ORCV Hutchwilco Melbourne to Stanley (M2S).

Never too long to wait.

The thing about the Southern climes is that you never have to wait too long for the scenario to change.

Here in Stanley, it has gone quite cold.

Out on the water, the news is that Calm and Scarlet Runner must be throwing water bombs at each other, they are now that close. They are sitting atop Three Hummock island, but have slowed in there, whilst Gusto and XLR8, behind them and closer to the rhumbline are doing 7s and 8s respectively. There is near as 30nm left to travel for the leaders, but it is a huge diffrence in time between 10knots and just the two, they are showing now.

Calm racing on Port Phillip recently.

Either way, the record may be a bit of a stretch, but 8-9pm is possible. Reports from fleet now indicate they have 18-20knots out of the South to Sou'west. Forecast still indicating 20 to 25 for next few hours, with 30 possible offshore - all from the South. it is then meant to get a tad quiet close in here to Stanley as the night wears on. Clouds amassed here now in Stanley as dusk approaches and Hobart says they could have snow on the hills. Pack the Tshirts away...

Earlier on in the day, Nutcracker was doing well, but has just fallen away a little. Say Goodbye to MS is still giving it plenty and fighting with boats a bit bigger than her. As one would expect, eXtasea are doing well, with Cadibarra8 also in the mix. Spirit of Downunder enjoyed the reaching conditions of earlier in the day, but may find the going hard once the sheets have to wound on. XLR8 has also relished the conditions from earlier and shown great speed to hang on to the much larger Gusto, who are currently leading the charge for the six Hutchwilco PFDs that are the prize for winning the Pereformance Handicap System. XLR8 were on the radio just a little while ago getting all the weather information they could to be in a position to have the right sails around as it goes dark. Arch Rival and Slinky Malinky, who are making a bit of return to the ocean, are powering on, as well.

From a little while ago, Neville Rose reported from mid-fleet that, "Wind models from various sources are still proving to be very unreliable. The two fronts that went through last night and the trough passing through Bass Strait now with a 180 degree kink in its isobars, are likely to blame. Aboard Dry White we currently have 7knots from the NW. Biggest bag up, very flat Paddock (Bass Strait). Very pleasant. Sloppier swell on Starboard. Most observations around NW tip of Tassie are not suggesting anywhere near the wind strength we were expecting from yesterday's forecast. Several more pods on dolphins playing in the bow wave this morning."

Roger and Michelle Wale at the van in the Stanley Hotel carpark during the 1805hrs sched on Saturday evening.

If you want to follow it all with the pretty graphics via the sat trackers from Yellowbrick - see HERE for Flash empowered devices and HERE for non-Flash. NB. As per the Information tab on the tracker site (bottom right), the Yellowbrick Trackers transmit every 30 minutes, the map will update whenever it receives new information. A big thank you to all the people commenting on the FB page about the trackers - great information. Cheers.

Right then, we had 37 vessels in the M2S, but Chikara Outlaw withdrew a few days ago, so it's 36 now - Addiction, Alibi, Alien, Arch Rival, Bandit, Biddy Hu II, Cadibarra 8, Calm, Cavarlo, Dekadence, Dark and Stormy, Dry White, eXtasea, FullyNPushing, Gusto, Halcyon, Independent Endeavour, Jazz Player, Kiss Goodbye to MS, Magazan 53, Magic, Matrix, Mille Sabords, Mirrabooka, Nutcracker, Pretty Woman, Scarlet Runner, Slinky Malinky, Spirit of Downunder, Tevake II, Trybooking.com, Under Capricorn, Weekend Option, White Noise, XLR8 and Yoko, which is excellent. Well done and good luck to all.

ORCV Land also extends on to the ORCV Facebook page, so make sure you go and "Like" the page, now. 231 Souls already have and thank you to each and every one of you.

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

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