Osaka Cup-Southern Cross update Wednesday.

It appears from all reports that many boats are experiencing the Doldrums- light and variable winds or squalls.

Report from Southern Cross
Suddenly the wind has dropped away. Last night at 20:00 we were level with the New Guinea’s Talugulas Island passing from the Coral Sea into the Solomon Sea.
Around 23:00 a squall passed with the wind picking up to over 20 knots and so to reduce sail area I went for a third reef. Just as I finished the task the worst of the squall passed and so I finished up back with a number 2 reef. As I write this morning the winds are once again light and so I’m back to a full main. I’m expecting the wind to drop even furthertoday leaving the sail to clunk about and making it hard to stay on course. Patience patience!Here’s a shot of the dawn this morning.

Yasu

From Optimus Prime

'Last night was a mixed bag, at times we were wallowing, at others we were thrown on our ear as 25-30knots squalls passed through! Thankfully no damage to report. 200nm to the pack, if we can get that down to 150nm by tomorrow we could be on to something..."

From Escapade

"2130 30+kt squall. Tried run. Too strong. Bare poles. #2 ok. How? Main 3
small tears. Deck tidied n 2 unfd 2200ish. Main repaired by 0230 ready 4
1st light." Joey.

Adventure Safety.com.au, a leading sponsor of ORCV, has announced two new awards for the Melbourne 2 Osaka Race.

Founder of AdventureSafety.com.au, Jeff Dusting said, “There is no question that the Melbourne to Osaka race is one of the world’s great yacht races and a supreme challenge for two handed crews.

As Australia’s premier online store for Marine supplies including safety equipment, clothing and hardware we wanted to recognize the skills, talent and resourcefulness of these sailors. AdventureSafety.com.au promotes research, training and the development of equipment for use in Australia’s unique maritime conditions and as such supports the objectives of this race as a proving ground  for true seamanship as well as its ability to encourage the development of suitable seaworthy yachts and of appropriate gear, supplies, and techniques for short-handed sailing.”

We are proud to announce that Adventure Safety will sponsor these prizes; 

The AdventureSafety Melbourne to Osaka Trophy

Awarded to the first boat to complete the race. (“Line Honours”)

A Tropy and an accompanying prize of two Kru Life Jackets will be awarded.

The AdventureHardware Prize

In the event that a new record is set this year, and the chances are high - this Prize will be awarded to the boat holding the new speed record in the Melbourne to Osaka Race 2013.

The prize is a voucher worth AUD $1000.00 for products from AdventureHardware.com.au - the home of Harken and Spinlock hardware in Australia.

All Adventure Safety.com.au prizes and trophies will be awarded in consultation with the Race Committee.

About AdventureSafety.com.au

Adventure Safety is a distributor and retailer  (www.adventuresafety.com.au) for air, land, sea safety and adventure clothing and equipment.  A CobaltBlu company, Adventure Safety promotes research, training, and the development of equipment for use in  Australia’s unique maritime conditions and is building a considerable library of tests, reviews and advice for ocean racing sailors.

About Melbourne 2 Osaka

The Melbourne Osaka Cup: Double-Handed Yacht Race  is a 5,500 nautical mile epic journey that runs every four years, pitting man and boat against the power of the ocean and the weather.

Objectives:
The objectives of the Race are to promote a challenging long-distance, short-handed yacht racing event between Melbourne, Australia and Osaka, Japan traversing the Pacific Ocean, and in so doing to provide a proving ground for true seamanship as well as to encourage the development of suitable seaworthy yachts and of appropriate gear, supplies, and techniques for short-handed sailing. The race is also intended as a means of strengthening the ties between Melbourne and Osaka as sister cities and ports.

History:
The Race was first held in 1987 to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Osaka. It has been held every four years since to celebrate the City of Melbourne and the City of Osaka sister city and port relationships. Over the various races it has attracted over 200 entrants from many of the traditional yachting countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, France and the USSR.

Northern Hemisphere Weather 

by Robin Hewitt

For any people interested in using weather products while following the race, here are some samples I am using as the yachts cross the equator, as well as the gradient wind analysis from Australia. 

 

I have included the symbols page as a handy reference. It is also interesting just how many different ways are being used to represent the information. Perhaps we have educated too many website programmers? The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has changed it’s homepage yet again, is it easier to use? For general public maybe?

From JMA- Japanese Meteorological Agency.

 

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

Melbourne to Osaka-first to the Equator.

The Escapade crew are celebrating their arrival at the Equator. Latest news from onboard.

"Stop press. Escapade first to cross equator. Escapade continues to lead the2013 melbourne - osaka 2handed yacht race becoming the first boat to reach lat 00 at 155 52.7e 1402EST. With a misfit Crew Made up of a scot, aussie, russian, german and a recent reject from the french foreign legion escapade continues to show the way to depleted pack of hounds. Having downed a bottle of bubbly the skipper has been confined to his bunk, 1st officer to the cockpit. Otto has received an overdue promotion to watch leader he has the bridge until the 1800change. radio sched could be a challenge"

Osaka Cup-Smiling again!

