With low pressure to the east of Bass Strait and high to the west, the girls on Amer Sports Too are stuck beneath a ridge of pressure, bringing light east-northeasterly winds to their portion of the Bass Strait.

As a new low develops over the Great Australian Bight today, these winds are forecast to veer into the south and strengthen up to 30 knots (more if a Southerly Buster sets in) over the south-flowing East Australian Current, making the final stages of this leg fast, but distinctly lumpy for the girls as they dodge the oil rigs scattered through the Strait.

“It’s grey and raining and with only a maximum seven or eight knots of breeze from the northeast, we are not going anywhere fast,” reported skipper Lisa McDonald yesterday. “We could get off and go to the movies. We’re near the rigs and I think they have a cinema there.”

On a lighter note still: “It’s not all bad news from Bass Strait. We have a couple of birthday girls on board. Keryn Henderson yesterday and Liz Wardley today. We can’t bake them a cake out here so they’re quite anxious to get into Sydney to celebrate.”

At their current rate of progress, the girls’ ETA is 1800 GMT tomorrow, but we can expect to see this figure drop sharply as the headwinds become following ones.