Hi All

It is now 19H00 UTC and the sun is just setting.

We have 139 Miles to go in very light winds so expect to arrive at St Helena on the morning of the 18th. Things have been hectic with E-mail as I trying to book a passage back on the RMS. E-mail time is limited so you guys got little news from Haiku. Once in the sanctuary of the Bay off of Jamestown I will dive the rudder but don`t hold out much hope. As the boat rocks on the swells the rudder takes force on a lateral plane. If you are lying on the bunk you hear the "Clunk-clunk" as it moves from side to side. It is not easy to be sure that this is where the problem is but I suspect the lower nylon bush to be worn. If this is the case I will probably ship the yacht back rather than sail.

Pity but who knows what the future holds.

Regards
Haiku

Blazin crossed the line at 02:39:20 this morning (17th) with much noise. All seem well and family was all waiting for them on the dock.

Iza finished at 13:52:00

Dawn finished at 19:28:31

Marty Alessa finished at 22:39:27

The RCYC entry Reaction is the 6th competitor to finish the 2010 FBYC Governor’s Cup

The RCOD was one of the only two yachts racing in the IRC division and finished 2nd to Our Dianne on corrected time. (1 day 14 hours 8 mins behind)

An interesting observation from race control in Simon’s Town – the time that Reaction lost their rudder on Thursday 2nd until restarting out of Club Mykonos at 0h615 on Saturday according to the Netstar tracking device was exactly 48 hours. If we gimmy the results calculation and give them a 48hr time allowance, on corrected time Reaction would win by almost 12hours. The bar talk at FBYC is centered around where do you find and how much does a RCOD cost?

Greetings from St Helena Island – we crossed the finish line at about 01:15 local time last night. It was wonderful to be greeted at sea by Kyle and Curtis’s families on a rubber duck, meeting us a few miles out and escorting us over the line. The crew came off the boat straight away and after a few immigration formalities at the yacht club we were whisked off to our host families for a hot shower and some proper SLEEP! J Later this morning we’ll go down to Immigration and get our passports stamped etc. Our grateful thanks to the Jamestown Scout Moms and Dads who came down to meet us – very kind!

Andrew, thanks so much for all you did in your role as shore-based safety-officer. It was really reassuring to be in contact with you by sat phone – keeping us updated and offering support.

Please relay to everyone that we are so grateful for their support, prayers and encouragement during the race – I can promise everyone this was distinctly felt by us aboard!!

To Larry Davis – thanks for your guidance and support in helping us choose the right course to sail… you had an uncanny knack of finding wind for us!!

Thanks again - will send a more detailed email later.

Cheers for now
Mark

Latest Finisher: Lonestar crosses the line at 14h23.44 CAT today – the tracker showed Lonestar drifting towards the finish line at a frustrating 0.54knts

Last position for THE RCOD Reaction at 14h00 CAT - 34nm south of the Island and racing along at 7knts

At 14h00 IZA was some 125nm out at cruising steadily at 5knts – should be in this time tomorrow afternoon

Results as of 09h00 CTR reporting sked.

Note: EP for Reaction as we have no reported position since yesterday 12h33

The question is Roger McCormick’s ‘ti Duick going to make the 12h00 UTC race cut off on Saturday 18 December

News from the Island

JML Rotary Scout crossed the finish line at 03h10.46 this morning - all in good spirits but no power

Zig Zag followed at 06h44.00 - no problems at all

Nothing heard from Lonestar at this stage - but the tracker position at 06h00 put them at 46nm to go

At last, after almost 5 days of darkness we have finally found a computer where we can post. On Saturday at about 11am St Helena time Our Dianne crossed the finish line in perfect tropical weather. Banjo, after some incredible sailing managed to secure line honors by about 6 hours, crossing the line at dawn Saturday. Communication was brought to a standstill after a battery problem prevented us from starting the engine and charging batteries, resulting in a dangerously dark boat for the last few days at sea. Despite that spirits were high all the way to the finish and we now wait at Anne’s Restaurant for the rest of the fleet to arrive. It's now Monday afternoon and the next boats are only expected early Tuesday, almost 72 hours after Banjo and ourselves. As far as the Governors Cup trophy race is concerned the only boat still out there with a chance of taking it is Reaction, who are still more than two days out. So without jumping the gun we confidently wait for the rest of the fleet to arrive. Life on the Island is exactly that, island life. We're sitting in Anne’s Restaurant now, a perfect island spot by the water surrounded by lush green palms and other island flora, the weather is hot and the beer is lined with condensation, perfect! The team is in great spirits and is looking forward to welcoming the rest of the fleet in the style we were welcomed.

