LAT 29 19.4S
LONG 158 58.1E
DTF 200nm to Gold Coast Australia
ETA 1600 12 DEC 11
WEATHER Wind 253@18kts gusting 22, sea moderate, swell 050@2m, sea 1m, cloud 3/8 Cl, Temp 25 C, Baro 1002.3 falling 1mb/hr
SKIPPERS BLOG
Gold Coast Australia made some fantastic ground yesterday after placing ourselves in a good position after the storm to take
advantage of the SW winds and it was fantastic to find at yesterdays 0600z sked that we had made 14 nm on Finland and DLL
and were then 10nm in the lead. The mood on Gold Coast Australia was fantastic when we heard the news, however our winning
position has been slowly slipping away each sked as DLL and Finland make better speeds towards South Port and The Gold Coast.
Last night the wind gradually eased away to approximately 10 kts, and as we made ground to the north west gradually the wind
began to veer around from the south west to the north west we tacked and tried to start making our way west. Unfortunately
the Clipper 68’s are not designed to go to windward very well. A short stubby keel of with only 3m of draft and the sail
plan give us a very poor tacking angle, especially in light airs. Combined with some easterly current and a lack of speed
our taking angle last night was over 140 degrees resulting in our best course to Southport being 225 despite a heading of
275. This is not ideal from a tactical situation and I found this to be very frustrating and could only hope the yachts to the north were experiencing a similar situation.
Frustrated with our lack of speed I stuck my head over the side today and noticed an unusual amount of growth on the hull.
Clipper rules make it very hard to clean a hull in port as use of SCUBA is not allowed, therefore only an area 1/2 meter
below the water line is accessible to cleaning in port. After 5 months at sea without a lift the growth of the hull has
taken over. I decided to attempt to give the hull a clean using a method that was used in days of old on the old square
rigged windjammers that used to spend years at sea. A line was dropped over the bow with a man on each side and we pulled
it up and down. This method is only good until you get to the keel, but even if 1/3 of the hull is cleaner and it gives us 0.1kt more speed it may be the difference in a place at the Gold Coast.
Hopefully there will be more opportunity for tactical advantage to bring us back into the lead later in the race. With less
than 10nm separating the first three boats and still 300 nm to race, there is still a lot of opportunity to gain and loose
ground. The clipper race is quite unique in that all the weather data comes from the one source and yachts are not allowed
to obtain outside routing advice or information. Occasionally this is frustrating as it would be very useful to know what
the East Australian Current is doing at the moment as we have an unusual amount of current against us at the present time
compared to the last time i was able to access information about the area and all the data sources we have onboard.
Today we passed only a few nm to the north of Middleton Reef. This is a reef famous for ship wrecks as it and
Elizabeth reef beside it are the only two bits of reef that stick up from the sea bed from 1000m below and are over 300nm
from the nearest bit of land. On the reef we could see what appeared to be an old wreck and the odd plume of white water.
A true testimate of how hard it would be to spot in less favourable conditions. A few years ago a yacht was wrecked on the
reef during a solo race from New Zealand. After waiting to be rescued for many days the solo sailor finally scratched his
name on the hull and set off in his life raft. Two days later the Royal Australian Navy (who coincidently is 100 years old
today) found his yacht and started a search but he was not to be found. 100 days later he washed up on Fraser Island where
he was found by his wife who had obtained independent weather routing advice and determined that is where he would eventually wash up. An amazing story of survival and love.
Since the last big winds a few days ago our wind instruments have been playing up and giving in correct readings making it
very difficult to steer and determine true wind direction as required for tactics and navigation. Today I went through the
wind instrument system from the mast base via every instrument to try to find the defect. Finally I made my way to the top
of the mast and cleaned the connection where the Raymarine wand connects to the top of the mast. Finally our instruments
are almost working correctly, with the occasional spike that may be due to a failing instrument relaying corrupt data.
Hopefully the work done this morning will be enough to get us to Gold Coast where we can re build and reconfigure the wind instrument system correctly.
Today has been some fantastic sailing conditions with blue skys and 15-20 kts of wind on the beam. Everybody is making the
most of the fantastic weather to dry equipment and bedding and enjoy the sunshine in the final days of the race.
Tonight winds are decrease and back around to the west then south west and we will be sailing to place our selves into the
best position possible to try to make more ground on DLL and Finland before our final run to the finish. Crew are now well
rested after the light winds last night so it may our last chance to make some ground on DLL and Finland before the finish
so we will be hopefully sailing the boat hard and fast throught the night. This race is so close it is fantasitc, hopefully we can bring home our 6th yellow pennant, fingers crossed and sail hard!
SALUS MARITIME 