Sailing Around Australia - 200 miles from the bottom mark

by SOS Media on 3 Jun 2010 It is day 30 into SOS Ocean Racing's effort to break the WSSRC record for sailing non-stop solo around Australia. Skipper Ian Thomson is currently located in the Southern Ocean and is 200 nautical miles away from the bottom of Tasmania.

Yesterday winds were steady for Ian, gusting around 10 knots. With the A3 spinnaker up all day and night, this helped him to cover more ground. Ian is hoping to be at Tasmania by tomorrow afternoon, as a cold front will be coming through that evening.

He did have an interesting evening, ‘I managed to wrap the spinnaker around the forestay twice, but this was easily dealt with as the winds where not strong!'

Although he did end up wrapping it around the sock line, which is the bag it lives in while not up. So it is currently sitting inside the cabin. Ian commented he would deal with it later after he has had more sleep.

SOS Ocean Racing is about raising awareness of what damage plastic bags does to the environment, in particular the marine environment. With over 100,000 marine animals and 1 million sea birds dying from plastic suffocation or entanglement every year, it is time to get rid of the 'Convenient' plastic bag and use other options.

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