Day 41, Thursday January 14, 1999

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Lighter wind conditions were moving into the Tasman Sea as a high pressure was heading the same way. This of course caused light condition for Petersen, who just entered Tasman Sea. His frustration with the light condition was clearly visible in his email: "Please send me some wind. Any direction will do, for now, but some wind to get moving again will be appreciated. A huge high has come over me and I am in the Tasman Sea parking lot. Minoru is still in wind, and walking away. He has so far pulled 32 miles out on me today. He is east of me, so it will take the high a little longer to get to him. So I hope that I will get wind first when it comes back. I put up my huge Netcare spinnaker for a few hours today, tried to get some movement. Music bleared out of the stereo as I helmed. The sails just flogged in the swell, and each time we got a puff, it pushed me south of east. There was no point tacking north, as it would put me further into the high."

At the same time Robin Davie was approaching the longitude of Australia. He reported: "Well, here we are on the Aussie chart, at least the South Australian chart - so gudday - gudday - gudday bruces and sheilas - it's nice to be down under, and down here at 47 south I certainly feel I'm down under, but I am, I hope, on my way up..."

Robin Davie © Photo Billy Black

"To put it in a nut shell, it's been a crap day, we got well and truly pole-axed last night by the frontal system that came through. The head winds built to a good 40 to 45 knots, and we found the small portion of inner jib that I was heading into the wind with was coming apart at the seams. So there was little option but to run off onto a south of east heading until the wind started to back towards the northwest, and eventually this afternoon into the northwest, which has allowed us to head back through east to a more ENE heading for the 46 degree south waypoint… We'll just have to wait for lighter weather to go up the mast to unlash the jib so we can lower it, and hopefully patch it up a bit. It's a sail that was knocked together for day sailing in England - not for around the world sailing, and I have now done 13,000 miles with it, which is probably more miles than most normal sailing folk ever see out of most of their sails. We will need to have a new sail made in New Zealand for the rest of the race, so I will put it on my wish list..."

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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