Ingenue reports - Port Vila Mackay race

by David Hassett on 1 Aug 2006 Dear All,

The crew for the next leg have arrived over the weekend - Greg Byrne from Port Douglas, Jim Yarra, Judie Pyke and Sally Williams accompanied by the new Pactor Modem which is installed and working successfully and we are back out there in the ether! We downloaded our mail ast night and were overwhelmed with the number of congratulatory messages that we have received. Thank you most sincerely from David and myself for your kind thoughts - the magnitude of the win is now beginning to sink in !

We have had a wonderful relaxing time in Port Vila and enjoyed the warm weather, the company of the other boats and crews and the relaxed pace of life. Yachting World and the Waterfront Bar is a fabulous facility and makes it hard to drag yourself away to do other things. David Brown and Trish Williams have been here aboard 'Point of Sail' waiting for their rudder to be rebuilt after hitting a ? sunfish on the way here and joined us for the In Port Race on Sunday in which we achieved a 2nd place in PHD.

David and Robyn Peile arrived yesterday after a few months cruising in New Caledonia and are having a great time. The dinghy and cruising accoutrements have been packed away and the racing sails dragged out again. The current weather forecast is looking good with E-SE winds 10-20 knots.

We depart 1400hrs EST today with 1200 nm ahead of us and hopefully will be in Mackay by August 8 for the In Port Race which marks the conclusion of the Boomerang Series, before we head off to Airlie Beach for Race Week and then across to Hamilton Island for a further week's racing.

The fleet from Melbourne has now scattered and there are only 8 boats in this race split over 2 divisions. Runaway headed off home a few days after arriving, Lady Godiva headed off to Hamilton Is last week and Brian and Pat aboard Gusto have been joined by their crew for the race to Mackay, giving us 2 RBYC boats in PHD for this race – expect some good results!

Sked reporting times are 0605 and 1835 hrs so results should be up on the www.melbournevanuatu.com website with a few hours of each sked.

Thanks for all your messages of encouragement and we are aiming to keep the RBYC flag flying high!!

Cheers,
David & Rosie