Southern Cross have had their fair share of challenges since departing Melbourne. They are underway again and full of optimism-read Yasu’s report from this morning.

"Sailing is great that’s for sure - I’m revived after the last few days.

Its very humid like Tahiti – 17°, Fiji -18°, Port Vila – 18°, New Caledonia – 21° and Melish Reef – 17°. We are getting very close to the equator where the ocean surface temperature increases along with the evaporation. Around here the sea surface temperature is probably very high and evaporates well. When does the wind blow – the daytime or night time? Most probably the air is warmed in the daytime and the wind blows towards that area. Then at night clouds tend to form.
Because its so humid now I’ve changed from a blanket at night to a towlkett. ( It’s a large blanket made from toweling )

Yesterday for the repairs at Melish reef, we found a sheltered place to work. Since the inner side of the lagoon island was so shallow, we were not able to enter. There is a sand bar at west end of reef and so I dropped the anchor near there. In yesterday’s photo I’m looking towards the east. The sand bar is a good place for seabirds to rest and there were many of them all probably wondering who we were !?

We’re once again travelling in the northward flowing ocean current which will take us past Rossel Island. We’ll then pass Laughlan Island and Bouganville Island in the Solomon Sea at 5° S. From here to the equator it’s about 900 mile and @ 6knots that's 150 hours which will see us there around Apr 15th. Both Masa and I are doing fine.'
Yasu

Melbourne to Osaka update 7/4/13

 by Robyn Brooke and David Taylor

The Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race teams are now tackling light and squally conditions in the tropics with the lead boat positioned north of the Solomon Sea and Southern Cross managing rig damage at 17 degrees south. Boats are reporting their position via radio sked with Kordia at 0600hrs and 1800hrs EST daily on HF radio, as well as confirming their position and race conditions via SMS from their Satellite phone. The Yellowbrick trackers provide followers with a visual update of the race by automatically updating boat positions every four hours.

Escapade, still at the head of the fleet, are moving although it looks like the west-flowing current is dominating the light wind conditions. The ‘peleton’ or ‘pack of hounds’ as Robert Bradley (Escapade) so eloquently labelled them, are now in between the Louisiades and Bougainville. The Hounds, Wasabi, Spirit of Downunder, Cadibarra 8 and Turbulence are starting to look like a cruising group all bunched together and making their way through the islands of the Solomon Sea. Cadibarra 8 talks about the marathon getting to the Solomon Sea:
“The enormity of what we are undertaking is starting to sink in. The distance and time element is quite phenomenal really. We have been going 12 days and still have one more day until we reach the 2,000nm mark (of a 5,000nm total). Fatigue and weariness have kicked back in with the trade windsailing chipping away at our energy reserves. By anyone's imagination running in 20 knots for four days straight sounds like heaven. Reality is a building sea, lots of distance/speed (yesterday we did 260nm I think averaging over 10 knots).
We are closing in on the bottom of PNG which is exciting. Its getting really hot though, sweat dripping over the PC as I type.”
Spirit of Downunder had a similar experience in the approach to the Solomons:
“Only 186nm to our first turning point since leaving the Queensland coast, Rossel Island is the eastern most point of the Louisades.
All was well until Wednesday evening when it rained and poured and stuff happened as well. We decided to drop the mast head kite after the 6pm sched. The wind was around 20-25kts and the kite socked easily enough but after getting it on deck the tack caught a wave and in the drink it went! Took us about 15 min to get back on board with no fish or prawns to be found. Luckily no real damage to the kite but let’s hope it is still in the same shape. About two hours hrs later we got hit by a rain storm which has been fine otherwise but this one had 40+kts in it and a 50 degree wind shift. Auto George couldn’t handle that and a chinese gybe ensued. A bit of mayhem for a bit which was sorted out by the time the squirt went through which was a half hour or so.
Damage report- main fine, boom vang - 2 hose clamps used around crack in boom end section, headsail - which is a heavy 1 which reefs to a 3 had the reefing zip part company for about 1/3 length, it has webbing tabs so have to tie it up instead of zip so still functional. The log said 234nm in 24hrs this morning so not a bad run as we had two reefs and no.3 last night. “
Funnelweb, 150 nm behind Spirit, also reported a 40 knot squall but they were prepared with 2 reefs in the main and 800kg water ballast on board. Unfortunately, their auto pilot has stopped working and they are therefore hand-steering, possibly all the way to Osaka. No auto pilot will add a huge pressure to both sailors as every manoeuvre will require all hands on deck night and day.
Kiss Goodbye to MS were about 200nm to the SE of 'the Hounds' when she reported ongoing power issues, having lost her wind generator early in the race. Their solar panels are not working as well as was hoped and so are having to use more fuel to recharge their batteries. From the tracker position, it appears she may be heading to Giso to pick up some fuel as a safety measure. They are also having ongoing autohelm issues. Stopping will give them an opportunity to try to repair it.
Optimus Prime are continuing out to the East of the Solomons on what they have called "the scenic route". Although longer in distance from the middle route taken by the Hounds, they have calculated that there may be wind and current advantage and they have taken the gamble to make up time lost when they went in to Sydney to repair a broken forestay.
They sent this brief message, “In other rum-worthy news, we have finally passed Santa Ana Island at the East end of the Solomon Islands. It didn't come easy, at first she greeted us with 22knots and rain by the bucket then gave us and hour of 2-3 knots from every direction! Painful”.
Gusto have left Southern Cross in their wake and are continuing to catch those ahead. But where are they going? This could be an interesting one to watch.
And finally, Southern Cross sent in this photo from Mellish Reef this morning where they sought flat water to replace their broken stay.