News from Mike Olhsen from ST. FM live interview planned with the Our Dianne crew between 10h00 – 11h00 UTC

Live Streaming

http://www.saint.fm/listen_live.htm

Hi, We finished at 05h59 local time on Saturday morning, crossing the finishing line in the dark at 12 knots, being pursued by photographers and family/friends. It was a great moment for Frans, having built this boat, put together the whole program and pulled off a line honours victory! The last night out at sea was pretty tense in that we were never absolutely certain of Our Dianne's position and we had a sneaking suspicion that she may actually be ahead of us. When we saw a dimmly lit boat between us and the finish line, about 5 miles out, the tension was palpable and Frans was anything but hi usual unflappable self! He was a very demanding skipper from there until the finish!

Swimlion arrived 4 hours after us and Our Dianne, another 3 behind them so we all had much socialising and swapping of stories to do!

For now, it's time to relax and build up party capacity before the rest of the mob arrive, starting tomorrow evening or Tuesday morning.

Thanks for all the support
Jeremy

With the Banjo, Swimlion and Our Dianne crews on terrafirma and enjoying ST. Helena hospitality the next batch to finish should arrive sometime early on Tuesday morning

The Scouts on JML Rotary Scout have now jumped both Zig Zag and Lonestar , in terms of distance to the finish , with a lead of 24nm at this sked.

All three reported identical weather conditions 10knts SE and flat sea, If I were a betting man my money would have to go on Lonestar being the lightest and very slippery in calm seas.

Received a sat call from Roger McCormick yesterday afternoon

He reported that he was bouncing along happily in 25 knots SE with 3 to 4 meter high waves under 100% cloud cover and had worked out that ‘ti Duick had covered 140 nautical miles in the last 24 hours.

The real reason for Rogers call was to clarify his 24 hour passage making, Roger is an old salt and hasn’t mastered the art of operating a GPS, so had eventually managed despite the rolling and bouncy conditions to get a couple of fixes and calculate a distance of 140nm – I confirmed that according to our tracker positions that this was indeed correct and that at one stage he had done an impressive 155nm in 24hours. Roger explained that in winds above 25knts the ‘ti Duick has a tendency to nose dive even if reefed right down – “he’ll have to reconfigure the sail plan on getting back home”

When informed that James Scotts Haiku was 170nm ahead roger declared the race is on – and this from a serious cruiser type?

Todays results to follow shortly

Our Dianne Finishing the race

At 07h00 UTC. Our Dianne reported 30nm to the finish.

From St Francis to St Helena...... that should have been a prediction already. What an honour to follow the race ..... rewarded by the great news that Banjo completed her mission safely and successfully and that the Line of Honour indeed is theirs!! Frans and Jeremy, we share the excitement with you, congratulations, it is a fantastic achievement and accomplishment.

Only the two of you know what you have been through, what it took to make it to the island in one piece! We can only try to imagine and take in a little of the excitement from the southern point of Africa, but it is great that people around the world could share it through the website, being part of the suspense, watching google earth not knowing what to believe! We have been united through the race which is a great experience.

We know you will have huge celebrations today, and as Geoff said, Wine O'clock will be dedicated to Banjo today! Well done, you made us proud!! From all of us in St Francis Bay.

Hi John,

Banjo crossed the finish line at 4:59:25 this morning after calling in at 2:30 when they were 15 miles out. They swooped around the corner of Buttermilk point with a large asumetric spinnaker up while accompanied by two boats from the club. Frans and Jeremy look well are now ashore, hopefully for a good eggs and bacon breakfast.

Cheers, Spilly.

Banjo takes the line honors in the FBYC Governor’s Cup 2010

Crossed the finish line at 04 h 55 UTC this morning

More info and pictures to follow

With the SE Trades reported to be a steady 10 – 15knts across the whole fleet and 1M swells we had a rather disappointed Frans Loots on the SAT Phone this morning ‘this is what they have been waiting for since the start – at this speed we’ll be finished in 10 hours ‘. From the latest tracker report at 13h05 UTC Banjo will break through the 100m to go barrier in hour or so. They are on a beam reach to the island in flat seas cruising at roughly 2knts less than the wind speed. From this morning’s report at 07h00 UTC Our Dianne was 35nm behind and on the same track. – with 200nm to go. They tell me that it gets a tad tricky on the northern side of the island so we wait in anticipation –where will Our Dianne surface?.

