Race 6 - Day 10
Skipper Report
15 January
The sea has calmed, the wind is behind and we are on the home stretch, the final 350 nautical miles towards Airlie beach. Unicef and Dare To Lead are in our sights and it's a drag race to the finish. Will the Southern approach work or will it be the approach from the North?
After our second Southerly Buster of Race 6: The Wondrous Whitsundays Race, the wind has changed from a northerly to a southerly but the passing front brought with it wind, rain and lightning at a rapid rate of knots. Now, I hate to sound like I'm complaining and the wish for winds from behind had been answered but these winds are now directly from behind pointing in the direction we are travelling. Now the reason this is a problem is because these boats don't sail dead downwind. They sail best at an angle of 120 - 130 degrees from the wind so yet again although we are champagne sailing we are not heading directly towards the finish so this 350 nautical miles (nm) then easily becomes 450nm as we gybe back and forth to make our final course.
The Southerly Buster last night brought winds up to 66 knots of wind with it. The difference between this time and last time is that we were prepared. We were bobbing around for almost an hour with light and variables, three reefs in the mainsail and just the staysail up when, bang, the wind began to push us along at nearly 14 knots with the most reduced sail plan we have. The rain was sideways and the lightening reminded me of the flashing white light as you look out of an airplane window when it's landing. With Jonathan hanging onto the helm for dear life, his co-pilot, Phil, with his tea in hand and Jeremy ready to jump on the other helm, if needed, they sailed a perfect course downwind in these conditions for a good 20 minutes before it left us and moved North.
Fingers crossed for no more electrical storms and rapid wind increases with massive shifts this evening. All we need now is a nice smooth run through the reef.
Let peace be the journey
Andy and the GREAT Britain Team