Tony Bullimore
Blue Ocean Wireless Solo Round the World Challenge

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Day 1 - Reflections on the start

Thursday, 03 May 2007

As Tony Bullimore enters the second day of his round the world challenge, he has some time to reflect on his departure. He reports: “ As we all know, I left the pontoon at the Bellerive Yacht Club with around 12 crew on board to ensure I got to the startline with no problems. I also had several photographers on board and 3 camera crew from television broadcasters. The big thing was to ensure that everybody could get off the boat before I went across the start line – Barry Shepperd, the official starter from the WSSRC would have had something to say in anybody was left on board! The start happened very easily, without problems, in very light winds, but as soon as I was over the line Doha started to accelerate and we were doing around 14kts across Storm Bay. At this point I would like to thank everybody who assisted with the start, expecially the Embers of the BYC, Barry Shepperd who has organised and managed the affaires of the WSSRC, and ocourse Mr Perkings ‘Perky’ who has assisted with his fabulous motorised catamaran. Day One was a great day, it was super to finally get acroos the start line and onto the race track around the world. I was aware that there was a low pressure system creeping along the coast of Tasmania and knew that I would soon be sailing to 30 to 40kt winds. I decided to sail on into the Southern Ocean for a couple more hours before I lost day light and I put two reefs in the main  and wet down the staysail – this would be a good combination for the coming conditions. I had a fast sail through the night, reaching 25kts on the odd occasion. My average speeds were around 18 to 20 kts and the boat handled the conditions with no problems. Day Two is much the same. I’m going along nicely but in high seas with around 30 – 35kts over the deck.  Lee Bruce, my weather router, has told me the weather will remain much the same and I may get a little more wind during the night. I’ll be happy once I’m south of New Zealand and on my way to Cape Horn. I did have one problem today, the starboard centreboard slipped down to the bottom of its casing and I had a real job to get it back up. It is now back in place and this should not happen again, I think somebody tied it off with the downhaul line instead of the uphaul line. I have a little tidying up to do on the boat, only small jobs, and I will get all this sorted as soon as the weather is more kindly. Apart from that, all is well on board and I’m now going on deck to ensure everything is under control”. He concludes. However, since his report he has spoken with Lee Bruce, who has reported another problem. The staysail has come down, for reasons unknown the halyard let go and the sail came down into the water. Tony was able to muscle most of it on deck for now, and will finish the job come daylight. This has resulted in Tony having to steer deeper than he would have preferred, but should be back on course once the staysail if fully secure. Tony is frustrated by the problem, but believes he will be able to continue, albeit without the use of this sail. But the slowdown may cause him to fall off the backside of the strong north wind. This isn’t necessarily bad, as he had to sail deeper than planned and could use more west in the wind. Lee Bruce advices: “The lighter wind should have a bit more west in it, allowing you to make up the ground lost to by staying farther to the west.   To the west of the strong north wind is a wind more like 330T/15-20kt.  That will freshen to 360T/30+kt in another 24 hours, but for now the lighter wind may be welcome relief while you sort things out.   Once you're back in action with a new sail configuration, we can reassess the course. But the basic plan remains the same:  Leave Campbell Island to port - and hopefully not south of 54S.”