GOLD COAST QIN-SAN 080600ZMAR SKED

LAT 31 44.7N
LONG 133 30.4E
DTF 5042
ETA 05 Apr 12

This race is defiantly one for the armchair sailor. If we were to be relying on GRIB files and weather data your virtual yacht would surely be coming last. The winds and conditions seen so far from the predicted, and while the NNE winds that were expected over the past few days should have taken us east, in reality the winds have a lot more east in them and consequently for the past eight hours we have been finding ourselves heading north to re-meet the Kuro-Shio current.

Gold Coast went into Stealth mode yesterday because of the many differnt tactics that could be played at this stage of the race. Infact, at the time of going into Stealth I was quite unsure where we were going to go let alone the rest of the fleet, and since then my decision making process has been a bit like a yo-yo depending on the wind we have had at the time.. should we go east to get to the new wind first, should we go north with the current. In reality with the lack of accurate information we are playing this race more like a dinghy race, utilising the information gathered before the race start, and then just playing the shifts as they pan out after the start.

Thankfully over the last 24 hours things have settled down. The winds have abated to 12-15kts, the seas have calmed, and we have even seen some sunshine. With the warmth of the Kuro Shio Current I am even wearing shorts and thermal shirt as opposed to layers of midlayers, neck warmers, beanies and gloves. The calmer conditions allow me to do some training on deck, teaching the new joiners how to helm and trim and showing them the fine art of how to get the boat going fast and all that we have learnt since the start of the race. Everybody is keen to learn and we have already discovered some natural helmsmen amongst our new crew.

The lighter airs came at a valuable time as our battery voltage was dwindling. Some devastating news yesterday as we found our battery charger was confirmed un-repairable, we once again only have our main engine for electricity supply, and as a result we can not charge the batteries on port tack when the boat is healed over 15 degrees (ie in over 15kts of wind) while we are sailing to windward. This will make the rest of the race even more challenging, but that is the part of ocean racing that we love.