GOLD COAST 170600ZAUG11 SKED

DATE 17.08.11

LAT 18 50n

LONG 24 05.0w

COG 135

DTR 2747

BLOG

As Gold coast Australia crossed the magical scoring gate at 0350 the team

are now waiting apprehensively to find out if we scored the points and if

it has been worth it.

Currently heading away from Rio after a change in tactics, Gold coast is

hoping traveling the extra miles is worth it. Our game plan for this leg

was to cover the fleet, and we have been doing this over throughout the

race so far expecting a crossing of the ITCZ west of Cape Verdie. The

interesting weather patterns now seem to have split the fleet, and

Gold coast have had to make the decision to go to the west or to the east

of the Verdies. Whilst at the time of the decision we were to the west,

many scenarios were trialed looking at wind direction v’s speed v’s time

for the next week from the available weather routing data, and now we are

following the scenario that had us coming out of the other side of the

doldrums almost half a day faster than all other scenarios. This option

outweighed the others by so much more it was irresistible. This option

however may be affected by local wind conditions that the Gold coast crew

will have to deal with when the time comes.

The good news for the crew at the moment is that with the spinnaker down,

lighter conditions, and the requirement for minimal movement on deck, crew

have a lot more down time, so the possibilities of each crew member

getting up to 15 hours sleep today are quite good. With everybody well

rested it is certainly a very happy little ship indeed. The crew will need

their batteries recharged as we enter the doldrums because soon there will

be endless sail changes as we try to pluck the bones out of what little

wind is available.

The wind on our current course is getting lighter and lighter as we

expected, and now all we can do is trim, trim, trim and look up at the

clouds. BT