GOLD COAST 140600ZFEB12 SKED – HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

LAT 17 35.4N
LONG 118 53.3E
DTW 281nm
DTF 1083nm
ETA 0600 21 Feb 12

WEATHER WIND 040@4kts, Sea Calm, Swell NE 1.5m, Cloud 4/8 St Cl, Baro 1011.8

Today is Valentines day so we are all having a bit of a laugh and playing a few jokes which is always fun. There have even
been heart shaped scones, and muffins made for the special occasion out of who knows what – i think the crew must be smuggling cake mix onboard!

The wind has gradually reduced overnight and then began to back through the morning, now we are sailing along in under 5kts
of wind trying to make some sort of headway. Occasionally we will sail into a patch of wind of up to 7kts which makes a
massive difference. We also have 2kts of current pushing us towards the east (The current superhighway – nemo)which also helps build our apparent wind up slightly.

Over the last couple of hours we have been sailing away from Singapore with 5kts of SOG leaving them behind in a wind hole,
now we are stopped almost still and looking at the AIS they are doing 5.8kts towards the next waypoint. It is really a game
of chance and depending on how the dice rolls depends if you get wind or if you don’t.

At the moment we sail east trying to get into the stronger currents up the western edge of the Philippines as the forecast
is for no wind on the entire course for the next day so we may as well be drifting in the right direction at 2kts rather than sitting still.

The boat that reaches the top of the Philippines and gets into the new wind first will be at a massive advantage to all the
other boats in the fleet so we are all working incredibly hard to try to utilise whatever breeze we can find.

Richard Hewson