GOLD COAST 080600ZJUN12 SKED NY – HALIFAX

LAT 39 59.6N
LONG 072 21.9W
DTW 171nm
DTF 496nm
ETA 2359 13 Jun 12
SOG 6kts
COG 110

WEATHER WIND 242@8kts, Sea Calm, Swell Var, Cloud 1/8, Baro 1016

Gold Coast Australia started Race 12 of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in fantastic form and are now leading the southern most pact of yachts and hopefully the entire fleet to Halifax.

Gold Coast Australia had a fantastic stopover in New York, most of the crew having plentiful time to see the sights and experience the atmosphere of the city. One honour that I had during my stay was to be invited to the New York Yacht Club for dinner with De Lage Landen.

This morning we completed our final race preparations and after a few hours of flag waving and fleet photo shoots, Gold Coast Australia transferred herself from being a New York Model back to a race yacht and en-route to the start line, team Gold Coast spend the afternoon training for the race to come, practising safety procedures such as man overboard, reefing, head sail changes and the famous Le Manz Start.

The fleet lined up to the start and the gun fired and we left our blocks like a race horse, quickly setting our sails and powering on towards the first mark. Ten minutes after the start Gold Coast Australia hoisted their medium weight spinnaker along with most of the fleet, and after a short tussle with Singapore we began to lead the pack towards the first virtual mark on the south east corner of the Traffic Separation Scheme.

A beautiful sun set over the rest of the fleet as we watched them astern of us as we broke into watches and half the crew went below to try to get some sleep after the excitement of the start and after eating our first dinner onboard.

Good wind remained with us until shortly after midnight when breeze suddenly dropped from 14kts to 8kts. The watch prepared for a peel to the light weight spinnaker, and after a quick brief to the new crew as to the process we pulled off the peel with the efficiency and speed that helped to take us to victory in the last race. All the sail changes today have been performed very well and if we can keep this momentum up for the next few days we will sail a very good race.

It is estimated that it will take us a little over 4 days to race to Halifax, our time expected to be some what determined by the light airs that we are now experiencing and when the wind will pick up tomorrow. For now Gold Coast Australia will work hard to stay ahead of the fleet.