Lonestar, Zig Zag , Rotary Scout and Reaction are all due to cross the Prime Meridian sometime this afternoon.

In my results spread sheet the Velocity made good VMG kts is actually the average from the start of the race – so that is why ‘ti Duick shows a VMG of only 3.17 whereas the spot checks on the tracker show a speed of more like 5.2knts and it looks like perhaps James Scott on Haiku is timing his finish to coincide with ‘ti Diuck.

I have a planned live Club house broadcast with Jeremy Bagshaw from Banjo at 18h45 in the FBYC Crow’s Nest so if there is any breaking news you will be first to hear from us.

Waldo van der Waal posting, from dry land...

People following the progress of the race via the race tracker at http://www.thegovernorscup.co.za/ will have noticed that Our Dianne has come to a complete stop, and has been losing ground to Banjo and Swimlion. There also haven't been many updates to this blog - which all looks a bit suspicious.

But fear not, Our Dianne is actually in good shape, and making great progress at the head of the field. This is according to Andrew McKenzie at FBYC, who explained that Our Dianne reported problems with their power - be it solar or batteries. As such, they have elected to turn off all non-essential equipment, including the satellite tracking equipment. Sadly, their data terminal has clearly also been shut down, which means no updates until they arrive in St. Helena - we think!

The static image at the top of the tracker page shows the position as updated according to the daily satphone conversation with FBYC, and shows Our Dianne slightly behind Banjo, who seems to have taken a clear lead in the dash for line honours. But commenting on the situation from land is unfair at best, as only the crew on the water really knows what the conditions are like.

In the mean time, here's a pretty picture of Our Dianne rounding the Cape last week, right at the start of the race:

Yesterday morning was very slow with the wind directly from behind. At around midday the wind veered slightly and picked up in strength and this gave us absolutely ideal broad reaching conditions. We had a good night's run of 105 miles in 12 hours and this morning things have just got better! wind is up to 18 knots and we are flying along at 10 -15 knots, knocking off the miles. Last check was 160 to go and being the conservative type of guys we are, we are predicting lunch at Ann's Place tomorrow!

We understand that the official position is that we were 30 miles ahead of Our Dianne and this morning's report puts her 37 miles adrift, if we're all being accurate with our positions!

My turn to drive now, writing will have to wait!

Hi All

We have had a good days sailing on the Genaker. It is held up at the top of the mast by a pulley on a swivel, the swivel has not been greased and because the sail is not attached to a stay wire the sail moves left and right the whole time. The swivel makes the noise of a vuvuzela, oh I love africa.

We suspect that during the day today that we had a good run, we try to pick up other boat positions on the HF but are not always successful. A lot of them also report in by Sat phone. We know that Blazin cannot be to far away as we heard them calling Dawn on the VHF.

All is well on board.
Hope you are all doing fine.

Regards
Haiku

Since Our Dianne reported power problems yesterday and in effect going into “stealth mode” the race control in Simon’s Town has been inundated with calls from interested parties wanting to know who is leading the race to the island – line honors – Our Dianne or Banjo? The position report at 07h00 UTC shows that Banjo has squeezed out a 25nm lead over Our Dianne? BUT with the legendary submarine navigator “Spook” on board I, and I’m pretty sure a few others, wouldn’t be at all surprised if Our Dianne surfaced at St. Helena in front of Banjo. We will have to wait and see.

All the yachts reported 100% cloud cover, around 10knts SE wind and flat seas

As per the reported positions Dawn covered an impressive 134nm in the last 24hr period with Marty Alessa slowing down a little.

The 2 cats Lonestar and Zig Zag continue with their duel in lighter winds – it’s still going to be exciting to watch and see if JML Rotary Scout manages to catch them up by the time they finish in 4 – 5 days time.

The screen shot tracker on the Governor’s Cup website shows the position of Our Dianne relative to Banjo at this mornings reporting Sked

Hi All

We where doing well in the light winds until the autopilot gave issues. We use the electric auto pilot when the going is very light as we require fairly immediate helm responses. There is a split pin inside that connects the shaft to the gearbox and this sheared.

Unfortunately we do not have a spare, the original was made of mild steel and has rusted away. We managed to make a plan with binding wire for the prop nut. In the meantime we are back on the Genoa so do not expect good results today.

Still have not found the salt cellar!!!!

