Michael and Audrey Brown, were still being hampered by communication problems. Just south of Sydney, Carter decided to contact the technician who’d installed the radio. His advice to Carter was to “continue with it for a while and see how you get on”. That didn’t sit too comfortably with the trio. Carter realised the last opportunity to correct any problems would be off Wollongong, 45 miles south of Sydney. Once again he contacted the technician.
“I wanted him to know that I wasn’t happy at all,” said Carter. “We thought we were going to get a hectic Hobart this year and we needed everything to be spot on with the radios. The guy said that he had another radio at home. My problem was how the hell was I was going to get it on board. Fortunately for us the police launch Nemesis was proceeding down the coast with the fleet as far as Eden. The obvious option was to have the technician drive from Sydney to Wollongong with the new radio. He could be picked up by Nemesis there and be brought out to us.
“There was quite a swell running – about three metres – and a strong wind blowing, but still the Nemesis crew did a marvellous job. The technician was worried about how he would get both on and off Young Endeavour in those conditions, so I did a bit of a con job on him and told him all would be OK. I knew that once I had him on board I had no more worries. It wouldn’t worry me if he couldn’t get off because we had our new radio and that was all we wanted. He could come all the way to Hobart with us as far as I was concerned. As it was we did get him off and home. Four minutes after he left we had our first ‘sked’ with the fleet – loud and clear.”
By 3pm, two hours after the start, Roger Badham had returned to his home south of Sydney. The moment he arrived he went straight to his office and hurriedly downloaded the latest weather prognosis from the international computer models.
He didn’t like what he saw.
That afternoon the author spoke with him.
“Mundle…Clouds here. I’ve just looked at all the latest charts and there’s only one thing I can say. If I were on half those yachts out there this afternoon I’d be taking my spinnaker down right now and turning back to Sydney. They are going to get hammered. There’s a bomb about to go off in Bass Strait. A low is going to develop and intensify. They are going to get 50 knots, maybe more, and huge seas. This race is going to be worse than 1993.”
The low pressure zone formed over Bass Strait as a result of a sharp cold upper air trough that slowed, tilted and deepened as it engaged warm humid air drawn in from the north east. Badham described it as “a text book frontal low pressure development”, quite common across the waters immediately south of Australia. The region of cold upper air could be seen clearly on satellite images as it crossed the Great Australian Bight on the days immediately before December 26. The “cold pool of air” became cut off from the upper westerly flow when the system deepened to the surface during the early hours of Sunday the 27th. It was this region of cold air that brought summer snow to the high country of Victoria and NSW that day.
The official race forecast issued from Sydney at 1450hrs on the 26th read as follows:
SYNOPTIC SITUATION: A high near New Zealand is ridging onto the central NSW coast.A low 995hPa near Lord Howe Island is slow moving. A cold front is over central Victoria.
WARNINGS: Storm Warning is current south from Merimbula.
Gale Warning is current south from Broken Bay.
WIND: North to north-east wind 20/25 knots ahead of a W/SW change 25/35 knots, with stronger gusts, expected near Jervis Bay around midnight–2am and then near Sydney around 3am–5am Sunday. Wind may tend briefly north west 15/20 knots prior to the change.
WAVES: 1 to 2 metres, rising to 3 metres offshore with W/SW change.
SWELL: 1 to 2 metres.
WEATHER: Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing tonight
“I wanted him to know that I wasn’t happy at all,” said Carter. “We thought we were going to get a hectic Hobart this year and we needed everything to be spot on with the radios. The guy said that he had another radio at home. My problem was how the hell was I was going to get it on board. Fortunately for us the police launch Nemesis was proceeding down the coast with the fleet as far as Eden. The obvious option was to have the technician drive from Sydney to Wollongong with the new radio. He could be picked up by Nemesis there and be brought out to us.
“There was quite a swell running – about three metres – and a strong wind blowing, but still the Nemesis crew did a marvellous job. The technician was worried about how he would get both on and off Young Endeavour in those conditions, so I did a bit of a con job on him and told him all would be OK. I knew that once I had him on board I had no more worries. It wouldn’t worry me if he couldn’t get off because we had our new radio and that was all we wanted. He could come all the way to Hobart with us as far as I was concerned. As it was we did get him off and home. Four minutes after he left we had our first ‘sked’ with the fleet – loud and clear.”
By 3pm, two hours after the start, Roger Badham had returned to his home south of Sydney. The moment he arrived he went straight to his office and hurriedly downloaded the latest weather prognosis from the international computer models.
He didn’t like what he saw.
That afternoon the author spoke with him.
“Mundle…Clouds here. I’ve just looked at all the latest charts and there’s only one thing I can say. If I were on half those yachts out there this afternoon I’d be taking my spinnaker down right now and turning back to Sydney. They are going to get hammered. There’s a bomb about to go off in Bass Strait. A low is going to develop and intensify. They are going to get 50 knots, maybe more, and huge seas. This race is going to be worse than 1993.”
The low pressure zone formed over Bass Strait as a result of a sharp cold upper air trough that slowed, tilted and deepened as it engaged warm humid air drawn in from the north east. Badham described it as “a text book frontal low pressure development”, quite common across the waters immediately south of Australia. The region of cold upper air could be seen clearly on satellite images as it crossed the Great Australian Bight on the days immediately before December 26. The “cold pool of air” became cut off from the upper westerly flow when the system deepened to the surface during the early hours of Sunday the 27th. It was this region of cold air that brought summer snow to the high country of Victoria and NSW that day.
The official race forecast issued from Sydney at 1450hrs on the 26th read as follows:
SYNOPTIC SITUATION: A high near New Zealand is ridging onto the central NSW coast.A low 995hPa near Lord Howe Island is slow moving. A cold front is over central Victoria.
WARNINGS: Storm Warning is current south from Merimbula.
Gale Warning is current south from Broken Bay.
WIND: North to north-east wind 20/25 knots ahead of a W/SW change 25/35 knots, with stronger gusts, expected near Jervis Bay around midnight–2am and then near Sydney around 3am–5am Sunday. Wind may tend briefly north west 15/20 knots prior to the change.
WAVES: 1 to 2 metres, rising to 3 metres offshore with W/SW change.
SWELL: 1 to 2 metres.
WEATHER: Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing tonight
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