Monday 12 March 2012

UPDATE - One Degree South Attempt Wednesday March 13

A blessed Nor easterly forecast has arrived, & we've targeted Wednesday as D-Day for our One Degree South paddle.
The winds aren't the epic strength we had hoped for, but they're the best on the offer since early January. It's testament to the wacky La Nina summer Sydney has experienced, when you consider we figured it was a shoe-in to have our pick of January Nor' Easters to ride south. Our greatest difficulty has been maintaining fitness 2 months longer than we had planned. Suffice to say all three of us have failed on that front!
We'll be leaving Cronulla at sun-up Wednesday, and our SPOT Tracker will be running from THIS LINK.
The route line you see above is a little longer than we're planning, as the EAC has moved in to about 10km offshore all the way down to Bass Point, which will give us about a knot of assistance, all going well. Unfortunately it's running north any further in to shore, so it will be a long stretch wide out to sea for most of the day.
Don't forget the trip is primarily to raise awareness for RUOK Day, a depression & suicide awareness charity that carries special significance for us. You can donate to RUOK Day HERE, but above all we'd like you to take the time to consider what they're all about.

**Overnight we had a very kind offer from sea kayaker & mate Andrew Eddy to be our ground crew. Andrew will tail us along the coast in case of a problem, possibly rendezvous at a pre-determined rest spot, meet us at Currarong (hopefully!) and then bring us back to Sydney. It's a much appreciated offer & the only real logistical worry we had solved in one fell swoop. Thanks Andrew, much appreciated.
The forecast has held overnight for NE winds from early, rising & turning northerly as we get into the Crookhaven Bight, so all good, if not a little lighter than we had hoped for.
The SPOT link is now live & will be tracking us from about 6am tomorrow.

Thanks to Carl from Illawarra Boat Charter for the golden advice on the currents off the coast. You can charter Carl's boats through his website HERE.



A couple of updated links to Spot pages
Mark's is here - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qEXcnDBmSrq8KWVhO8ZtvnMn6U837nQ7

Chris' is here - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0I3Bq204XzkEM9JCXzlDNqHuVVKbp08Lk

6 comments:

  1. Good luck guys, I will be watching the track with interest.

    Macca

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  2. Good luck and a fun not too eventful trip.

    Graeme and Leonie

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  3. Great to see it kick off
    Best of luck and have fun!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good luck guys, glad to see the weather is giving you a shot at it, was looking like there would never be a chance this summer.

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  5. Hi Mark

    Great Trip, Great Cause, Well Done Fellas'.

    Ron Sundin

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  6. Thanks everyone for the support, will post a short report on the trip sometime over coming days, probably when I can feel my hands again.
    Mark.

    ReplyDelete

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