LAT 08 15.0N
LONG 136 510E
DTF 2159nm
ETA 0600 26 Jan 2012
COG 280 SOG 9
WEATHER Wind 080 @ 18kts, Sea Moderate, Swell N1.5m, 060 0.5m, Cloud 4/8, Baro 1005.1 falling
Yesterday at our midday happy hour Team Gold Coast set ourselves a goal to make up the 70nm lead that was being held by
Derry at the time. Whilst it would have been near impossible to eat away at the entire 70nm, we managed to take away 51nm over a 24 hour period putting us back into second place.
Our northerly position is finally starting to bear fruits as we have more wind and assisting current taking us towards the
beautiful island of Palau. We intend to pass Palau to the north some time tonight, and carry on for another day or so
before gybing south towards the Marore island waypoint that has now been re-defined by the race committee as another gate.
Currents and wind for the next few days should be in our favour and we currently have 1-1.5kts of current helping our
progress and a few more knots of wind than the boats to the south, however for us to beat the current lead boat Derry to the
next gate we need to try to obtain a 100nm lead before we gybe as if you compare their route and ours to the gate they sail 100nm less than us over the next few days.
Our spinnaker repair team have been doing a fantastic repair on our medium weight spinnaker and hopefully that will be ready
to fly for the lighter winds as we sail down the coast towards our next waypoint where winds are expected to moderate significantly the further south we sail.