DATE 17.08.11
LAT 18 50n
LONG 24 05.0w
COG 135
DTR 2747
BLOG
As Gold coast Australia crossed the magical scoring gate at 0350 the team
are now waiting apprehensively to find out if we scored the points and if
it has been worth it.
Currently heading away from Rio after a change in tactics, Gold coast is
hoping traveling the extra miles is worth it. Our game plan for this leg
was to cover the fleet, and we have been doing this over throughout the
race so far expecting a crossing of the ITCZ west of Cape Verdie. The
interesting weather patterns now seem to have split the fleet, and
Gold coast have had to make the decision to go to the west or to the east
of the Verdies. Whilst at the time of the decision we were to the west,
many scenarios were trialed looking at wind direction v’s speed v’s time
for the next week from the available weather routing data, and now we are
following the scenario that had us coming out of the other side of the
doldrums almost half a day faster than all other scenarios. This option
outweighed the others by so much more it was irresistible. This option
however may be affected by local wind conditions that the Gold coast crew
will have to deal with when the time comes.
The good news for the crew at the moment is that with the spinnaker down,
lighter conditions, and the requirement for minimal movement on deck, crew
have a lot more down time, so the possibilities of each crew member
getting up to 15 hours sleep today are quite good. With everybody well
rested it is certainly a very happy little ship indeed. The crew will need
their batteries recharged as we enter the doldrums because soon there will
be endless sail changes as we try to pluck the bones out of what little
wind is available.
The wind on our current course is getting lighter and lighter as we
expected, and now all we can do is trim, trim, trim and look up at the
clouds. BT