them if I had twice the fingers and toes. That race is won or lost based on how well you read the high pressure system over the desert. If you read it right, you can stay inside and use the off shore breeze close to shore at night and work yourself back out in the morning. If you aren't going to have the offshore then you'll want to stay off and try to pick up the wind out side of the islands. Or, it can blow like stink and you'll stay on the rhumb line for the shortest distance. That's all they talk about prior to the race. Everyone talks about it. What's the high doing? What's the pressure at Daggett Airport. There is no way someone would not know the islands were there. Large scale, small scale, it doesn't matter. Everyone in that race knows where they are and that they will pass them at night. Very few boats are fast enough to pass them during the day. It's just which side to pass them on. I can't think of a single reason why they would hit one of the islands unless both guys on watch fell asleep at the same time. That's doesn't make any sense either because no racer would be on auto pilot. Someone would be hand steering the boat. I suppose you could make the case that they were planning to DNF and motor to the finish for the party but if there was any wind at all, no one would pull the plug that soon. That would only happen if there was zero wind at the start. If they got past Dana Point by dark, I don't see them quitting. A bad exhaust might finish off the off watch but I can't believe it would take out the guys on deck. First of all, on that race it's to cold and wet to get comfortable enough to sleep in the cockpit and secondly, if the wind stopped and it wasn't that cold then you're trying not to do donuts all night so you still wouldn't be sleeping. I can only think that they got ran down from behind. I would look at the log books of the ship that delivers the oil to the electrical plant at Rosario just south of the islands. There's a Pemex Pilot Boarding area and moorings for the plant. Most other large ships go off shore outside the islands. Just MHO.