Great Speeds as First Yacht reaches Half-Way
Day 5
Friday saw a building breeze from 17-25 Kts, coming from the right direction to enable our skippers to make progress toward Southport. After five days the first boat crossed the halfway milestone. Sailing speeds improved, averaging between 7 & 9Kts, and at lunchtime, Sarau was clicked doing a top speed of 9.2kts. The closeness of the race between the 2nd & 5th positions Friday night was just 36nm.
The skippers reported in:
“Today has been fabulous sailing with the assy (asymmetrical spinnaker) up for 6 hours straight, averaging over 8 knots”
“Lowered main, just yankee, expecting heavy stuff tonight”
“The tack line parted at the end of the prod due to a sharp edge on the Selden fitting, no drama though, the sock brought it all under control and stowed away”
“Now three sail reaching”
“very boisterous sailing, hard cooking tea and eating it”
Alan and Melting Pot arrived back in Mangonui and are safely moored up and resting after a very tiring passage on the helm.
Rocking the Waves
Day 6
Ever wondered what a solo sailor tunes into mid-Tasman? Alister Dickson is rocking the waves to Jimmy Barnes. As conditions calmed Saturday Frontier was filled with Andrè Rieu and then ‘more appropriately some Country music’. She was sailing close reach in 15kts and should reach the halfway mile during Saturday night. Sarau, Hullabaloo, and Mister Lucky are over the hump, now closer to Australia than New Zealand.
Watching the race duration change each day as wind and sea conditions impact the yachts has seen early race durations of 8-9 days extend out to 13-17 days and now drop back down to 12-13 days for the mid-fleet boats. The lead boat skippers are now in for some hard work through Saturday night to keep moving in light winds.
No Wind
Day 7
“No Wind”, “Turning Circles all night”, “Lowered sails at 0000 - they were banging so much”
0700, a new day, Wind! and all boats are moving again. Saturday’s distance made good ranged between 144 and 113 NM. Crocus and Hullabaloo had big days in a good breeze. As the light wind met the boats Sunday’s DMG dropped significantly. Allegresse maintained the best wind, making 98 NM, while those boats furthest North were limited to less than 50 NM. The wind pattern for the next 48 hours looks to split through the fleet again. Sarau is still out front reducing the miles to the finish down to 400nm. Mid-fleet Hullabaloo, Mister Lucky, and Allegresse stand within 8nm of each other to the finish. Loving watching this race and anticipating the next tracker update.
