots and the sea was moderate. FLASHGIRL with a full ballast, full main and staysail was recording 6.5 to 7 knots with an apparent wind angle of 32 degrees.
The atoll of Tahanea lies approximately twelve miles east of the South Pass in Fakarava. We were able to fetch Tahanea with about four miles to spare. We sailed the length of Tahanea on port tack, the tops of the palms readily visible to leeward. The wind was steady and varied between 14 and 19 knots. FLASHGIRL found herself at the eastern end of Tahanea as night fell, with the prospect of negotiating four unlit atolls at night with no moon and overcast. Starboard tack at that point yielded magnetic north and the GPS position indicated we had forty miles to go on starboard before running into the south side of an atoll named Katiu.
Many of the atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago have wooded motus on their eastern and northern shores, while the southern part of the atoll is frequently a reef, awash. In the area we were navigating, there were no lights on anything. We were faced with the prospect of tacking through these islands with no visibility whatsoever. A further feature of these atolls is that the reef rises very near vertically from the depths to the reef awash. This feature means that the fathometer is of little or no help in avoiding such a reef.
As FLASHGIRL reached the point on starboard tack where prudence suggested a tack onto port, we decided instead to take in the mainsail and jog slowly under staysail alone, first west, then east in the smooth water lee of Katiu. Our GPS position indicated we were leaving Katiu a respectful three miles to windward. In this location the sea was smooth and FLASHGIRL was pleasant. The smoothness of the sea was both pleasing and mildly alarming, it could only mean that the reef was not awfully far distant. Having found errors of land masses and GPS location in the order of a quarter of a mile, and being acutely aware of capricious currents, anything closer than a calculated three miles we deemed hazardous. We were somewhat comforted by being able to see through the mist and haze of the night, occasional glimpses of lights from the village noted on the far, or windward side of the lagoon. Bearings taken on these lights, lent credence to our GPS plots, which was reassuring. It was during our starboard tack approach to Katiu, that our electronic navigational system packed it in. This meant that our sole remaining navigational aids were a paper chart covering a vast area of the Tuamotu Archipelago and the GPS. Radar would have been of no use whatsoever, as reefs awash do not return an echo. Waiting for daylight in what we considered was a safe location was the best recourse. On this occasion, we sailed west, under staysail for two hours and then east for three hours, the autopilot doing the work and the staysail with just enough drive for two knots of boat speed. In this situation, the wind was approximately over the beam on both tacks.
As dawn approached, FLASHGIRL encountered increasing wave action, suggesting we were approaching the eastern end of Katiu, still no visibility. Mindful of the distance we had to go in order to get into Makemo, our destination, we elected to continue in our easterly direction, and hoisted the mainsail at the very first light. The wind by now had shifted almost fifty degrees and was blowing close to north magnetic. This made for a close, comfortable reach on the plotted course of 55 degrees magnetic. This port tack should have been four hours to clear the west corner of Makemo. About an hour before the west end was under our lee, we were forced to make a twenty degree alteration to windward putting us hard on the wind. Ultimately we were forced to motor sail for a mile or two in order to get comfortable offing. Near the north and west corner of Makemo, there is a pass into the interior of the lagoon. When we went past this opening less than a mile offshore, it was ebbing hard, causing a turbulent sea, probably 5-6 knots of ebb and 20 knots of wind opposing it. This combination of elements was also exacerbated by a strong southerly set, the result of the northerly wind. This southerly set, accounted for the need for our radical course change in the passage between Katiu and Makemo in the early morning hours. Such a current, unpredictable and unannounced, is a good example of why they call this group of islands, "the dangerous archipelago".
Once clear of this NW corner, we were able to ease sheets and beam and broad reach the next thirty miles down the windward coast of Makemo. We had the same general wind velocity of about eighteen knots, a still modest sea and dazzling sunlight with large puffy clouds. The windward coast of Makemo with its hungry surf, lay about a mile to leeward. We were anxious to reach what is called the Eastern Pass close to slack water. In the interests of speed we hoisted our best reaching sail, and savored an exhilarating three sail reach booming down this shore at about 8 or 9 knots. In these conditions, we carried a full tank of ballast and the boat is bolt upright and has feather light helm. The only thing missing on this little ride, was surfing!
We had sufficient speed over this course to arrive at the Eastern Pass at 11:45, about an hour after the flood began. There was impressive surf breaking on the visible coral on both sides of the pass. With the wind well aft, we broad reached into the pass, carrying the full mainsail, our red reaching headsail and lamenting the lack of a photographer. It is always exciting to transit these passes, the close proximity of the breaking sea and frightening coral is a stimulating and unforgettable experience. We found a wide spot in the channel as we entered, probably doing ten knots over the bottom, and doused the red sail without getting it wet. We ran on downwind for half a mile, rounded up under power, and lowered the mainsail. With the mainsail stowed, we motored into and surveyed the anchorage just to the west of the pass. The bottom in this anchorage is sand, studded liberally with coral heads.
There were seven yachts involved in some sort of rally, already lying in this anchorage, preparing to leave. We found a place with 11 meters of water where we thought the anchor would hold in sand and the chain not become too fouled in the coral. Mercifully the water is very clear in this anchorage. No sooner were we anchored, when someone from the rally motored over to us. Their mission was to ask if we were going to accompany them when they left in the next hour or so. We answered in the negative of course, having only just arrived. The rally person seemed quite disappointed that we were not going to sail with the fleet. There must be some kind of herd instinct at work with these groups. As we watched this fleet prepare for departure, we noticed an approaching squall of major proportions. Evidently, whoever was calling the shots in the rally, failed to notice or did not understand the significance of this long low black cloud. In the event, all seven boats recovered their anchors and made off for the pass. Very quickly after leaving the anchorage, the squall was upon us, gusting 30 knots with rain. We were treated to the spectacle of these forlorn cruisers first entering the pass and then reversing their course. They returned en masse to the anchorage and reanchored. The only explanation we could imagine for this bizarre behavior was an over arching desire to exit the lagoon with the ebb tide. This conviction of course overlooked the fact that across wind and tide in one of these lagoon passes results in large standing waves. In this particular instance, they were planning to negotiate a narrow pass with likely a six knot current setting into the teeth of a thirty knot squall. The exiting yachts would be required in this circumstance, to motor directly into the standing waves and wind. Mercifully no harm came to anyone and about half of the fleet ultimately escaped the lagoon.
For FLASHGIRL the Fakarava to Makemo run was very gratifying. We didn't hit anything and had a romping great sail!
cat whisperer
Just received an update from Bill Lee. His legendary MERLIN, First-to-Finish in the first SingleHanded Farallones Race in 1977, and Transpac Race elapsed time record holder for 20 years, is westbound, crossing the Nevada Desert, and expected back Tuesday in Santa Cruz, where she was built in the Chicken Coop, on Hilltop Rd. in Soquel in 1976-77.
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