Credit : Hamish Hooper/CAMPER/Volvo Ocean Race
Skipper Chris Nicholson said that the trip would take a minimum of six days. “We are heading north-east from Lyttelton and we’re expecting to be on the wind to Auckland. A large low pressure area is developing in the Tasman Sea and we’re keeping a wary eye on that.”
“It could make things very interesting as we get closer to Auckland,” he said.
The crew has already sailed CAMPER in strong winds and big seas in the three weeks since it was launched. Rounding East Cape on the way from Tauranga to Gisborne, they encountered 35–40 knots on the bow with big seas.
The crew has a lot of sail testing to complete en route to Auckland. That means a lot of sail changes and manoeuvres that will involve everyone on deck during daylight.
Emirates Team New Zealand’s meteorologist Roger Badham says the breeze will be soft around New Zealand today, but there’s a great deal of breeze coming from the west and it will be all over New Zealand at the end of the week and into next week.
“From Lyttelton, navigators Will Oxley and Andrew McLean have options of heading north-east, north-west (sailing through Cook Strait and out into the Tasman), south-west and south-east,” Badham said. With the gale force winds coming, anywhere to west is not really an option. It’s a 2000 mile qualifier, not a boat breaking exercise,” he concluded.
From Volvo Ocean Race
