Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Race 25-4-13 1800 hours

Cadibarra crossed the finish line just before 2.40 pm today, but it was a slow and painful journey over the final 10 miles, which included being becalmed almost within sight of the finish line. A message from the crew at 12.15 said “Becalmed the last 4 hours, going nowhere, don’t wait up”.

Spirit of Downunder is next in line – 100 miles from the finish at the 6.00 pm sked – and very eager to get there! At 6.00 pm they hoped that “With a bit of luck this is our last sked”.

Gusto now has less than 400 miles to go, crew all well, and is about 140 miles ahead of Funnelweb who had an 8 knot northerly and thick fog! Funnelweb’s position on the tracker will be updated shortly.

Turbulence now with a 10 knot southerly and boat speed back to just over 5 knots is trailing Funnelweb by about 60 miles.

Kiss Goodbye to MS, after their sojourn in Saipan, still has over 1000 miles to go and is maintaining a position about 70 miles in front of Southern Cross. It will be next week before they see Osaka, but they should be there in plenty of time for the race presentations.

Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Yacht Race 2013. Thursday 25th. The first three boats are now berthed at Hokko Yacht Club and Cadibarra is in Osaka Bay with less than 20 miles to go. At the 6.00 am sked they had a 10 knot north westerly and were busy dodging the heavy traffic.

Spirit of Downunder now has less than 160 miles to go – strong northerlies were forecast last night but now they can expect the wind to go west at about 20 knots.

Gusto is inside 500 miles from the finish and reports “all well”, Turbulence, in a 15 knot south easterly has 9 knots of boat speed and advised “fit as fiddles”.

Funnelweb reported by satphone this morning having had reception problems for the last 2 days – they are about 70 miles behind Gusto and the tracker will be updated with that position soon. Ivan reports they are both fine with no problems (other than communication!)

Kiss Goodbye to MS is 125 miles north west of Saipan enroute to Osaka, 70 miles ahead of Southern Cross.

Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Race 2013 – Wednesday evening.

After Optimus Prime’s finish just before 10.00 this morning and Wasabi just before 4.00 pm, Escapade still had 5 miles to go at 9.00 tonight – getting close, but the wind is getting lighter. Family and friends are waiting eagerly at the finish.

With 60 miles to go at 9.00 pm, and still with a decent south westerly, Cadibarra should finish early in the morning, but still has to cope with the vagaries of Osaka Bay weather.

At the 6.00 pm sked, Spirit of Downunder’s  message read “Only 188 miles to go – Hallelujah!”. They’re still making good speed, but I suspect they were measuring the distance to Osaka Bay rather than the finish line.

 Gusto will be within 500 miles of the finish by morning and report all well and Turbulence is still getting their 9+ knots of boat speed in a 15 – 20 knot easterly.

There has still been no report from Funnelweb since yesterday morning. Both Turbulence and Gusto have been in close proximity to them over the past 2 days and Funnelweb should be somewhere between those 2 boats.

Kiss Goodbye to MS left Saipan a couple of hours ago, with about 8 days to go to Osaka. Southern Cross is east of Saipan and about 70 miles behind KG2MS.

Watch the tracker overnight for updates.

Osaka Cup- Optimus Prime arrives at the finish!

At 09h56m51sec on 24.4 2013 Optimus Prime crossed the Hokko finishing line.

Dan and Trevor

Congratulations Trevor and Dan!