LAT 06 29.0N
LONG 148 11.0E
DTF 2625
ETA 0600 24 Jan 2012
COG 300 SOG 10

WEATHER Wind 095@14kts, Sea calm, Swell N1.5m E1m, Cloud 4/8 Cb Cl Ci, Baro 1006.1 Conditions Perfect!

Finally the winds that we have been searching for have arrived without squalls or storms. We are now sailing along at 6
degrees north, nicely powered up in the direction we want to go! To add to our luxury sail, the counter current that we
were experiencing earlier this morning has turned around and is now flowing with us giving us another 1/2 kt SOG.

Our Gold Coast Medium weight spinnaker has also successfully been re-repaired and is flying beautifully ahead of the yacht
powering her along at maximum speed for the 10-12kts of wind that we currently hold.

Its times like this that I wish I could view the yacht tracker and see what the other yachts are doing as I am hoping that
the investment that we made to sail further north is now paying off. Here at sea we do not have the luxury of viewing the
real time tracker and must rely on plotting the other yachts position at the 6 hourly sked to get a trend on what they are
doing and what tactics they may be considering. Whatever the other yachts are doing at the moment I have a pretty good
feeling that over the next 48 hours we will be doing a lot better provided that the weather stays as predicted.

My routing has taken us over 100nm north of the rest of the fleet to search for more trades and better currents. It takes
us closer to the the islands surrounding the Gray Feather Bank and then onto the beautiful Palau Islands before we begin to
head south to Marore Islands. Paper Charts for the area north of our current position are not held onboard so unfortunately
we can not get too close and we navigate with caution even though we are over 30nm to the south of the dangers. Electronic
chats on our navigation computer do cover the area but not in enough detail to get to close. Even if we did have the most
accurate charts trying to race through the area would be hazardous as the Pilot books warn of uncharted dangers and poor surveys.

As we near the islands of one of the more remote regions of the Pacific there is an increase in the abundance in wild life
with daily spotting of dolphins, and flocks of birds dive bombing schools of fish. We also have the occasional bird trying
to steal our windex which we need to some how disguise as a predator to scare them away in future. The increase in wildlife is a pleasure to watch and hopefully it remains like that for the future.

Crew today were given the “pirate” brief as required by HQ before we enter in to the pirate affected areas in the Celebes
Sea and Molucca Sea and of course I gave it to them while wearing pirate attire just to make the brief all a bit more real.
Though piracy is not a major concern in the areas that we are racing through we are in a good position to not be to
concerned about pirates given that we don’t own the boat, have nothing of value onboard apart from ourselves, and will no
doubt outnumber any skiff or small craft. Additionally we have the ability to contact HQ and MRCC at a moments notice if
required. Regardless if there are pirates or not as they say if you have a plan in place it probably wont happen to you.

Still no signs of Monsoonal Storm clouds this afternoon, lets keep fingers crossed that we don’t see them for a long long time.

Yacht tracker viewed at http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

LAT 04 18.0N
LONG 150 26.4E
DTF 2818
ETA Batam Is Indonesia 0600 25 Jan 2012
COG 330 SOG 10

WEATHER Wind 120@8kts, Sea Confused 1/2m, Swell confused 1/2m, Cloud 4/8 Cl, Cb, St, Ci, Baro 1005.2 dropping

For the people following Race 7 of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race that want a better idea of the conditions of
sailing through the Pacific near the ITCZ this time of year I recommend switching off the yacht tracker and turning on your
Nintendo to play SuperMario outside in the rain (WARNING – BEWARE OF ELECTRICAL SHOCKS IF YOU DO TRY THIS AT HOME).

Just like in SuperMario we are bounding along singing a merry tune whilst trying to avoid the evil squall clouds. If we
sneak past the squall clouds we receive bonus points in the form of wind and good milage in the right direction. If the
evil squall clouds manage to catch us then we are frozen in the game. The first thing that happens when hit by a evil
squall cloud is that we are hit by 25kts of wind, then it starts to rain, then the wind drops out all together and we are left as “frozen Super Mario” as the game time continues to run.

As we proceed further to the north the conditions are getting better and the wind more constant and of a greater velocity.
Our hope is to sail further north than the other Australian yacht Geraldton who is currently ahead of us, and get better
winds so we can average more speed and better VMG to our next waypoint of Marore Island (04 50N 125 29E).

