From the yacht Getaway-CMC Markets - 29 December 2006

• NEWS
• 29 Dec, 2006 08:37:00 PM

From the yacht Getaway-CMC Markets - 29 December 2006

Welcome from the crew on Getaway-sailing.com – CMC Markets.

The last 24 hours have been pretty exciting ones for all the team on board.  Our tactics at the start of the race were to head offshore and pick up some extra horsepower courtesy of the eastern Australia current.  Our weather router warned that we would also encounter larger waves as a result of this strategy, but we felt that the performance gains would outweigh the rather unpleasant and bumpy ride.  That bumpy ride turned out to be more than we bargained for as the boat encountered a large “rouge” wave at 10.00pm last night about 40nm off the coast of Nowra.  The boat dropped off this unexpected monster with a thud, the impact causing us to lose all our instrumentation and navigation systems.

The crew, who worked through the night until 9.00am Wednesday morning, made running repairs and we have since got the majority of our instrumentation working. Unfortunately, we have not been able to repair the navigation equipment and are now relying on our paper charts and hand held compass to navigate to the finish line in Hobart.

Our Internet yacht tracker also fell victim to the wave and hopefully all our friends, family and the good folk at CMC Markets can still get live updates on our position in the race.

Peter Goldsworthy, Skipper Getaway Sailing.com-CMC Markets.