GOLD COST QIN-SAN 180600ZMAR12 SKED

LAT 38 02.0N
LONG 172 55.7E
DTF 3230
ETA 6 April 2012

WIND 000@20kts, Sea Rough 2m, Swell 3m, Sky 4/8 Cl St, Baro 1033?

Gold Coast Australia continues under trisail as conditions are still not suitable for a safe assent of the mast to try and re-mount the mainsail track. Earlier today we decided we had two options. Option 1 was to carry on at a slightly reduced performance under trisail while making good speed and try to stay ahead of the bad weather and fixt the problem when the wind dies off completely in about 4-5 days time. Option 2 was to heave to and try to resolve the problem now. After looking at the time it may take to fix the problem in this sea state we decided on option 1, this option is also a lot safer and keeps us prepared for the worst conditions possible if we are unlucky enough to be on the receiving end.

Gold Coast suffered a casualty today when Wayne Read was thrown against a guard wire when changing over yankee sheets after a splice gave way. We are very lucky that Waynes injuries are not more severe and have reviewed the incident with caution. Wayne is one of our more experienced round the worlders and it just go’s to show how dangerous these big powerful yachts can be when under load for excessive amounts of time.

The constant dampness is not only affecting the crew’s comfort onboard, it is now also having a big impact on all our electrical gear. Our sat-comms are on and off and we have lost all ECG signal possibly when a wave knocked the aerial. Today I dried to try all the electrics out, gave them a spray with water inhibitor and then dried them again but their status is still intimidate. I would not be surprised if we finish this race with no sat comms at all so if you do not hear from GCA for a while we are all ok, its just our sat-comms are down. This will also mean no weather data from satellite or ECG so we will be back to Meteorology 1.1 using the mark 1 eyball and a slightly dodgy (and now calibrated due to rough weather) barometer.

At this stage of the game we still hold a lead of over 100nm, and the weather from now on seems pretty self explanatory, basically the aim of the game is to get around the series of HP systems and then sail down the coast to San-Francisco. The wind has just started to veer, and so soon we will tack to the north, where conditions though maby colder should be a lot more comfortable and get us to san fran as quickly as possible for warm baths, beer and champaign

While some may say that Team Gold Coast has had their fair share of bad luck this trip I would tend to agree with them. This race is the longest and hardest leg of the entire round the world race and we have defiantly had our fair share of challenges. Not only do crews and equipment have to face constant upwind battling in over 30kts (though the wind did die off to 20kts today and the sun came out and it felt like heaven!) but we are also enduring very cold surface and sea temperatures, that are lowered by wind chill. It is so cold on deck that spending any more than an hour on deck at any one time is almost unbearable. Down below the boat is like a washing mashine that has not completed its cycle, and constant shamming and drying does little to help the condensation buid up. On this leg everything is hard and there is little reward. The reward will come at the end for years to come. The reward will be something that the Team members of Gold Coast Australia will be proud of for life. The reward will be to say that we raced across the Northern Pacific in winter and it was bloody hard but we survived and won!