Sunday morning. First off was a race briefing then clearing customs and a last good luck to all the sailors. You can tell that this is no ordinary yacht race with all the sailors shaking hands and hugging each other (with the lady sailors that is) and wishing each other the best of luck, we all know that if we needed help one of us would not hesitate to come to another sailors aid. Every one seemed a little bit nervous even me, I just wanted to get on with it. Start time loomed and there was only a 5 knot NE wind which soon died off to 2 knots so it was a bit of a drifter for the first 4 hours or so. BWR managed to wriggle her way around the first turning mark in first place and slip away slowly. Cousin Steve’s NITRO was the only boat to get close to me in the lighter winds of the early evening but as the SE wind and swell built BWR came into her own, got back onto those rails and blasted away into the night. The wind reached 28 knots but mostly sat on 24-26 knots. Early morning the wind started changing to the east then northeast at 15-22 knots. We are still making good progress towards Mooloolaba. BWR has already equaled the top speed that we reached on the way across the Tasman to the start - 21.3 knots this morning with 3reefs and the jib up on a great surf.
I would just like to thank all the solo committee and especially Lindsay who couldn’t make the start for health reasons, without these people this race would not happen. And to all the solo skippers as well, you need the sailors to have a race too. You make lifelong friends out of this race and have past competitors turning up to see you and watch the start, its just one big family. That’s all for now.
Bruce .
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