SIGHTINGS
LATITUDE / ANDY
surviving the ‘weather bomb’ "Honestly, we never, ever, ever have rain at this time of year, let alone hurricane-strength winds!" said a longtime resident of Puerto Vallarta last month after a so-called 'weather bomb' ripped through Banderas Bay on the night of February 1. Torrential rain drenched the region and winds built from 10 knots to 70+ in a matter of minutes. The 'bomb' occurred after three days of nearly continuous rain, which alone was a bizarre anomaly, that left vacationing snowbirds wondering if they would ever get that long-anticipated winter tan. When the big blow ar rived, Banderas Bay's principal anchorage at La Cruz became a witch's cauldron of short, steep wind waves that were confused by the clocking rotation of the advancing 'super-cell'. Roughly a third of the three dozen boats anchored out dragged, at least somewhat, while a few broke free completely. All sorts of war stories With their storm-soaked clothes drying behind were told the next morning, them, Savona and Sarah are grateful that their cruis- but the most remarkable ing dreams didn't come to a tragic end. was that of Sarah and Elias Anderson, who've been cruising Mexico since last fall with daughters Kimberly, 16, and Savona, 5, aboard their Newport, OR-based Maple Leaf 42 Stepping Stone. First the ketch's anchor began to drag, then her all-chain rode parted with a bang. Elias cranked up the engine, but it didn't have enough muscle to force the bow upwind against the 8-foot waves. The 28,000-lb displacement hull began sliding quickly toward the nearby shoreline. "It felt like we were aboard a Tinkertoy in the devil's bathtub," Sarah recalls. "By the time I got my daughter out of bed and into her lifejacket we were aground on a narrow strip of beach between two rock jetties, and Stepping Stone laid over on her side." But as she and Elias prepared their children for an emergency bailout "the wind died down momentarily and a big swell suddenly refloated us." Sarah quickly restarted the engine, Elias put the hammer down, and they roared off into the Bay where they safely circled until things calmed down. Talk about dodging a bullet. . . The next day they even recovered their dinghy with its outboard and tank still attached. It had ripped loose during the grounding, then drifted downwind and snagged on another boat's rode. Could this bizarre weather event be blamed on El Niño? Perhaps partly. But there's no clear consensus among weather gurus. Goes to show, the best advice for mariners remains the same: No matter what the cruising guides, pilot charts or weathermen say, always be prepared to deal with whatever Mother Nature throws at you. — andy
eager, the pampered warhorse eager When he got started in boat building 32 years ago, a ‘classic’ for Jeff Rutherford was, by definition, a wooden boat. But much the same way a Gen-Xer feels the advance of time when hearing the band Sublime played on an ‘oldies’ radio station, the latest project from Rutherford’s Pt. Richmond boat shop reflects a shift in context. The boat is a 1970 Camper & Nicholson 55 — hull #1 — a heavy continued on outside column of next sightings page Page 78 •
Latitude 38
• March, 2010
‘school ship’ As the 188-ft barquentine Concordia sailed down the South Atlantic midFebruary, Captain Bill Curry warned his crew, and the 44 high school and college-age student sailors aboard, to prepare for unsettled weather. Little did he know, however, that an intense vertical downdraft would soon knock down his globetrotting steel-hulled vessel, sending her to the bottom within thirty minutes. When the tragedy occurred, the Barbados-based three-masted tall ship was