Mellish Reef.Photo from Southern Cross.

And to finish today’s update, a word from the Samurai Jack crew who are now safely back in Australia, having retired from the race with structural damage.
“An exhilarating and final sail in to Gladstone was fun at 20+ knots boat speed but also hard for Michael and I, a tough but easy decision to retire was decided after the question was asked "would we trust her on the back end of a cyclone?" No. We had fixed one load bearing section of the keel however it wasn't quite distributing the appropriate loads through the rest of the frame.

Race over.
Our prep over the last 15 months saw us getting 2nd in the Fairway Challenge, double handed against fully crewed boats, the delivery from Brisbane to Melbourne and the Melbourne to Hobart West coaster all double handed and without reliance on auto helm.
We can only thank the many people that have helped and supported us along the way. We've been humbled. If anything we've both come out of this race stronger personally and having done the hard part by simply making the start. Many lifetime friendships have been established with a friendly rivalry!!!
To all the boys still charging; all the best, when things are tough look on the bright side, have a laugh and remember you do this for fun. I'll be following the tracker all the way. I expect 3 sake's per person for me, Mick and Samurai when you've made it!
From the Greyhound bus en route to Mackay from Gladstone, and on behalf of my two team mates who I've established a longing relationship with, Mick and our girl Samurai Jack.

Samurai Jack in Gladstone

AM Storms - Melbourne to Osaka Race  by Robin Hewitt

An interesting weather phenomenon is where differential heating during the day between land and sea in the near tropics gives rise to post midnight storms. For anyone curious, here’s how it works.

The land heats rapidly in the clear morning sky and the rising warmed air over it cools with height causing contained moisture to form liquid and even higher to ice. The latent heat released provides temperature to drive the system higher with updraughts that can be up to 10 m/s. So high that jets have to fly around them. The systems can float away from the land in upper atmosphere wind clearing the way for another warm bubble to form and so on. Thus a chain can develop. As the sun sets, the systems begin to cool such that by midnight the updraught has ceased and gravity takes over with drenching rain and squalls.

 

 

It has been measured that one cubic metre of air can contain 3.26 mls of water and that therefore a system can hold aloft 3 million tons of water. Having a watch from midnight to 4am means one cops all the drama. A similar process drives a bubble of warm rising air in the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) whereby the cooling aloft occurs to dump heavy rain about 4pm.

Becalmed in the tropics? Why not take a dip? Cool off?

 

Optimus Prime- on to the Solomons.

Friday morning update from Trevor aboard OP.

Hi,
Thanks again for those that sent something back after my last effort. Comments ranged from don't lead with your chin to just another line on an ageing face, some where happy for me with my clean jocks and others just wished us well. Sorry I haven't responded to them individually but I do appreciate the thought and effort you have gone to with your replies. I did find the knocking although it turned out to be a clicking instead as the relay that works the main winch was clicking in and out. We had wondered why that particular winch would start up on it's own from time to time and had shut down the power to it anyway. Will have to use man power for that winch from now on.

Day 10 - Tuesday (part 2)

The breeze lightened off a bit so the kite went back up for 3 or 4 hours in the afternoon but came down again when it got back to the 18 – 20 knot mark. It does seem strange getting it down that early. Some of the normal crew are only just getting interested when it gets to 20 knots and look forward to when it kicks into 30. Different circumstances now though. If we blow up a kite going to Geraldton for instance, we can throw another and another if need be and take them in for repairs ready for the next outing. No such convenience out here though, so being conservative will have to do.

Day 11 – Wednesday

Wind still a bit towards our new top end for the kite so our current weapon of choice is the Jib Top. For the non salties and sailors amongst you a jib top is a jib obviously but is cut differently to the norm and is used to fill in the gap between going up wind with a standard jib and going downwind with a spinnaker. They are good when the breeze is between 12 and 30 knots and once the wind is more than square with the direction of the yacht. I hope that makes sense. Anyway this morning we decided that is was time to dig it out, throw some battens into it and bung it up. It has been up ever since.