Regards
Haiku

Swimlion - Derek Frey the skipper of Swimlion informed Cape Town Radio this morning that they would have to resort using their engine for him to make the schedule departure of the RMS St. Helena. Derek is due to get a ride on the ship to be dropped off at Ascension Island to catch a plane to the UK. The RMS is due to depart St. Helena in Friday afternoon. With 500 odd nm to go the Yanmha is going to have to steam a little.

Our Dianne - Marc Bow from Our Dianne called race control earlier to inform us that Our Dianne had suffered terminal electrical failure and as such would not be able to report via radio and that they were running out of Sat phone power as well – when asked if this was part of their ‘stealth mode cat and mouse tactics with Banjo for the line honors’ Marc deigned this and said it was serious – I believe Marc, wouldn’t be so sure if Spook or Billy had called in.

‘ti Duick – Roger called this morning – yes he has managed to use a Sat phone – reported all was Ok but that ‘this thing rolls like S__t and that he is bleeding all over’ he also asked if we knew if he was heading for the island as he hadn’t yet figured out this GPS stuff yet – was super impressed when told that the tracker had recorded a speed of 10knts and a 155nm 24hr passage. On a more serious note he enquired about the RMS and the availability of a cradle to ship him home.?

Daily Results

With the retiring of Swimlion - JML Rotary Scout moves up the leader board to 1st place in the cruising class. Their 24hr run of 132nm is more than the line honors leader Our Dianne’s 131nm.

In the IRC class Reaction continues to impress with another 170nm run in 24hrs.

The Multihull division Banjo continues to lead but has slowed down due to lighter winds nearer the island. 2nd and 3rd position have changed overnight with Zig Zag and Lonestar swapping positions – they both have 760nm to go with Zig Zag positioned slightly further North.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea from the title of this mail, let me establish that nobody has been injured and no-one is sick! The significance of the title will soon become apparent.

My skipper, Frans Loots, is an unusual person with some incredible abilities as well as some well hidden talents. Not everyone knows how difficult it must have been to sail a Petersen 33 single handed from Uruguay to South Africa in 1982. These were the days before absolutely anyone could become a navigator by pressing buttons on a GPS or Satnav. In those days one used a sextant, chronometer and a nautical almanac! Establishing where you are on the face of this planet by these means is not easy and in Frans' case, it is made more difficult by the fact that he battles with a form of dyslexia meaning that he transposes numerals when he reads them! When one has to do a 2 x A4 page calculation involving multiple steps to find your position (or often just one element of it), the potential for error, and the consequences thereof, are huge!

Which brings me to the hospital boat story. I am forever grateful that Frans decided to become a Builders' Merchant and not, for example, a pharmacist, chef or baker. The results may have been quite interesting! Yesterday we had no weather. I know this because there was nothing propelling the yacht other than momentum derived from the fact that the earth rotates! There was almost no sun and there was very little swell. This meant that we had time on our hands for domestic matters that I had been hoping to put off until the island! Like cleaning ourselves and the inside of Banjo.

In business we often see that two people will tackle the same problem in very different ways, but will achieve the same outcome. We had a problem with stray body hair and general mustiness. I decided to tackle the cause by giving myself a deck bath that involves pouring buckets of sea water over my head and lathering up with colgate shampoo. The result.... one clean and fresh Crewman. Frans took the age old Continental shower involving a little water dabbed behind the ears and large amounts of deodorant applied to the smelly bits! His focus in the overall challenge to de-mustify the boat was to clean out and disinfect the cabin. This is where I started to appreciate his career choice. A mixture of one cup of water in a litre of Dettol is to my mind, slightly powerful. However, we now have two good smelling crew and a beautifully clean cabin. It does rather smell like a hospital though!

From a sailing perspective, we had an uninspiring day and a pleasant, but boring kind of night. Thank goodness it is warming up at night now that we are getting into the sub-tropical zones and one does not need to wear all your clothes to stay warm. We believe we saw Our Dianne very early this morning, as we saw a light on our starboard beam. At sunrise, however, the vessel carrying this light was not visible in the haze. We believe there are less than 10 miles seperating us in terms of DTF, so we will be applying as much pressure as possible!

We have just had our spinnaker halyard snapshackle open itself and dump the spinnaker in the water! I had to make a trip up the mast to retrieve the halyard. Deja vu!? All's well and we're back on track. Could just use more wind.