Squalls have an amazing effect on wind direction of up to 100 degrees for up to half an hour before they arrive and up to an
hour after they pass. Upper level wind that is getting sucked into the ITCZ rockets down unaffected by Coriolis swinging
the wind to the north requiring us to change our course and drop the spinnaker. I have been trying to analyse a pattern for
the squalls as one would think that they should occur in the afternoon like they are supposed to, yet some afternoons there
are no squalls at all and the squalls have been experienced in the middle of the night instead. Hopefully the further north
we go the less we will see of these squalls and the more steady the wind will become.

Today we noticed some loose stitching on our Medium Weight Spinnaker from a recent repair and on further investigation found
an half of a new panel not sewen in correctly and missing re-enforcements in the clew. This is a bit of a let down and
consequently we now have 2 people from each watch re-sewing the spinnaker by hand and re-enforcing with tape and more
stitching. It is very lucky we found this out early as otherwise the entire spinnaker may have been once again torn in two
peices resulting in a far more labours repair. As the majority of this race is down wind in moderate wind strength the
medium weight spinnaker is our main work horse and our biggest and most used sail. It would be a disaster to loose it and
hence it is well worth being without it for a couple of days while we correct the repairs rather than loosing it for the rest of the race.

After a big squall at midday and after 3 hours of sails flapping and trying to sail at any angle possible to get some
movement the wind has finally begun to rebuild and we are making progress again. In this race it is becoming very apparent
that there is no certainty as to where to find the wind as the squalls are quite random in their location. All we can do is
hope that we get more wind than the other yachts in the fleet to advance our progress. There is no doubt however that the
further north we go the better the wind will become, and given our position as the most northerly yacht in the fleet we stand a good chance of our tactics paying off.

Yacht tracker viewed at http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Thanks for the book Rob, its nice to be reading how much trouble other people can get themselves into!

LAT 01 31.0S
LONG 052 08.0E
DTF 3090
ETA 0600z 24 July 2012
COG 330 SP 12

WEATHER WIND 120@12kts, Sea Calm, Swell NE 1m, Cloud 3/8 Cl, Cb, Ci, Baro 1004.3 falling

For most of the day yesterday Gold Coast Australia wallowed around in the calms of the ITCZ trying to make the most of every
zephyr of wind to reach the equator. An hour after sunset as the sun sunk well above the horizon the tropical clouds began
to recede and the sky began to clear bringing with it the light trade winds and Gold Coast was underway again making ground
to the north towards the equator.

At AT 2315 LOCAL (1315GMT) Gold Coast Australia crossed the equator from south to north in position 153 09.4E. For all
onboard this is a fantastic mile stone. For the round the worlders it meant crossing the equator from south to north for
the fist time, and for the crew who joined us in Gold Coast is is the first time they have ever crossed the equator by sea.
King Neptune made a delayed appearance and demanded explanations of why the polywogs should be allowed into his realm and
held court for each member to give explanation for their sins and be punished accordingly. Tribute was paid to King Neptune
in the traditional fashion as the court turned into a celebration.

This morning the trades increased and we finally had some good wind for a few hours before the storm clouds began to develop
again sucking the air from around us and once again we struggled to make way as we sat barely moving through the water.
Later in the day however the wind increased to a pleasant breeze and we sail with out light weight spinnaker up trying to
catch our Aussie competition who have been making some fantastic progress on us over the last few days. The race is still
young however and as we alter our course to the west we hope to eat away at a few miles.

The Chinese boat Qingdao has also made some excellent miles catching us up from the south and they have been able to
maintain a far better westerly heading than we can which is slightly concerning as it appears from the GRIB they will have
better conditions than we had for crossing the ITCZ. The other yachts appear to be making slow and painful progress well
south of the equator and it will be interesting to see what tactics they use for the remainder of the race.

At the moment we are in good breeze for the majority of the time and trying to avoid the storm clouds that take away the
wind and alter its direction up to 90 degrees. If we can keep this wind until sunset it is hoped that we will be able to
make some good progress to the north throughout the night and hopefully be well placed in the trades by tomorrow.

Yacht tracker viewed at http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com. email
richhewson@gmail.com or richardhewson.Cv5@SkyFile.com

My job as skipper of this yacht is an amazing one. Though times can be challenging, they are also very rewarding. The
sailing is the fun part and the easy part. When I initially considered skippering a yacht in the race this is all that I
assumed it would involve and the joys of the job would be limited to the beauty of sailing and the environment.

Every day I realise more and more that this job is not just about sailing, it is about fulfilling dreams and making life
long goals and personal satisfaction achieved for everybody. Not only those onbord but also people watching and viewing the
race who are given hope realsing that their dream of sailing the world is achievable so long as they want it enough.

