Osaka Cup: Optimus Prime -on to the Equator.

Tuesday update from Trevor and Dan.

Hi,
Thanks again to those of you that replied to my last set of ramblings and wishing us luck with Plan A.

The guy that sold me and the guy that fitted the dunny were surprised that it wasn't working. The reason we stopped using it was because it wasn't sucking the doggies doos away. It would send in the water but not wash away the ……. well you get the picture. The end result was I had to catch and release into a bucket and then throw it out over the side. It wasn't quite so bad looking after my own mess but when I had to do Dan's as well one morning it was time for us to start using the "Disney" method. However, on reading of the surprise from those in the know that it wasn't working properly I decided to have another go at using it and did a number of flushing practice runs. All appeared to be in working order ready for the big test whenever it was next required. When the time came I decided to deal with it like a footy game though with a flush at quarter, half and three quarter time and then a double flush at the finish of proceedings. Whilst we got there in the end there were some anxious moments along the way. Anyway, we will persevere until the bucket has to come out again. Sitting back relaxed rather than hanging on tight is a much more comfortable way to start the day.

Day 13 – Friday.
More of the same. Still on starboard with 15 to 20 knot SSE erlies although the breeze has been slowly clocking towards the SE and beyond during the day. A bit before dusk a line of black clouds came across us and the wind strengthened and clocked a little E of SE so we put a tuck in the main to make it smaller ready for the night. The breeze that followed this line of cloud, which was almost like a roll cloud you find associated with a southerly buster down by the Victorian – NSW border, was a bit hotter as well. A bit like when the breeze first starts to clock east of south in a Bunbury return and you get that first sniff of the warmer breeze coming off of the land.

Speed stayed OK all night so we were happy enough with the decision. Still doing our 200 miles a day or thereabouts at the moment. 200 miles is my magic number really. When delivering our boats from Sydney and back over the years we have always tried to achieve that as it is about an 8 knot average for the day. For this race that is also the average needed to equal the race record of 26 days and a bit set by Grant Warrington somewhere along the line. I doubt that his record will be broken this year with all of the northerlies we had to bang into heading up to Sydney, so someone will have to have a go at it again next time around perhaps.

Daniel is always playing around on the computer looking for this and that and has now worked out how to track the opposition through an application within Expedition, our navigation software. The navigators amongst you will probably wonder why it took us so long to find it but not to worry, we know about it now. When each boat sends their positions through on the radio scheds at 6 in the morning and again in the evening, what we used to do long hand to figure out how well or otherwise the opposition had done against us during the previous 12 hours, is now done by the system once you plug in those coordinates. The program comes up with a table that includes how far each yacht has travelled since the last input which makes comparing your progress against everyone else's nice and easy. It then tracks the days progress on the chart so that we know where everyone is. It also allows you to put in a course to the finish so that on the table you have how far everyone is from the finish line in Osaka. When we first started using it our little sojourn out to the left of the course with the others heading right meant that we were about 440miles further from Osaka than Wasabi. We have managed to whittle that back to under 300 miles since but figure we need to be within 150 miles of her when we all cross the equator and head straight for Osaka, to be anywhere near her at the finish.

Aboard Optimus Prime

Day 14 – Saturday
It is getting hot. Water temperature is at 30/31 degrees – I only heated the pool at the Shoalwater Rd house to 28! - and therefore the hull is also at about 30 degrees. Whilst the interior is lined it is not insulated so with the hull temperature and the heat generated by the fridge motor and the computer it gets pretty hot downstairs. (Yes dear, we are drinking lots of water). With the wind strength and angle the way it is there was a lot of water splashing around on deck from time to time so whenever we opened some of the hatches to let some heat out and cooler air in we inevitably copped some downstairs, which in the end meant we couldn't open them, for the time being at least. Boat speed has been OK but we are continually banging our heads against a knot or two of current. Most frustrating.

