Game On for LOKI

Then I woke up, and the first thing I noticed apart from the bedraggled shape of my doona was the awesome sunrise we had. What other place in the World can you get up and say the surf is pumping, (well last week anyway), Thredbo is top to bottom, and that the big blue sky shall be here when I get back around September 14th.

However, all this shall be left behind tomorrow as the LOKI European program gets underway.

The mighty LOKI Reichel Pugh 60′, built by Azzurra Marine on the Gold Coast got her first taste of foreign waters after she was craned into the briny off Southampton on the high tide last night our time. The boat is the best looking yacht in Australia, and with the TLC she has been getting by our boat captains Dags and Barnsey, she will bring plenty of Gold Coast “bling” to the UK.

But pure bling doesn’t get you far, you need substance along with some bling so we shall be pushing her hard for some results.

The mast shall be stepped this evening our time and we should be sailing Friday/Saturday with rig tuning and sail testing. The racing begins for us in Division 1 IRC on the 4th August at Skandia Cowes Week, so we shall not be wasting any time in getting out onto the Solent for some education on the massive tides that rip between the Isle of Wight and the mainland which is our race track.

The race area is guarded to the South by the famous Needles on the Isle of Wight and Hurst’s Castle on the mainland spit south of Lymington. To the North the Solent opens up toward Portsmouth and onto the English Channel. The course area has a combination of fixed buoys and laid marks with names like “Elephant”, “South west Shingles”, “No Mans Land Fort”, “Champagne Mumm”and my favourite – “The George Hotel”

Well over 300 boats of all sizes and shapes shall be racing in 15 different divisions including multihulls.

I guess it will be like the dodgems at the Royal Easter Show, oh and throw in a few sand banks for good measure just to keep you honest.

It will be a navigation and tactical challenge so lucky I am just steering!!

So that will be Skandia Cowes Week which finishes on 11th August.

ROLEX FASTNET RACE 12th AUGUST

608 nautical miles – 300 Entrants

Start -off Cowes, head down the English Coast to Lands End, cross the Celtic Sea to the bottom of Ireland, around Fastnet Rock, back via the Scilly Isles to Portsmouth. A Bluewater classic event which has many tidal gates allowing for gains or losses for all sizes of yachts.

This race is steeped in history, and along with the Rolex Sydney Hobart is the ultimate prize for offshore long races.

It can be a drifter one day and gale the next and who can forget the 1979 fastnet when so many people tragically lost their lives.

But that is so not me!!

The LOKI has many, many miles to cover between now and a small island in the Atlantic called Bermuda next year, but that’s for another time.

Next update when in the UK

Ciao for now from Cam.