Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Race - Getting close to the finish!

by Robert Tanner on 24 Apr 2013 Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Race. Tuesday morning and, with just 200 miles to go, Escapade can feel Optimus Prime and Wasabi breathing down her neck.

If you look closely at the tracker you’ll notice that the finish line is positioned somewhere in the middle of Osaka Bay, rather than at the correct position in the north east corner of the bay. We’ll get this fixed sometime today.

In the meantime, we can add a bit over 20 miles to the 'Distance to Finish' shown for each boat.

At the 0600 sked Escapade was just 22 miles ahead of Optimus Prime with Wasabi another 33 miles back.

Escapade reported a 10 knot easterly, while OP had a slightly stronger south easterly, after 'light and flukey for the past few hours'. The forecast is for increasing south east to southerly winds during today which should speed things up a bit for the three leaders.

Back in the fleet, conditions vary. Cadibarra, 200 miles from the leader was also in a 10 knot easterly, after a tough time on the wind yesterday. Spirit of Downunder, another 130 miles back and making good progress, then Gusto, still with over 900 miles to go, close to Funnelweb, who reported a 20 knot northerly.

Turbulence still reported frustratingly light conditions – 'Plenty of clouds and showers' with wind about four knots from the north west.

Kiss Goodbye to MS has called in to Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, and will continue later today. The tracker shows them as having sailed through the middle of the island, don’t believe everything you see!

Southern Cross is now 300 miles south east of Saipan and making good progress towards home in Osaka.

As the boats enter Osaka Bay, you’ll be able to see some of them (those equipped with AIS) here . Yachts will show as a purple symbol. You’ll also see the large amount of shipping traffic they have to avoid.