GOLD COAST AUSTRALIA 100600ZDEC 11 SKED AND SKIPPERS BLOG

LAT 29 58.6S
LONG 161 08.6E
DTF 423
ETA 1000 12 December

Weather Wind 245@15kts Sea Moderate 2m confused swell random 2m Cloud 3/8 Baro 1005.5

Gold Coast Australia is fighting hard to overtake the two leading yachts and be the first yacht into Southport in what appears to be the most exciting and close race of the series so far.

Last night Gold Coast was the closest yacht to the centre of the low, and as it stalled i appeared that we sailed closer
than I had estimated we would as the barometer fell below 998mb. Knowing that the wind would be stronger than the 20kts
displayed on the GRIB files Gold Coast had already taken preparations for a storm of 40kts and it was just as well that we
did as we received a very fair wind all night. Late morning the wind began to abate and back to the west, so Gold Coast was
able to put in a tack which will hopefully place us ahead of the two leading boats if we sail well through out the day.
Wind has continued to drop though out the day and we have almost gone from a full range of sail changes from three reefs and a storm jib to full main and a Yankee 2.

Despite the storms fury last night this is now my fifth crossing of the Tasman and by far one of the calmest so far. This
notorious stretch of water can get very nasty indeed and I have seen waves here before 20m high breaking over the bridge of a ship. Thankfully the storm we witnessed last night was not that bad.

Our biggest problem at the moment however is not sailing it is electricity. Without a working generator this leg Gold Coast
has been forced to charge our batteries using our main engine. Many may think that a sailing yacht would not be required to
run an engine, and it would be very peaceful without one, however with the many things of modern technology that power and
batteries that require charging we are forced to run the engine or generator for about 10 hours per day. At the moment we
are on port tack, and our biggest problem is that we can not run the engine whilst on port tack because the cooling water
intake does not get enough water. It is for this reason we have switched to power saving mode which requires us to switch
off all equipment not essential to navigation. It is amazing how much electricity is wasted in every day life, and the
difference it makes just by ensuring your light globes are turned off and the computer gets turned off when you are not
using it. By these simple measures we have halved our power consumption and has re-assured me that sailing round the world
using renewable energy only is very feasible indeed, this means no smelly, noisy and heavy generators, less maintenance, and
less cost. The only drawback would be the southern ocean where the wind is normally too strong to run a wind generator and the sun is never out, however, it has already been proven that it is achievable.

Now the sun in out and the wind and seas have abated despite everybody being exhausted from all the sail changes which
require all watches to help out on deck everybody is happy and putting in a huge effort to sail the boat efficiently and as
quick as possible. It never ceases to amaze me that even when conditions are atrocious there is still time for a laugh and a smile onboard.