GOLD COAST 060600ZFEB12 SKED AND BLOG

LAT 03 24.5N
LONG 108 52.1E
DTF 2115
ETA QINGDAO 0600 22 Feb 12

WEATHER WIND 030@10kts SEA 3 SWELL N1M CLOUD 4/8 Cl, Ci, Baro 1011

Gold Coast Australia has had a fantastic 24 hours of sailing with better speed and height than most of the other yachts in
the fleet allowing us to sail between the gap of Palau Bangurum and the coast of Borneo gaining advantage from a large
counter current. At midday we were clear of Palau Bangurum and could tack to the north to ensure that we remain in the wind zone and don’t fall into the light winds that haunt the coast.

Team Gold Coast are sailing really well at the moment and concentrating hard to ensure the correct trim and heading is
steered as we begin to tack our way up through the South China Sea in almost perfect winds that have far exceeded the
forecasted conditions. Grib files are not so accurate in this part of the world and make routing quite challenging. What
we really need to focus on is the movement of the clouds and try to avoid areas of no wind.

Over the past six hours our lead has increased considerably as the yachts to the south were forced to tack to the north as
they approached the shallow and poorly charted waters of the coast. Our game plan now focuses on placing a loose cover on
the other yachts and place ourselves between the scoring gate and the rest of the fleet. While doing this we are monitoring
the wind closely as it starts to abate to ensure we don’t sail into any wind holes. If we can maintain our lead it will hopefully only increase as we sail into the stronger winds to the north.

Richard Hewson