With the Sydney Hobart Race home favourite Alive safely in port in Hobart and looking better by the hour to retain the overall IRC lead and thereby put another feather in navigator/tactician Adrienne Cahalane's sailing hat, Tasmanian sentiment is probably all in favour of the fact that the difficult weather looks set to make one great big divide between the big boats and the little 'uns.
However, with the new day already arrived in the race area, the pace may heat up with it, though as experienced navigator Stan Honey has pointed out, something you have to remember with the RSHR is that sailing south in the Southern hemisphere takes you into colder places quite quickly, making it the complete opposite of the Bermuda Race.
Be that as it may, the two leading TP52s Smuggler and Caro still have 77 and 80 miles respectively to sail, and the feeling is they won't disturb the Alive crew's peace of mind. On down the line, there's still a continuing ding-dong for the Two-handed Division between the two Sunfast 3300s, Kraken and Ireland's Cinnamon Girl, though Kraken has been staying stubbornly two miles ahead, but with 200 miles to sail before her crew can make their number at the Customs House in Hobart where clearing customs involves the ingesting of much celebratory beer, the Cinnamon team of Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt from Kinsale have time to find extra speed.
The fact is that after the slow motion high drama in the faintest of breezes for the line honours battle between the Super-Maxs Law Connect and Andoo Comanche, most folk observing have had enough excitement for a while. But it's already another day in Hobart, and it will be here in due course soon enough for the morning's re-appraisal of the state of play.
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