Yankee Foxtrot - Melbourne to King Island Race

1:19 AM Sat 7 Mar 2009 GMT

'Jazz Player is one of the boats hitting above its weight early in 2009 M2KI - Melbourne to King Island race' John Curnow

At 03:00 hours this morning, the 22 boat Melbourne to King Island (M2KI) fleet departed Port Phillip Heads, but they were not the only traffic. The first Y.F, was a tanker that left at 02:45 and then the Spirit of Tasmania came in at 03:30, followed by a cargo ship at 03:45. Harbour Control at Point Lonsdale had requested that the fleet stay West to avoid contact with their much larger cousins and this worked perfectly. A West Norwest breeze of about 10 to 15knots ensured they had enough power to comply and clear the area as quickly as possible.

Later in the morning the breeze had moved into the Southern quadrant, with the delightful town of Airies Inlet reporting a soft West Souwest of 5-10knots. Overall this fits with the general forecast for central Bass Strait with a weak cold front moving through on Saturday, as a high pressure system develops south of the Great Australian Bite. This system will float through on Sunday. As such, a West Souwest breeze of 20 to 30knots was seen for the morning with this easing to 15-25 by lunch and further to 15knots by the afternoon. A 3metre sea abating to 2m in the afternoon on top of a South Westerly swell of 2m, also abating to around half a metre was the expected lot for the race.

Coming over in the kerosene canary this morning, this seemed to be pretty much the case. It was delightful to see the leaders through the clouds heading in the same direction as out turbo prop. We're here, so clearly everyone's GPSs are working. I could not help thinking that nothing goes to windward quite like a kerosene canary and was happy to see for our colleagues down on the surface, that the sheets appeared to be sprung somewhat!

On approach to King Island it was clear that the situation was different, especially around Councillor Island, with a far softer breeze and seaway to be seen most of the way down the East coast. Rather idyllic actually.

AbFab down KI's sensational East Coast - M2KI - John Curnow Click Here to view large photo

Anyway KI was expected to be a Souwester of around 10 to 20knots, sometimes making 25, with a South Westerly swell of 2m and seas of 1-2m. This is pretty much what we are experiencing here, as we sit in front of the KI Boat Club clubhouse. Tomorrow it will be a South to South West breeze tending South to South East of 5 to 15 knots on a similar sea. Awesome for getting home, but that is then and this is now.

Speaking of now, the first sked of the day at 06:35 revealed the following information. 'Extasea' was in front, having completed 26.6% of the course. She had 'Ninety Seven', 'Jazz Player' and 'Spirit of Downunder' right there with her, the latter proving that the sheets had to be somewhat sprung for her to have pace. 'Chikara Outlaw', 'Young Ones' (also having a bit of a blinder) and 'Addiction' made up another group just behind them. In IRC terms, this places 'Extasea' first, Jazz Player second (well done team) and Under Capricorn third. AMS was 'Addiction', 'Spirit of Downunder' and third 'Alien'. In PHC, 'Young Ones' are in the lead, with 'Chikara Outlaw' and 'Under Capricorn' behind them.

'Isuzu Marine' appears to have tried a mung bean flyer, much like Ericsson 3 in the VOR. Time will tell, but the weather doesn't seem to back the theory that in order to get to Grassy you first have to have checked out the Lorne.

The next sked is at 12:35, so standby for more information. In the meantime, you can also review the ORCV website, specifically www.orcv.org.au/skedsand the race tracker, which you can reach by using the links on the far right hand side of the homepage at orcv.org.au (or go here www.orcv.org.au/tracker/service/race_infoKI.php).