After a short stopover in Hobart, including New Year’s celebrations with my family, the next race started already on January 2nd. Especially interesting on the leg was the start and the finish, as both were in quite narrow and shallow areas, forcing to be extremely alert and having someone in the navigation station at all times. Normally, we are used to the vastness of the ocean and not seeing any other boat for weeks, but this was different now and definitely very exciting for all of us.
The start was located just outside the Royal Tasmanian Yacht Club and meant that all twelve boats had to find their way down the River Derwent before reaching open seas. This was a thrilling experience, as we had the wind as well as tide again us, making the first hours after the start a tactical challenge. And even after we had reached the open sea all other elven boats were still in sight around us. A strong breeze from the southwest allowed us to hoist the kite averaging 14 knot. Unfortunately, we had to change to white sails during the night, as the wind had shifted to the west. Nevertheless, we still managed to make reasonable progress and reached the famous Bass Strait just a day after our start. Again its crossing (#3 by now) was not too bad. The strong wind with big waves only made the night watches a bit harder. Even though most of the first days were sunny, wearing our “Foulies” (foul weather gear) was still a must. But we knew that we soon would be able to exchange them for shorts and t-shirts once we would be further up north.
To our surprise we were able to stay on the same tack all the way up the coast past Sydney (more than 600nm) and managed to make good progress. The fleet separated into two groups, one staying close to the shore and the other a bit further to the east. This was also the first time in the whole race that we saw seven boats around us at such an advanced state in the leg. On one day we had some very close encounters with Qingdao and Unicef, as the three of us were flying the kites and thus gybed our way up the coast. In the following days, the temperatures kept increasing and soon shorts and a light jacket were the dress code, also during the night. This of course made the life on board much easier, since you didn’t have to put on your still wet “Foulies” from the previous watch. The warm weather also meant that the winds were decreasing and sometimes even died off completely especially during the night. The most extreme case we had was a night watch where we had no wind at all and the Western Australian current pushed us south. Of course, this was one of the more frustrating moments of the race, seeing us go backwards and not being able to do anything about it. Our only comfort was that most of the other boats experienced the same.
The further north we got a close race developed having Qingdao in front and Visit Seattle behind us. We could see both boats on the horizon and constantly monitored their speed and distances to us. This close racing went on for the last four days of the leg, until we reached Airlie Beach. It was especially exciting, as we went through the Whitsunday passage, where we saw Qingdao stuck in a wind hole between two islands. Therefore, we decided to take the outside route around the island. It was 6mn longer but we hoped to find a better breeze. In the end, Qingdao managed to finish just ahead of us and Visit Seattle only crossed the finish line a couple of minutes behind us. Of course, they again chose the shorter inside course to make things interesting. What a close finish after 8 days at sea! By the way the finish between the first and second place was even closer as only 30 seconds separated them.
In the end, we arrived in the tropical Airlie Beach in northern Queensland. The region is made up of the 74 Whitsunday Islands and the Whitsunday Coast – a true sailors paradise with reliable winds, warm temperatures and picturesque turquoise water.
The stopover in Airlie Beach also marks the finish of leg 4, which started in Albany, and a big change for the team. This is probably the biggest changeover in the whole race, as we have five crews leaving and seven new crews joining us. Furthermore, two of our round-the-world crew members, Sean and Moses, are leaving the team due to medical and personal reasons. Especially the loss of Sean, one of our watch leaders, will definitely have an impact on the team but I am confident that we will be able to master it.
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