I am so glad that we put the generator in for this trip to not only supply 240v power if we want (air conditioners!!) but to also charge the batteries that run all of the systems – instruments, chart plotter, winches and fridges etc. The number of hours (6-8 a day) we have to run it to keep the batteries topped up is a lot more than I had anticipated and had we been using the main motor to do that we would certainly be chewing into the fuel. The genie uses about a quarter of the number of litres per hour at a bit under 1 an hour so we will have enough fuel but if we ever have to use the other motor for any reason we may have to take over from Otto (the auto pilot) more often that we do at present. As we are nearly at the end of the fresh food we have switched the freezer off and everything is now in the fridge. Should save us a bit of power need.

The current is starting to give me the whoops. We had been able to do a bit of ducking and diving through the back eddies further south and got onto some positive current from time to time although, not as often as we would have liked. You get to a point though, where you run out of alternatives and have nowhere to hide. That is where we are at now and are stuck with having to bang into 1 to 2 knots of current consistently. We can only hope that it is the same for every one else.

Another lovely night to be at sea with mainly clear skies and lots of stars. Pretty special.

Day 12 – Thursday

I woke up with a bit of a bowel issue this morning. Not sure if it is a side affect to the anti-biotics but it got quite hectic there for awhile. Due to the fact that our new electric dunny doesn't work properly and the spare manual one gave up the ghost after only a couple of uses, we are now using the Disney method when having to do jobbies. It is simple but effective. Hang you butt over the side, hold on tight and let her rip. It took a few outings until my troubles stopped but thankfully as the day wore on I was able to fart with a little more confidence.

Weather is much the same – 18 to 20 with the odd spurt of 20 plus knots from the SSE or thereabouts. The now ruined fractional spinnaker would have been nice but no-good grizzling. The jib top is doing OK. Had a little rain about mid morning as a little rain shower came threw. It also dropped off to 5 to 8 knots and swung a little towards the E which with the moderate seaway made for an uncomfortable hour or so. The weather eventually moved on and the SE kicked back in at, you guessed it, 18 to 20 knots. Oh for the fractional. Stop grizzling!

As the day wore on we sailed alongside a reef system out here in the middle of nowhere and needed to make a decision on where we would cross through the Solomon Islands. It would appear that every one else in the fleet is heading to the Western side near Papua New Guinea. Wasabi has been heading that way since she turned the corner at Gabo Island, hugging the coast all the way North to Fraser Island before leaving the coast. Cadabarra 8 and Funnelweb perhaps had a bob each way but now it appears that they too will be following her up that way. Spirit of Downunder has probably been heading there all along as well although she came away from the coast earlier than Wasabi

OP on the other hand with Daniel doing al sorts of "what ifs" and constantly upgrading the latest weather forecast into Expedition, our race management software, is considering heading still further East to pass at the other end of the group. It means doing and extra 300 miles or so but the thinking is that we will be clear of any wind shadows from the land or any other effects the land may have on the weather. It should also enable us to get into the NE trades sooner with the hope that whey will give us a better start on the run up to the equator and then across to Osaka.

At about 2100 hrs we arrived at the northern end of the Chesterfield and Bampton Reefs where it was time to finally decide on whether to head NNE for the Eastern end of the Solomons or NNW to the Western end with rest of the fleet. We talked it over and Dan did a few more checks before we both decided that we would stick with what had always been plan A, depending on the weather forecast at the time. Now all we can do is sail as best we can along the course we have chosen and see what happens.

Dan Taylor seen here helping to pack the container of goods for Osaka with Terry and Nick.

 

The corner is a little under 500miles away so we should be there Sunday evening or thereabouts. Last night we had a great run doing a bit over 120 miles north between radio scheds for a little over 220 nm for the 24hrs. Unfortunately some of the others did a little better at 230 for the day. Not to worry, our gains will be made coming away from the Solomons if all goes to plan.

That will have to do for now. I am on watch so I had better get organised and head up to keep an eye on things.

Catch you next time
TT and Dan.

Thursday update-Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race.

At the 3 pm update today Escapade was well into Manning Strait in the northern Solomon Islands. Some fairly strong tides there, which should make for an interesting navigation exercise as it gets towards dark.
Last night’s email from Robert and Joey described how they planned to get through the Solomons; that plan was modified slightly by the weather:

“Those watching the tracker will see that we are approaching the Solomon Islands with the intention to pass between Lanalau and Vangunu islands into "The Slot" or New Georgia Sound and exit via Manning Strait. Our original intentions included going east of the entire Solomon Is group with the intention of getting into the NE trades sooner and avoid the dead patches around New Ireland and Bougainville. However a small low formed itself up right in our path (Long 160E) and forced us to skirt around it to the east. Even then we had to take a day off to watch the waves turn to glass. Current plan is to get through the Solomon Is. as described above and then head north to keep in the good breeze to the equator then dial up "Goto Osaka" on the autopilot and make a run for home - 2000M run that is! Highlight of the day - 10kts under the asymmetric spinnaker”
Wasabi, Cadibarra 8 and Spirit of Downunder are leading the pack chasing down Escapade; with Wasabi approaching 17 degrees south, about 500 nautical miles south west of the Solomons, and the other two boats within 50 to 80 miles of Wasabi.