As we sat becalmed at sunset tonight with the inter-tropical storm clouds on the horizon and the sun glowing a bright orange
one such amazing experience occurred as one of my crew members paid tribute to her late husband and son. Both died
tragically a year apart only a few years ago to the day and it was only fitting to pay tribute to them on this idealistic
evening. Ironically her husband had traded and fished as a master mariner and Captain for many years through the waters
that we have been sailing for the past week. Both she and her husband worked together on the boats until their children landed them ashore.

The service was simple yet fitting and emotional. At sunrise two flags were placed on the transom and flew with us through
the day of a myrid of conditions. At sunset the flags were placed in the mirror like water and as the boat slowly sailed
away a few words were said in their honour. I could only imagine that they would be proud and happy to have been loved so much.

This job is not just about realising my dreams, it is about helping others to realise theirs, and its days like today that make me realise I have one of the most amazing jobs in the world.

Richard Hewson

LAT 00 19.5S
LONG 153 16.5E
DTF 3220
ETA 0600z 24 Jan 2012
COG 330, SOG 4

WEATHER WIND 194@3.7 Sea Calm, Swell N1/2m, Cloud Cb, Cl, St, Ci and rather chaotic, Baro 1004.5

As we sail Gold Coast Australia through the last stretch of the doldrums and try to make it over the equator to the NE
trades we are plagued with overcast skies and squalls. Some of the squalls benefit us, some suck away all the wind leaving
behind a spell of calm. I am very tired as every time I go to get my head down I give the crew a course and True Wind Angle
to steer, and every time I manage to drift off to sleep the wind changes and i clamber back into my wet weather gear and up
on deck to resolve a new course of action to try to get us moving in the right direction again. If I had been counting the
hours ive slept in the last 48 hours I think it would probably able to count on one hand. Everybody is tired in fact, and
consequently concentration spans on the helm and trim lapse frequently resulting in poor performance. Whilst it is a
leaders and managers role to understand that people are tired, inspiration is also required to keep people focused, or at
times, a bit of a “WAKE UP” call is needed to remind people that if they don’t concentrate now we will be stuck in this weather for the next week!

Geraldton is still close by, and while we occasionally manage to loose them behind, a few hours later they are back on top
of us. This morning we would have been a good 10nm ahead and to windward of them and I thought that we finally had them,
then only a few hours later the wind vanishes and Geraldton sail right around us. It seems luck has been in their court more
than ours and they deserve it as they are obviously pushing themselves very hard and have a great desire to beat us. It
useless blaming the performance on the luck the other yacht is having as it wont solve any problems, we must continue to
stay focused to reach our goal. I am thoroughly enjoying our little tussle with Geraldton and it is great to see their sail
in the distance during the day and their mast head lights at night. It is defiantly fantastic to have the two Aussie boats in leading the race by a good margin.

Every four to six hours the weather seems to randomly follow the same pattern. Every four hours the wind will box the
compass, and every four to six hours we have at least four Yankee/Windseeker changes, six staysail changes, and one
spinnaker hoist. Each of the sail combinations last about half an hour, then the wind will completely change direction or
drop out all together and we are forced to change our game plan. When sails are lowered they are unhanked, flaked and
placed below deck. Spinnakers go down below deck sodden in rain and we leave them drying below before re-wooling them in
preparation for a new hoist. Consequently down below resembles a sauna and bilges are pumped dry every watch.

Thankfully today it has been extremely cloudy (though if there was not cloud it we would probably have the trades we desire
so badly). The clouds are chaotic and if you saw clouds like them in the southern ocean or Bass Straight you would no doubt
drop all sails hoist a tri-sail and sit and wait to be plumaged. Instead up here all they do is suck the wind away and send
it skyward. There are Cb clouds rising to probably 10,000 feet, rolling cigar shaped StCl clouds so black that look like
southerly busters, standard cl clouds, cats paws, lambs tails, every cloud you could possibly imagine and they are moving as
fast as a snail, signalling very little upper level divergence hence the air moves up up and away.

As we near the equator preparations are already in place to welcome King Neptune, but I believe I spoke about this last
blog however everybody is very excited. Who knows what he could possibly have install for our periwinkels? Hopefully once
they have paid their pennants we can have our wind back and sail on into the trades.

This afternoon I have just woken up and managed to get 3 hours sleep in a row and I feel like ive been sleeping for the past
week. Wow what a difference that has made. Though I awoke to find us flop flop flopping about in only 4kts of wind from the
south west (looking at GRIB wind should be 8kts from east) we have made reasonable ground and now at 20 degrees south and
not very far off crossing the bump. Unfortunately as we are currently sailing 330*T @ 3kts and the last known course and
speed from Geraldton flashing on the AIS screen is 310*T @ 8kts. I am hoping they maintain their 310@T course as this will
result on us making more ground to the north over time and therefore into stronger trades. Either way its a very exciting race I just wish they would stop overtaking us!

