GOLD COAST 180600ZNOV11 SKED

dATE 18.11.11

LAT 47 29.5S

LONG 168 42.7E

DTF 916nm

ETA 24 Nov 11 0800

WEATHER Wind 205@30 Sea 1m Swell 240@3m Cloud 4/8 vis Good Baro 1009.2 steady

SKIPPERS BLOG

This morning Gold Coast Australia rounded most southern of the New Zealand turning marks “Boomerang” and altered course to

the north towards Taraunga.

Last night was a pretty wild ride with seas up to 4m on top of 4m swells combined with wind gusting over 50kts making

helming very challenging but a lot of fun as the boat accelerated down the massive waves and surfed for incredible amounts

of time.

At one stage when I was helming last night the bow just dropped into a black hole. I was not sure what way she was going to

accelerate or if she was just going to broach and roll down the wave sideways. I said to Tim Burgess who was on the

mainsail trim next to me that things could get interesting and suddenly she accelerated straight down the wave and hit

24kts.

Helming in such treacherous yet enthralling conditions was made even more exciting by the blackness of the night and the

absence of any stars or moonlight due to the overcast sky’s. Due to the blackness of the surrounds you can not see anything

until a wave suddenly crashes next to you or on top of you and releases a mound of phosphorescent light. Last night our top

adrenalin pumping speed that was reached was 26kts through the water.

As the winds of last night started to ease very early this morning they also began to back to the south allowing us to hoist

our storm jib and sail some better angles towards the Boomerang virtual mark, leaving Snares Islands on our port side. As

we crossed the continental shelf the depth went from 4000m to 140m and I was expecting a massive change in sea state,

however by this stage the sea had calmed down somewhat and the change was insignificant. After such a rough and tiring

night it was very nice to finally have New Zealand soil only 140m away and know that we were once again nearing the

completion of another race in the lead.

This morning at 0242z Gold Coast Australia rounded most southern of the New Zealand turning marks “Boomerang” and altered

course to the north towards Taraunga. For the next 24 hours Gold Coast will be in Stealth mode as we navigate some of the

currents up the East Coast of New Zealand and hopefully put ourselves into a good strategic position to make the most of the

light winds ahead to further extend our lead. With New York fully repaired and nipping at our heals, if we are complacent

our lead could disappear overnight, particularly with the forecasted light wind, so we want to stay on the ball, stay

vigilant and stay in front. BT