Like a man of war, the red spinnaker of Banjo could be seen on the distant horizon bearing down on us, or so we thought. As we spied them with our binoculours and debated their tactics as they kept slipping across our stern to the north, dissapearing over the horizon late yesterday evening as little light. At this point we dont know if they saw us too but either way they've adopted a strategy thats taken them more to the north in anticiaption of a better angle to the island. With all the chatter and comms out there were not gonna reveal our tactics at this stage, but they're already in writing and Billy will be posting later today once we've commited. What we can tell you is confidence is high. We had expected Banjo to to begin a gybing game to our stern and try to reel us being a faster boat and were surprised when they headed north. One things for sure, its gonna be a great drink in the bar when we catch up with each other on St Helena, no matter who takes the honours at the line.

596 miles from St Helena

Well the last 3 days have been a challenge weather wise. We have had high 4-5m breaking swells, some waves breaking into the cockpit and drenching us. Night time has been a challenge with bad weather as Leon and I take turns in standing watch as the autopilot won't hold in big swell. Zoe and Nina are the stars of this trip they entertain themselves and have not asked the dreaded "when are we going to get there" We have had some contact with other boats although we don't know what our exact position in the race is. We are almost half way there - we are approx 300 miles offshore just North of Luderitz. We have seen no sea life except at night we see the phosphorescence which lights up the water a luminous green colour - quite amazing.

This morning sees grey sky`s, the sea has flattened to about 1 to 1.5 metre swells. The wind has subsided to 14 to 17 knots, sea temperature 18 C. We went a little to far west last night but with our own comfort in mind. Passed a huge oil rig going south. Other than that just sea and albatross.

All well on board, the aries is doing a fine job.

Regards
Haiku

At 17h00 6 December HQ Simegeror reported to Cape Town Radio that they are withdrawing from the race – no reason given – from the tracker onboard it is obvious that they crew have decided to head for Walvis Bay as at 09h53 this morning they are 215nm West of Walvis Bay.

The weather reports from all the competitors this morning – Temperature 15 - 21° C : Cloud cover 70 – 100% : Wind direction – S –SE : Wind Strength – 12 – 18knts : Wave height – clam – 2 M

Swimlion sailed 176nm in the last reporting period with Marty Alessa covering only 85nm- of interest this morning is the 155nm that Roger McCormick managed to squeeze out of ‘ti Duick but he did have the SE roaring at over 30 knots for most of this time.

As the crow flies Our Dianne is leading the line honors race with 624nm to go but the Tri Banjo is further North so should manage to sail a hotter angle in to the island. All things being fair the first boat should be at the island some time on Friday evening. Swimlion have informed race control that they have switched their tracker OFF as they are experiencing power problems???( I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we have tracker failures from Banjo and Our Dianne in the near future.)

At 19h00 yesterday evening HQ SIMEGEROR reported to Cape Town Radio that they were retiring from the race - no reason given - from the tracking device it is apparent that they have set course for Walvis Bay presently 230nm out

NEWS FROM HAIKU
Hi All

This morning sees grey sky`s, the sea has flattened to about 1 to 1.5 metre swells. The wind has subsided to 14 to 17 knots, sea temperature 18 C. We went a little to far west last night but with our own comfort in mind. Passed a huge oil rig going south. Other than that just sea and albatross.

All well on board, the aries is doing a fine job.

Regards
Haiku

09:00 Monday

It's battlestrations on board Our Dianne. 15 minutrs ago we spotted a red spinnaker on the horizon to our stern, and we have to preume they've spotted us too. What a moment! Spook, Marc, Julie & Rian were up top when they suddenly spotted the red sail way back on the horizon. So now we know, Banjo did gybe this am and now it's truley going to become a game of cat n mouse. The race for line honours is on! Doesn't get more exciting than this in ocean racing.

Things have settled down into a bit of a routine on board at last. You try to sleep on a sunbed cushion balanced on a 'bunk' the width of a grocery cupboard shelf while the boat leaps from wave to wave and tries to dislodge you. Then you get up, put on every bit of vaguely waterproof clothing you possess and go and drive for 3 hours while random waves slam into you from all angles. And then you go and try to sleep on a .... you get the picture?