Escapade is well into Manning Strait

Turbulence’s tracker is still intermittent, for no obvious reason, but at 7.00 am today they were close to 18 South 156 East; that is, not too far from the 3.00 pm positions of Spirit of Downunder and Cadibarra 8.
Kiss Goodbye to MS and Funnelweb are about a hundred and fifty miles south of Wasabi’s latitude, with Optimus Prime around another hundred miles behind them and rapidly making up the time lost in their earlier diversion to Sydney.
Samurai Jack and Southern Cross are also well and truly back into the race, with SJ about 70 miles in front of the Japanese boat. The Wednesday evening email from Samurai Jack was very positive:

“As we kiss goodbye to Fraser Island, we bid farewell to Australia and cell phone reception as we progress to cross the prominent north- south current that we've been avoiding since the decision to hug the coast was made ( before the start!).

Since leaving Coffs Harbour our keel frame is proving itself to have been fixed (touch wood). We've enjoyed flying our symmetrical big foot kite and have just taken it down and to replace it is our #3 headsail so we can gain some longitude E.

Expecting SE for the next couple days, looking forward to some great surfing”.

Also received an update from Southern Cross skipper Yasu this morning. Once again he is in a poetic mood -
“It's great to be back in the competition. Last night we could see countless numbers of fishing trawlers at work on both sides of us. The electric lights look beautiful and so did the waning moon as it rose above the bright vacant horizon. The atmosphere around us became transparent and across Southern Cross stars shone in the sky directly above us.
It's the changing of the season and we look beyond the equator. Its cold at night and we need to wear a long sleeved wind-cheater. When the sun comes up it’s hot again and time for a polo shirt.
The wind is rapidly shifting from the East to the South West. We’re aiming for the north flowing current at 20 South 158 East but how far we travel east will depend on the wind. The entrance to the Solomon Sea is 155 east. From today we’re expecting that the wind will become much stronger”.

Yasu at the helm of Southertn Cross- pleased to be on the move again!

Gusto is less than 200 miles behind Southern Cross – close to 600 behind Wasabi but is getting back into her stride. Last night, Brian told us “all good got the trades now
hope they stay in”

2013 Melbourne Osaka Double Handed Yacht Race- Decision Time for the Fleet

The fleet have the Solomon Islands and the doldrums coming up, so which way to go. It looks like Escapade at the head of the fleet have made up their minds. I have attached weather maps for the next seven days so all us landlubbers can have a look and decide which way we would go. The interesting thing if you quick enough you will avoid the doldrums all together. The only issue is the weather can change so do you take the middle path and keep you options open or do you commit early.

So exciting times for the fleet in the next week, so which way would you go. Join us on Facebook and tell us which way the boat you are following should go.

 

Which way should we go

 

 

Weather Outlook for the Melbourne to Osaka race.

Robin Hewitt is keeping an eagle eye on the weather conditions for the Osaka fleet. We can all learn from his observations!

As the fleet moves into the more tropical latitudes, the atmospheric pressure differences become so small that recognizing wind features from the standard weather map becomes very difficult. The example weather map gives very little concept of winds on the Queensland coast.

31/03/2013 MSLP

 

Hence we can utilize the ‘Gradient Wind Analysis’ chart published by the Bureau of Meteorology. Click the maps symbol on the front page of the BOM site and select it from the products listed. It is necessary to select the chart according to UTC (Universal Co-ordinated Time). Australian Eastern Standard Time is 10 hours ahead of UTC, thus 0000 UTC is 10am AEST and another hour is required for daylight saving. Note the colour coding for areas with given wind strength.

31/3/2013 Gradient Wind analysis.

This chart is produced for a level in the atmosphere that has no friction effect at the earth surface. Thus winds will be about 20% less at yacht level and some 20% difference in direction. Interested students may care to read the explanation link at the top of the chart on the Bureau site. Note also that the South-East trade winds are currently much weaker due to a weak high of 1015mb while there is a large area with good winds (green) for the North-East trades. The notations have been inserted.-Robin Hewitt.

Turbulence Update in Melbourne Osaka Race.

News from Paul Tuesday afternoon.

