Rosebud - 2:51pm
Hello RSH from the good ship Rosebud.
It was a fun (and wet) night of running on Rosebud. The wind speed averaging just over 21 knots. This morning at 0400 we were feeling pretty good about our position in the fleet. We were even more surprised that we were ahead of the VO70 Ichi Ban after a fairly active night of running.
Our surprise was even greater at 0500 when we ran into light (7 TWS) head winds and could only make a course 40 degrees away from the mark and Ichi Ban who was about 10 miles outside of us was sailing straight for the mark and going 5 knots faster than us. That hurt. It was a fairly big loss for us over a two hour period to the fleet.
We continued to struggle until about 0900 when we hooked into a SW breeze of about 13 knots. The most recent standings look better for us but there are obviously some huge holes in front of us.
So far there are no dramas on board. We pulled the tack out of our heavy jib but the boys did a great job of changing to the #4 jib and have now repaired the heavy for the next time it is needed.
We will keep pushing as hard as we can.
Malcolm Park
Hugo Boss II - 4:09pm
We had a cracking first night, surfing downwind at speeds of up to 26 knots. Under a fantastic moonlit sky we were able to read the waves really carefully, and overnight we overtook DHL – The Daily Telegraph, followed by George Gregan Foundation, who we can still see behind us now. All of the crew pushed the boat hard through the great conditions, so it’s all paid off for us this morning.
We broke a jib halyard earlier today, but nothing we can’t fix, Robin (Hilton, HUGO BOSS II’s rigger) will go up the mast later on. All the team onboard HUGO BOSS II are well, we’re into our freeze-dried food now but spirits are high and Nathan Buckley’s proving to be a star on the grinder!!
We’re currently doing around 10 – 15 knots of boatspeed upwind, in about 18 knots of breeze. Earlier this morning we had 20 knots of wind, so the breeze is progressively dropping, and we’re expecting it to drop right off in a couple of hours. After we get past that, we should be back into some good reaching conditions as we head towards the corner of Tasmania, which will be great for us.”
Andy Tourell, boat captain
Swan Song – 8:15pm
We gybed a bit early last night because we were expecting more of a nor’wester, and got a bit pinned on the coast with two and half knots of current against us, which was totally contrary to the chart.
We have just tacked out from Gabo Island, the breeze is 190 degree at 8 knots. It’s quite a pleasant breeze but we are expecting a bit of pain during the evening before the northerly bumps in, most likely at around 3am tomorrow morning.
Lindsay May, navigator