The first 5 days have been all about learning how to sail this boat in the open ocean. One sail in perfect conditions in St Francis bay and then a survival trip down the coast is not race training! Knowing when to power her up and when and indeed how, to de-power is what it is all about. There is almost as much power on hand as one could ever want when the wind is over 10 knots. The sail to Cape Point was fairly benign but shortly after, rounding the point, we sailed into a building Southerly in the company of Our Diane. The sea was SW and between 2-3m. This was new territory. It is easy to sail too deep and slow but a 5 degree alteration in course literally adds 50% to the boat speed. With that comes a lot of pounding and stress on the rig. The wind built to approx 25 knots the 2nd night and we found that we could 2 sail reach and still average 10 knots. Needless to say, we were very cautious and conservative for the first 3 days. As Frans kept reminding me, "we actually have to get there in this boat!".

From the 4th day, we have become more confident that we know more or less where the 'boundaries' lie with this vessel and have started to push a bit harder. This bore fruit in us taking back almost 24 miles on Our Dianne last night in some hard and fast sailing made more tricky by 100% cloud cover and a new moon! ie, we can see absolutely nothing at all!

As of this afternoon, we gybed on a layline for the island as the South Easterly started to kick in. We wait in anticipation to see how our Westerly course has paid off (or otherwise) when we find out how Our Diane and Swimlion have faired on a more easterly strategy.

On the Personnel front, you would battle to find two individuals who look and probably smell, more like homeless people! Unshaven, unwashed, damp clothes and spikey hair, I am sure even the Shelter in Kalk Bay would turn us away! But if we get some sunshine tomorrow..... we'll do a full clean up and be back to our dapper selves!

Currently 750 miles to go; it could be three days if the weather plays ball, or it could be 5! Frans says "14h00 UTC on Friday", I, the permanent optimist, say it could be Thursday night!

Roger McCormick on ‘ti Duick covers 113nm in the last 24 hrs – positioned 150nm due west of Saldanha right at the front of the strong SE wind band that is situated over the Western Cape at present. Roger’s tracker showed a boat speed of over 8 knots at 07h00 this morning – pretty fast for a boat with an 18’ waterline length.

The leader board hasn’t changed in the 3 divisions overnight with all competitors now sailing in the groove. This morning’s wind strengths reported from the fleet between 12knts and 25knts with the lighter wind further out.

In the IRC division with only 2 competitors left in the race Our Dianne sailed 190nm and Reaction 220nm in the last 24 hours.

'Ti Duick left Simon's town on Saturday afternoon at 13:00 - at 7 am local time, Sunday morning he was 41 miles West of Hout Bay, heading West.

Just had a quick call on the satphone with Jeremy Bagshaw on "Banjo" = they're sailing goosewinged in sunny conditions with a 15kt S-S/W breeze in lumpy seas - making between 7.5kts up to 12kts when they pick up a surf. All's well and he wanted to know where "Our Dianne" is; now he knows they are N/E of him, he's going to turn on some more gas to see what they can do to get ahead

Good morning,
We're at 29 02.09S by 010 17.06E at 08h50 SA time.

Crossed paths with Swimlion who was under motor just before sunset last night. Wind was 5 Southerly. We were just drifting along with sym bag strapped to each corner! They went off to the west and we carried on up the rhumb line. Around sunset, the wind backed to SW and picked up to about 15. Asy up and great beam reaching averaging 10 knots for the 12 hours! Flattish seas helped too. No idea where Billy is. Last saw Swimlion disappearing over the horizon behind us, just before 04h00 this morning.

Today: sunshine, flat sea and 10 SSW. Need a bit more than this! Rather be here than with the rest of the Saldanha club though.

How many do we still have in the event?

Cheers
J & F

Reaction is clearing the Saldanha Bay heads at present – as planned the slipped their moorings in Mykonos at 06h00

‘ti Duick is setting off on a test sail soon and if all goes well with the self steering Roger says it’s a go and he will be off

Having just looked at the passage weather forecast for the next couple of days it ‘now or never’ Strong SE in False Bay and Cape Point. 30 – 40knts from Sunday evening right through the week.

All trackers are working perfectly except HQ Simegeror – we have asked Cape Town Radio to advise at the 09h00 radio sked.

E-mail report from Yacht Haiku

Position 05h00
S32 degrees 54.941
E017 degrees 08.503

Yesterday saw us leave Simonstown after getting the genoa on by using "Izzas" berth.

We motored to the point against little wind just before the point the wind and rain started.

Derek was on the helm in driving rain of cloud burst proportions just before the point,visibility was so bad that the light from Cape point was totally obscured, the rain then abated leaving a lumpy sea.