G'day all, well another testing day out at sea we are entering our 4th straight day of breeze under 5 knots weve had the masthead kite up for last 24hrs and to say that its been a little frustrating would be a tad of an understatement! We love the messages of support like the one "what are you's doing you's are going nowhere" NO SHIT SHERLOCK! didnt we tell everybody that our plan was to find every hole and sit there pulling our hair out while we let all the boats catch up to us and let Escapade have more of a headstart before we start the chase! Weve had a great oppurtunity to assess what has gone wrong so far this trip and after a couple of days discussion the conclusion is that Eric is nothing but a Fricking JINX! Thats right hes a Jinx! Nearly beer Oclock so wont go on too much, we are anticipating stronger breezes tommorrow although thats been the scenario for the last two nights, not sure whats wrong with our tracker its on with 85% battery and in clear view of sky so apolagies to family and friends hopefully be sorted soon! Fingers crossed breeze arrives tommorrow and we can make some miles north, as a precaution we have hid all blades, knifes and sharps just in case!

Cheers Paul
Turbulence

Melbourne Osaka News from Optimus Prime

Day 6 – Friday
The trip up to Sydney was pleasant enough. The rain stopped and the breeze picked up to 25 knots and plus a bit at times but was pretty cruisy in a southerly. We had to contend with a bit of tide but were not in hurry as such as we couldn't do anything until after 8:30 tomorrow anyway. This was when we hoped to get the nod from Frank, the marina manager at CYCA, that he had a vacant pen for us to be able to work in.

Learnt an interesting trick with the auto helm on the way north - you don't have to be at the steering pedestal to change the direction you want to travel. You can do it from the comfort of the cabin!. Had never had to bother before but with the rain and the fact that I am getting old and soft I guess, we worked out how to change the heading from the nav table instrument display. Apart from sticking our heads up every so often to check for ships we managed to stay down stairs for virtually the whole trip. Ain't life grand! I can just picture us now in the tropics, cabin closed up, generator and air conditioner on with a beer from the fridge watching a movie instead of sweating it out in the sun out on deck. Nah. It sounds nice but hopefully I haven't gotten that soft.

It is interesting the things you think about even if you are downstairs when on watch. How good would the conditions we have had over the past 3 or 4 days have been if we were heading to Hobart? 25 to 30 knot northerlies plus 4 knots of current kicking you along to boot. Conditions made for breaking records I should think. As with life, timing is everything because there we where crashing and bashing in the opposite direction.

In having travelled around Australia now during the last 12 months and having seen the number of ships parked up at Mackay (18 or so), Port Headland (30 or 40) Cape Lambert (can't remember) and Dampier (20 or 30) and on this leg Port Kembla (15 or so) and about the same out of Newcastle when we headed past there in the early hours of Sunday morning, I can't imagine how much money is tied upon with these huge vessels just standing around. Someone must be paying for it somehow which means us the consumer presumably. Anyway, just an observation.

Got to the heads on midnight and headed in to pick up a mooring at the entry into Rushcutters Bay for a snooze whilst we waited ,for the morning.

Day 7 – Saturday

Got up before the sun to get a bit organised whilst waiting to head into a pen at CYCA and refit the forestay. When it let go it was thrashing around for a while an put a couple of holes in the jib so we had a go at fixing them and made a start on getting the bottom end off of the forestay. This involved unwinding a fitting from the bottom of the rod rigging so that the bent foil could be removed and replaced. When in doubt wind harder. Isn't that how it works? Maybe not, because that is what I tried and unfortunately, the shifter I was using slipped and was under that much load that it took off and clipped me under the chin on the way through. Well I certainly knew I had been hit so sung out to Dan to come and check out the damage. Well stitchers would be needed it seemed so we rang Frank to see if there was a spot for us so that we could take OP in and I could head off to the hospital.

He had a spot, we tied up and I headed out to find a cab to take me to the nearest emergency department for some repairs of my own. St Vincents was apparently the closest and after a short wait I was ushered out the back ready for someone to patch me up. It was finally agreed that it may need someone with a little more experience to stitch it up so a young surgeon eventually arrived and did the dead. She confirmed that as long as I kept the wound clean and that there was no infection, then I would be good to continue on to Osaka. She gave me instructions on what Dan would need to do to take them out in a fortnights time – he told me to toughen up and do them myself when the time came. Thanks for the sympathy Danielsan! And thanks to everyone at St Vincents who had a look and made suggestions and got me away all fixed.

When I got back to OP Dan had managed to get the forestay down and on the wharf, the old foil off and the new section in, without any further damage to himself. With a little input from me this time, we reversed the procedure, got the halyard hooked back onto the mast, replaced the broken fitting at the bottom end and put everything back together so that we were ready and rarin' to head back in the fray. Craig (Knuckles), of Saltwater Images and a mate of Daniels from the Around Australia campaign on Brindabella, came to see us off and with a friendly wave goodbye scooted away in his on-water photography runabout. After a wait at the fuel jetty we topped up to where we figured it was when everything ran amok last Wednesday morning and headed out towards the heads. At 4:30 we passed through them, emailed race control to that effect and that we were back in the race.

