By Rob, in Napier
The start in Wellington was the most dramatic I can remember the last of a northerly blowing into the marina (some said 50+) had many boats requiring real assistance just to get off the dock. We had no worries because our wind speed gauge never says more than 25 knots.
SSANZ showed real leadership in getting us "away". While the wind was forecast to drop over the next day the conditions had most boats sailing quite conservatively out of Wellington sailing downwind with headsails on. We recovered from an average start with a spinnaker passing a few boats and getting back to where we felt we belonged.
Happy again with our early performance we conservatively lowered our spinnaker off Baring Head for an uneventful but satisfyingly quick sail across Palliser Bay. For the first time in the entire race we were clicking off some miles at an average of about 10 knots and it was soo easy compared to the conditions we had become used to it felt good. We hoisted a spinnaker again to help us around the legendary Cape Palliser. In a dying breeze it occurred to me that while we had had many testing conditions in the race all the "big corners" (the major capes with reputations for rough conditions) had been at their pleasant best. We had a chance to enjoy the dramatic landscapes around Cape Palliser. Sadly for us the breeze on our chosen "offshore" course really died and we struggled through the night and next day working hard again to keep the boat moving. At least the sea was calm.
The breeze started to very slowly build again for us off Castlepoint. On the wind again, but any wind is better than none. We sailed inshore on our new optimised course as computed from our Expedition performance software and picked up a nice lift to take us back offshore from Cape Turnagain (I have to say I love sailing around the coast of our country it really a special experience).
As the wind increased to about 25 knots we were sailing well with full main and #4 jib and it was very exciting to see lights appearing in front of us. Daylight came and the morning sched confirmed we had done well against some bigger boats ahead of us.
Happy with our performance we crossed the line 8:49. to finish 9th overall on line, 2nd on PHRF 3rd on line in our division. Overall we are now 5th on PHRF for the series for all boats, and 2nd on PHRF for division 2, 3rd on line.
We will post a few photos from the leg later today.
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