With a large part of our fleet currently in various ports up the Queensland coast, it’s given a few skippers a chance to easily post on their social media pages. We’ve shared them all on our Facebook page and here are a few of them that we thought you might like to see here.
One of the early ones today was Daniel from Runaway, who’s currently in Bundaberg. He posted soem photos and an outline of whats been happening. Co-skipper Tom looks like he’s hard at work in our feature shot.
Hi all, as you would know by now we have unfortunately had to suspend racing due to cyclone Iris developing. Prior to this we had been sailing hard and made some good tactical decisions which put us in a good position so it is hard for us losing that momentum. For now we have diverted to Bundaberg while it passes which as it turned out glad we decided not to go further as we had gusts up to 56 knots overnight. Safely arrived now though awaiting further notice to resume racing. Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support, it has been amazing! Cheers – Daniel
One of the most active of our competitors on social media is Rod from Maverick. With the 3 Sunfast 3600’s in Southport at the moment, Rod was up early with his camera, taking a shot of each of them. The distinct lack of crew in the photos means that probably Rod was the only one up and about at that time. There was sleep to be caught up on no doubt !
Allegro took a different option than most in dealing with Cyclone Iris and headed further east at the start before settling in on chasing the three boats out front. Here’s a post from the Allegro ground crew that came in mid afternoon with the latest news plus a photo.
Current location has them 450NM East of Cardwell and making good progress North with the average speed now up to 7.9Knots for the race thus far. They are approximately 350NM to the East of the Eye of TC Iris and whilst experiencing the effects of it, based on current forecast models, the Cyclone will pass to the South East.
The boys mentioned they were dealing with Squalls and then patches of Zero wind – nothing new there. As they progress through the day the wind will track around to the North meaning the progress will slow as they begin to tack into it…. might even get them out of the nav station….
Their spirits were high as usual although complaining of a damp boat with the humidity – without offering “Outside Assistance” I suggested that they turn one of the Seven AC’s on to dry out the Air….”nah we can’t, saving that fuel for the doldrums; we’re running enough generator hours now to run the freezers and fridges – keeping the beer cold and food fresh”…. Things you don’t hear on Wild Oats I suppose!
I’m sure we will revert back to normal “Allegro Viewing” and humor in a day or so as we sit at our desks watching a dot on a computer screen and they send pictures of Bloody Mary’s, Beers and Blue Skies on their Brokeback Mountain cruise in the pacific… you’re heart really goes out to them…
Shore Crew (Left behind and disgruntled), Over and Out!