Tony Bullimore
Blue Ocean Wireless Solo Round the World Challenge

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Day 15 - Bullimore still battling against 50knot headwinds

Wednesday, 16 May 2007

Date May 16 2007 06:12GMT Position 039° 11'S 163° 19'W Speed 7.3 knots Course 024 Degrees True Wind Conditions  W 35-50 knots Tony Bullimore continued to battle against gale force head winds yesterday with gusts of 50 knots battering his 102ft catamaran Doha as he strove to make headway towards Auckland, New Zealand to repair damage  to the boat's rigging. Lee Bruce, Team Bullimore's weather router offered the battling Brit some slightly better news overnight: "Less than 24-hours now until you will experience decreasing winds!" At 18:00GMT May 14, the winds will be around 300 degrees, blowing 30-35knots rising to 40 with 50knot gusts later, amid  pre-frontal squalls. The Front should pass between 02:00-04:00 GMT on May 15 when the winds will back to 230 degrees but remain 30-35knots with occasional gusts of 45knots At 12:00 GMT, the winds will slacken to 20-25knots from the West, before clocking round to the NW again by 18:00 GMT At least this is a sub-gale! Better still, the outlook for the 16th-20th shows no gale-strength winds either. That should give Tony the opportunity to unfurl some sail and begin meaningful progress towards Auckland.