Around the World of Sailing

31 October 2001

This weeks features:

Finish Line

Finish Line
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/oc/1031/frw.htm
Records Update: Jean Luc Van Den Hede sailing
off the coast of South America has a 1 day 18 hour lead
over Phillipe Monet's record pace for sailing around the
world single handed east to west.
Great American II sailed by Rich Wilson and
Bill Biwenga is SW of Cape Town. They were 961 miles
ahead of the Clipper Ship Mandarin's pace from New York
to Melbourne, Australia.

Water Level Update

Weekly Water Level Update
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/oc/1024/frw.htm

Below you'll find water level info that pertains
to Lake Michigan and Huron.
For information on other lakes see:
http://huron.lre.usace.army.mil/levels/weekly.html

Reference Point

Inches below Chart Datum +1
Difference from last month +1
Difference from last year +2
Difference from long term average for October -18
Difference from Record High -57
Difference from Record Low +13
Forecast for 26 November 2001 -3

Rowing Reporter

The Rowing Reporter is a weekly column of commentary and
observations by Ike Stephenson, Marine Informationist. It
concentrates on the home waters of Around the World of
Sailing, Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.

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Rowing Reporter
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/oc/1031/frw.htm

The Rowing Reporter is a weekly column of commentary and
observations by Ike Stephenson, Marine Informationist. It
concentrates on the home waters of Around the World of
Sailing, Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.
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Gale Report
Last week's Rowing Reporter led off with a story
on a coming gale. True enough, a fall gale did hit the
Great Lakes.
Wednesday the 24th, the cold front that came
with the winds hit. At 1700 that night it was 62° with
south winds. An hour later it was 53° with NW winds at
27 knots.
The front hit the South Lake Michigan weather buoy
an hour earlier. The temperature dropped 4 degrees and the
wind went from SSE at 15 to W 21.
As the front passed a low pressure of 960 millibars
was recorded at 1600 on Tuesday.
A low pressure system sat to the north of Lake
Superior. Tight packed isobars went southward. Forecasts
called for 60 knot winds and snow.
The new wind chill formula came into use. With
a temperature of 40° and a wind of 25 knots the old way
of ciphering wind chill gave 15°. The new method which
takes official effect 1 November, gave a reading of 29°.
By midday Thursday it was blowing an official
gale WNW @ 38. At the weather buoy waves were 11.8 feet.
Forecasts called for 16-20 foot waves and gales until
Saturday evening.
Whitebearded waves towering over grey water. The
water at Pere Marquette beach encroached upon the snow fences.
At 2100 Thursday the gale switched to the NNW.
A peak gust of 55.1 knots was recorded. 14-15 foot waves
were recorded by the weather buoy. Friday it kept on
blowing NNW 38 @ 0954. It had been gale force or above
since Thursday.
Saturday the wind dropped below gale force just
after midnight. We returned to hauling boats. Unlike
years ago we had plenty of warning and ways to monitor the
situation right from our desk.
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Volvo Ocean Race Internet Protest
After finishing Leg 1 5th, Assa Abloy filed a protest
against provisional leg winner Illbruck. The protest is
in regards to a website from Spain used for weather information.
The URL that Illbruck listed in their pre start
declaration was http://atmosfera.lma.fi.upm.es. This URL
does not pull up weather information. Rather you find out
about the software that powers the site.
However, if you add /rsm/ to the above URL you then
get weather information. Assa Abloy's protest states that
the required suffix is not publicly known. Due to this the
site is not known to all other boats and therefore invalid.
Obviously how Internet access interfaces with rules
is a newish aspect of sailboat racing. I personally had
always taken publicly accessible to mean that you need
not have a password of pay for information. According to
the sailing instructions, The Race Committee shall determine
what is publicly available. It is assumed the RC approved
the site in question.
Finding the site via search engine is possible, but
neither obvious nor easy. There are only 5 pages with links
to it. Four of these pages are articles on the race. I
was finally able to find the page using the 'contain the term'
feature of Google.
Another key part of this protest maybe that a web
site is presumed to be interconnected or linked together.
There is no link to the /rsm page from the page Illbruck
submitted.
Not knowing what standard will be used to determine
publicly available, it is hard to predict an outcome.
However, in this sailing reporter who works with the
Internet's opinion it is obscurely publicly available
at best.
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Lake Michigan Report 3
Lake Michigan is being invaded. Not by human
enemies, but rather by species which aren't native to
the Lake. One of the main ways these species are
transported is through ballast water in ocean going
freighters that visit the lakes. Zebra Mussels are a
prominent example.
This inundation looms large in historical
perspective according to Gary Fahnensteil of the Lake
Michigan Field Station in Muskegon. Taking a look at
the sediment record you see that the lakes were first
disturbed by logging after the arrival of non native
people. Then came phosphorous enrichment 1955-70.
Now species such as zebra mussels which have caused
a large degradation in water quality. This
development may cause as much change as the deforestation
did.
Clearly such a meta historical biological
development will not be easy to solve. This summer the
Michigan Senate passed Bill 152, which attempts to deal
with ballast water and invasive species.
The bill will see the Michigan DEQ determine the
most effective way to treat ballast water. Ship operators
are then required to report whether they are using this
technology. If they use the specified method they are
listed on a compliance list. If they don't, they will not
be eligible for grants, or loans from the MDEQ. This is
a first step to having a uniform method of treating ballast
water.
While this bill may not ultimately measure up to
the historic problem it faces, it is clearly a step towards
a solution.
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Readers Write
Ozzie N. Finley writes, "I want to thank you for
your electronic newsletter. I look forward to each edition
so I can keep abreast of the latest sailing news and enjoy
the brokerage section too. Keep up the outstanding job you
folks are doing.. Again thanks. Grateful reader."
Of course we are heartened by such comments!
We aim to please and are pleased when we hit what we aim at.
The Rowing reporter always seeks comments, questions
and suggestions. Send email to ike@torresen.com. If readers
write we can start a dialogue about rowing reporter writing.
Send challenges, remarks, queries and they will make you a
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