The plan was to go between bellows rock and south west reefs, it was at this point that "Adamastor" wriggled his toes. A rather large wave that appeared to be about a meter and a half above the boom burst over Haiku. It ripped the dodger clean off. The life raft that is below the boom in front of the dodger was shifted off it`s mounting. The gas bottle bracket on the aft port side has been bent and is now located below the braai.

We managed to recover the dodger as the remainder was held in bolt rope tracks.

We will stitch and make good as best we can.

We are now currently sitting in a much better sea with little wind close to Cape Columbine, (near Saldanha)

Regards
Haiku

Here is a link to the "Our Dianne" Blog.

Where do we begin. How can so much happen in such a small space in such short time. Most importantly were having a ripper ofm a race, or at least as far as we can tell. With so mny forms of comms available the news coming in conflicts with the other. At dawn today we heard the news that Reaction and Zeeslang were both out the race, effectively turning the trophy race into a one horse event for us now. On the line honuors front we seemd to be right out in front with both Swimlion and Banjo within ten miles but no where to b e seen on the horizon. Swimlion we know has to be at the island in time for the RMS's departure and has been using their engine to keep on schedule, according the the cruising class rules they are allpwed 100 miles anyway and this evenibgs call to the club revealed they had opened up a 50 mi;e lead or thereabouts. Banjo though we know little of other than they were close after this am's sched.

Life on board took a turn for good today as the sick ones began to stabslise at last. Marc described ocean racing as, to go fast you need wind, if theres wind the sea is rough, if its rough its bouncy in the boat and if its bouncy in the boat your get sick. So to win you need to be sick he concluded. But that appears to be behind now as I bash away in the dark here at 9pm SA time. Today we had little wind, as predicted a few days ago, bot speedof only around 5 or 6 knots, topspeed so far 14.2 first night out.

Waking for a night watch is cetainly a low but other than that spirits are up at last and the banter has begun. Wind is climbing now, hoping for a fast night, which mens wet n cold up top....

Reaction safely in the Mykonos Marina – are awaiting a new rudder and plan to leave a 06h00 tomorrow morning.

The skipper Tinus reported that they were surfing along at high speed (20.5knts is the GPS top speed) when they sort of lost it and screwed up to windward – after which they discovered that the rudder was missing – broken rudder stock

Jeremy Bagshaw reports from 30 degrees 45’ S and 12 degrees 24’E, that they are currently sailing in 10 kts S/W – making

Way at approx. 6-7 knots, sailing the rhumb-line to St. Helena. It sounds like the first night was quite lively with "Banjo"

And “Our Dianne” sailing neck and neck – “Banjo” had a spinnaker wrap around the forestay in the small hours and Frans went forward and they decided to “pack” it like that; lashed it securely and kept sailing.

They are aware that their satellite tracking is not working, but it sounds as though it’s going to stay that way.

Sea conditions during Thursday were bad, meaning they couldn’t use their reaching spinnaker, sailing the rhumb-line throughout

Thursday at speeds between 8 and 18 knots. On Thursday evening with a double reefed main, they made 9 knots in a 10kt S/W with big seas.

Jeremy says he thinks the wind is going to back into the South and South-East in the course of Friday – a little light for his liking at the Moment – but all’s well on board.

Yacht Opskud in Mykonos Marina – Retired – mechanical problems and burst water bladder

Reaction has been taken under tow by the NSRI

Zeeslang has a damaged / broken gooseneck and is secure in the Mykonos Marina

Panic alarm from the Netstar Tracker on Lonestar @ 03h58 – seems to have been in error as they are still making way at 5knts in the right direction. Confirmed accidental activation – Sat phone from yacht to CT Radio

Banjo – tracking device not switched on are trying to sort out the problem on board

Marty Alessa - tracking device not switched on – last report yesterday 2 Dec @ 08h15

Yacht Blazin left from Saldanha Bay Yacht Club @ 08h00 this morning

Yacht Opskud in Mykonos Marina – no comms with me as yet

Zeeslang & Reaction are heading for Saldanha Bay.

