Crew of Dry White adjusting the spinnaker in the morning light

This morning all of the boats are positioned close together as they approach Cape Otway. There has only been one retirement to date with Yoko reporting computer problems. Yoko has only retired once before from a race so this must be a significant problem for this very experienced crew.

Oh what a glorious morning! Niesje Hees at the helm of Dry White

Gary Tomlinson from Coast Guard Queenscliff did a fabulous job shepherding the fleet out of the “Heads” at the start of the race that began off Queenscliff last night. Visibility was excellent under the full moon as boats gybed 8 to 10 times jockeying for best position while avoiding two outgoing ships.

At the 0:00hrs start line the crews were well rugged up for the night ahead. But after putting in 3 or more gybes at the start this changed to keeping cool as they began to peel off layers of wet weather gear.

The weather has been very kind overnight and enabled all boats to maintain an average of 5 to 6 knots. At 06:00hrs this morning Simon Dryden reports Dry White is making way with 7 to 8 knots as the wind increases slightly. So now all boats are rolling along towards the Cape.