By early evening and into the night we were sailing in similar conditions to those we had when it hit the fan as well – 20 to 25 knot NE erlies – so we settled in and headed out to try and catch Cadabarra 8, Spirit of Downunder and Wasabi about 300 miles north. We have 3 or 4 weeks to do so here is hoping we get there.

Day 8 – Sunday
The breeze had started to swing to the SW early morning and we managed to get a kite up early and headed ENE and then more NNE as the breeze swung through to the south, looking for the back eddy and northerly current that the IMOS – Integrated Marine Observation System – suggested would be there. Whilst we had a small taste of help to the tune of 1 knot for a little while we didn't really get into what we hoped would be there. At the very least though it kicked us a little more to the north than our heading and wasn't rushing at is at 2 or 3 knots so it wasn't too bad.

As the breeze kicked to 20-25 knots, we dropped the kite and sailed all afternoon and through the night with the jib. There was a bit of shipping traffic to keep an eye on but all in all a pleasant day to be out on the water. The 1800 radio schedule warned of thunderstorms off of the south Queensland coast and Spirit of Downunder reported that they where currently in one. Whilst we did see some lightening to the south of us there was no thunder so they were a long way off and didn't bother us at all.

Obviously. we are keeping an eye on where the boats ahead of us are and look forward to listening out for the position at both the morning and evening radio scheds. The Sunday ones were a bit disheartening as they had actually taken a few miles out of us which wasn't what we wanted to hear.

Day 9 – Monday (Clean jocks day)
The 0600 radio sched brought some good news as we had taken between 15 and 25 miles out of the three boats we want to pass by the time we get to Japan. At last we were making up for lost time.

Thanks to all of those that sent in an email following the last report. It is nice to know that some of your enjoy hearing about our little adventure. A few of you mentioned that we would not be the only ones to lose time through damage and the like before the race was out. It would seem that you are correct. Samarai Jack has had to call into Coffs Harbour for repairs to their keel casing and the Japanese entrant had rudder trouble so went into Brisbane to get that fixed and apparently when they went to start their motor to head off, the starter motor wouldn't work and because of the Easter break they will be unable to get a new one until Tuesday. Wouldn't that give the tom tits! The bottom line is as from tonight's sched we are now in front of Samarai Jack and will probably be north of Brisbane before Yasu and Masu, the guys onboard Souther Cross, come out from the Brisbane River. 2 down!

Kite went up mid morning and stayed up all day. Breeze has fluctuated between 10 and 15 knots from the S to SSE which has made for another very comfortable days sailing. So good in fact that Dan had a shower during his watch this morning which was a good enough reason for me to have one as well. I think it is the first for the trip. The clean jocks felt nice I must say.

Evening sched suggested that we had another good 12 hours and managed to take a bit more distance out of the boats ahead us. This included Escapade which is one of the boats that started a week before us and seemed to get the jump on the lot of us. She appears to be slowing down now so perhaps we may catch her before we arrive at Osaka. Had good patches of positive current during the night which will certainly help that cause.

A big black cloud heading our way so we took the spinnaker down at about 2030. Once that was done we had a feed of noodles and spaghetti sauce we had picked up from a place called Houlihans near Sandringham. I thank Sally and Robert Green for not only letting us know about them but also for taking me there and to the local Safeway store for a shop before we headed out. Robert is a veteran of 25 Hobarts and a couple of trips to Fiji so is no slouch in his own rights as an offshore sailor and I thank him for his help with names and phone numbers of people that could help us prior to heading out to sea. Anyway, at Houlihans they have a variety of fresh brews all lined up in large pots and you just take your pick and they package it up into 2 serve containers and away you go. Apart from the spaghetti meat sauce there was Chillie con carne and number of chicken and lamb curries, some stir fry mixes all lined up for you to choose from. We bought 8 different ones of these as the fresh meal component of the tucker we put together for the trip and very nice they are too. Thanks again Robert and Sally.

Day 10 – Tuesday
At the 0600 sched I checked our position on the plotter and emailed it through to race control and then again over the radio when we all get to hear where we are each located. After the sched we plot the position of the others by putting the cursor at their position and checking the straight line distance between us to get some idea of gains and losses. It is just guide because none of us are heading straight to where we want to go unless we are lucky or have positioned ourselves to be able to do so,but it gives us some idea on how we are going.
Anyway this morning when I checked our position I jotted down the co-ordinates of the curser on the chart and not the vessel. The curser just happened to be 100 miles further North and 200 miles East of where we actually were – dummy! This caused some consternation on our boat when we started checking on how we had done overnight so I can't imagine what the boats ahead of us thought. We let race control know our real position and I will have to apologies to the fleet this evening. The good thing though that was when using the correct co ordinates we still managed to take a bit of time out of the 3 Amigos we are chasing. They are a bit over 200 miles ahead now. Escapade seems to be doing it tough up ahead as she only managed 17 miles N and 14m E overnight. A sign of things to come perhaps.

