Race log from Saga Insurance during Velux 5 Oceans Race
Log dateWednesday 27 December 2006
PositionLatitude 33 06 South Longitude 112 30 East.
Miles To Fremantle176 nm
Distance Covered In 24 Hours155.7 nm
Average Speed In 24 Hours6.49 knots
ETA into FremantleThursday 28 or Friday 29 December 2006

The wind is still easterly, so from the wrong direction, so progress on Saga Insurance is still laborious. We had a few hours of almost favourable wind yesterday which was a pleasant surprise and so made some decent progress, but it disappeared at dusk and we were headed north.

Just before midnight the autopilot went on strike and so we tacked. I got her back and then decided that, since no one had sent me any cricket information concerning the match in Melbourne, I would have to look after myself so I tacked deliberately to get closer to land and improve the chances of picking up a radio station. That has worked and I have ABC commentary right now. This is my little radio I use for test matches and obtaining the forecasts on Long Wave in the UK. I am getting the test nice and clearly on medium wave. Good to hear Aggers too. The bad news is Hayden and Simon seem to have dug themselves in.

That’s the problem with satellite communications, we don’t have radios we can tune in the way we used to. 38 years ago I remember listening to a programme from Albany as I went past on my main radio, we don’t have anything but VHF these days. So we cannot pick things up at long range any more..

The autopilot struck again later in the night but I caught her in time. I see the Sydney to Hobart race is extracting its toll. That’s the storm that passed us a few days ago.

At midnight GMT we had ground down the distance to go to 200 miles, but that’s a straight line, and I cannot sail Saga Insurance on that angle. Since I have no weather info I cannot say what time we might arrive in Freo, but not today anyway, and if the wind does not change, not the 28th either. A cold beer is so close and yet could be a couple of days away still.