Had a bit of work to do tonight. Firstly, just before dark, the breeze kicked up over 20 knots and the main started flogging and as we didn't want to pull away, there was some discussion and much to Daniel san's disgust we put a second tuck in only to have to take it again soon after. Whilst he didn't actually say I told you so I suspect he was thinking it. My point was that it doesn't take long to put in or take out a reef and to have the main flogging like it was was just asking for trouble. Anyway, soon after, the wind also went E so we took the Jib top down and put up the number 1, our biggest jib. Soon after that the first tuck came out and at about midnight we swapped jibs to the number 3 as the breeze had picked up a whisker. This jib is our working jib for this race and can be furled up quickly if the need arises.

Had a good 24 hrs doing a bit over 220 miles. Gusto also had a blinding charging up from behinds she put in nearly 270nm.

Day 15 - Sunday
We are finally on the home stretch to the eastern end of the Solomon Islands where we can kick slightly more north although, Daniel has us heading for a spot about 400 miles North where we hope to pick up some westerly current – the direction for current is where it is heading to whilst the wind direction is where it is coming from – in an effort to claw back some of our eastings for nothing. Here is hoping.

Anyway, as we got nearly to our waypoint off of San Christobel Island, Daniel was on watch and got a nice shower as a little rain cloud passed over. Unfortunately, as we came out the other side the breeze dropped out and we phaffed around in circles for nearly an hour waiting for the wind to kick back in. In the end it did and we were away again. Conditions we about right to put up the smaller of the two remaining kites we have so we got organised and soon had it flying. After a couple of hours Dan checked the data that Expedition collects along the way and decided that the jib was giving better results so we swapped back and held this configuration all night.

We have made up some ground on the rest of fleet and are even further north than "Kiss Goodbye to MS" now but whilst they have slowed down a little none of them have stopped like Escapade appeared to do when she went through earlier in the week.

Day 16 – Monday (clean tea towel day)
It is still bloody hot. Sleeping is interesting and you certainly wake up in a sweat when you have one. Only another week or so before we are out of the northern tropics. Can't wait! As I am typing this I have to continually give myself I wipe down with a towel or I would be swimming almost. Only a week to go?!

The days run went OK with a bit over 100 nautical miles tucked away between scheds. We didn't do so well at night though. Up until midnight wasn't too bad in a fading breeze as we still managed to put another 46 miles behind us for the 6 hours. At about 1 o'clock though, a dark black cloud crossed us and seemed to suck up all the wind. It then just stopped so that we sat under if in no wind for about an hour. Just as it moved away and we thought we might get underway again a tentacle of the first hovered over us with the same result and it wasn't for another couple of hours that it cleared us and seemingly allowed some wind to move back in and help us on our way. We could manage only 31 miles from midnight and reckon we lost about 12- 15 miles which isn't much in the scheme of things with nearly 3000 miles still to go but may yet prove decisive when we get to the pointy end of the race.

Once we got moving though and everything settled down we were able to put up the small kite again which kicked us along better than the jib this time around.

Day 17 Tuesday
The fleets position this morning was a little disappointing, from our point of view at least. The leaders have managed to get out passed the islands with less disruption than we had hoped for. That will make life a bit tougher for us but there is still a couple of strings left in the Plan A bow that may yet help us claw back some of the distance we gave away in deciding to head as far East as we did. The first is the westerly current we are hoping to pick up later this afternoon and the next is something Dan picked up through research carried out by a friend.

Apparently, there is a preferred spot to cross the equator in this neck of the woods and that is at 160 degree E. It has something to do with how the NE trades behave, coming lower or being stronger or some such. Beneficial anyway. Hopefully this will help us to manage the transition from the equatorial "doldrums" to the NE trades better than the race leaders. That is where we head once we have either caught or missed the westerly current we are looking for at the moment and should be therenThursday sometime.

The third of what we hope are advantages with being out where we are is the angle we have to sail to get to Osaka. We will be sailing 10 to 15 degrees lower that the others which if we are lucky will be enough to give us a little better boat speed than them. Here is hoping. We only need to average about a knot extra per day to be snapping at their heals by the time we reach Japan. A tall order? Let's hope not.

That will have to do for now before I melt into a heap.

Until next time
Be good