Kite went up soon after the sched but came down again shortly after as the breeze picked up to 20 knots plus which is our cut off point for the moment, as we have a long way to go and only 2 kites left in working order. Dan has been looking ahead at the weather forecasts and doesn't think we will be using them for awhile anyway. Looks like jib only for the next few days.

Breeze is currently at 18 to 20 knots from the SSE and we are heading N into a bit of current at 9 knots.

That's it for now as there is a small banging noise in the starboard aft cabin that has just started up and I need to track it down. My next report should see us in the Coral Sea heading for the Solomons where we will need to decide whether we pass through them or leave them to the East or maybe even the West. …….decisions, decisions!

Be good
Trevor and Dan

Tuesday afternoon update from the Osaka fleet.

If you haven’t been following Facebook, you might not be quite up to date with the news from the 11 boats competing in the Osaka Cup.

This afternoon, the fleet was spread out over approximately 1200 nautical miles, north to south, from Escapade at about 12 degrees South (about 220 miles south west of the Solomon Islands) to Gusto about 12 miles off the NSW coast, approaching Port Macquarie.

Escapade still retains a lead of over 600 miles from Turbulence and is over 700 miles ahead of the next group, Cadibarra 8, Wasabi, Funnelweb and Spirit of Downunder, all at latitudes around 24 South, but spread out over a long line from Wasabi, 50 miles north of Bundaberg, Spirit of Downunder, 50 miles north of Fraser Is, Cadibarra 8, about 250 miles offshore to Funnelweb over 300 miles from the Queensland coast.

You will have seen that the Tracker on Turbulence has not been working since Sunday, however Eric and Paul continue to report twice a day both by email and by HF radio. At 7.00 am this morning, they were at 23.09 South, 155.04 East, or approximately 180 miles north east of Bundaberg. Attempts are being made to work out the problem with the Tracker.

Kiss Goodbye to MS is now 40 miles east of Fraser Is, having been forced to call in briefly to Coffs Harbour to obtain conditions calm enough to undertake some mainsail repairs, following problems with the spinnaker pole and track early in the race.

Optimus Prime is also back at sea after their forestay breakage and their diversion to Sydney, via Eden, for repairs. They left Sydney on Saturday afternoon and at 3.00 pm today they were 160 miles east of Brisbane with 18 to 20 knots from SSE and well on their way to making up for the lost time.

Optimus Prime underway again

 

Samurai Jack is east of the Gold Coast, but less than 10 miles off the shore. After their stay in Coffs Harbour to effect repairs to their keel support structure they got going again on Monday afternoon and as Ryan said in an email: “What an effort. In the last 2 days
Samurai has seen grinders, saws, welders and a whole lot of mess… all is repaired … we're simply stoked to be racing again. To the other competitors: We'll see you in the doldrums!”

Samurai Jack off Coolangatta

 

Japanese entrant Southern Cross has now finally sorted out their various mechanical issues and left Brisbane about midday today. They originally diverted from a long way east to effect repairs to the steering, but were then caught up with starter motor problems. Being Easter it was not possible to find the necessary parts until this morning, but all is now in order and they’re on their way.

After damaging their tuffluff headfoil in the wild weather of Bass Strait, Gusto was another visitor to Sydney. They managed to get their repairs done despite the Easter holiday and were under way again on Monday morning. They’re making fairly slow progress this afternoon, but should be in line for stronger south to south westerlies later today.

Greg and Brian celebrate their departure at Docklands before their race start

 

 Wasabi reported a "McGyvering" moment when Bruce on his afternoon rounds nticed a fractional sheave pin about to fall out, so it was up the mast for John to effect a replacement. They have revised their SOPs for mast climbing -'Guy on deck clips on and guy up the mast takes some get down gear with him' after John called out from the top of the mast "don't fall over as I will be stuck up here".

Repairs at sea aboard Wasabi

 

All the boats which have stopped racing for repairs are required to submit a detailed report of the circumstances and conditions to the Osaka Cup International Jury, who will assess what penalties they will receive for obtaining outside assistance. The penalty may be up to 30% of their elapsed time.

From now on it will be interesting to see who comes out on top between those crews who ventured offshore early and those who stayed close to the coast.

Escapade was the first to head out into the Tasman and for the last few days has been reaping the benefits; however the crew had to endure some tough weather on the way.

Funnelweb, Cadibarra 8 and Optimus Prime are all now well out into the Tasman and it looks as though Turbulence, Spirit of Downunder and Kiss Goodbye to MS are also on their way out to sea. Wasabi remains close in but will need to head out fairly soon.

Will Parbury on the helm aboard Funnelweb

Watch out for the next Tracker update.

Robert Tanner