LETTERS

What would you do? Prior to the start your astute tactician discovers the 10 knot wind is shifting every 6 minutes, and detects a shift 3 minutes before the start. How soon after the start will you get the next shift? (Are you sure?)

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SAN FRANCISCO Tactics & Strategy ...................Sat. Feb. 11 & Sun. Feb. 12 Weather .............................................................Sat. Mar. 11 Cruising & Seamanship ...............................Sun. Mar. 12 Integrated Performance Software............. Sun. Apr. 2

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Page 48 •

Latitude 38

• February, 2006

the outboard and killed it. We sailed southwest more or less in the troughs between waves — which were breaking two or three times over the various bars before reaching the beach — while Mac replaced the wet plug with a dry one. Once the new plug was in and the engine started up again, we could turn away from shore and head straight into the waves again. Until the next dousing — and the next and the next and the next — required that the spark plugs be changed again. Obviously, we survived exiting the Rehusa Channel, but it's not an experience we'd like to repeat. But come to think of it, we tried something similar on the coast between Topolobampo and Mazatlan. As for departing Bahia Magdalena via Boca de Soledad, you'd have to have a death wish — unless you were aboard a powerboat following a shrimper that knew where the bars were. And the bars are different every year, and perhaps even after every storm. Getting north through the Devil's Elbow from San Carlos to Lopez Mateos is not that simple either — unless the channel is better marked than it was five or six years ago. All things considered, the outside route sounds pretty good to me. Mary Shroyer Marina de La Paz La Paz, Baja California Sur Mary — We had a chuckle visualizing you and Mac cruising down the coast of Baja aboard a Piver 25 trimaran. Cruising boats sure have changed over the years, haven't they? ⇑⇓MORNING GREEN FLASHES It's true, there are green flashes at sunrise, too. I observed a spectacular green flash at sunrise off the coast of Baja some years ago while sailing aboard Sayula II — but no one would believe me. Since then, I have always alerted the morning watch to be on the lookout for a morning green flash. The latest AM green flash reported to me was this year by two trainees on the barque Picton Castle on a passage from the Galapagos to Pitcairn. As for multiple flashes, I’ll have to leave that to those who have had multiple other things. Ray Conrady San Francisco Readers — Ray Conrady can lay claim to a part of sailing history. He was the navigator aboard Ramon Carlin's Swan 65 Sayula II when she won the first Whitbread Round The World Race in '73-'74 — the race that spawned the modern era of crewed around-the-world racing. ⇑⇓GETTING IN SYNC WITH THE GREEN FLASH I would never have brought this up were it not for the fact that the Wanderer announced that his New Year's resolution was to become a more superficial person. In the vein of superficial goals, for a long time my boyfriend and I — we hope you'll allow us to remain nameless — have been working on being able to have simultaneous orgasms. And we've gotten pretty good at. In fact, we've gotten so good at it that we decided we needed a greater challenge. About the time we were trying to come up with something, all the letters started appearing in Latitude about the green flash at sunset. It was like a light going off, for what could be cooler than us having simultaneous orgasms at precisely the instant of a green flash? As you know, this is not an easy goal to achieve, because even in places like