The following is the article written by Lisa Blair for Australian Sailing. It offers an account of the race so far from a different set of eyes. Enjoy.

Late on Day 1 at sea the crew on board Gold Coast Australia were battling high seas as we set out for the beginning of Race 7 in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race racing from Gold Coast in Australia to Singapore. Departing on Christmas Eve the crew has by now all said there goodbyes to there families and friends and set off north into the down graded cyclone named Fina. Fina, although down graded to a tropical low she was still able to offer up some seizable swells as we sailed thought the night bashing into it. For one crew member this was going to alter her trip quite dramaticly. Deb Miller was in front of three crawling towards the bow as the boat bucks on the waves beneath them, heading forward to do a sail change when one of the epic waves came flying over the deck all foam and white water striking Deb in the face and shoving her into the crew behind. In her efforts to stop herself from taking out the other two crew she griped on to what ever she could tearing a large gash into her hand in the process. As the white wash streams past Deb is left with a 2 cm wide and a 1.5 cm deep open and bleeding wound between her thumb and for finger placing her on light duties. We had been lucky that there were no more injuries as the waves through the night were consistently washing crew down the decks throughout the night.

As Christmas Day dawned Deb Miller, a nurse, looked at her hand and decided that stitches were in order to help close the gap, lucky for her we also have another nurse on-board called Deb Grant who was able to perform the suturing. This was to completed in the galley over the kitchen sink with no local on a moving vessel while Deb Miller tried not to pass out. No easy task… After our medical experiences the wind had died down, the swell had reduced and the sun came out to wish us a very merry Christmas. Santa still managed to find us at sea and drop off a nice large bag of goodies so we all sat crowded around as Rich dished out our presents.

By day 3 we had taken first place with a nice lead of 20 nautical miles with De Lang Langdon and Singapore just behind us. Hoisting the spinnaker at dawn we coast north nearing the Great Barrier Reef. As we climb further north we also are starting to get into the very hot weather where we can feel the bight of the un at 0500am in the morning so headaches are becoming more frequent as we try to drink more than we sweat and often find ourselves waking in a massive pool of sweat in our bunks. Holding the Spinnaker through the night we were greeted with a steady 12 knots of wind and a blanket of stars to cover us. By sunrise the winds had roped to the 5-8 knot range so we drooped the Spinnaker and hoisted our largest head sail the Yankee 1. Dawn showed us to be still holding first place with an increase in our lead to 28 nautical miles and a sun so hot that I was feeling sunburnt at 0600am in the morning…

With all of the light weather we were able to get a lot of maintenance completed and offered Skipper Richard Hewson the chance to repair the broken Stern Gland that decided Race start was the opportune time to die. With all this sitting around in the heat baby powder and sudocream is the order as we deal with the dreaded nappy rash. Just about every crew member as we sweat and sweat and sweat with only a light breeze to dull the heat. Coming out of nowhere if feels like someone is jabbing a series of pins into your bottom as it rashes up making it so uncomfortable that you don’t want to sit down in case you trigger the pin feeling.

By Day 6 at sea the we were less than 70 nautical miles from the scoring gate and still holding first position however the first 7 boats were all within 6 nautical miles of each other. How the scoring gate works is the first boat though the gate gets 3 pints added to there overall race tally while the second boat gets 2 points and the third gets 1 point. At 0800am in the morning just as I was going off watch from spending 4 hours on deck Rich call for a ‘Super Watch’ until we cross the gate to try to hold our diminishing lead. Super Watch means all crew on deck all of the time to hike the boat or add weight to the rail of the boat. This will help to flatten the boat and ther for increase speeds. So after looking longing at my bunk I slapped on some more sunscreen and climbed back on deck to try and cat nap on the high side of the deck. Super Watch continued throughout the day and into the night with the heat of the day cooking us slowly on deck. It didn’t matter how much sunscreen you applied you would feel yourself burning 10 minuets later and need to apply some more. By 1600 at night we were finally given permission to get some sleep, keeping in mind that we had been up since 0400 in the morning with was welcome however the weather had something else in mind.

