LAT 17 00.0N
LONG 103 43.7W
DTF 1503nm
ETA 10 May 12
COG 115
SOG 5kts
Today is ANZAC Day. A day where we remember all the Australian and New Zealand Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen who fought gallantly and have devoted their lives for the freedom of our country – Australia – LEST WE FORGET
The day began with a beautiful sunrise as Gold Coast Australia coasted along under light weight spinnaker after a pleasant, yet sometimes frustrating night of jumping from wind patch to wind patch. Dolphins joined us for the sunrise making an almost unbeatable start to the day.
Throughout the morning the wind began to veer, and before lunchtime the spinnaker was down and the Y1 and Staysail were flying as we tried to make ground to windward in light winds. While the winds were light, they were still more than we were expecting, so considered an added bonus.
At 18:07:10 Gold Coast Australia commenced the ocean “sprint” as we basically drifted across the 17 degree 30 min latitude in somewhat glassy conditions. The position of the crossing was 17 30.0N, 104 31.8W. As we did not exactly have the best wind or speed at the commencement of the sprint we delayed notifying the race committee for the maximum time of 3 hours in case we found ourselves sailing back over the 70 30N on the other tack and would be able to re-start the sprint. Unfortunately the weather did not dictate such a manoeuvre so the start to our sprint was rather uneventful.
The wind continued to move throughout the afternoon as we played the shifts down the course, until early afternoon when we were able to re-hoist the light weight spinnaker.
Gold Coast Australia continues to battle it out with the front runners and stayed in the lead for most of the day. Thought the majority of the day we have remained in the lead, however De Large Landen are making some fantastic ground further to the North East closer into the shore, and in the afternoon sked they had overtaken us.
It will be interesting to see what wind fills in tomorrow, as conditions on the course are rather unpredictable. DLL is looking very strong to our North, while Welcome to Yorkshire threatens us from the west. At the moment we are trying to cover both flanks and race some more conservative tactics but if DLL continues to make ground on us over night we may have to review our game plan.
LEST WE FORGET
Richard Hewson