GOLD COAST 230600ZJUN12 SKED – HALIFAX – DERRY

LAT 45 16.3N
LONG 32 09.7W
DTF 1100
ETA 30 JUN 12
SOG 9.5
COG 095

WEATHER WIND 170@18kts, Sea Mod, Swell SE 1m, Sky OBSC Fog, Baro 1008

After much head scratching and deliberation and plotting various scenarios’ Gold Coast Australia is heading east to find more prevailing winds to take us to Derry, Londonderry.

Yesterday saw us alter our course to the South in light airs for a few hours in order to get a better wind angle on starboard tack. It took three hours of heading south before the wind began to swing around to the south. Once it did this we were able to tack onto starboard and head 90 -100 degrees Course Over Ground (COG). This course will ensure we stay in the southerly winds until we can pass the low pressure trough to our port side and get into the more prevailing south west winds in the wind channel between the ridge to the north west and the high pressure system to the south east. This tactic has cost us a few places and a lot of miles on the leader board but will no doubt be worth it when we get into the south westerly winds.

Much of yesterday morning gave us light winds, but as the day went on the wind began to build and we now have over 18 knots from the south pushing us along nicely. Unfortunately the light winds from the morning did more than just slow us down. In an effort to increase our speed we were flying our light weight spinnaker when the foot tape must have got snagged by a hank resulting in a tear in the spinnaker.

We now have our spinnaker repair team on the case conducting a thorough repair. The team consists of Deborah Miller, Babara Yendell, Gina Gourlay and Vesna Rendulic and they were expertly trained by former crew member and parasailor Christopher Hopkins.

One of the highlights of yesterday was a large unidentified whale who surfaced only 4 metres from the boat in the light airs yesterday. The whale came to the surface no doubt to inspect what we were doing and hung around long enough for everybody to have a good look and him/her and then returned to the depths again. A true honour to nearly meet in person such a beautiful large creature as it was nearly close enough to shake its fin.

Gold Coast Australia will keep sailing east at good speeds for another day until we start seeing the fruits of our rewards pay off and the wind veers to the south west and we can alter course to the north towards Derry, Londonderry.