Ian Thomson circumnavigating Australia - 2500nm to go!

by SOS Media on 29 May 2010 25 days into his Around Australia record attempt and Airlie Beach sailor Ian Thomson aboard his Welbourne 40 SOS Ocean Racing is on target.

He is expecting to be rounding the bottom of Tasmania Wednesday evening and with only 2500 nautical miles to the finish line Thompson is in a positive frame of mind and on track to break the WSSRC record for sailing non-stop solo around Australia.

The wind died off this morning for Ian, still coming South West around about 10 to 12 knots, he expected it would be coming more from the North by now. With a high pressure system around it has slowed the winds down and is continuing to keep the wind coming from the south.

Ian reported this morning that he is still constantly removing water from inside the boat, still not quite sure where it coming from. ‘Every few hours I find myself removing around 10 litres for water, just to keep the boat dry.'

‘I did have a bit of a scare last night with my computer. The inverter which allows me to continue running the boat from the inside of the cabin, failed to work.' After trying to figure out the problem, Ian left it for a while and once he returned it started to work again. A relief he was very glad to have.

SOS Ocean Racing is currently located 500nm from Adelaide, 800nm from Melbourne and under 1000nm from Tasmania, putting him as he feels ‘In the middle of no-where!'

Heading ENE to keep the wind behind him, Ian looks forward to approaching Tasmania, as the winds should increase.

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For more details visit the campaign website at www.sosoceanracing.com