Reaction has a broken Rudder and an engine problem - 11km out NSRI have comms. And are pre pairing to assist

Zeeslang has a damaged / broken gooseneck and is limping under reduced sails – 2km out of Mykonos

Panic alarm from the Netstar Tracker on Lonestar @ 03h58 – seems to have been in error as they are still making way at 5knts in the right direction
Zig Zag is the closest yacht less than 10nm and is investigating -

Swimlion tracking device now working

Banjo – tracking device not switched on

Marty Alessa - tracking device not switched on – last report yesterday 2 Dec @ 08h15

Yacht Haiku left Simon’s Town @ 23h16 - 2 Dec and is on the way

Galaxy should be leaving Cape Town harbor this morning

‘ti Duick is intending to test the retrofitted self steering gear today and will then be towed to Cape Point tomorrow morning and set free

Blazin is at Saldanha Bay Yacht Club due to seasick crew and are planning to continue tomorrow Reaction is also heading for Saldanha – latest position S33 31.35 E17 27.08 approx 70kms out - ETA 02h00 3 December – Will be requiring assistance as they reported no rudder and no engine – NSRI at Club Mykonos are on standby to assist Zeeslang – appears from the satellite track to be heading for Saldanha – approx. 88kms as well

Haiku are still in Simon’s Town having replaced a damaged roller furler and are planning to leave later this evening at 11h00 ‘ti Duick is also in Simon’s Town fitting an upgraded self steering system and will be leaving soonest Galaxy is still in Cape Town with a gearbox problem

This appeared from the water, posted on “Our Dianne’s” blog at http://www.ourdianne.blogspot.com

We’re pleased to see news of “Banjo” as their Sat. tracker appears to be down, but it seems all’s well.

Thursday, December 2, 2010
First Day At Sea

Wednesday morning saw Team Our Dianne celebrating their departure with Family and Friends. Memorable speeches, well wishes and the Blessing of the Fleet by Bishop Peter Storey ended with Erika Spilhaus playing a beautiful and evocative Scottish Air to an emotional audience. We were privileged to be allowed by his parents to dedicate our race to the memory of Tom Murray, who sailed on Our Dianne in the 2004 race.

Then the start. We were at the line early to suss it out and the crew placed Our Dianne bang on the line at the gun. By the first mark we were 200 metres ahead of the next yacht and at the second mark even further ahead. The spinnaker hoist was immaculate and off she charged.

The sail to Cape Point was iffy, with the wind all over the place. We rounded first, although Swimlion had motored into the distance, taking advantage of her cruising allowance. The fickle wind changed to a favourable westerly, going south west and then south. Off we charged along the coast and the loom of Cape Town and Table Mountain was soon fading over the horizon. Now, after an exciting night at sea, we are surfing along at speeds up to 15 knots, averaging around ten.

So..........a weary (a couple a little seasick - Marc will communicate with his wife and baby when he is able to look at the screen without having to rush to the side) crew are really upbeat.The vibes are excellent, the food the best and the happy hours are looked forward to with a thirst.

We are in regular satphone communication with the people of St Helena through Mike Olsson of St FM and Nicole Peters, Commodore of St Helena Yacht Club and will soon also be communicating through St Helena Radio.

Hilights of the trip have been sailing within hailing distance of Banjo, up spinnaker!!!, and the bulk of Table Mountain silhouetted against the loom of the city lights receding in the distance and off we went. The rain on our heads did not put us off. Heavy gusts at 3am had us dropping spinnaker, poling out the #3 headsail and still doing 12 knots, careering through the whitecaps, no moon and lots of phosphorescence like green fairy fire crackers. We were flying like the Red Bull in our bellies. Sardines and coffee also kept us awake.

Thanks to our supporters, well wishers and our sponsors. Team Our Dianne

Yacht Reaction advises they have suffered some rudder damage and will attend to the Problem in the morning. It is their intention to return to Cape Town. Presently drifting in Position 32 deg 57.00 S 017 deg 03.313 E about 60nm off Cape Town.

After a moving ceremony held at False Bay Yacht Club, complete with the South African Navy Band, the FBYC Governor’s Cup made their way out into the bay for the 12:00 start. The weather was absolutely perfect with a flat sea and moderate South-Westerly breeze encouraging Innumerable spectator boats out onto the water. On the stroke of 12, the cannon was fired and they were off, with team “Our Dianne” only seconds behind the line, followed by “Swimlion”. The fleet beat up to a shore-mark and then fetched to a second mark in Simon’s Bay, from where they turned away for the last time, hoisted spinnakers and headed down the coast for Cape Point.

All the Simon’s town boats made the start, but three boats returned for various reasons; “Rotary Scout” discovered a leak in a water trap, which was quickly welded and they were soon away again to catch the fleet. “’ti Duick” had a problem with steering gear, forcing a return to port while “Haiku” had a problem with a roller furler and is expected to leave again on the 2nd. Another registered boat that did not make it to Simon’s Town for the start was “Galaxy.”

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