I just laid my head down on my nice soft pillow in my nice and dry bunk when I heard a squall rampaging our boat. There was shouts all around as people tried to communicate above the wind. Rich was shouting for the Yankee 1, our largest head sail, to be dropped before it was torn in half and with the amount of noise on deck this was definitely an all hands on deck call. So wearing shorts and a T-shirt I threw on my life jacket and ran on deck shortly followed by the rest of my watch. I exited the companionway onto the deck into the heaviest rain I have ever seen. Massive drops striking your face with so much force that it stings and so many drops that you could not see into it but instead had to tilt your head on an angle to see anything ahead. The people on the foredeck were struggling to get the sail down so I ran up to help, after a few grunts and the odd splash of salt water form the ocean the sail was down and there were many crew trying to tie it down so the winds and waves would not take it off the deck. Tim Burgess was in front of me on the bow when he called out that there was no one on the main sheet, the main sheet can be eased allowing the main sail to de-power. Seeing that everything was under control on the bow I ran back to standby on the main sheet. Out of the foray I say there looking around me in awe at the sheer amount of rain that was falling in such a short amount of time. Welcome to the monsoon season. The good news was that we succeeded in crossing the scoring gate in first position earning ourselves three points.

After our epic super watch on day 8 at sea we were given a little rest with the winds down around 4-5 knots and our boat speed rarely touching above 1.5 knots we were given the chance to swim. I stood on the bow and launched off the deck arching back into a back flip and entering the cool embrace of the pacific ocean. It is so lovely to be able to be in the water some time especially in heat like we were experiencing because we stand all day long looking longingly at the deep blue but travelling too fast to go swimming. Day 8 at sea was not just any day but in fact it was New Years Eve with a party planned for sunset. The idea was that everyone would create a pirate outfit out of what was around on the boat. Some interesting eye patches were created out of leather and gaffer tape… At midnight we counted down the last few seconds and welcomed the new year in with a toast of champaign still holding first position. With the stress of race start and super watch I was feeling absolutely shattered so I crept away form the celebrations into my welcoming bunk for some lovely kip.

LAT 02 05.1S
LONG 154 00.0
DTF 3332
ETA 0600 24 Jan 2012
COG 350 SOG 9.5

WEATHER WIND (in squall) 243@17kts (no squall) 277@6kts, sea slight, swell 1m north, cloud 7/8, Baro 1004.4

SKIPPERS BLOG
As we sail our way into the Pacific Ocean Gold Coast Australia continues its cat and mouse battle with Geraldton. Until
recently Geraldton have been sticking to us like glue 3nm astern to the south. Occasionally they would gain on us slightly,
and then we would loose them slightly. Just after midday the storms started to build. As the storms approach the wind
backs up to 90 degrees, and Geraldton appeared to be in their own wind with the squall coming towards it while we
maintained our course to the north in the usual light trades. Two hours later as the squalls began to approach us Geraldton
were 2nm to the east of us sailing at 10kts and making significant gains our our position.

Gradually we weave our way around squalls which have good wind on the outside, but no wind underneath them. We are
constantly altering course and trimming trying to get the best speeds and make ground to the North to get to the trades
first. Hopefully we can out sail Geraldton for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening now we are in similar wind
however the squalls are so random it is very hard to pick a particular course or game plan and we must just sail by the minute.

Squalls not only bring wind, and they also take away wind and it is not uncommon to have a 2min squirt of 20kts followed by
0kts for the next half hour. This is why it is very important to try to navigate around the outside of squalls and not get
stuck in the middle of them. One squall yesterday took us an our to get out of its centre, yet right now the squalls have
seemed to increase the wind in the general vacinity to up to 20kts making for some very good sailing towards the equator.

Squalls also bring rain, and as I type it sounds like the boat is sitting under a waterfall as the rain comes down in bucket
loads. Everybody onboard get very excited about this particularly the girls as it is not just a great way to cool off after
a hot day’s sailing, it is also a fantastic opportunity to have a shower in the rain and if you like even shampoo your hair
with fresh rainwater in an environment where only limited water can be made and there is not enough water to have a shower
every day. If you manage and you can catch some of the rainwater as it comes off the mainsail it is also fantastic drinking water.

As we near the equator there are certain crew members onboard who have not yet entered into King Neptune’s realm, and
preparations are underway for us to receive King Neptune and as custom initiate the periwinkles into shell backs. Other
members will be crossing the equator from south to north for the first time so they too will no doubt be ordered to pay pennants to King Neptune.

In this part of the world we are very lucky to have any wind at all, so even though the wind is random and comes from
squalls, it is better than no wind at all so we take what we can get. Hopefully if these conditions keep up we can be into the trades by tomorrow and setting course for Singapore.