loose lips

All boats powered by Honda Marine engines. We offer complete service on all Honda outboards and inflatable boats and take pride in providing the kind of customer satisfaction that you expect from Honda.

BF20

The Dinghy Doctor

1271 Scott Street San Diego, CA 92106 Tues-Sat, 9am-5pm (619) 804-6921 www.thedinghydoctor.com

• Unsurpassed fuel economy • Shallow water drive 2 blocks off Shelter Island • Largest displacement in its class (21.4 CI) • Hi Output alternator (12 amps)

AB, Achilles, Zodiac, Walker Bay, repair kits, engine parts, and everything you will need in Mexico.

Always wear a personal fl otation device while boating and read your owner's manual.

Call Bruce Becker: (415) 673-1923

800-433-8050

Fax (415) 673-1927

The Hottest Spot on Earth. Santa Barbara no longer holds the record, and judging from this photo taken when Profl igate was anchored off Stearns Wharf, it seems an unlikely candidate to have ever been. But Santa

Barbara did indeed once hold the record for the hottest place on the planet. It was so hot that fl ying birds dropped dead out of the sky. And it's not as if it happened that long ago either. Back when we started Latitude aboard our Bounty II Flying Scud at Sausalito's Clipper Yacht Harbor in '77, Bob and Gail Jensen berthed Simoon, the Columbia 50 they would take to the South Pacifi c a number of times in those pre-GPS days, a few slips away. Simoon is the English spelling of the Arabic word 'simoom', which means 'to poison', and refers to a particularly hot and dust-laden local wind that primarily blows in the Sahara, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. We say 'primarily' because, according to Wikipedia, there has been one case of a simoon in North America. That happened on the afternoon of June 17, 1859, at — you guessed it — Santa Barbara. The temperature that morning was a typical 75°, and it would return to that in the early evening. But at about 1 p.m., super hot winds fi lled with dust began to blow down toward the sea from the Santa Ynez mountains directly in back of the city. By 2 p.m., the air temperature had reached an astonishing 133°! By the way, this temperature wasn't recorded by some drunken gaucho with a drug store thermometer, but rather by scientists on a U.S. Coastal Survey Vessel that just happened to be right offshore. According to the offi cial government report, "Calves, rabbits and cattle died on their feet. Fruit fell from trees to the ground scorched on the windward side; all vegetable gardens were ruined. A fi sherman in a rowboat made it to shore at the Goleta sandspit with his face and arms blistered as if he'd been exposed to a blast furnace." Years later a temperature of 136° was recorded somewhere in the Middle East to take the 'world's hottest' record, while 75 years later, a temp of 134° was recorded in Death Valley, setting a new U.S. record. The only weather records set this year at Santa Barbara have been for the most fog and probably the coldest water. The water was so cold that we maintained an iceberg watch when we sailed across the channel to Santa Cruz Island in September. For the nearly 200 boatowners who signed up for the Ha-Ha that starts at the end of this month, the Pacifi c Coast of Baja is cooler than most years, but it's still 82° at Cabo San Lucas and up to 85° just inside the Sea of Cortez. We don't know about you, but we can't wait to take the heat.

LATITUDE / NICK

With typical summer days looking like this, Santa Barbara hasn't set any record highs this year.