Sydney Hobart – Giddy Up and Wait!
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 27 Dec 2022 20:06 AEDT
ConstitutionDock early on Dec 27, 2022, but it could have been any time of day © Clayton Reading
So you’ve done good work and blasted down the coast doing 15-25 knots depending on the size of craft you’re on. What could possibly go wrong with a plan to just arrive in Hobart Town and enjoy your libations? What indeed?
Of course, it is one of the truisms of the event that you have the first start in Sydney Harbour, another then at the Heads, followed by yet one more at Tasman Island, and then the final gun at the Iron Pot when you have deal with the River Derwent.
Thing is, it has been a tad quiet all day up in Hobart itself. Hot too. This pic of Constitution Dock shows a glass out, and even though it was taken this morning, I am reliably informed that it could have been at just about any time during the course of the hours passing by to now.
There had been 10+ knots at Hobart Airport, which lies more to the East of the finish locale, but blowing Northerly in direction. What’s with that? It is invariably an approach out of the South into the tarmac over Seven Mile Beach, not out of the prairies to North at this strip. A look at the temps from the crowd-sourced weather data also shows wind directions from nearly every point of the compass, and the higher up the River you go, the more breathless it becomes.
Comments like, ‘It would be nice for NYE, ‘Odd day’, and ‘Very rare’, from the locals mean that there were no Nor’west winds to drive up the heat, and no usual afternoon sea breeze to follow in after it. The latter is what fills the River as the hours go dark, which would be now.
Tony Lathouras is a key member of our eyes and ears in Hobart and spoke of it all, “A typical warm to hot day in Hobart and around the Derwent is made up of a few components. Firstly, it starts off with a pleasant morning that rapidly starts to increase in temperature, and by mid-morning the Nor-westerly winds are dominant, pushing the warm air down the River with ever increasing velocity. This hangs around till around mid-afternoon, and after an arm wrestle, the sea breeze starts to become the dominant force, pushing the wind back up the River from where it came.”
“Today? Well, this is an odd one. The temperature rapidly rose, but there was no breeze to speak of, and the sea breeze did not happen. As I write this at 7.45pm its still 36 degrees at my home on the Derwent. The welcome relief from the hot day in the form of this sea breeze has simply not shown up.”
The only thing that is typical for this type of weather day that will stay true to form is that by 9pm, what little breeze there is will die right off.
So sit back. Don’t get wound up. Could be some waiting involved here… Only thing that can do the job overnight now is for the inland breeze to arc up again.
Stay safe, thanks for tuning into Sail-World.com, and all the best for 2023.